discuss .how showcase?

[pdevananth]

.how landrush period started...anyone have registered something?

 

[ChubbyDfat]

.HOW does not have many registrations at all right now. Several hundred I think....400+/-
Two way to look at it (and both are true)
1) its off to a slow start.
2) there are still some good names to be had.

I am in with 5 names (possibly 7 if there other two work out... but I doubt it) and now is the waiting game to see what becomes of it.
Google owns it so its not going anywhere but, the question is are they going to do anything with it?
I think they will... in time. I dont see Google throwing away $$$ without some game plan behind it. We just dont know what it is.

Just pointing out the reasoning behind my *speculation*!

Cheers

 

[ChubbyDfat]

Looks like .HOW went from 400+ yesterday to over 1,300 names registered today.
Name(dot)com making a majority of the sales.

 

[hullswingerscom]

Why would name register them?

 

[ChubbyDfat]

Why would name register them?

???
I dont think it said that name(dot)com registered them... they seem to have sold the majority of the names.
Maybe I was not 100% clear in the way I worded it.

So let me try again.
Version 1.1 (retake for better clarification)
Name(dot)com sold a majority of the names (or so it appears).

 

[hullswingerscom]

ok thanks interesting stuff

 

[JB Lions]

.HOW does not have many registrations at all right now. Several hundred I think....400+/-
Two way to look at it (and both are true)
1) its off to a slow start.
2) there are still some good names to be had.

I am in with 5 names (possibly 7 if there other two work out... but I doubt it) and now is the waiting game to see what becomes of it.
Google owns it so its not going anywhere but, the question is are they going to do anything with it?
I think they will... in time. I dont see Google throwing away $$$ without some game plan behind it. We just dont know what it is.

Just pointing out the reasoning behind my *speculation*!

Cheers

Little background with Google. It doesn't matter if Google owns it, doesn't matter who does because it's not a good extension. How never comes in as the second word. More of the wrong order stuff. More people not grasping the difference between a good keyword and good domain. There is a difference. In your earlier post, #15, you posted some great keywords but they don't make great domains with this extension. hobbies.how ?? If you consider that a great domain, you should stop spending money on domains.

Actually look at the sales that do happen with new extensions. How many wrong order sales are you seeing? Or are you seeing sales in the right order, ex. wine club.

If somebody registered shoesrunning.com, they would probably get clowned on, because it's in the wrong order. But if there was a .running extension and somebody got shoes, you guys would be thinking you just landed a premium.

As far as Google, maybe you don't know their history. Couple of examples. How did Froogle turn out? It didn't, Google was behind that. Did you know they bought an affiliate network called Performics years ago, a top 4 affiliate network. Renamed it Google Affiliate Network aka GAN. They then closed it down. Google has failed at a lot things.

 

[ChubbyDfat]

That was well put, like a true domainer. I will give you your due, as I am not a true domainer. This is a part time hobby thing for me.
I am a computer guy by trade and degree. By virtue of my job, I have a lot of time on my hands in which I spend a portion of it playing with domains and websites (just for giggles mostly).
I have only come on the scene about 5 years (late 2009) back and made many of the same mistakes that all the noobs (as most call them) do.
In that time, I have also speculated (I dont consider this investing) in .CO after their first (re)launched into their current form when many naysayers stated that it would crash and burn. I have managed to make *profit* from that extension that not only covered all my *noob* mistakes but put me 4 digits into the black (everything added and subtracted including renewals/drops).
I am pretty happy with my position in domains as a whole.

With that said, I am a 1 man show. Everything I do has be only me. Its all been first hand trial and error to include making websites and the SEO that goes along with them.
I have come up with a couple of conclusions during my time of doing this (off and on).
1) An *AGED* .COM is always going to be your best bet *BUT* they come with a price tag.
2) AGE goes hand in hand with back links and back links are the driving force in your SEO ranking.
4) Keywords and exact matches count a *LOT* in SEO, and so I would hazard to guess, more then most understand.
5) (understanding what I said in #1 and #2) The right of the (dot) does not matter so much as the left of the dot when it comes down to getting your domain placed with certain key words and tricky phrases.

Knowing ONLY what I have physically done myself, I have come to the conclusion that a great domain will have what everyone knows to be a "premium" keyword that is NOT restricted by the intent of what is to the RIGHT of the dot.
What I mean by this is, given the keyword "POKER" which most would agree is a "premium" word, and the extension .FLORIST... it just wont work together. They are way too off base from each other.

Given the same keyword "POKER" and the extension .HOW, that actually works. Whether you think its pretty or not is strictly a you thing. Given your point of view, WikiHow is backwards (should be HowWiki by your logic).

Me personally, I like the way most "Keywords" flow with the extension .HOW.
Computer How makes sense to me. Running How, Program How, Code How... All of these make sense to me.

As far as your "Shoes Running"... again... the left of the (dot) matters. You will be hard pressed to find anyone who will type in the search criteria exact match keyword(s) Shoes Running in that order.
However, you would have a better chance (all things being equal) of someone typing in the exact match keyword search of "SHOES" at which point in time your (Shoes.Running) would have a better chance of getting the hit (all SEO ranking dependent but if you ranked #1 spot on Google for the Keyword "SHOES" you are golden).

At the end of the day, if you don't like .HOW, then don't speculate in .HOW.
I happen to like this one so I am in for 5 domains.

Cheers

 

[ChubbyDfat]

What do you guys think of single letter domains for this extension?

 

[RU]

What do you guys think of single letter domains for this extension?

crap.

 

[ChubbyDfat]

Cool... any particular reason?

 

[vivaldi]

What do you guys think of single letter domains for this extension?

Are they even for sale? Either way, I see no value in them, except maybe e.how.

 

[ChubbyDfat]

I am not sure if they are for sale. I have seen them up on some sites... and then they are NOT up.
I don't know to be sure.
Dynadot is the only one that I see them listed on now as still being available however they want $600+ for the initial buy and $600+ for renewals.

I am just talking normal reg fee for both purchase and renewal.

Without doing any research before I make this statement, but wouldn't e.how most likely be a boarding on an infringement claim. That is what I could imagine happening there.

Thanks for the input.

Cheers

 

[RU]

@ChubbyDfat , are you a promoter .how? :D

 

[vivaldi]

I am not sure if they are for sale. I have seen them up on some sites... and then they are NOT up.
I don't know to be sure.
Dynadot is the only one that I see them listed on now as still being available however they want $600+ for the initial buy and $600+ for renewals.

I am just talking normal reg fee for both purchase and renewal.

Without doing any research before I make this statement, but wouldn't e.how most likely be a boarding on an infringement claim. That is what I could imagine happening there.

Thanks for the input.

Cheers

Yeah the L.whatever tend to cost a few bucks more. No idea, have not checked. No point since the domain ain't for sale anyway.

 

[ChubbyDfat]

@ChubbyDfat , are you a promoter .how? :D

ROTFL... you keep claiming that I am a promoter of this extension or that one.
No... I do not promote any one extension.
I have limited interest in .HOW by proxy of the couple of domains that I picked up.
I just happen to have a LOT of time on my hands by virtue of where I work (at work now... all alone in my office, drinking coffee and typing on this forum).

 

[ChubbyDfat]

Yeah the L.whatever tend to cost a few bucks more. No idea, have not checked. No point since the domain ain't for sale anyway.

Apparently e.how is parked by some dude (privacy whois) up in Washington (state).
Dangerous domain to have in my estimation especially if parked.

So I guess there are/were for sale.
Cheers

 

[ChubbyDfat]

Apparently the person who purchased e.how bought it at the $660 price tag (unless a back door deal was made) from dynadot.

That makes 4 of the single letter/number domains registered.
I dont think the e.how guys is going to get his $$$ money back *IF* it takes him over a year to sell the name (assuming that this going to sell it).

The yobo with the other 3 names, well... he is a different story.

Cheers

 

[brandnow]

.how is worthless.. prepare to hang on to your .how for 5 - 10 years. For me at $35 a pop it's just not worth it.

 

[ChubbyDfat]

.how is worthless.. prepare to hang on to your .how for 5 - 10 years. For me at $35 a pop it's just not worth it.

Cool... what extensions do you think are "worth it"?

 

[ChubbyDfat]

So I will toss this one into the ring of public discussion to see what you guys think.

A single letter domain name in the 3 letter extension .HOW.
One of only a handful domains (in any extension) that do NOT come with a premium renewal price.

We are NOT talking about a single letter domain that costs $600+/- for renewal (standard $30+/- renewal)
We are NOT talking about a single letter domain that comes in a crazy ass 8-11 letter extension(s)
Or a Double Dot extension (.CO.COM for example).

With the many new extensions being created (many of whom either do NOT allow for single letter domains OR have them on a reserve/premium that they are not really feasible), what value would you see in a domain such as that (if any).
Please back up your answer with an explanation (positive or negative) of how you came to that conclusion.

Just wanted to see what the thought process at large would be.

Cheers

 

[han]

I definitely see the potential of this extension, got myself loseweight.how (368,000 exact queries per month) and 2 other premium ones.

 

[ChubbyDfat]

Taking opinions on the value of:

W.How

Single letter domain in the .HOW extension.
Please explain how you came to your value determination.

Cheers

Edit*
Or you can just dislike this post like brandnow instead of giving an explanation of your opinion.
I guess that is one way to avoid a subject.

Cheers

 

[wot]

Just one, developed- almost!

LINE.How

 

[Taylor_C]

I dont see Google throwing away $$$ without some game plan behind it. We just dont know what it is.

Big tech companies throw money away all the time. A few hundred thousand to own a new gTLD is a drop in the bucket for these giants. Google especially. Google makes all its money from ads. It has some 53k employees. Say 5k employees work on ads, Googles #1 revenue stream, the others are working on new tech that generates no revenue. Google hopes in the future that ~10% of these projects will pay off and be huge (like Android has). The new gTLD program is operating under this same premise. Also Google applied for ~100 domains. They know they can't all be winners.

I also suspect that Google picked extensions based on metrics from their search, and chose extensions with high search volume on Google.com. The avg internet user is always typing in 'how do i blahblahblah'.
So sure there are a lot of search queries using the word 'how', but does that make it a good gTLD?

 

[ChubbyDfat]

That is a good question. To answer it, all I can offer is an opinion.
.How as opposed to
.Horse
.Florist
.Xyz
.Casa
.Space
.Delivery
.Whoswho
.Photography
.Cricket
.Vote
.Voto
.Fotbul
.Yoga
.Green
.Fit
.Garden
.Lgbt
.Party
.Rip
.Band
.Space
.Ren
.Tda
.Auction
Etc...

Yeah, I think it can hold its own and is one of the better new ones that has come out.
I can sit here most of the day and list all the nTLDs that its a better extension than, but I will be here a while.

In my opinion, it is one of the better new extensions out there now. Its short (only 3 letters). Its memorable. It has general meaning and purpose. It works good enough, if not well with most keywords. It is used commonly in the modern vernacular. Is it the game winner... no I don't think so but it is rather good.

Cheers