question Honest assessment about the flipping potential of non-dotcom domains

[Xeston]

Hello,

I am relatively a newbie at domaining, and I would like to ask the opinion of experienced domainers about the actual selling potential of domains having TLDs other than .com
(BTW my business model is limited to domain flipping, so website developement and sale are out of the question for me).

What I have found out (over so many months) is that domains other than .com simply do not sell. My experience has been mostly in the field of geo-based real estate domains, which I had carefully selected to be as marketable as possible (location name + real estate-specific TLD). It seems that real estate businesses are just not interested in domains with TLDs such as .apartments and .estate.
In addition to listing the domain names on Sedo, Godaddy, etc. I stubbornly pursued the direct marketing approach for so many domains, contacting several businesses for each domain.
The outcome was, well... zero results.
I already knew that .coms are the preferred domain names and that many businesses will distrust anything else than a .com domain. But still... I was expecting industry-specific TLDs to have at least some marketing value. Alas, not so, apparently.

Can anyone else please confirm if my intuition is right? Has anyone else encountered the same difficulties in selling domains other than .coms?

I really need to get some feedback on this, because I am starting wondering if it's still worth keeping these domains.

Also, could you please give an honest assessment about the marketability potential of non-dotcom domains?

Thank you,

Xeston

 

[creataweb]

There are a few threads relating to this. Stick with .com if you aren't sure.

 

[biggie]

some businesses just don't want anything but .com

.net .org are primary second, third choices, but they are recognized and used by mainstream


whereas .apartments, estate, etc are not

imo.....

 

[Kate]

It's already hard enough to sell good .com domains.
Most end users are not familiar at all with alt extensions, so they don't want them.
Even when they have a poor .com domain, it does the job. So they don't see the point of buying a .apartments (which is fairly long in its own right). They are usually very reluctant to pay more than regfee for a domain name, so you're fighting an uphill battle.
There is no secret, follow reported sales and you'll know what to buy.

I already knew that .coms are the preferred domain names and that many businesses will distrust anything else than a .com domain. But still... I was expecting industry-specific TLDs to have at least some marketing value. Alas, not so, apparently.

Fifteen years ago, industry-specific TLDs were already released. Examples: .aero .travel .museum. End users have not embraced them. Also, they are supposed to be trustworthy, because the applications are screened by the registry.
But this is a moot point because consumers are not aware of the requirements anyway.

I am an end user too. So if I need a domain name for my next business venture, and I have a budget to buy one on the aftermarket, then I'll want a .com. Not an oddball extension that visitors may distrust.

 

[Kuffy]

I'm dumping all my non dot coms. Sorry, I mean I am giving other domainers a chance to buy some premium names at discount prices.

 

[Pierre Barnard]

I have to share the sentiment above. In my experience, nGTLDs are simply NOT SELLING!

As @Kate mentioned, it is hard enough trying to sell a .com, I wont even bother anymore with .net .org or any gTLDs.

I will still buy (and have sold quite a lot of) ccTLDs. That is where my focus is now.

 

[Willox Perez]

A lot of good points made, one suggestion I would make is to live over at NameBio this is a tool that has helped me a ton not only when seeking to learn more on other domains and how profitable they are it can help you before you make a final decision on a purchase.

You can also catch any trends on what is selling the most often and the got some great filters that help you check on all the extensions individually and see which other ones are selling besides .com.

- Will