Are Sub-Domains a threat to the market?

[kubativity]

As more and more good TLD are being swooped up by us crazy domainers, there is a trend in the domain name market of using sub-domains. The market shows that people aren't avert to using sub-domains. Just look at some ccTLD. Some countries already divided their top level domain into subdomains already (co.uk). Also, in this forum there are some people already selling subdomains such as poker.web.com.

The main concern for us domainers is that subdomains, if they become popular, offer an HUGE amount of options for business owners. Just consider which is better: BestPokerGaming.com, or poker.on.com? Of course good dot COM names will always be better than the subdomain equivilant, but the market could lose a lot of its value if this trend becomes generally accepted by the public.

The factors that may contribute to subdomains becomming more popular are:

1. Good Domain TLD names becoming more and more scarce forcing business owners to choose between a bad domain name and a good sub domain (TheDomainNameSite.com vs. Domains.on.com)

2. Internet users becomming more tech savvy and dropping fears of using subdomains. users are becomming more technically apt. Ten years ago most people didnt know what a browser was. As people gain a better understanding of the technology, it is likely that their fears of using a subdomain will dissapear.

3. Marketing. If owners of good domain names that could be used for reselling subdomains market their name well enough, it could lead to familiarity of that name. Check out www.web.com to see what I mean.

4. Less type in traffic. It is more common these days to use search engines to find a website rather than typing keyword.com . Therefor it is not as important to own a good type in site at the dot COM extension as it used to be.
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Personally, I use a lot of subdomain sites without hesitation. I frequent sports.yahoo.com for example. Of course, this subdomain is run by Yahoo, but if they wanted to, im sure Yahoo could sell the subdomain itself for a few million.

 

[rome2ng]

sub domain can never offer one thing that domain offer.

the controllability of it and also the ownership of it.

having domain enable you to easily trade it (buy sell ), control better , although yes, subdomain controlibility is improving. Also the length of the name is another issue.

lastly , will be the cool factor.

Look, I own atomise.net. (will be nicer ) than i own atomise.subdomain.net

right ?

 

[dotnom]

I vote for subdomains too. They're my favorite choice for many solutions i have to give

 

[wadodger]

I'm in the process of developing a lot of geo-targeted subdomains based upon two, strong keywords. Allows me to blanket cover all geo areas and saves me a ton on renewals. Keep in mind, one must find a host that doesn't charge a monthly fee for each sub.

For example (example only. I do not own realestate dot com ... though I wish I did):
newyork.realestate dot com
chicago.realestate dot com
california.realestate dot com
beach.realestate dot com
lakefront.realestate dot com
... and on, and on.

Curious if anybody else is developing like this. If so, PM with examples, please.

 

[cache]

what is the difference between
newyork.realestate dot com and realestate dot com/newyork/index.html

I'm in the process of developing a lot of geo-targeted subdomains based upon two, strong keywords. Allows me to blanket cover all geo areas and saves me a ton on renewals. Keep in mind, one must find a host that doesn't charge a monthly fee for each sub.

For example (example only. I do not own realestate dot com ... though I wish I did):
newyork.realestate dot com
chicago.realestate dot com
california.realestate dot com
beach.realestate dot com
lakefront.realestate dot com
... and on, and on.

Curious if anybody else is developing like this. If so, PM with examples, please.

 

[wadodger]

what is the difference between newyork.realestate dot com and realestate dot com/newyork/index.html

That's a good question and I'd be curious to hear opinions, as I have names which lend themselves - using the radio test - to go the other way.

Such as -
free/coupons.index
free/traveldeals.index
and so on

I'm choosing the geo route on my names - like seattle.xyz.com - simply because it reads better and is likely to be more appealing to a prospective visitor on the SERPs. But I'm clearly open to others who've gone down this route. It's in the early stages.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

what is the difference between
newyork.realestate dot com and realestate dot com/newyork/index.html

As far as the search engines finding keywords, probably very little unless they value those before the dot higher (who knows?). Aesthetically, I think the dots are easier to read than slashes. For type-in, the one with the dot is even less likely to happen than newyork-realestate dot com with the hyphen.

If the dotcom is taken, I think I'd have to then decide between the hyphen or a different TLD if I want to control my destiny. Anywhere you don't own the second level domain whether it be a subdomain or a subdirectory, you rely on the owner of that rather than an ICANN controlled public registry.

 

[jkennedy]

What about using the free subdomain sites, like joynic, etc....where you can get something like: "yourname".us.tt?

If I was going to use a subdomain, I might prefer something along those lines.

Anyone use any of those sites like that?

 

[kubativity]

the ccTLD tt refers to Trinidad and Tobago, so these dont make much sense. What does .co.uk.tt mean?

however it is interesting that they are offering this for free. Is this the beginning of an upcomming trend?

I like the web.com version because it makes more sense.

for example: domains.web.com would make a lot of sense to an web surfer and it looks professional...

There is a member here selling web.com names.

Personally if i owned a nice short .com TLD like on.com or net.com I would do the same thing. The question is will this harm the domain market? For example, I personally own paymentfinancing dot COM. Is it better for an end user to simply have financing.net.com or financing.on.com?

I know that a .com name is always better than a subdomain, but the question that I have is:

Is a GREAT subdomain name like travel.on.com better to have than a POOR TLD like atravelsiteforyou.com for the end user?

 

[VAWH-Dan]

A subdomain is not a serious threat. Serious businesspeople, who are in the market for domains anyway, know this. Now will a market for subdomains grow larger within the next few years? Of course - it's simple supply and demand. But I don't see any real need for concern. SLDs still confuse a large majority of people.

 

[AMDWarrior]

subdomains are no threat, in my opinion.. way too much trouble.

 

[nombre]

i am a newbie so i hope i have this right

isn't the number of domains that are registered but not used (i.e. parked) very large ?

it seems like a game of chicken, if enough good names don't start to open up (jakob nielsen at useit.com, points out that internet web sites may double by 2012) then people are going to start to get very creative in their use of domain names and domain hacks ...

as a result internet users are going to get more web savvy about using addresses that are not "usual" (read: .com's) and the value of .com names will go down

i may be really going out on a limb here but i could see a lawsuit by owners and users of non-.com domains to require browser software to default to having the user type in the tld in order to go an address

my 2 cents

 

[YesBrilliant]

...as a result internet users are going to get more web savvy about using addresses that are not "usual" (read: .com's) and the value of .com names will go down

I don't think prices of .COM domains will ever go down.

Think of real estate in Manhattan. There are no empty lots available, at all. Prices skyrocket year after year. Small, tiny apartments appear on and on, also for very high prices. And people are still buying.

If you don't have money to buy a penthouse in Manhattan, well, maybe you could buy one in New Jersey.

As long as there is short supply and high demand, new opportunities will come up, and high prices too.

The only dangers would be a new 911 in Manhattan or, on the Internet, a new bubble burst.

Let's hope they never happen, again.

.

 

[fautebol]

But is there a problem with page ranking if you use subdomains?

I ask this because I registered ligne.mobi (line.mobi in French) in order to have my options open with subdomains. Thus, I can do for example:
poker.en.ligne (poker.online)
jeux.en.ligne (games.online)
etc...

 

[nombre]

II don't think prices of .COM domains will ever go down.

Think of real estate in Manhattan. There are no empty lots available, at all. Prices skyrocket year after year. Small, tiny apartments appear on and on, also for very high prices. And people are still buying.

If you don't have money to buy a penthouse in Manhattan, well, maybe you could buy one in New Jersey.

As long as there is short supply and high demand, new opportunities will come up, and high prices too.

you may be right but i am not sure that i agree

what address would you rather have: mygarden.com or garden.info ?

i think the day will come when .info is well accepted as an address and could be worth more (i agree that is unlikely to be worth more than garden.com, ever)

there will come a day when virtually every intelligable word or phrase combo's under about 10 letters will be taken up and then i think we will see people pushing other tld's, the success of craigslist.org and del.icio.us point to that, they will help to get people thinking about other tld's

has anyone ever speculated about the most valuable domain name on the net ?

i guess i would just assume it's sex.com or money.com

 

[nrmillions]

But is there a problem with page ranking if you use subdomains?

I ask this because I registered ligne.mobi (line.mobi in French) in order to have my options open with subdomains. Thus, I can do for example:
poker.en.ligne (poker.online)
jeux.en.ligne (games.online)
etc...

Then people wanting to visit your poker.en.ligne.mobi might accidently visit my pokerenligne.mobi instead, lol. Good idea though.

 

[jkennedy]

the ccTLD tt refers to Trinidad and Tobago, so these dont make much sense. What does .co.uk.tt mean?

however it is interesting that they are offering this for free. Is this the beginning of an upcomming trend?

I like the web.com version because it makes more sense.

for example: domains.web.com would make a lot of sense to an web surfer and it looks professional...

There is a member here selling web.com names.

Personally if i owned a nice short .com TLD like on.com or net.com I would do the same thing. The question is will this harm the domain market? For example, I personally own paymentfinancing dot COM. Is it better for an end user to simply have financing.net.com or financing.on.com?

I know that a .com name is always better than a subdomain, but the question that I have is:

Is a GREAT subdomain name like travel.on.com better to have than a POOR TLD like atravelsiteforyou.com for the end user?

Why would you use co.uk.tt??? I dont think you even have that option.
You CAN use things like name.us.tt, name.uk.tt, etc...
I actually think that these subdomains are ok, especially if you are looking for developing a site for free. But any threat?? No way.
Subdomains will never be a threat to TLD's

 

[YesBrilliant]

What about using the free subdomain sites, like joynic, etc....where you can get something like: "yourname".us.tt?

If I was going to use a subdomain, I might prefer something along those lines.

Anyone use any of those sites like that?

Good to know about Joynic, thanks for sharing.

I used sub-domains a very long time ago (about 5 years ago) that I don't even remember with wich company. I had strong keywords but even though I did not get too much from it. Maybe because I used it as a hobby and the company providing the service did not promoted their major domains as well, but the keywords were quite strong so I think I should get results, but did not.

However, now it's a different time and things may have changed in this field so I would also like to hear if someone is benefiting from sub-domains.

Sub-domains may be a small inconvenience for some sites but never a real threat for solid keyword TLD domains.

 

[wadodger]

Sub-domains may be a small inconvenience for some sites but never a real threat for solid keyword TLD domains.

Yes, but ... :D

I'm of the opinion that proper use of all variations within a particular vertical market can compete handily with, if not exceed, a solid keyword .com.

Again, using an example - golf courses. If somebody were to purchase golfcourses.net, set up subdomains for each geo area - california.golfcourses.net, florida.golfcourses.net, public.golfcourses.net - properly optimize those subs as they would any stand-alone domain and integrate each of those subs into a network and drive traffic as a unit, they could certainly compete with stand-alone californiagolfcourses.com, floridagolfcourses.com or publicgolfcourses.com. No, they wouldn't get the type-in, but could - and possibly would - outrank those individual geo dot coms on the SERPs.

Again, I'm tinkering with this concept on some strong keywords on a .net and a couple .us. Weighing the options on developing a network which would completely cover all geo locations without 1. Having to purchase those geo .coms from other owners and risk having holes in the network; and 2. Only having to pay one renewal fee each year ... which is a major consideration when looking at how many names it would take to blanket just the U.S.

Don't get me wrong. I've got hundreds of .coms ranging from so-so, to OK, to pretty good. And I'm coming at it from strictly a dev point of view. Point is, the big names are gone, I don't have the cash to go get them and I need to be more creative in order to compete on the same footing as those big names. Your mileage may vary.

 

[VURG]

no. subdomains not a big threat.