How many of you are backing away from .net names?

A hot name is a hot name, I don't think less than a dollar is really going to matter if the domain value is $xxxx or higher...and it especially won't matter much to an end user. Of course I rarely buy .net's anyway and certainly wouldn't hold onto hundreds of them if they aren't moving...but that's not so much because of the renewal fee, but because why hold a .net that isn't hot.

Yep. I'd say I've backed away from .net names. I own only 6.

From what I understand its only a 10% price increase? If thats true, then I won't be moving away from the .net domains. Like mentioned before, a good keyword is a good keyword.. if the $0.80 difference makes or breaks the bank then this might not be the correct business for that "investor".

The only "nets" that I own are part of my long term portfolio or have established sites built around them, so basically, I have no choice but to swallow the cost!

Since the US dollar strong, I have to be careful on what I buy, because re-registration and host taking a lot of it....

The price increase does not help, but I think all the new extensions are hurting the value even more.

I have been backing away from .Net for years as the low sales ratio and low prices buyers are willing to pay for them just does not justify holding them. OK I still have some but about 10% of what I once had and will probably continue to reevaluate. However, I still prefer .Net over any new TLD.

It's not a question of being able to afford it. Any good business person knows that one should control costs to improve profitability. I will be paying $2.44 extra for names that will be losing traffic to the .com. With only 7 of them, the annual cost is less than tea and cakes for two of us in the local garden centre.

As has been pointed out, the new TLDs are probably a bigger threat to .nets, and I think that the registry should be trying to promote the TLD to ward off competition. It seems that they are more interested in trying to milk the website owners who are locked into .nets, and this will discourage new blood from using the TLD. My feeling is that it could be time to bail out.

with all the new extensions .net is being lost in the shuffle. com is the standard

Realistically speaking the $1 increase is not a big deal, as long as the focus is on high quality .nets - which I think are generally speaking bit undervalued, although unfortunately the expiring lists of those have become very thin lately, meaning that there is often increased competition for those that do expire.