This is the time of year that often has the best deals on domain name registrations and services. In addition to the time-limited promotions, there are implications for domain auction timing and domain drops. In this post, I look at both seasonal savings and how to save on domain purchases all year round. It is important to be vigilant regarding impulse domain registrations.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Each year, there are special deals offered in the Domain Coupons and Offers section on NamePros. This year, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions thread was started by @Makise. The discussion already includes great offers from many vendors. Undoubtedly, more will be added in the coming hours and days.
Go to that thread for details of savings on domains in numerous extensions, deals on associated services such as web hosting, and some promotions for domain transfers and renewals. There is even an offering of a totally free domain name in one extension (one per account) at a couple of vendors.
Take particular note of any renewal offerings in extensions you own, as renewals are not discounted nearly as often as initial registrations during the year.
If you know of seasonal deals not yet listed, please add the information to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday discussion. Vendors active on NamePros should make sure that their promotions have been mentioned.
Remember that you can use the Watch Thread feature at top right of any NamePros thread to set notifications of new posts, with or without email alerts. Please keep posts to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday thread on-topic and contributory, so that promotion listings will not be lost in unrelated contributions.
Pro Tip: You can also use the Watch Forum feature at the top of any NamePros section, such as Domain Offers, to receive notifications of new threads, which will enable you to be alerted about new offers as soon as they become available, since quantity is sometimes limited and first come, first served.
Read the Fine Print
Read the fine print of the terms for each deal. Some are for a single domain name, while others are unlimited offerings. Also carefully note the time (including time zone) for the promotional period, which varies between offers.
For some deals you need a coupon, and some coupons can only be used once. Always confirm that the price is right before you check out.
Also, make sure that you want to deal with that vendor. It is always a good idea to read some reviews prior to the promotional period. The 2019 NamePros poll for best registrar, including the associated replies, may be helpful.
Finally, make sure that the offer does not come with conditions such as extra charges to transfer out the domain name.
Best Deals All Year Round
It is smart to save money on domain registrations, transfers, and renewals all year round. Two great tools to help you find these are DomComp and TLD-List.
In both cases, click on the extension to get the full list of pricing at different registrars. The registrar coverage is not quite the same at the two sites, so you may find it helpful to check with both.
The historical display feature of TLD-List is helpful for evaluating how good Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are, as it lists the best registration, transfer, and renewal rates in the extension over the past few years. Scroll to the bottom of the page at TLD-List to access this information.
You can also get comparative pricing at the domain information and statistics site NameStat. First select the extension, and then Where To Buy will be on the top right. Note that there are tabs for Register, Transfer, and Renew. NameStat includes a few registrars not on either of the other two lists.
All three sites are free to use for comparison price shopping.
Diversification Opportunity
I personally often view Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales as an opportunity to diversify at minimal initial investment into an extension I had under consideration.
Perhaps you have never held a certain generic country code, but it is available at low cost in a promotion. Or maybe you invest only in
Within new extensions, this may be an opportunity to try an extension that you have not held in the past. Or perhaps you normally don’t hand register domain names at all, but this would be a chance to try a few inexpensively. Of course, don’t impulse buy something that you don’t really want.
Guard Against Impulse Purchases
While seasonal promotions offer great opportunities to save a bit of money, and possibly diversify your portfolio, remember that you should only buy what makes sense for your portfolio. Even a great price reduction is still money wasted if the domain name does not have reasonable resale prospects. Always analyze prospective domain names as well as ask if they fit into your investment strategy.
If you are the kind of person who has difficulty resisting renewing domain names, even when you should let them drop, that may be a reason not to add hand registrations, even at discounted Black Friday pricing.
Watch for Drops
Since last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions resulted in many registrations in certain extensions, a good fraction of those domain names will be dropping in about a month from now. This may represent enhanced opportunities to pick up domain drops.
Timing Domain Auctions
Family holiday activities, as well as Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, may distract some potential buyers from domain auctions at this time of year. Therefore, you may want to place domain auctions to end at a more favorable time.
A few years ago, Joe Styler wrote a blog post on effective timing of aftermarket domain auctions.
The topic of effective timing of your domain auctions has also recently been covered by Raymond Hackney.
NamePros Helps Us Save
As well as providing a place to share information on promotions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, NamePros helps us save money all year round. As an alternative to hand registration of domain names, you may want to keep an eye on the Bargain Bin section (subscribe to alerts). Also, Domain Auctions on NamePros can sometimes result in great deals.
Keep in mind there is even a section of NamePros for Free Domains (subscribe to alerts), as well as a separate section for More Free Stuff.
Final Thoughts
In addition to the 2019 Black Friday and Cyber Monday thread, there are other related NamePros posts, both from this and previous years. You can see all posts marked with the Black Friday tag here.
I hope you get some great deals on domain names that you really want to own. This year, we have been fortunate to have great pricing on
If promotions at a registrar you have not used previously interest you, it probably makes sense to set up your account with them prior to the beginning of the Black Friday deal period. This is because there is sometimes a delay in verifying new accounts or approving payment methods.
Some choose not to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions because of the time it takes to deal with an additional registrar or use time-limited coupons. I realize that time is money, and domain buyers have different personal situations.
Please feel free to share in the replies to this thread your personal views and experiences with Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. However, if you have information on specific promotions, please share them in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday thread.
Some views I encourage you to post in the comments here are listed below.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Each year, there are special deals offered in the Domain Coupons and Offers section on NamePros. This year, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions thread was started by @Makise. The discussion already includes great offers from many vendors. Undoubtedly, more will be added in the coming hours and days.
Go to that thread for details of savings on domains in numerous extensions, deals on associated services such as web hosting, and some promotions for domain transfers and renewals. There is even an offering of a totally free domain name in one extension (one per account) at a couple of vendors.
Take particular note of any renewal offerings in extensions you own, as renewals are not discounted nearly as often as initial registrations during the year.
If you know of seasonal deals not yet listed, please add the information to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday discussion. Vendors active on NamePros should make sure that their promotions have been mentioned.
Remember that you can use the Watch Thread feature at top right of any NamePros thread to set notifications of new posts, with or without email alerts. Please keep posts to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday thread on-topic and contributory, so that promotion listings will not be lost in unrelated contributions.
Pro Tip: You can also use the Watch Forum feature at the top of any NamePros section, such as Domain Offers, to receive notifications of new threads, which will enable you to be alerted about new offers as soon as they become available, since quantity is sometimes limited and first come, first served.
Read the Fine Print
Read the fine print of the terms for each deal. Some are for a single domain name, while others are unlimited offerings. Also carefully note the time (including time zone) for the promotional period, which varies between offers.
For some deals you need a coupon, and some coupons can only be used once. Always confirm that the price is right before you check out.
Also, make sure that you want to deal with that vendor. It is always a good idea to read some reviews prior to the promotional period. The 2019 NamePros poll for best registrar, including the associated replies, may be helpful.
Finally, make sure that the offer does not come with conditions such as extra charges to transfer out the domain name.
Best Deals All Year Round
It is smart to save money on domain registrations, transfers, and renewals all year round. Two great tools to help you find these are DomComp and TLD-List.
In both cases, click on the extension to get the full list of pricing at different registrars. The registrar coverage is not quite the same at the two sites, so you may find it helpful to check with both.
The historical display feature of TLD-List is helpful for evaluating how good Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals are, as it lists the best registration, transfer, and renewal rates in the extension over the past few years. Scroll to the bottom of the page at TLD-List to access this information.
You can also get comparative pricing at the domain information and statistics site NameStat. First select the extension, and then Where To Buy will be on the top right. Note that there are tabs for Register, Transfer, and Renew. NameStat includes a few registrars not on either of the other two lists.
All three sites are free to use for comparison price shopping.
Diversification Opportunity
I personally often view Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales as an opportunity to diversify at minimal initial investment into an extension I had under consideration.
Perhaps you have never held a certain generic country code, but it is available at low cost in a promotion. Or maybe you invest only in
.com but have considered trying a few new extensions. If so, then this might be the opportunity to do so with minimal risk. If you are mainly or exclusively a new extension investor, why not add a few legacy extension domain names at promotional prices?Within new extensions, this may be an opportunity to try an extension that you have not held in the past. Or perhaps you normally don’t hand register domain names at all, but this would be a chance to try a few inexpensively. Of course, don’t impulse buy something that you don’t really want.
Guard Against Impulse Purchases
While seasonal promotions offer great opportunities to save a bit of money, and possibly diversify your portfolio, remember that you should only buy what makes sense for your portfolio. Even a great price reduction is still money wasted if the domain name does not have reasonable resale prospects. Always analyze prospective domain names as well as ask if they fit into your investment strategy.
If you are the kind of person who has difficulty resisting renewing domain names, even when you should let them drop, that may be a reason not to add hand registrations, even at discounted Black Friday pricing.
Watch for Drops
Since last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions resulted in many registrations in certain extensions, a good fraction of those domain names will be dropping in about a month from now. This may represent enhanced opportunities to pick up domain drops.
Timing Domain Auctions
Family holiday activities, as well as Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping, may distract some potential buyers from domain auctions at this time of year. Therefore, you may want to place domain auctions to end at a more favorable time.
A few years ago, Joe Styler wrote a blog post on effective timing of aftermarket domain auctions.
The topic of effective timing of your domain auctions has also recently been covered by Raymond Hackney.
NamePros Helps Us Save
As well as providing a place to share information on promotions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, NamePros helps us save money all year round. As an alternative to hand registration of domain names, you may want to keep an eye on the Bargain Bin section (subscribe to alerts). Also, Domain Auctions on NamePros can sometimes result in great deals.
Keep in mind there is even a section of NamePros for Free Domains (subscribe to alerts), as well as a separate section for More Free Stuff.
Final Thoughts
In addition to the 2019 Black Friday and Cyber Monday thread, there are other related NamePros posts, both from this and previous years. You can see all posts marked with the Black Friday tag here.
I hope you get some great deals on domain names that you really want to own. This year, we have been fortunate to have great pricing on
.com, .co, and a few other extensions over recent months at a number of vendors, so there may not be as much room for better prices during these seasonal promotions as past years.If promotions at a registrar you have not used previously interest you, it probably makes sense to set up your account with them prior to the beginning of the Black Friday deal period. This is because there is sometimes a delay in verifying new accounts or approving payment methods.
Some choose not to participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions because of the time it takes to deal with an additional registrar or use time-limited coupons. I realize that time is money, and domain buyers have different personal situations.
Please feel free to share in the replies to this thread your personal views and experiences with Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. However, if you have information on specific promotions, please share them in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday thread.
Some views I encourage you to post in the comments here are listed below.
- Did you flip a super-discounted Black Friday deal into a nice return on investment? Please tell us about it!
- Did you make some impulse buys last year that you later regretted? Why not share those experiences with us?
- Do you plan to take part in Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year? In the poll associated with the Black Friday and Cyber Monday thread, about 90% of those who responded indicated that they would be participating.
- Which of this year’s deals are you definitely planning to use?
- How do you think this year’s deals are shaping up compared to previous years?
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