.CYOU experiment Update

[ZeroVariance]

In a few posts on NamePros, I mentioned I am doing a .cyou domain experiment to determine whether I can sell these names or not.

I am now closing in on 90 days of this particular experiment, and here are the results:

• Out of all the domains, 3 really stood out in terms of visits and traffic. But we're talking about 5-10 visits a day, max. So it's as bad as it looks.

• I tested ridiculously high prices in the beginning and dropped them to super lows without success. I now re-adjusted the prices again but without thinking too much.

• I mentioned a few domains on Twitter, and I got heat from a few domain investors that it's worth less than a penny, and they completely misunderstood why I experimented with it. This leads to making me think that just like any other group of individuals, you find plenty of toxic people or narrow-minded people that believe their portfolio or strategy is the only right one. I made attempts to explain what the purpose was, but they were so locked in their own thoughts that it was useless to even debate it with them.

I currently listed 19 domains (via DAN) for this experiment. And my total cost of acquiring them was about 180 USD. Some were listed as 'premium' with a price tag between 33 and 66 USD.

They also jacked up the renewal fees, it used to be $4-5 per domain (regular ones) but changed now to $8-ish and change. So that goes to show, they can yet again increase pricing whenever they feel like.


Anyways, I added the names in the screenshot attached.


What's next?

Well, I am planning to adjust a few things and maybe outbound emails. I just want to hear/read reactions from possible cold leads how they receive a proposal from a not so popular extension, even with strong keywords.

And if I get responses, good or bad, I will share them here.


My initial goal is to break even on the costs on this experiment within the next 9 months. Even if that means I need to sell 1 or a few domains for that price.
However, I am not going to abandon them just yet after a year and I will keep them as long as needed.


Why do I do this?

Pure entertainment.
I often do this with newer extensions to figure out how it's being received by a wider audience. And primarily for myself to play around with domains I have zero attachment to it.


I do NOT advise this to people that are new in the domain business. And stick with the prestigious extensions before starting any sort of experiment.


What are my chances of success?

IDK. But close to none at the moment, unless I can dig deeper into newborn startups that use all sorts of extensions these days.

Before I even started, I was expecting it to fail nonetheless. But it does not mean I will give up without a fight!


Will update in 30 days here after I make some changes and make attempts in cold emailing startups and potential buyers.

 

[enterscope]

In my opinion, .CYOU is probably one of the worst extensions imaginable. Like .YOU maybe, but my goodness .CYOU is horrendous. I think .SUCKS is better and that one really sucks.

 

[ZeroVariance]

In my opinion, .CYOU is probably one of the worst extensions imaginable. Like .YOU maybe, but my goodness .CYOU is horrendous. I think .SUCKS is better and that one really sucks.

Probably, I mean, it's not that I am doing this to make bank lol

But as with anything else, there is an economy for stupid or impulsive buying decisions.
It's also a public small case study for myself and for others that are new to not get tempted buying random extensions and hoping to make a billion dollars overnight.

 

[GoodKindName]

I like different TLDs but I gotta say .CYOU.. I agree with enterscope
But I absolutely appreciate your willingness to share your experiment with all of us. Information like this is useful, especially for new domainers considering investing in unpopular extensions. Would love further updates on this.

 

[bmugford]

In a few posts on NamePros, I mentioned I am doing a .cyou domain experiment to determine whether I can sell these names or not.

I am now closing in on 90 days of this particular experiment, and here are the results:

• Out of all the domains, 3 really stood out in terms of visits and traffic. But we're talking about 5-10 visits a day, max. So it's as bad as it looks.

• I tested ridiculously high prices in the beginning and dropped them to super lows without success. I now re-adjusted the prices again but without thinking too much.

• I mentioned a few domains on Twitter, and I got heat from a few domain investors that it's worth less than a penny, and they completely misunderstood why I experimented with it. This leads to making me think that just like any other group of individuals, you find plenty of toxic people or narrow-minded people that believe their portfolio or strategy is the only right one. I made attempts to explain what the purpose was, but they were so locked in their own thoughts that it was useless to even debate it with them.

I currently listed 19 domains (via DAN) for this experiment. And my total cost of acquiring them was about 180 USD. Some were listed as 'premium' with a price tag between 33 and 66 USD.

They also jacked up the renewal fees, it used to be $4-5 per domain (regular ones) but changed now to $8-ish and change. So that goes to show, they can yet again increase pricing whenever they feel like.


Anyways, I added the names in the screenshot attached.


What's next?

Well, I am planning to adjust a few things and maybe outbound emails. I just want to hear/read reactions from possible cold leads how they receive a proposal from a not so popular extension, even with strong keywords.

And if I get responses, good or bad, I will share them here.


My initial goal is to break even on the costs on this experiment within the next 9 months. Even if that means I need to sell 1 or a few domains for that price.
However, I am not going to abandon them just yet after a year and I will keep them as long as needed.


Why do I do this?

Pure entertainment.
I often do this with newer extensions to figure out how it's being received by a wider audience. And primarily for myself to play around with domains I have zero attachment to it.


I do NOT advise this to people that are new in the domain business. And stick with the prestigious extensions before starting any sort of experiment.


What are my chances of success?

IDK. But close to none at the moment, unless I can dig deeper into newborn startups that use all sorts of extensions these days.

Before I even started, I was expecting it to fail nonetheless. But it does not mean I will give up without a fight!


Will update in 30 days here after I make some changes and make attempts in cold emailing startups and potential buyers.

The results are not surprising. I would be far more surprised if one sold, for any price.
The extension only has (7) total reported sales for $1,687 total.

The extension itself is also highly confusing, as if you said this extension out loud pretty much everyone would think it was "cu" not "cyou".

Brad

 

[JB Lions]

If .cyou and .icu were locked in a prison cell together, which one would be cooking for the other?

 

[ZeroVariance]

I like different TLDs but I gotta say .CYOU.. I agree with enterscope
But I absolutely appreciate your willingness to share your experiment with all of us. Information like this is useful, especially for new domainers considering investing in unpopular extensions. Would love further updates on this.

Let's just say that this extension was and never will be on my Christmas wishlist ever lol.
100% agree that it's not a very appealing one.

Yes, the experiment is for entertainment purposes only, and happy to share all the failures and attempts I made.


And for future reference, in case this turns into a complete disaster (which probably will), I can just point new domainers to this thread


I want to mention the following too:
I have bots and parsers running in my actual business, that tracks over 3 million startups and all venture capital firms around the world, and the data refreshes every day.


I found 3 startups using this particular extension. And that is about it. And I do not see an immediate shift from startups in Tier 1, 2 and 3 countries shifting to an extension like this to be taken seriously ever.

However, I see a lot of micro saas companies and indie developers shooting for new extensions but NOT .cyou.

 

[ZeroVariance]

The results are not surprising. I would be far more surprised if one sold, for any price.
The extension only has (7) total reported sales for $1,687 total.

The extension itself is also highly confusing, as if you said this extension out loud pretty much everyone would think it was "cu" not "cyou".

Brad

Yes, it has like bottom-tier sales worth a lunch and a glass of milk.
I am going to take any sale as a win this year if I can even get there.
On the flip side, let's say I magically sell for over $1687 in total, then I own the bragging rights of doubling the sales from that extension LOL

 

[ZeroVariance]

Tiny update for myself to document in this thread:


I changed the pricing (except for the vc cyou ) to let's say more reasonable ones.
I adjusted it for the most popular ones and most viewed ones.

And by most viewed, well, it's not very much.

 

[ZeroVariance]

I seriously wonder why people downvote my previous comment. It's to document follow-ups on my own thread on an experiment.
Like are they all angry or something?

 

[SixFigures.ltd]

The only one worth something address that crossed my eyes was gladto.cyou, taken already But hey, .xyz gibberish is kinda taken over crypto fans, so who knows

 

[Grego85]

I bought 7 or 8 .cyou at an expired auction few years back for a few peanuts. I sold 1 out of the bunch which was "ME" (.cyou) for $500
Still made a little money, even on .cyou