The market for exotic TLDs is limited I'm afraid.
In your examples some exts are more exotic than others:
.nz is well developed
.in is more or less popular
.vg .ac .ms are
Actually many of the exotic ccTLDs are not popular at all within their own respective countries. Often the local market is too small to sustain demand for strong names.
Now let's look at the reported sales for some of the exts (source:
http://dnsaleprice.com/)
.io
Wireless $250
Casino $6,300
Hotel $1,647
.gs
Poker $1,500
DrawIn $500
.vc
IQ $400
Hell $115
Mortgage $300
AA $2,000
Poker $1,655
TV $2,000
.ws
Afternic $300
PersonalInjury $600
Mortgages $1,275
VacationRentals $800
ForRent $500
Blog $884
Blogs $1600
Avatars $400
VOIP $2,000
Club $350
.md
Baltimore $3,000
T $8,000
D $10,000
Diets $3,000
Poker $2,000
F $550
.ms
DNS $500
.sc
Casino $3,392
.sh
Poker $1,500
.tl
DE $3,231
.bz
j $750
v $750
Own $200
Note: for
.vg I have no sales data available.
You will notice that certain keywords sell more often like 'poker' but I suspect these are bought by resellers and not end users.
If you look at
http://dnsaleprice.com you will see more sales for TLDs like .tv & .cc. Both seem to be more popular among ccTLDs and tend to sell more.
Certain ccTLDs are also used as domain hacks (DrawIn.gs being an example). Domain hacks are worth what they are worth (IMO not much).
You will notice in the data above that there are very few sales in the 5-figures range. Although these figures may nevertheless seem encouraging keep in mind that big sales are quite rare (much more than .com for instance), even though not all sales are reported of course.
Just because of some remarkable sale here and there for a certain ext it would be a mistake to assume that the ext is picking up and more sales are automatically going to follow.
Exotic ccTLDs also seem to run along "fashion cycles".
For instance .cc or .ws were promoted at some time, today .md, .mn or .la are more in fashion. In spite of the obvious appeal to Americans I doubt these will make a killing.
In terms of image exotic ccTLDs or domain hacks are not very popular. I do not know many large companies that use an exotic TLDs as their primary web address.
It would just seem odd and confuse customers.
If you are looking for fine keywords to develop (as an end user) then it can't hurt having a few. But if you are looking for profitable domain sales you would better stick to more established TLDs.
Also when investing in exotic ccTLDs keep in mind that registration fees are usually higher than .com and you need to budget the renewal fees too. Unless you develop you should not expect a lot of traffic and PPC revenue. As an investment they are risky and should not make up more than a few % of your portfolio :imho:
Certain ccTLDs are much more popular than others so do your homework and research. Register wisely and do not grab any nice-sounding keyword like a noob - unless you have a plan and know what you are doing.
