.io

[kaposzta]

What do you think about .io domains?
Anyone has a .io name?

 

[Tribulatio]

To be honest, I couldn't resist buying a few .tc and .gs just for the fun of it (.gs for South Georgia, lonely islands deep in the South Atlantic, quite exciting!) - but it did not come to my mind to buy a .io domain name. Lovers of astronomy or Greek mythology might love it. I am however wondering about other uses, even with good generic names? It does not seem very easy to remember.

By the way, if you want to buy either .tc or .gs domain names, the best option at this point is to go through Network Solutions: if one buys for 5 years, they offer a decent rate (actually, 5 years of a .gs or .tc domain name would cost the same as one year of your .io names). Other registrars make you pay twice or thrice the price of NetSol for those names.

Since Ll2 encouraged me to try a "telepresence" name, I felt intrigued and did it: I went yesterday for www.telepresence.gs

As you see, one of the possible associations for .gs is "global solutions", if you want to help your visitors to remember the TLD when they want to visit again - this is the way I implemented it on that test site.

 

[Kate]

The only problem is that the fee is $99/year.

I thought it was half that amount. Depends where you register maybe. But it's still expensive for a TLD with no local market. I'm afraid .io is only good as a novelty and there are better exotic extensions available.

 

[kaposzta]

Unfortunately, the registration fee has been increased, so the lowest fee is $99. Some registrator offer .io names for $120 or more.

It's very expensive, I know, but there are dozens of valuable and available names, that could be sold for 3x regfee or more. Some domain sales:
- casino.io $6300
- sms.io $1470
- phones.io $340
- wireless.io $250

It's a risky business, but I decided to get one - I think I found a great name

 

[Coopey]

Why would you think so many domains could be sold for 3x reg fee when they haven't sold for reg fee? I'm not saying it can't be done, but you're going to have to very 'pro-active' with your selling if you're going to sell a freshly hand-registered .io name for 3x registration fee...

Good luck with the new name. (What was it by the way?)

 

[kaposzta]

You'll right, I guess, but I think there are still some very cool domains. I'm just planning to register one or two, but their name is a secret
It would be better if I can share the risk with someone, then we'd split the profits as well

 

[Kate]

There are very few reported sales so you need a lot of luck to sell anything above reg fee. Nothing wrong with having a few but you should consider developing them. Until they get sold they will cost you $100/each per year.

 

[kaposzta]

Oh, shit. The name I've chosen has been registered.
It was business.io
I had the chance but I was too slow.