events It's bad. No worse. It's sad.

[betthelot]

OK imagine you run a domain business and you sell $7.9 million dollars a year worth of domains but it costs you $18 million dollars to operate the business.
What would you do?
Well MMX owners of such names as .work .beer .london .boston decided to pay the CEO $1.1 million and stop outbound sales.
Did you hear that guys, the main stream bloggers will not pick that up THEY STOPPED OUTBOUND SALES OF PREMIUM NAMES.
They had 13 sales people whose only job was selling premium names in 2015 and it didn't work. These sales people could negotiate the price given they own them and had millions to choose from, a big advantage but it was not financially viable; endusers were not interested.
So a $10million operating loss. They are one of the biggest pure play new gTLDs company and they are hurting like many of them. Will be sold for cents on the dollar within 2 years. Their only hope is .vip launches next month in China.
Invested? Strong sell.
Announced today by the CFO reporting 2015 audited accounts to the London Stock Exchange

 

[inforg]

I wonder why they couldn't just have an open tld where you can pick what is to the right and left of the dot? I guess ICANN wouldn't make as much money that way?

Seems like technologically it would be possible.

 

[garptrader]

I know of a retail store at Dolphin Mall in Miami which was paying $60k a month for lease space. That does not include inventory or personnel or utility or marketing costs. Most customers will be individuals who live or work within a ten mile radius plus tourists who do frequent the mall. Imagine over several years time how much money they will spend on lease costs - millions of dollars just to sell clothing.

So why is a one-time $5k price too expensive for a catchy brand name which will help promote an online business with a global reach?

 

[Kate]

http://whizzbangsblog.com/index.php...y/stop-pricing-burger-domains-at-crazy-prices

That's the problem that is being solved by the new gTLDs.

He mentions a domainer with large quantity of domains, not selling. Those are domains that are simply not available for use because we (the consumers) don't want to pay the ridiculous prices (ridiculous in our minds anyway) that are being asked.

The new TLDs give us other options.

Well, it is a fact that many domainers have unrealistic expectations and price their domains too high, thus they make no sales. This is not new at all, and like you say the new extensions might increase the pressure on them but they are not the root cause. The problem is that the names are not premium enough to interest end users, or they are good but too expensive.

Also, the article does not say how many of those end users scared away by high prices on .com domains are actually turning to new extensions.
My guess is that they will just find another longer .com - most of the time. The spillover effect to new extensions should be rather negligible.

Michael Gilmour's final note:

Don’t be fooled, although the massive influx of the new gTLDs haven’t really changed the top-end .com domains they have sorted out the wheat from the chaff with a lot of the others.

As always, quality wins. Whereas the less sexy domains face more competition.

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

Why is that? I thought you were for more choice? Let there be .photo, .photos, .photography, .photograph, .foto, .pho, .phtgrphy etc.

I like choice but very similar TLDs are confusing. ICANN should have only approved one or the other.

I think they are starting to do that, it seems that .mail is likely to be rejected, for example. See https://icannwiki.com/Name_Collision

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

I know of a retail store at Dolphin Mall in Miami which was paying $60k a month for lease space. That does not include inventory or personnel or utility or marketing costs. Most customers will be individuals who live or work within a ten mile radius plus tourists who do frequent the mall. Imagine over several years time how much money they will spend on lease costs - millions of dollars just to sell clothing.

So why is a one-time $5k price too expensive for a catchy brand name which will help promote an online business with a global reach?

It's not too much for some businesses. It is too much for many businesses.

The Internet alleviates the need to be in a specific location to reach customers, and not all business are going to have the kind of cash flow needed to justify that kind of expense.

The new gTLDs lets us get good names without needing that cash flow.

The name itself isn't how most people stumble upon a website, it's the search ranking and links from other sites that really matter.

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

As always, quality wins. Whereas the less sexy domains face more competition.

Yes, quality wins, and that is measured by the content and service.

Well also no, quality doesn't always win, a lot of quality brands went out of business because cheap lower quality was good enough for the masses.

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

Let me ask this though - what is it specifically that makes ".com" higher quality than ".whatever" ???

It is an illusion in your mind, and nothing more.

There is no technical difference, just momentum, what you are use to.

VW use to be a really cheap brand.

 

[bmugford]

Let me ask this though - what is it specifically that makes ".com" higher quality than ".whatever" ???

It is an illusion in your mind, and nothing more.

There is no technical difference, just momentum, what you are use to.

VW use to be a really cheap brand.

What makes a Rolex better than a Casio? They both tell time.

Often perception is what matters.

.COM has usage, awareness, and credibility that no other global extension has. That is the difference.

Brad

 

[garptrader]

Alice - you obviously have not seen what companies actually spend. $1500 to $5000 for a domain is nothing compared to what companies spend on other operating expenses (yet most of my domains are priced $1500 or less). I am a financial professional who has worked in various companies - seeing the invoices and financial statements from inside.. $250-$400/hour for a lawyer is typical which even for a small business will translate into five-figure invoices; for a large business six figures. In a year's time a whole lot more. IT professionals bill at $90-$200/hour so small projects can easily run five figures; large company projects such as sytems implementations where several IT and financial professionals are involved - six figures. An audit even for a small business is well into five-figures. Travel for a few execs for a conference or off-site business meeting with a vendor or client - low five figures between last-minute airfare, hotels, rental car, meals, etc. I have seen companies with private planes - six-figure maintenance bills plus pilot expenses and fuel which is a lot more than filling up the tank in your car. Let's not forget the lease payments on a seven-figure financing. A Christmas party even for a small office will run more than the cost of a typical domain yet which has more potential impact on the business? A software license renewal like QuickBooks will also run more than the cost of a typical domain. I recall one client where I saw their Adwords spend and it amazed me to see the CPC they were paying to get potential customers to their site. I have no idea what the conversion rate was on that campaign but they could have easily spent five figures on a domain name which might have been a more effective use of marketing resources.

Again, a high $XXX to low $XXXX domain price is easily affordable for most businesses. They just do not have the mindset of why a domain should cost that much - because you can register a domain for $10. There have been .XYZ promos for a $1. So why would anyone invest in .XYZ domain names if most anybody who would consider buying a .XYZ domain is doing so because they just want to launch a hobby site for a $1?

If you sell online, where do you direct potential customers to? The domain name. What appears on the business card of a sales or marketing professional? The domain name. If your business is using Adwords to bring traffic to your site and there are other advertisers for that same keyword, what is used to distinguish your business from the others using similar ad copy? The domain name. So yes you can register a crap domain for $10 but it will cost your business a whole lot more than what you think you are saving.

 

[Kate]

Let me ask this though - what is it specifically that makes ".com" higher quality than ".whatever" ???

It is an illusion in your mind, and nothing more.

There is no technical difference, just momentum, what you are use to.

It's more than an illusion.
If you have a percentage of consumers who are confused or don't trust your URL, that reflects on your bottom line. It has a price. If you have a bad domain, a bad extension, a domain that is not memorable, it is going to drag you down and limit your business growth. There is always a hidden cost.
I buy .com because this is what end users want to own. I would possibly buy .online domains if there were really strong demand. This is not our fault if end users insist on established extensions.

Do you run a business IRL ? If yes, are you using a new extension or not ? If not, what's holding you up ?

When browing online tech magazines, I am always amused at the pundits singing the praise of new extensions, and how they are going to solve the scarcity of good keywords (lol), put an end to cybersquatting (lol), bring abundance of great keywords to the masses (lol), eliminate overpriced domains (lol). But those people are all on .com and not a single of them is seriously thinking about making the switch or even trying something. New extensions are great, but for the others. Lots of NIMBYs out there.

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

What makes a Rolex better than a Casio? They both tell time.

Often perception is what matters.

The difference between a Rolex and a Casio is not just perception.

One is more likely to get you mugged.

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

As far as business goes, I am actually in the process of building one based on the new TLDs.

keyword.TLD

I have most of the domains I need to do it. There are only three more I want, two not released yet and one is premium - I have an alternate for the premium (still keyword.)

And as far as people trusting it, it will be far more trustworthy than the .com domains that currently exist in the same market - and that's one of the marketing strengths.

All content served as XML with Content Security Policy
No third party scripts or tracking
Proper TLS with secure ciphers, DNSSEC with TLSA certificate validation
The whole 9 yards.

People will know they can use it without their use of the services ending up in tracking databases.

And they will know because that will be disclosed and verifiable, not because of something meaningless like the TLD.

 

[garptrader]

Tribune Publishing Company ticker TPUB reported paying $1.2 million for the domain name LA.com - a domain for only one market - Los Angeles. While the company did report $1.7 billion in revenue for 2015, they actually reported an overall loss for the year. Why would a company operating at a loss spend more than a million dollars on one .COM domain name if the TLD does not matter? Why didn't they register LA.xyz or LA.horse or LA.online or LA.top or a longer LosAngeles.xyz or LosAngeles.city, etc? Those would have been much cheaper and the savings could have been used to pay reporters who produce the news, etc?

https://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=TPUB&annual

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribune_Publishing

http://onlinedomain.com/2016/05/08/...ing-company-bought-domain-la-com-1-2-million/

 

[Kate]

They could have bought a .la too lol But it's the TLD of Laos.

 

[betthelot]

I have had two emails from 2 different .xyz domains, in last 10 minutes one for Breast Augmentation and another extolling me to Sell My Assets.
No sane company would trust their public facing presence to .xyz a spam infested string and getting more infested by the day.

 

[Brandon.Domains]

I have had two emails from 2 different .xyz domains, in last 10 minutes one for Breast Augmentation and another extolling me to Sell My Assets.
No sane company would trust their public facing presence to .xyz a spam infested string and getting more infested by the day.

But Google did?

I get spam from all kinds of domains. The sender's email address is usually faked anyway.

Thanks,
Brandon

 

[betthelot]

But Google did?

Its not public facing, just a crappy 10 pager for investors. Google.com is the public facing site.
I have never had an email or fallen on a .xyz site thats of value. My ONLY encounter has been spam and thats my friend is why they are crap for domainers. Spammers, registry, West.cn and their auction scam, they are great for but for us just a pile of ......

 

[wormfood]

I'm no expert, so I don't know how valid Alexa rank is.. but here are the "top" .xyz sites on Alexa if anyone is interested
https://bpaste.net/show/f3837613ba2f

 

[betthelot]

I'm no expert, so I don't know how valid Alexa rank is.. but here are the "top" .xyz sites on Alexa if anyone is interested
https://bpaste.net/show/f3837613ba2f

First one doesn't resolve and the second one is a redirect to a shorter .pw website. Cant be bothered to look at the others. I am talking just my experience, Im sure if you dig for long enough you will find some legitimate site out of 2.7 million but for every one there will be 10 spamming sites and 10 parked pages

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

I have had two emails from 2 different .xyz domains, in last 10 minutes one for Breast Augmentation and another extolling me to Sell My Assets.
No sane company would trust their public facing presence to .xyz a spam infested string and getting more infested by the day.

I get an incredible amount of spam from .com domains too.

The TLD is not a valid indicator of whether or not something is spam.

What can be indicators -

A) Was it sent with encryption? Spam almost never is, legitimate e-mail almost always is. Unless your mail server puts that info in a header (most don't) you can't tell, but the server can.

B) Was reverse DNS properly set up on the server it came from? With spam it almost never is, because that has to be set up by the ISP that owns the IP block, and spammers rarely do that.

C) Did it come in via IPv6 or IPv4? 99% of the time, spam comes in over IPv4. Legitimate mail can come in over IPv4 but usually comes in over IPv6.

That's in the communication from the sending MTA to the MX server associated with your address, again you may not be able to tell.

Anyway - the TLD has nothing to do with whether or not it is spam. I do suspect that TLDs running promotions where they are dirt cheap for first year are attractive to spammers, and .xyz may be one of those (I haven't looked, it is of no interest to me - I like gTLDs where the TLD conveys meaning) so that particular one might end up being used for spam a lot.

But the vast majority of spam still has a .com or .net address - .ru is also fairly popular though seems to have decreased recently.

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

I wonder why they couldn't just have an open tld where you can pick what is to the right and left of the dot? I guess ICANN wouldn't make as much money that way?

Seems like technologically it would be possible.

Technically speaking - all domain names end with a . it is just left off because it is always there.

That last invisible dot is present in zone files though, and represents the root zone.

When you query a name to resolve it, the recursive resolver first asks the root zone, which then tells the recursive resolver to ask the zone identified by the domain to the left of the dot, and the root zone tells the recursive resolver where the authoritative nameserver is for that domain. That's the TLD.

The recursive resolver then asks that namerserver, and it tells the recursive resolver to go ask at the authoritative nameserver for the domain to the left of its dot, and where it is.

The nature of how DNS works is right to left, you can't have arbitrary domains at the right side of the last dot we see without making an entry for them in the root nameservers - and that's what ICANN does when it creates a new TLD.

The owner of the authoritative DNS server pointed to by the root nameserver thus has authority over all of its sub-domains.

That's why we can't just make up words to go on the right side of the dot. We would have to completely redesign how DNS works.

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

From 2014 - https://gen.xyz/blog/protecting

.xyz is taking a very pro-active measures against spammers. Obviously some spam comes from servers that use their namespace, but it appears they are going beyond what ICANN requires to stop it.

Is .com taking those steps?

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/vi...ing-head-against-wall-stock-footage/107103200

 

[Kate]

What does being pro-active means ? They will shut down infringing domains after the act, provided that people bother to report spam ?
My own interaction with .xyz has always been negative (E-mail spam and dubious websites). So I will remember .xyz as a bad neighborhood because of the prevalence of abuse, and I am not the only one. Other extensions suffer from the same reputation problem too.

 

[Alice Wonder Miscreations]

What does being pro-active means ? They will shut down infringing domains after the act, provided that people bother to report spam ?
My own interaction with .xyz has always been negative (E-mail spam and dubious websites). So I will remember .xyz as a bad neighborhood because of the prevalence of abuse, and I am not the only one. Other extensions suffer from the same reputation problem too.

Yes, you judge based upon illogical perceptions.

Martin Shkreli - did he run his scams from .xyz?

No, all sites related to his company were .com sites.

And he was someone people trusted due to his status.

If I wanted to con people, you bet I want to do it from a .com. The vast majority of Internet scams are done from a .com because people like you judge by appearances.