I love the new gtld-ies

[Helmuts]

Hi boys and girls

This is a very beautiful Sunday here in the UK and I wanted to share a thought why I love the new domain extensions

Many of you say: "new extensions is just a waste of money!"

.. but that is a domainers perspective for selling them

.. on the other side there are sh*! loads of new companies (just remember yourself when you registered your first domain for your company) that just don't give a flying monkey about .com .. all they care are cool, cool domains for they companies, that they can put on business cards and move one.

One particular extension I love is .productions - a friend of mine (adult content producer) is using it and I have to admit - I love it .. the first impression was a total shock, but now I think his lostboys(dot)productions (warning - adult content) is really cool and describes his business 'inch perfect' where .com part would even kill the charm of it

.. no, no the doors of hell are wide open and the new extensions will do just fine .. please note, i'm not touching a subject of seling them

.. as for myself - I have just registered my .productions domain as well (while writing this post) ...

My new domain is dark(dot)productions and I don't care who owns .com as the only visitors to my website will be people who know who we are and what we do .. my field? .. shooting bdsm videos .. does it make sense now?

anyway, this was just to remind you guys that there is a different approach

About the higher prices (I paid £25 for my .productions domain at godaddy) ..

>> I hate them as a domain invester, BUT I love them at the same time, as they keep domain investors away - and that results in cool domain availability, so these domains WILL be used for real busineses and therefore will promote the whole extension as well.

.. here you go .. just few thoughts from the other side

have a great, great Sunday
Helmuts

p.s. would I pay 5k for the domain if it was on sale? hell, no

p.p.s. I apologise for misspellings - I'm writing it on my iphone and the spelling suggestion feature is switched off.

 

[Kate]

If you think hundreds of thousands of people across the country/world are not going to bite on $23 as awareness grows, then you -are- going to be whining about your .com sales in five years, jb.

Times flies. It's been nearly a year since the first batch was released. Where are all those high-profile websites now ? Still 4 years left

Yes, some people will bite. But not so many.
Nonetheless, .club has already overtaken .pro.

As I have said before, people who want to buy domains for reg fee are not business lost to domainers. People will handreg new extensions while I continue to sell .com (and ccTLDs) to end users. No big deal. I'm fine with it.
By the way there was already a lot of choice even before new TLDs were released. It's not like the equation has changed fundamentally... perhaps this is where we disagree.
Why do end users keep buying .com domains from us when they could buy the .net or the .us, or the .biz for regfee, extensions that are significantly stronger than .productions or .whatever ? Perhaps they are living in the present, while you speculate on the future.

The problem right now with new extensions is mindshare. Credibility. Usage. Development (or the lack thereof).
Until they get advertised and get traction from prominent end users, they will remain gadgets. It's okay for low profile websites. As somebody said the other day, you are just one step ahead a facebook site.
To say that they are a game challenger and a challenge to existing websites would be a little preposterous in the absence of achievements.

To put it bluntly, nobody would say today that .biz is the 'equal' of .com, not just because of the gap in numbers, but simply based on the the caliber of end users found in these respective TLDs. At this time, new gTLDs are the digital equivalent of the ghetto.

 

[DomainVP]

I do a LOT of Google searches. Saw my first .pro today on page 6 wasteland of search results.

 

[tomcarl]

Variety will always trim the margins a little bit and by a demographic which would've most likely not have been a potential customer of yours as a domainer, at end of the day there are over 300 individual brands of Soda sold in the US, but when you think soda, you think Coca-Cola, not a generic that's on sale.

.COM = Coca-Cola

You'll have your Mountain Dew's and Sprite's (.tv and .clubs) that do well on the sidelines and will have a following.

But none of them put Coca-cola classic out of business. .COM = Classic.
(.org = Pepsi) (.net = Dr. Pepper)

That is called years of marketing and brand being accepted by society as the standard. That is called going to a grocery store and paying $2.99 for a 2 Liter of Coke, while RC Cola is on sale for 79 cents. RC Cola will sell, but those people would rather be putting a Coca-cola in their cart.

.COM = years of marketing and branding. Every single commercial you see on TV is a .COM advertisement whether you realize it or not.

There is no budget, no campaign of gTLD commercials that can compete with "the norm" unless the 'innovation' being offered is making lives easier and benefiting people.

The only people benefiting are the registrars taking your money. And it's making things harder by adding confusion, not easier.

A mindset and belief on how the way things work (majority of websites end in .COM) will have to shift on it's own, and it does that not by knowing variety is available to them but by that variety being displayed to them every single day consistently, day in and day out in commercials, search engine results, and all other forms of media with quality, well-developed websites and businesses.

1 commercial for a website ending in a gTLD will be followed by 50 others, .COM

When the day comes that every other commercial has a different extension which represents the market they are in, you can then say the "internet has evolved" and .COMs are losing value.

5 years can go by quickly. I think giving it "5-10 years" to wait and see is unrealistic, it should be "15-20" and that's a costly long-term investment if you're hand-registering a portfolio of $49.99 domains with $49.99 renewals with the hopes of getting rich in the next 5-10 years.

It's not bashing, it's experienced domainers that have been in the business for a couple of years that are stating their honest, educated opinions trying to save new people a few dollars.

Go to the .MOBI forum, the .BIZ forums, go through the archives when the domains were first launched and read all of the posts about people posting the same thing years ago about how much they loved the extension and how it was going to be a success....

Notice how many of them had registered 1 word domains on these extensions coincidentally...

Start doing a WHOIS on those domains they were bragging about that were going to be game-changers in a few years. They're all dropped.

History repeats itself. Not saying there aren't a couple of winners in the bunch but those are being reserved by the registry or backordered before launch.

As today there have been more .COM registrations over the past 6 months than all of the new gTLDs combined. Take away the fact that the majority of registrations are coming from domainers believing they are gold mining.

It's going to reach the point when you offer a gTLD domain for sale you're going to just plainly piss people off with your worthless handreg because we're going to get so damn tired of seeing these .whatevers, and that will be the day everyone will stay away from them and this will officially be considered an epic fail.

 

[biggie]

but ill go back to smoking pot and looking out the window..

the world will be okay, so don't ponder too much

puff, puff ....

 

[dedideals]

I do admit some are good, but some are just silly lol

 

[McDuke]

If you watch domain sherpa you know many of the top domainers in the world are buying new gtlds even Rick Schwartz.

I really like the few gtlds i have!

Going forward I think having the cctld "for the intended market", .com and gtld combo will fetch a premium. Gtlds are the shortest combo for any 2 given words in the english internet, also they make for much better emails imo. Also the dot breaks up the two words which makes it easier to read.

gtlds = #1 for keywords, .com = #1 for brandables, imo...

Auto.Loans -> [email protected]
AutoLoans.com
AutoLoans.us

It will be the younger generation who brings these new extensions to life! Not the old domainers who have tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands invested.

In 10 years the .com only guys will be saying "those were the days" if they arent already.

Just my 0.02$

 

[RaiderGirl]

I did JB, but you'll twist everything back around to substantiate your anti-gtld 'opinion'. whatever! (or dotWhatever!)

Why is everything so black and white with you?, just because some don't see potential in something doesn't mean their "anti" anything, or "haters" I for one think gTLD's are crap, and by crap I mean useless, Now some of them I actually like, but that doesn't mean I believe they have potential of becoming popular or increasing in value, I see them more as good novelty extensions, much like myname.name. another losing gtld that investors want to forget.

I just don't see end users paying a lot of money for gTLD's, not just now but in the future, the one place domainers are going to profit from gTLD's is by selling hem to other domainers, they're the only fools dumb enough to throw good money on a hunch that it will pay off someday, end users on the other hand are a lot more wise, their not going to pay much at all because they have a lot more to choose from and domainers will be more than eager to sell them at bargain prices due to the lack of interest they receive.

.

 

[biggie]

If you watch domain sherpa you know many of the top domainers in the world are buying new gtlds even Rick Schwartz.

top domainers as you put it, will more likely have the "expendable" income to speculate with.
as they can "afford" to gamble.

where the majority of that income, may come from earnings produced from parked domains and/or domain sales/leases.

many newbies starting out, don't have such resources, which makes a big difference because their capital is not expendable.

logically speaking....

imo...

 

[Kate]

top domainers as you put it, will more likely have the "expendable" income to speculate with.
as they can "afford" to gamble.

Exactly right, the average domainer is not in a position to gamble and hang out with the big boys
At a minimum, you need adequate funding, a sound business plan and instincts. But most domainers are hobbyists, and losing money on top of that.

Looking at what works for the top dogs, doesn't mean you have actionable intelligence, or that it is suitable to your personal circumstances... if you are not convinced I'll sell you a .mobi for 200K (liquid, resale value: <= $5000 )

 

[hawkeye]

Why is everything so black and white with you?, just because some don't see potential in something doesn't mean their "anti" anything, or "haters" ...

I don't what got up your butt on this with me, as I was 'only' replying to JB, and he 'is' anti-gtld (and has 'many' posts noting so), and not referring or implying the statement to you or anybody else or their views towards the new gtlds. And no, my views are not 'black and white', as I'm very rational and open to all pov's on any and everything, including these new gtlds. In fact I have avoided and only very rarely commented in or on any of these gtlds postings (and not pro or con views), because it's pointless to argue the pros or cons on them as it will take a few years to see where things stand on them. And you're obviously disillusioned on who are the only ones buying or spending big bucks on these gtlds, because 'many' end users have ponied up during the EAP releases and paid those 4 and 5 figure prices to secure some prime 'new gtld' names. Maybe not as many as some think 'need' to be buying them to justify 'their' views on them, but they are not being bought 'just by domainers'. But of course there's always going to be the 'just because a couple end users paid those prices, doesn't mean others will', comeback. And around and around we go...

 

[DomainVP]

Does anyone have a rope?

 

[kurg]

After reading this discussion and so many others I just had to create an account to share my mind.

It is refreshing at last to read comments from people such as RogueWriter, dnrevolution and hawkeye. To all the others from the anti-newgtld crowd, you sound like you have blindfold on your eyes, you sound like you are in denial, that because you have invested so much time and money into .com, you cannot imagine that they will ever lose their value, and you convince yourself that they will not, because it cannot be that your cherished investments will ever become worthless.

You call .link and .web and .website crap, but you do not realize that if it was instead .link or .web or .website that had been launched in place of .com back in 1985, you would be making the same speech about .link or .web or .website in place of .com. You do not realize that if .com was one of the new gtlds it would be average at best, that even .commercial would be a better choice.

Once it becomes clear that .com only holds the value it has because all the big companies have been historically using it, as there was up to now no other suitable choice, you may start to realize that all it takes to get the tide moving is soon-to-be big companies picking more meaningful new gtlds as their online presence.

Stop making the flawed comparison of the new gtlds as a whole with the likes of .biz and .mobi, if those two were launched today they would be among the worst of the new gtlds. On the other hand .tv is a good one, and it will likely start to gain more appeal as tlds different from .com become the norm rather than the exception.

Stop making the flawed point that businesses built onto new gtlds will leak heavily into the .com. Only a tiny percentage of internet users type in URLs directly anymore, and that number keeps decreasing. Don't make the flawed point that twitch.com gets a huge 40,000 unique daily visitors thanks to twitch.tv, that's merely 2.5% of twitch.tv's traffic leaking to the .com, and this percentage will keep shrinking with time.

The truth is we cannot know for sure what the future holds, however there are hints that the landscape of the internet is about to change forever and that .com will eventually no longer be the de facto extension. When you claim with confidence that .com will always retain its value or even see its value increasing, you are lying to yourself, because you cannot know for sure what is going to happen, especially when most if not all of your arguments pointing to .com retaining its value are flawed.

You cannot keep a logical and calm discussion because you have so many vested interests in the matter blinding you. You are not able to think long term about this subject, to take all the informations into account, you are focused on the fact that for the last 15 years .com has been a great investment, and then you fallaciously conclude that because it has been a great investment in the past it will keep being one in the future.

Put yourself in the mindset of a new internet user a few years from now, who sees all kinds of great looking extensions in domain names in Google results, and try to explain to me why that new user would want to register a .com that doesn't look good and that is meaningless to him. The only thing that could incite him to register a .com is if all the popular websites are still on .com. This is the unknown, how long will it take for a noticeable percentage of popular websites to run on non-.com gtlds. As far as I can see this is the only thing .com will have going for it in the near future, that most popular websites are running on it, but this likely won't last forever. Now keep drinking your own kool-aid and keep repeating yourself that .com will always be king, sooner or later you're in for a wake up call. Better hope that will be later rather than sooner.

 

[JB Lions]

I had a point to point reply, because you posted some ridiculous stuff that's been gone over already, then I read this:

that .com will eventually no longer be the de facto extension..

I guess you have to be kinda insane to believe that kind of thing. Yes, .com is always going to be king. Even new gtld fans would read that comment and shake their head.

Now keep drinking your own kool-aid and keep repeating yourself that .com will always be king.

Oh, please share your expert opinion with everybody. Which one of these new ones is going to knock .com off the throne. .pink? .xzy right? Or .link? Which one did you have in mind?

Think I read a blog post earlier that new .com registrations are still more than the new gtlds combined. Feel good that 1/4 of them have been given away for free? How about those low reg numbers? There are some Kool-Aid drinkers but it's the ones that have to look away from reality and drink up what others are serving them, people in the same boat with the same hopes.

 

[.NJ]

Flowers.mobi once sold for $200,000 (to a reseller).

And what does that mean now?

Nothing.

If you haven't noticed, the domain world has grown....with the numbers of newbie domainers.

There is a reason for this growth....the new gtld's.

There are a select few who saw the profit that can be made with the influx of new blood in this industry.

Hence you have the new.... gtld feeding frenzy.

The registries are laughing their way all the way to the bank.........

It's all business....and always will be.

 

[kurg]

I had a point to point reply, then I read this:

".com will eventually no longer be the de facto extension."

I guess you have to be kinda insane to believe that kind of thing. Yes, .com is always going to be king. Even new gtld fans would read that comment and shake their head.

I would argue that you would have to be insane to believe the contrary. Time will tell. Meanwhile I have advanced facts and arguments, but I won't hold my breath for yours.

Which one of these new ones is going to knock .com off the throne. .pink? .xzy right? Or .link? Which one did you have in mind?

.com will likely keep the highest number of registrations for a long time, but it will also likely be less and less visible in Google search results. It's not about one new tld beating .com, it's about all thousands new tlds changing the landscape of the internet. .com is inherently not better than .link or .web, once again its main appeal is that most popular websites are .com, but this most likely won't last forever. As an argument why, once again put yourself in the mindset of a new internet user a few years from now, unprejudiced about .com. It will all depend on how many popular websites get launched on non-com gtlds and how soon.

Think I read a blog post earlier that new .com registrations are still more than the new gtlds combined. Feel good that 1/4 of them have been given away for free? How about those low reg numbers?

Give it time, most people are still not aware of the new tlds, and we still have to see popular websites built on them and big brands advertising them. That's what is needed to see it all take off. I find it extremely likely that eventually we will see popular websites built on new gtlds, the contrary would be incredible. Then many people will get used to seeing and using the new extensions, and that will be the spark.

I may be wrong, but I'm trying to think rationally about it all, weighing all the arguments, and my conclusion as of now is that the new tlds will most likely take off. Meanwhile I see most of those who have big vested interests in .com claiming that .com will always be king, just because.

 

[JB Lions]

Meanwhile I have advanced facts and arguments, but I won't hold my breath for yours.

Not just facts, but advanced facts. And where might I find these?

And those people vested in .com, pay for those .com with money. That same money can buy new extensions, any extension. It's not like they can only buy .com. You have people here that have put up arguments for new gtlds like mjnels but even he realizes they're a poor investment for domainers. Just too much choice if you want to buy a second rate extension.

Really look at the numbers, only 1 has passed 100,000 legitly - http://www.registrarstats.com/TLDDomainCounts.aspx

If there was real interest, do you think you would have to give them away for free?

Most will never hit 100,000, many haven't even hit 10,000. Most are held by domainers, meaning not much good development. Numbers tend to be higher in the beginning, not later on. The numbers are already poor, just going to get worse. And then wait till renewals come around. Drop city.

".com is inherently not better than .link or .web"

Yes it is. Because the world knows about it, it's engrained in society. For the reason you gave above. 1985, most of major companies on it etc. You were making an argument for .com. You saying what if .web launched instead but there is no what if, there is reality, it was .com.

It's not claiming .com is king "just because". It's reality. There is no debate on that.

 

[kurg]

Not just facts, but advanced facts. And where might I find these?

Some of it is speculation because we can never be sure, that's when I use the words "likely", "most likely", "probably".

One fact is that if .com was one of the new gtlds it would be considered an average extension. I see it as a fact but you may disagree, although keep in mind that .com acquired a secondary meaning as an "anything goes" extension because everyone has been using it. If today was the first time you heard of it, introduced as a new gtld which stands as an abbreviation of commercial (or is it communication?), I doubt you would deem it a great one.

Another fact is that less and less internet users type in URLs, so the .com leakage is not as big an issue as people make it out to be.

 

[JB Lions]

One fact is that if .com was one of the new gtlds it would be considered an average extension..

But........it's not a new gtld. If these all came out at the same time, I might agree with you. But again, that's not the reality of it. Reality is almost 115,000,000 regs. Now click that link and compare the numbers. There is no going back in time and releasing all these along with .com.

And this .com means commercial stuff, again, something we've gone over. So what, it doesn't matter because everybody knows it.

 

[ecalc]

... all it takes to get the tide moving is soon-to-be big companies picking more meaningful new gtlds as their online presence...

Yeah but when will the soon to be big crowd get the memo? Baby needs a new pair of shoes.

Ten fastest growing public companies 2014 (source)
1. Questcor Pharmaceuticals - questcor.com
2. HCI Group - thehcigroup.com
3. On Assignment - onassignment.com
4. Patrick Industries - patrickindustries.com
5. Kodiak Oil & Gas - kodiakog.com
6. United Rentals - unitedrentals.com
7. American Railcar Industries - americanrailcar.com
8. Ocwen Financial - ocwen.com
9. Virtus Investment Partners - virtus.com
10. CalAmp - calamp.com

Ten fastest growing private companies 2014 (source)
1. Go Energies - goenergies.com
2. Vacasa - vacasarentals.com
3. Plexus Worldwide - plexusworldwide.com
4. Crescendo Bioscience - crescendobio.com
5. Provider Power - providerpower.com
6. Acacia Communications - acacia-inc.com
7. Superfish - superfish.com
8. Reliant Asset Management - rammodular.com
9. Quest Nutrition - questnutrition.com
10. Fuhu - fuhu.com

 

[kurg]

My main point is that they will take off as a whole once we see popular websites running on them, as then people will get used to see and use them. Brands advertising their own tld will help too, but mostly it is the future websites people will use everyday that will make a difference. .com has a huge head start but then that's all it has. It is ingrained in the minds of today's internet users, but tomorrow it may very well be seen by the new internet users coming online as a legacy extension used by the old timers. And history has shown the new generations love to break the old conventions. Society changes rapidly, and a lot of what was ingrained in society in the past is not anymore. To me it's only a question of time, it may take 5 years, or it might take 20 years or more, but I surely don't see it never happening.

 

[JB Lions]

-eh nevermind-

Was thinking I probably should be encouraging spending on new tlds, keep the newbies away from auctions on good domains. If they were there, they might get a domain I want or make me pay more for it.

So, buy more new gtlds. .com is going down. It's for old timers. 115 million regs is nothing. 10,000 is the new 115 million. Whatever you need to do to get more money, it's worth it. Eat Ramen noodles, spend the food money on new gtld, eat better in the future. The Gold Rush is happening now. Are you going to sit on the sidelines and watch it go by? There are many who sat and didn't buy any .mobi or .name. I bet they're hating life now, they missed out. Don't be like them. Don't miss out this time. I read Frank said you should buy them. And he got rich buying, um? what did he buy again? It wasn't .com. Don't let all the reported .com sales fool you, I'm sure it must have been some other extension. Same with all those other domainers you think are big. It wasn't .com. You can't trust them.

 

[mad409]

@kurg, welcome, and I appreciate your incite and posts and agree with you completely. The problem is "You can't teach an old dog new tricks ", that's the mind set of many.

Everyone hates .xyz around here too but reported today they now have 100,000 active sites in just 4 months.
http://gen.xyz/blog/four-months

.tv is also starting to show some very nice sales, so will the gTLDS at some point. Big company onboard, tvgn.tv!

The way I see it, snooze and loose because everything good is being bought up just like back in the day. That's a fact!

 

[JB Lions]

@kurg, welcome, and I appreciate your incite and posts and agree with you completely. The problem is "You can't teach an old dog new tricks ", that's the mind set of many.

Everyone hates .xyz around here too but reported today they now have 100,000 active sites in just 4 months.
http://gen.xyz/blog/four-months

.tv is also starting to show some very nice sales, so will the gTLDS at some point. Big company onboard, tvgn.tv!

The way I see it, snooze and loose because everything good is being bought up just like back in the day. That's a fact!

hahaha, you can't make this stuff up. From the link you just posted:

"On a fun sidenote, any guesses on what the 555,555th .xyz registration will be? Here are what some of us at the XYZ headquarters are thinking:

• BestHalloweenCostumes.xyz
• DiaDeMuertos.xyz
• iPhoneTips.xyz
• WorldSeries.xyz
• 北京新闻.xyz
• 555555.xyz (great guess, but this one’s out of the running. It was already taken!)"

The way I see it, snooze and loose because everything good is being bought up just like back in the day. That's a fact!

You tell em. I snoozed on .mobi and .name and I cry every night.

 

[mad409]

hahaha, you can't make this stuff up. From the link you just posted:

What do you mean make it up? Are you saying .xyz is a fraud by reporting this? Might want to think twice before doing that, JMO.

 

[JB Lions]

What do you mean make it up? Are you saying .xyz is a fraud by reporting this? Might want to think twice before doing that, JMO.

No, I felt bolding it might give a clue. Iphone. But you got gopros * tv. Don't let people tell you it reminds them of gopro. Who cares that GoPro® videos are pretty popular on YouTube. You added an s to the end and paired it with video. It's something else.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gopros * tv&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb

or opry country means opryland or clydesdale beer means budweiser. Those are just old timers hanging on to their .coms. What do they know about trademarks and such, right?