Are one-word .NEWS TLD domains worth buying?

[newdawndomains]

I was doing personal research on something technology-related and I came across a .news site that has an Alexa rank of around 100K and is a one-word domain and it could be thinking as to whether it would be a good idea to invest in one-word .news domains. What are peoples' opinions on this? I can't find much info on data on their sales.

 

[gilescoley]

17 reported sales ever. Dont waste your time with these, focus on strong extensions with a proven sales history.

 

[Brands.International]

I was doing personal research on something technology-related and I came across a .news site that has an Alexa rank of around 100K and is a one-word domain and it could be thinking as to whether it would be a good idea to invest in one-word .news domains. What are peoples' opinions on this? I can't find much info on data on their sales.

It really depends on what do you mean by "invest in", imo.

Do you have estimations on how much you would like to invest (your budget), what ROI do you want to achieve, and how many years do you want/plan to hold those domain names (investment horizon)? Are you planning to sit on those domains passively, waiting for offers, or do you plan to sell actively and have an outbound strategy?

And what type of .news names you want to register, can you give some examples? As from my experience, it is not enough that they will be "one-word" domains - they need to be very good match across the dot (left side must go well with the right side), and pretty generic with a large enough end-user pool, so you have some chance to make a good ROI in the future.

2 different people can invest in one-word .news domain names - one can make great money, another one can lose all the money. It is not about the extension, but about you as a domain investor . IMO.

 

[newdawndomains]

I was thinking of a 5-10 year timeline for one-word subjects/topics that have a good amount of news related to them. Just planning to spend a few hundreds at most hang registering them, 50x-100x ROI ($500-$1,000 each). I was planning to sit passively. This one's taken, but something like cloning.news, nanotechnology.news, ai.news. Basically, topics I believe will be increasingly relevant as time goes on.

 

[Brands.International]

I was thinking of a 5-10 year timeline for one-word subjects/topics that have a good amount of news related to them. Just planning to spend a few hundreds at most hang registering them, 50x-100x ROI ($500-$1,000 each). I was planning to sit passively. This one's taken, but something like cloning.news, nanotechnology.news, ai.news. Basically, topics I believe will be increasingly relevant as time goes on.

That strategy is good IMO and it was doable ... in 2015, when .news first started, there were some very nice opportunities to get good domains for a few hundred USD. I have myself 2 pretty good .news names and I am very happy with them.

But I do not think you can hand reg great names in 2020 - if there is some great .news name dropped or available, it is immediately taken by the domain investor. It is not that they are just waiting to be hand registered these days.

The names which you will hand register in 2020 will probably not make the best inventory, as those would be names not noticed by domain investors in the last 5 years.

The examples you mentioned are all taken. So the idea is good, but I think with a few hundred USD simply not doable.

 

[newdawndomains]

Thanks for the advice! I guess the only point to hand reg a .news domain at this point is for personal projects, so I'll just reg one or two for those purposes.

 

[CraigD]

Most people already have their favourite reputable local cc news sites.

There are really only a handful of companies that have the resources and can afford to publish and maintain news websites.

News startups come and go frequently because they soon realise it is too much effort to maintain, too expensive to license content from providers like AP, Reuters, wires etc. and there are many legal issues to deal with.

IMO don't waste your time and money. If the big publishers wanted .news domains, they would have already purchased them.

 

[Brands.International]

Thanks for the advice! I guess the only point to hand reg a .news domain at this point is for personal projects, so I'll just reg one or two for those purposes.

You are very welcome. I mean you can successfully invest in .news, but probably not by hand regging 5 years after the extension is live. For people with good budgets, they can always buy them as investments at the aftermarket (from other domain investors, or directly from the registry), while I guess 10k / name budget is a minimum to get something really good. But for a personal project, I believe even little lower quality name is fine