debate Do you think .info will ever be a main player again?

[Ollie3000]

I've been buying some dot info domains as they are generally considered an 'OK' extension....I mean if they go as follows...

.com
.net
.org
.info

So they are in maybe 4th place when it comes to popularity and demand. Or at least that's how it used to be.

I like them and they're are some really cool ones about and there have been some really good sales. So i'm wondering whether anyone thinks they'll bounce back in popularity or whether I should stop binge buying them?

 

[Ollie3000]

p.s. You are playing only with English... it is really hard to sell in .info
Try German, French and something neutral/brandable...

Thanks for the advice, i'll look into this.

 

[guillon]

No, I dropped the one I had a long time ago and .NEWS is now a serious competitor.

 

[MapleDots]

Info business email addresses are often [email protected] and I would be hesitant to use business.info as a website for fear of confusion with the 50% of the public that is not so internet savvy.

So for business use I would pass on a .info

 

[Kate]

My advice would be to travel a lot of you can, and pay attention to what extensions people actually see and use in daily life. The reported sales can be a distorting prism, because they do not accurately reflect extension popularity. Most people won't see or notice .io .ai .co domains, yet they will sell from time but they are not mainstream anywhere.
And of course, look around you what people are using.

 

[mitko7]

I can share some info about experiment I made recently (last 6 months).
- Bought 10 .info domain names, one word, small city.
- Developed information website on them (very small, 10 pages max).
- Shared that I offer ads on them.
- Made some money (super, super small amount).
- Now I'm selling them. Already sold one.
What was the experiment about - will somebody advertise, will somebody buy. Bought did. So, I still think .info have some potential in it.

 

[Ollie3000]

I can share some info about experiment I made recently (last 6 months).
- Bought 10 .info domain names, one word, small city.
- Developed information website on them (very small, 10 pages max).
- Shared that I offer ads on them.
- Made some money (super, super small amount).
- Now I'm selling them. Already sold one.
What was the experiment about - will somebody advertise, will somebody buy. Bought did. So, I still think .info have some potential in it.

Thanks this is helpful. Mine is kind of an experiment also. I own maybe 150 dot coms, mainly one of two words etc. A few other extensions like .co.uk as that's where I am. But I was looking at the expired list and saw some of what would be really premium in dot coms just not getting picked up because they were .info.

I could develop them and I may do but this is for fun and developing is the day job. So ideally i'd like to flip...some of the recent ones I've picked (not all from expired list):

Car//Credit dot info
House//Building dot info
Templar dot info
FreeCell dot info
Blocs dot info
Chiefs dot info
Fibre//Optic dot info
Childrens//Life//Insurance dot info
Traced dot info

Now these were all £2.99 each at GD - Renewals are like £16. I think there is still good money in these, maybe not massive but in relation to the cost paid, well worth it. In dot com some of these would be high XXXX and XXXXX on a good day, easy.

 

[mitko7]

Nice ones indeed, but dont expect much. They can be sold, but with small amount as in my case.

 

[Ollie3000]

My advice would be to travel a lot of you can, and pay attention to what extensions people actually see and use in daily life. The reported sales can be a distorting prism, because they do not accurately reflect extension popularity. Most people won't see or notice .io .ai .co domains, yet they will sell from time but they are not mainstream anywhere.
And of course, look around you what people are using.

I see .com .org .net .info as cross border domains. They are all well established extensions (2001 for .info), that won't be going anywhere anytime soon. There were still like 5 million dot infos regged last year. That keeps it in the top 10 out of 882 available extensions! They don't apply specifically to any region or country and I like that to - it doesn't limit the market down to one place or niche.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

In Ukraine .info usage is very high including TV ads...
But aftermarket sales are low and rare...

So usage and aftermarket are not always the same...

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

If you really want money - then only Germany and France...

 

[Kate]

I see .com .org .net .info as cross border domains. They are all well established extensions (2001 for .info), that won't be going anywhere anytime soon. There were still like 5 million dot infos regged last year. That keeps it in the top 10 out of 882 available extensions!

Sure, but how often do you visit .info sites ?
I think the TLD is good for certain purposes, for instance it's used by official travel sites.
But there are not many businesses who would use .info for a commercial site. It simply wouldn't fit.
And since domain names are usually bought for a business purpose this is the problem.

 

[Ollie3000]

Sure, but how often do you visit .info sites ?
I think the TLD is good for certain purposes, for instance it's used by official travel sites.
But there are not many businesses who would use .info for a commercial site. It simply wouldn't fit.
And since domain names are usually bought for a business purpose this is the problem.

That is a good point. I think part of the value in these is in consolidating brands and SEO exact match. That of course means that they'll never be in the same ballpark as .com but for the price, i'm confident that I can get a good ROI.

I mean car//credit....£2.99. Even if I sold it for £500 (which i won't) that's a 167 times my investment in year one.

 

[eurorealtor]

Actually, I want to develop one of my domain Cleveland .info into a directory site any soon. I hope it won't be waste of time and money. I guess it'll be a long term to get any success, but I'll give it a shot.

 

[Ollie3000]

Got luder dot info @Jurgen Wolf

 

[DnEbook]

Lost its gloss when used for a spam extension, so the answer is no

 

[Ollie3000]

Lost its gloss when used for a spam extension, so the answer is no

Didn't you used to have quite a few?

 

[legendarynames]

Sold Hashrate.info last week for $22,000, you'll see it at the next edition of DNJournal.

 

[Ollie3000]

Sold Hashrate.info last week for $22,000, you'll see it at the next edition of DNJournal.

Nice one! Where did you sell?

 

[legendarynames]

Undeveloped

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Sold Hashrate.info last week for $22,000, you'll see it at the next edition of DNJournal.

Updated Date: 2017-04-10T12:45:11Z

???

 

[legendarynames]

It was pushed between Epik accounts maybe that's why?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Even after such push - Updated Date should be changed...

 

[legendarynames]

Yes I agree, maybe a glitch at the registrar.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Their standard Privacy template in WHOIS...
Probably, this is a reason why it wasn't resynchronized with Registry...

Ask the new owner to disable Privacy and to recheck WHOIS data...

 

[Ategy]

...I mean if they go as follows...
.com .net .org .info
So they are in maybe 4th place when it comes to popularity and demand. Or at least that's how it used to be.

I think it's actually a very big mistake to try to rank TLD's for the most part.

With the obvious exception being .com which just about 100% of the time is the best one.

After .com however .. the next best TLD(s) should be ranked based on CONTEXT!
(.co vs .biz for example are two TLDs one could argue have end usage similar in scope/context)

Many domains great for .info are virtually useless in .net .. and vice versa.

One TLD similar in scope to .info however is .org. Sometimes the .org could indeed be better than .info .. and in some cases it could even be the other way around depending on context (although I'm thinking .org would usually be the better of the 2 .. but not always).

If anyone is thinking of a domain in .info that is good .biz, then definitely think twice. Obviously many such domains do exist .. but many more do not.

.info is great for exact match domains on things people are looking for more information on.

My best one is Diet // dot // info .. which I actually acquired before I got serious about domaining (was planning on eventually developing it .. but we all know how that goes .. lol).

All that being said ... remember that as domainers we are looking to resell our domains .. which means we need to be buying domains people will actually buy .. and there needs to be enough of a markup to make an overall profit in our portfolios (meaning we need to make multiples that also cover renewals on domains that don't sell right away). Which leads to the fact that most .info domains do not meet those standards as most do not have much commercial appeal .. there most definitely are exceptions .. but as a rule of thumb I'd avoid just registering them in large quantities hoping to get a fixed % of the .com version .. that strategy certainly isn't something I'd suggest.