discuss .LINK binge continues

[ThatNameGuy]

".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"

 

[branding]

Bottom line, "the public" like jmcc is simply uninformed, and it's my goal to inform the public

Not quite. It's endusers being uninformed hence they buy shitty extensions. Not the public. You cannot expect the public to feel at ease with hundreds of options for a tld when they've been 'trained' to expect a .com or cctld.

You can educate endusers though.

That's basically the bottom line of this thread I guess. Stay away from just about any obscure tld as that isn't going to do your business any good unless you know exactly what you're doing.

 

[bmugford]

Brad, you waste a lot of time following me....am i that charming.

Actually, I just have a lot of free time because I run a successful business that makes domain sales.

You are probably the one who should spend less time here, and start moving forward with all your big plans. Get to work!

Brad

 

[Joe N]

With regards to my branding proficiency....the only thing i can say is that Acsel is NO WORSE than Elix

I agree that this comment speaks volumes about your branding proficiency.

 

[jmcc]

Thanks for doing this jmcc, but crunching the back numbers is somewhat superfluous imo.

These numbers are the DNA of the gTLD and show how many potentially high value domain names are still unregistered.

Because Frank Schilling aka Uniregistry pretty much threw in the towel on .LINK in 2017.

Frank made the mistake of thinking like a domainer rather than a registry operator. They are two very different mindsets. The first few years of a new TLD are all about growing the market share and getting web usage/development started. There's also a six month landrush period where people register and flip domain names before registration activity normalises. Because so many premium domain names were held back, the natural landrush never happened. After the first few years of operation, registries tend to make more money from renewals.

The worst thing for domainers and Uniregistry was when Frank increased the prices on the Uniregistry gTLDs. It got the Unireg gTLDs kicked off Godaddy. However, in registry operator terms, it was the correct thing to do given the situation but it could have been handled a lot better with existing registrants being grandfathered in on pricing.

Regards...jmcc

 

[JB Lions]

JB.....if you were to price Dollar.link, how much would you ask for it and why? Another question? Are you on Linkedin, and what do you think of the new registry owners plans for .LINK?......thanks in advance.

Nope, my last post here, will be staying out of your threads. Trying to stay out of time wasting threads. You're not serious about this, like I said, not even setting up your domains to sell after many years.

Just on .link alone, these are the threads you started. You've started 8 different threads, many probably should have been combined.

.LINK binge continues​

.LINK binge progress​

Binge Buying and .link​

.LINK News and more​

LINKedin and .LINK​

.LINK THREAD - Sales, Regs, Discussion, News, Debates​

Single word .XYZ vs single word .LINK​

.xyz Versus .link​

 

[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

 

[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]

As you know the world is paved with good intentions, and I do intend to have my domains listed in pretty short order.

This is intended as helpful advice, so please take it that way.

I know personally how easy it is to focus on acquisitions, but it is so important to balance that with making the names available for sale. Yes, in theory someone could reach out, but I think in the vast majority of cases names only sell if they are on a marketplace and have a lander.

It's great that you want to set up your own marketplace, and a name for that, and as next stage concentrate on that. But first, starting right now, at least get your names all listed at least one of Dan, Afternic, Sedo, and preferably all. Make sure there is a lander working for each name. Don't at this stage worry about what style of lander, or adding a description if at Dan, but just get it up and working.

1600 is a lot of names to manage. Prioritize getting your best names up first. Today. Make a rule for yourself: "I am not allowed to search for another name until I get 500 listed." I make rules for myself like that all the time, cause I far enjoy searching for names dropping or available than I do actually the mechanics of listing, recording, etc.

I am not saying abandon your more ambitious goals. But first, get them listed.

Best wishes, and I hope you will take my advice.

-Bob

 

[DrJacoby]

The title of this thread should be changed from ".LINK binge continues" to ".LINK cringe continues".

 

[Joe N]

However i will share with you that I've attracted several investors who are buying into my outbound targeted marketing strategy. The investors believe in me and have assured we'll all be around for some time to come.

That's awesome, Rich. It's nice to have generous family and friends who support us no matter what (and without expectation of return).

 

[Joe N]

Joe, just for the record i didn't write the article, but it's all true just the same. And btw, you apparently have some sort of problem with my mentioning Jean Gullion, a contact/connection I made as a result of my starting this thread. Also, your LYING insinuation that our encounter was/is "no more extensive than them sending you one polite response to an intro message?".....is just a BIG FAT LIE.

While Jean Gullion and I may never work together in any capacity....here was just one of several Linkedin message responses he's made to me;

"I think .LINK makes sense so how can I help you with making .LINK the greatest new gTLD in the world?"

Wow, I stand corrected, Rich. He definitely sounds keen to partner with you! He must have read that article about your thriving domain name enterprise.

 

[bmugford]

Brad....read my response to Joe. I know you're on Linkedin because it's part of your signature. And I know you're aware that Linkedin has over 850 Million members that can relate to "link" being a keyword according to the infamous Go Daddy. One thing I do know Brad is that ".LINK is no worse than .Horse"....what do you say?

I don't really understand the correlation. LinkedIn has hundreds of millions of users...so?

How are you supposed to monetize them? Advertising is expensive and you have nothing to sell at the moment.

Domains in general are a kind of niche product, never mind .LINK in specific.

I would not expect an advertising campaign to pay for itself, otherwise you would see more new extensions advertised to the general public, and not just highly targeted campaigns largely to people already in the domain field.

Brad

 

[DealMaker1]

Anyone who is registering these one word domains in lesser extensions might be behooved to study what "wishful thinking" is. Really. Study what that means and you'll see practical reality is different than playing the lottery.

Past results, like with .com, don't guarantee future results, like with .link, .online or whatever. Please don't think because you have registered Candy.link that it is like candy.com and you have hit the jackpot. Doesn't work that way.

There is a five-fold reason Swetha has been generally successful with .xyz: the sheer size of her inventory, the one words, the luck that .xyz caught on somewhat, the marketing of herself as the leader in the
xyz sales field ( therefore higher level connections) and some hard work. This does not happen often.

So really take a look at the trajectory of the extension if you are going all in.

 

[bmugford]

(I'm assuming you mean a real passion.)

Yeah, too late to edit it.

I'm typing code into my website as we speak. It's a ride... one that I reckon might actually kill me. It is all consuming but a wild ride...

I am really only interested in pursuing projects or pursuits which I have a passion for. Otherwise, I find it to be too much of a grind which leads to a lack of motivation.

Still, at some point you have to take that first step. @ThatNameGuy has been talking about partners and development and projects for years now. You have to do something at some point to make it happen.

Brad

 

[jmcc]

WOW JMc....this post/response is more valuable than your first. I had no clue what a Truckstop or Gateway TLD are, and after a few minutes of research I'm still not sure

Most retail TLDs (not brands) have domain names that redirect to websites in other TLDs. Normally, that's just brand protection. When the percentage of redirects is greater than the percentage of developed domain names in a TLD, the TLD becomes a Truckstop or Gateway TLD. (It is a phrase that describes a kind of Web Usage seen with various TLDs.) That's because users just go there before intending to go somewhere else. Some TLDs accidentally become Truckstop TLDs either through management decisions or lack of demand. The .LINK is intentionally a Truckstop TLD because that's the main selling point. Valuable keywords can be used to drive traffic to the registrant's primary website. The logic is that of type-in traffic rather than search engine traffic. The ICANN Wiki entry has some of the thinking behind the gTLD.

https://icannwiki.org/.link

The mistake that Uniregistry/Frank Schilling made with some of the Unireg gTLDs was in reserving too many premium domain names through an associated registrar. That suppressed the natural landrush that most newly launched TLDs experience for the first six months of operation and domainers, who would have driven interest in the gTLDs, largely ignored them. Without the landrush spike, the gTLDs had to rely on brand protection registrations and opportunistic registrations. When it launched in April 2014, it had 23,399 registrations. Of these, 19,283 were on Uniregistry.

There was aslo a bubble in the gTLD caused by Chinese registrations and even the notorious Alpnames registrar (terminated by ICANN) had over 45% of the registrations at one stage.

https://www.thedomains.com/2016/09/...arts-deleting-its-230000-uniregistry-domains/

Regards...jmcc

 

[Joe N]

Guys, let it go.

The way i see it, @ThatNameGuy is having fun buying domains, hopefully as a hobby.
Looks like he got money to spend so that's great.

If it works out for you @ThatNameGuy that's even better.

This thread is giving me a headache.

Join in on the discussion! Threads started by @ThatNameGuy are always a great platform to educate newer domainers on the hazards of over-committing to an idea without doing your due diligence.

 

[WillW]

@ThatNameGuy
Can I ask you a serious question...

I thought you would have some .link names in your signature but all I saw were a bunch of names with the TM emblem. Did you TM all those names? And if so, why?

and what's a cheesecake and realty have to do with one another?

 

[Joe N]

Joe, you and Brad are having a tuff time with me aren't you? I throw you a curve ball, and 9 times out of ten it's a swing and a miss. I guess you're not use to batting 100, but that's the way the critics see it

Classic response from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.

Let me know if you muster up the gonads to actually discuss the topic you yourself raised.

 

[Eric Lyon]

Are you kidding me Eric....i couldn't have made it any clearer as to why I've been buying/accumulating .link domains since learning about the sale of this extension from Frank Schilling of UniRegistry to Yoni Belousov and some other investors to include Jeff Gabriel, CEO of SAW.com earlier last year.

Do you mean to tell me you didn't know about this Eric? How about all the others whose sole purpose it is/was to stalk and intimidate me simply because I don't do business their or the NamePros way?

Regardless of whether you allow this post/response to stand and regardless of whether .LINK is successful or not, I find it hard to believe you and NamePros are so critical of a "turnaround" investor who see's upside potential and value in each and every .LINK domain i own

My on-topic questions to you regarding your .link investing experience were genuine as a follow-up to a thread you started about .link and posted multiple times about the decades of investing experience you have. I was looking to learn more, to add to my own arsenal of knowledge and wasn't expecting to have the majority of questions about your personal .link journey ignored and the subject changed/deflected each time.

We all do it differently.

What works for one doesn't always work for another and results may vary. I've always been a big believer in that.

You could have added that bit with your answers. I was just taken back by the deflection and got frustrated having to ask the same questions multiple times, with no acknowledgement of them. It's ok if you haven't made any .link sales yet. I was genuinely curious for the data points.

I like to compile research and data points for various extensions and niches (As seen in the Professional Appraisals I do daily sometimes).

So, please don't take my questions personal. I ask lots of members the same questions in niches they express expertise in to gather various data points for later use.

However, at the same time, I don't want to see any new investors led down the wrong path either. So when someone with decades of investing experience hosting a niche topic thread won't cooperate/participate in personal investment journey questions related to the very topic they created to assist with data points to help other potential investors, I have to take a step back and re-evaluate with whom I should be asking these niche related questions.

I would love to hear from .link investors with some Verifiable Sales, STR, ROI, POS, and other data points to offer that could help this topic and it's viewers better their best.

If anyone reading this has some of the above data points to share, please do. I'm looking to dig into the .link extension a bit more before I decide if it's a viable extension to consider adding into my portfolio or potentially developing on.

Most importantly, let's keep the topic about .link and see if we can learn from one another.

 

[bmugford]

Thanks Brad for helping to keep my dream alive.

Will this time be different?.......Hell Yeah!

Will Rich ever find the technical partner he is looking for? ........Maybe

Will Rich ever move forward with any of his big ideas?......Hell Yeah!

Update; as of just a few minutes ago i registered the Premium domain Adoption.link. It cost $159.30 and renews for the same. My thinking?.......with Roe v Wade overturned I figured adoption is a bigger deal now in America than it ever was.

Brad.....knowing that some of my big ideas have actually come to fruition I hope you understand why it really is different this time

You have been buying (binging) domains for like 5-6 years now.
It is probably time to start focusing more on selling.

Brad

 

[Recons.Com]

Any sales so far?

I've tried to answer this three times now, but to no avail. However i will share with you that I've attracted several investors who are buying into my outbound targeted marketing strategy. The investors believe in me and have assured we'll all be around for some time to come. As a result I'm still adding to my portfolio when great .LINK domains cross my path.

So that is no?

 

[branding]

Once you understand there's literally no technical difference between Networking.com. Networking.xyz and Networking.link, you may begin to understand what I already understand.

And that's exactly the point. There's no technical difference between yours and networking.horse either.

All of them are crap.

This is not a tech forum. We're talking saleable domains. You may run into some outliers because you reg in bulk but generally speaking, they're all not Investment worthy.

We cannot predict what the future holds. I would've never predicted xyz would take off in a certain niche. So you might get lucky. Not taking away from the fact that networking.xyz is a crap domain no matter how you spin it.

Back to .link. yes, it is worse than XYZ. No adoption, no sales, a mess from a technical pov.

That being said... Would be cool to prove us all wrong. Let's shut up about it, do your thing and let's check how things end up in 5 years or so? I hope for you it's gonna be epic instead of epik.

 

[Joe N]

the majority of your narrative is pure conjecture and opinion ala, "All of them are crap"

Come on @branding... You should know by now that Rich relies purely on cold hard facts to make his investing decisions.

Now will someone please partner up with this visionary so he can get his names listed?!

 

[branding]

Thanks for chiming in even though the majority of your narrative is pure conjecture and opinion ala, "All of them are crap"

That pretty much sums it up yes. I do however form my opinion based on data, iow looking at what extensions have proven to be working on a case to case basis.

I will happily recommend a dot something if the situation/audience calls for it.

I can see a use case for networking link. Just don't see any data to support much investment value.

As for the use case, it's actually quite limited. If there was a certain niche fond of .link it might be a cool one. Network in link, even better. Set on the keyword? Why not opt for prefix networking in .com and be trend/fool proof? JobNetworking is currently on auction so within reach, probably for a decent number.

You mention Linkedin a lot. Seems the perfect domain for a recruiting company sourcing from LI.

That would be my advise for the domain to pursue, if my client was asking.

 

[Joe N]

That's a great plug Joe and I do appreciate it. Earlier in this thread I connected with Jean Guillon seen here;

An author: Jean Guillon writes about new gTLDs on several publication platforms such as CircleId (503.507+ views), JournalDuNet (in French), Les Echos, etc... Since 2008: ICANN Working Groups. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has lots of working groups dedicated to preparing the next round of the ICANN new gTLD program:

We actually connected via Linkedin and are now discussing my involvement with the .LINK gtld. You probably know about him, but I just learned about him. Joe, do you remember my involvement with the new gTLD PingPong.gives and when I first clicked on it four years ago I thought WOW!.....how cool

You may also recall my attempts to partner in some capacity with the likes of Donuts and its founder Paul Stahura who it was said, "he never saw a new gTLD he didn't like".

To cut to the chase Joe, as a result of this thread maybe someone will see the value and vision I bring to the table with .LINK. At least I'm HOPEFUL

Rich, why do you continue to drop the names of people in the domain name industry after having an interaction with them that's no more extensive than them sending you one polite response to an intro message? I'm sure they don't appreciate being misrepresented in that way.

Ultimately this approach probably serves to undermine any opportunities you might have to form the meaningful partnerships you seek. Ironic.