discuss .LINK binge continues

[BoGoKing]

".LINK is no worse than .XYZ".....like the .com loyalists despising the .xyz insurgence, the .xyz loyalists despise the .link insurgence.

While most of the really good "single word" .link domains have been registered still a few remain. For example, the day after Thanksgiving I was able to register Thankfulness.link that happens to be no worse than Thankfulness.xyz or Thankfulness.com.

In the way of an update.....domains under management aka DUM has grown from 200,000 to 221,000 since May, and 1,500 of those I've registered. In addition, i have it from some reliable sources that "Good News is Coming"

 

[Joe N]

Bottomline Joe, i don't trust anyone in this industry, and for good reason

Holy crap, you can't keep anything straight...

How are you Alessandro....

Any way....we're connected on Linkedin and I believe I have your email address. I'll reach out and share some information with you. Plus we can all use a trusted second opinion, and I feel I can trust you. Thanks

 

[BoGoKing]

Holy crap, you can't keep anything straight...

Oh Joe....you sound like my wife of 52 years. How in the world either of you put up with me is a mystery. I guess you saw that I registered a new gTLD Visionary.link yesterday. I fancy myself a visionary, and you as a guardian angel watching over me and .LINK .

ps. as my guardian angel check out Visionary.com and let me know how you see them fitting in

 

[BoGoKing]

Rich, since I am the totally real and not fictional at all official domain ambassador, if you want to fill out the following form we can go ahead and get the official process started.

Show attachment 230298

On a serious note, why should @Joe N be expected to apologize for the entire industry for some random event you were offended by years ago?

Just like Elsa said, Let It Go.

Brad

Let it go HELL....i don't get MAD, i get EVEN

 

[Joe N]

Oh Joe....you sound like my wife of 52 years. How in the world either of you put up with me is a mystery. I guess you saw that I registered a new gTLD Visionary.link yesterday. I fancy myself a visionary, and you as a guardian angel watching over me and .LINK .

ps. as my guardian angel check out Visionary.com and let me know how you see them fitting in

Lol. She sounds very patient.

How (and why) would I see what you registered? Wait... do you monitor what I register?

 

[BoGoKing]

Lol. She sounds very patient.

How (and why) would I see what you registered? Wait... do you monitor what I register?

Wait....neither you or Brad have ever checked out the veracity of my registered domains And here I was going to tell you that I just picked up another single word Premium new gTLD, Resorts.link for $159.30.

To cover my ass I also registered ResortsLink.com for $9.45.....what was I thinking

Joe, can either you or Brad or any of the team think of a possible use for Resorts.link? Swetha is asking $179,888 for Resorts.xyz, so what do you think I should be asking for Resorts.link?

Maybe you can help with this....Resorts.com doesn't seem to land anywhere when I key it to my address bar. Why do you think that is? Serious question would appreciate a serious answer. Anyone?

 

[bmugford]

Wait....neither you or Brad have ever checked out the veracity of my registered domains And here I was going to tell you that I just picked up another single word Premium new gTLD, Resorts.link for $159.30.

To cover my ass I also registered ResortsLink.com for $9.45.....what was I thinking

It just shows why it is good to be the registry.

Brad

 

[Joe N]

what do you think I should be asking for Resorts.link?

What did you pay for it?

Maybe you can help with this....Resorts.com doesn't seem to land anywhere when I key it to my address bar. Why do you think that is? Serious question would appreciate a serious answer. Anyone?

The owner of the name hasn't built a site on it or forwarded it to an existing site. These guys own it: https://www.kerzner.com/

 

[BoGoKing]

What did you pay for it?


The owner of the name hasn't built a site on it or forwarded it to an existing site. These guys own it: kerzner.com

You may have missed it, but I said I paid $159 for it, and it renews for $159.

Thanks for the explanation why Resort.com doesn't actually land or forward. On another note, a friend and neighbor of mine actually came to Virginia Beach 20 years ago and developed Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront seen here; HiltonVB.com, and he's still active overseeing a new Marriott Oceanfront Resort project.

This might not mean anything to you Joe but, "We bill ourselves as the "World's Largest Resort City"

 

[Joe N]

You may have missed it, but I said I paid $159 for it, and it renews for $159.

Then I would say it should be listed for at least $16K in order to have a chance of extracting value from the purchase.

This price is of course based on the (as of yet untested) assumption that you may be able to sell 1% of your .link portfolio per year. If you can, then $16K is your break even price on this name (and actually that's not even including any marketplace fees or taxes).

If you plan on finally committing to this venture (after the others that have fallen by the wayside), then perhaps you'll find a way to increase that STR. You'll need to be a very active seller to do it, since the reported sales data is not on your side.

This might not mean anything to you Joe but, "We bill ourselves as the "World's Largest Resort City"

What does it mean to you in the context of your domain name's value?

 

[BoGoKing]

Then I would say it should be listed for at least $16K in order to have a chance of extracting value from the purchase.

This price is of course based on the (as of yet untested) assumption that you may be able to sell 1% of your .link portfolio per year. If you can, then $16K is your break even price on this name (and actually that's not even including any marketplace fees or taxes).

If you plan on finally committing to this venture (after the others that have fallen by the wayside), then perhaps you'll find a way to increase that STR. You'll need to be a very active seller to do it, since the reported sales data is not on your side.

What does it mean to you in the context of your domain name's value?

Damn Joe....we're communicating at an entirely different level than we have in the past. And yes, I plan on committing to this venture unlike those of the past. Sufficeth to say, it's different this time and you may have something to do with it

Similar to your rationale for asking 20K for Dollar.link, your rationale for asking 16K for Resorts.link makes sense.

With regards to living, working and playing in the "Worlds Largest Resort City", and knowing people in the resort business, i feel that I can "add value" more so than most people in the domain industry.

Finally Joe, when my .LINK binge started last May i registered the domain Varsity.link, and just this am i was able to register VarsityDomains.com and VarsityNames.com. My thinking?......."Varsity" should be the name of my brokerage/marketplace.

Thanks Joe.....my last winter trip to Canada.....JayPeakResort.com

 

[BoGoKing]

I own freespeech.link and dc.link, but those are the only two .LINK I have out of around 250ish domains in my portfolio.

I can see freespeech.link developed, but what might dc.link promote? Alex....did we ever touch base about Welcome321.com where 321 is the area code for the Space Coast and Orlando?

 

[GoKaizen]

Nope.

Domains not listed.

Are these .link domains listed for sale yet or still not pointed to landers?

 

[jmcc]

John....do you remember this from Jeannie McPherson of Verisign a few years ago?

It was a comment that seemed to be based on a poor understanding of domain names and the industry. Verisign caught a lot of flack over it. The number of valuable and truly generic domain names is in the tens of thousands. Frank's reservations in his gTLDs are worth studying. At least 8% of .COM is currently on sale. But what Jeannie McPherson may not have realised is that many domain names that are on sale rarely last more than a year.

The for-sale market is actually three markets with very different dynamics. There's the investment grade market of short/category killer/brandable domain names which keep getting renewed. There is also a kind of mid-range market where the renewals aren't too bad. This market has good domain names and some brandables. Then there's a speculative market with domain names that rarely last more than a year before being dropped. The renewal rate on the investment grade domain names is very good. There are some very smart people in Verisign but that blog post seemed to be just really bad marketing stuff.

I've added an "Active in $TLD and historically registered in $TLD" lists feature for domain name lookups on the site. That chocolate . link domain name provides a good example of how a category killer domain name in .COM does not necessarily translate to being a category killer in all TLDs. For chocolate, especially at the high end of the market, it is the brand that matters.

Price caps are a good thing for a gTLD as large as .COM and they provide the registrants, and the industry, with a kind of stability. The new gTLDs don't have that and the registry can decide the reg fee. That's the flaw behind the discounting model. Verisign also uses discounting but is generally much more precise about it. The .COM has had one of its worst years but it is not down to discounting. It will be interesting to see how .LINK fares in the next two quarters. (.COM was at 164.5M in the latest ICANN reports (September 2022). It is at 160.5M this morning.)

Regards...jmcc

 

[Joe N]

Damn Joe....we're communicating at an entirely different level than we have in the past. And yes, I plan on committing to this venture unlike those of the past. Sufficeth to say, it's different this time and you may have something to do with it

Similar to your rationale for asking 20K for Dollar.link, your rationale for asking 16K for Resorts.link makes sense.

With regards to living, working and playing in the "Worlds Largest Resort City", and knowing people in the resort business, i feel that I can "add value" more so than most people in the domain industry.

Finally Joe, when my .LINK binge started last May i registered the domain Varsity.link, and just this am i was able to register VarsityDomains.com and VarsityNames.com. My thinking?......."Varsity" should be the name of my brokerage/marketplace.

Thanks Joe.....my last winter trip to Canada.....JayPeakResort.com

I'm curious to know how you would be able to add more value to Resorts.link by living in a resort city and knowing people in the business. Is this a situation where someone wants your domain and you use the opportunity to also sell consulting services to them? Or are you envisioning that offering your services to a potential buyer will be a tipping point of sorts, convincing them to get the name where they might have initially been on the fence?

"Varsity" is an interesting choice for a domain marketplace brand. What's the theme or the gimmick? At first glance, I would go to that site expecting to find all sport-related names.

Rich, why are you still so focused on buying names? Why not divert that time/energy to creating a basic marketplace for yourself? There are some great options out there that don't rely on you having a technical partner. Efty is user-friendly, and it allows you to use your own domain name and customize the look and content of your page/site quite a bit.

 

[BoGoKing]

It was a comment that seemed to be based on a poor understanding of domain names and the industry. Verisign caught a lot of flack over it. The number of valuable and truly generic domain names is in the tens of thousands. Frank's reservations in his gTLDs are worth studying. At least 8% of .COM is currently on sale. But what Jeannie McPherson may not have realised is that many domain names that are on sale rarely last more than a year.

The for-sale market is actually three markets with very different dynamics. There's the investment grade market of short/category killer/brandable domain names which keep getting renewed. There is also a kind of mid-range market where the renewals aren't too bad. This market has good domain names and some brandables. Then there's a speculative market with domain names that rarely last more than a year before being dropped. The renewal rate on the investment grade domain names is very good. There are some very smart people in Verisign but that blog post seemed to be just really bad marketing stuff.

I've added an "Active in $TLD and historically registered in $TLD" lists feature for domain name lookups on the site. That chocolate . link domain name provides a good example of how a category killer domain name in .COM does not necessarily translate to being a category killer in all TLDs. For chocolate, especially at the high end of the market, it is the brand that matters.

Price caps are a good thing for a gTLD as large as .COM and they provide the registrants, and the industry, with a kind of stability. The new gTLDs don't have that and the registry can decide the reg fee. That's the flaw behind the discounting model. Verisign also uses discounting but is generally much more precise about it. The .COM has had one of its worst years but it is not down to discounting. It will be interesting to see how .LINK fares in the next two quarters. (.COM was at 164.5M in the latest ICANN reports (September 2022). It is at 160.5M this morning.)

Regards...jmcc

Excellent stuff jmcc and thanks for dropping by and sharing your statsandthoughtscom. Regarding "chocolate" and "its the brand that matters".....do you mean like Hershey, Godiva, Nestle etc.? To that extent companies like these can afford 2.5M for Chocolate.com, but Chocolate.link @ 25K should be very affordable for any of the top 30 chocolate brands. Regardless, i'm aware no one is looking for it, so if it's to be it's up to me.

Yes, Jeanne McPherson and Verisign took a lot of heat from the industry for trashing the secondary markets like they did, but a lot of what she said was true.

Finally, i'm still registering/adding an occasional .link name to my portfolio when I can. Just the other day I picked up Resorts.link for$159, and it renews for the same amount. That's another domain that has considerable potential especially with some of my contacts in the "resort" business/industry.

Thanks again for chiming in jmcc, and while I know there are more than a few pints of Guinness waiting for me in Dublin, you're always welcome to visit me in the "Worlds Largest Resort City"

 

[BoGoKing]

I'm curious to know how you would be able to add more value to Resorts.link by living in a resort city and knowing people in the business. Is this a situation where someone wants your domain and you use the opportunity to also sell consulting services to them? Or are you envisioning that offering your services to a potential buyer will be a tipping point of sorts, convincing them to get the name where they might have initially been on the fence?

"Varsity" is an interesting choice for a domain marketplace brand. What's the theme or the gimmick? At first glance, I would go to that site expecting to find all sport-related names.

Rich, why are you still so focused on buying names? Why not divert that time/energy to creating a basic marketplace for yourself? There are some great options out there that don't rely on you having a technical partner. Efty is user-friendly, and it allows you to use your own domain name and customize the look and content of your page/site quite a bit.

Joe....i just finished responding to jmcc's post regarding his stats and thoughts, so I don't have much time to address your questions. Personally, i don't know how much value, if any, i can add to Resorts.link. However, knowing how HUGE the resorts industry is worldwide and having connections to that industry can only "add value" to any potential sale of Resorts.link......sorry if you don't think so.

As for "Varsity".......after I registered Varsity.link and I knew I liked the name, I checked to see if by chance VarsityDomains.com was available and Voila! Note, i was also able to pick up VarsityNames.com. And yes, i'm keenly aware the term/word "varsity" sounds sports related, but when you combine it with names like "Wealth", "Club" or "Travel", it sounds professional, experienced and knowledgeable. Plus from a logo perspective, don't you just love what you can do with the "V".

Finally, i have so much fun buying names I can hardly help myself. That said however, i just now looked into Efty and may try/use their services. Unfortunately I can't do this right away because I do have a small home based tax business that requires my attention through February 15th.

Thanks for the PUSH Joe!

 

[dirk]

Excellent stuff jmcc and thanks for dropping by and sharing your statsandthoughtscom. Regarding "chocolate" and "its the brand that matters".....do you mean like Hershey, Godiva, Nestle etc.? To that extent companies like these can afford 2.5M for Chocolate.com, but Chocolate.link @ 25K should be very affordable for any of the top 30 chocolate brands. Regardless, i'm aware no one is looking for it, so if it's to be it's up to me.

Yes, Jeanne McPherson and Verisign took a lot of heat from the industry for trashing the secondary markets like they did, but a lot of what she said was true.

Finally, i'm still registering/adding an occasional .link name to my portfolio when I can. Just the other day I picked up Resorts.link for$159, and it renews for the same amount. That's another domain that has considerable potential especially with some of my contacts in the "resort" business/industry.

Thanks again for chiming in jmcc, and while I know there are more than a few pints of Guinness waiting for me in Dublin, you're always welcome to visit me in the "Worlds Largest Resort City"

Why not resorts.properties for $6 bucks? Or services for $5 bucks? Or tips for $9 bucks? Or villas for $72 bucks? Or zone for $6 bucks?

Enduser gonna pay 16K for .link while those are reg fee/low prem.?

 

[dirk]

And you should be careful about premiums. Watched some go up from 6 (reg) to 14 > 23 > 36 in just a couple of years.

 

[Eric Lyon]

@ThatNameGuy - I have a few questions now that this thread is on page 15 and counting:

1. You started the thread with 1,500 registrations of .link. How many .link are in your portfolio today?
2. Since you started this thread in Nov. 2022, how many .link domains have you sold (Average STR = Sell Through Rate)?
3. Out of the number of .link domains you sold, what is your average ROI (Return on investments)?
4. Since Nov. 2022 have you noticed an uptick in .link registrations (Assuming you monitor it since you are so invested into it)?
5. How many of the .link domains in your portfolio are developed now?
6. Are you mostly listing .link domains on 3rd party sales landers, internal landers, parking them, etc.?
7. When checking analytics for your most popular .link domains, where is the most traffic coming from (E.g. Are your NamePros posts driving most the visitors to them, organic searches, other...)?

I think the answers to the above questions would serve as valuable data points to anyone thinking about or already invested into the .link extension. If you could provide/attach screenshots to verify some of your answers/claims (Reference rule: 6.1.28.), it would be even more helpful in validating the data points for potential .link investors.

I look forward to your reply.

Thanks.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

For arguments sake, let's assume a standard 1%-2% sell-through rate even though it is likely much lower for extensions like .link.

FWIW, and because soon losing the ability to do this with Dofo closing, unfortunately, I did an industry wide apparent STR for .link.

NameBio show 56 sales over last two years, so I took 28 per year. I included all price points above $100, so some acquisitions in this. But on other hand NameBio probably only captures 1/5 of total retail sales, on average.

Dofo tell me that for the marketplaces they cover, there are 5993 .link domain names listed for sale.

That gives an apparent STR of 0.47%.

If I somewhat arbitrarily assume Dofo only capture half of the names listed for sale, and NameBio only 1/5 of the names sold, then apply a net correction factor of 2.5x to yield an estimate of the industry wide STR for .link of 1.18, so your 1-2% assumed is in right ballpark.

-Bob

PS I wondered if sales rate different in past. If I go back 3 yr, instead of 2, I get 31 .link sales per year on NameBio. If I go back last 5 yr, it is just over 20 NameBio .link sales per year, so it would not lead to much different STR than the above based on 2 yr data.

Going into past 3 yr does allow me to include my one and only (yet!) .link sale in the data though, so that is satisfying . I currently have 5 .link names in my portfolio, probably had about 20 at time I made sale Dec 2020, to partially answer some of the questions posed by @Eric Lyon above – I know not directed to me. The name sold inbound at Sedo, and I had the names listed at Sedo plus Dan with the DNS pointed to Dan, but they bought at Sedo. It was a 4L name (a placename) and got used by a gaming company, but now they just redirect it. I have not received queries or offers on any other.link since then., but have only had a handful.