NET domains. Are they worth SOMETHING?

[gattoplano]

Hi,
Thanks to my scanner I'm recently catching tons of great .net names. Their .com alternative would be probably worth thousands (if sedo sales are a good meter), and most of other extensions are taken, including .info and .co.uk.

BUT... I'm not registering most of them. Just because... It's like they are worth nothing.
Is still .net the second extension in value after .com?
Is there any extension that could have a value - even 1/5 - of .com?

It's like .net domains are not useful to anyone, and anyone is ignoring them.

At the other side, to find nice .com domains is hard (not impossible).

I fear .net will lose value with time, and I'm not sure about .net investments.

Examples of my targets:

forum domains
chat domains
gaming domains

Should I buy a good domain in those targets with .net extension? Or it's going to be forgotten soon?

all of your comments are GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Datalife]

I'm of the opinion .net is not worth much too IF compared to the .com, I think .com is like the moon and .net (plus the others) are like candles.

The only cases where .net has value is maybe when the keyword has high OVT and all the rest of the extensions are taken...including .com

I also would think many hyphen .com are better than non hyphen .net...unless the name is a very strong generic keyword name, than .net has a high value too.

But to each his own. Just my 2 cents here.

 

[gazzip]

Yeah, I have also noticed there are not many decent sales listed for .nets and there does'nt seem to be alot of interest in anything but one word ones.

Even then I have come accross ones that are not sold at $10,000 even thought the the same word in .com would probably be snapped up for $500,000 or more.

I have a couple but I personally would'nt buy any more unless they were very strong one word names with a very big and lucrative end market or I was going to develop them.

However, I am in an auction right now for Supercross.net :hehe: I don't suppose it will go for more than about $1000 but who knows at snapnames !

www.dnsaleprice.com is handy for quickly checking previous sales in a certain extension, there's not a great deal of .net sales listed there or on dnjournal.


.

 

[gattoplano]

Glad to see it wasn't only my impression
the question is... will thing change in the future? When .com will be 100% taken (well.. it's almost at 99% now :D) will .net gain some interest? Or will it remain an eternal useless shadow?

 

[capiche]

I personally think we'll start seeing a lot more hyphen "-" dot coms being used for development and in sales before .net gets any more popular. (Already starting to see some)

It would be nice if some of these other extensions would start paying off for everyone.

I have a couple of good OVT keyword term .nets too, but they're just sitting there.

 

[cache]

I doubt .net would lose its charm that soon. This is similar to school system:
the first tier schools are always first tier (UC Berkeley never came down to 2nd tier)
and the second tier stays there for a long time.

 

[gazzip]

I personally think we'll start seeing a lot more hyphen "-" dot coms being used for development and in sales before .net gets any more popular. (Already starting to see some)
.

Me too - along with the use of new extensions like .eu .asia etc

I just noticed these sales in DnJournal today from the TRAFFIC auctions, although some very nice keywords here the prices they went for don't even come close to the value of the .coms - or probably .co.uk's or .de for the most part either.

Although these have likely been bought more for parking and not by end users

Moniker/ T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

CreditCards.net $118,500
Stereos.net $5,900 Monker

Hun.net $35,000 (very big overture w ext)
CD.net $20,000
XS.net $13,000
SO.net $13,000
Outsourcing.net $11,000
Globe.net $11,000
PO.net $10,000
Met.net $10,000
Idea.net $10,000


.

 

[End User King]

$10,000 is a low, low price for a name like idea.net. I woulda passed.

 

[seeker]

IMO, .net is here to stay as a solid second for .com
we can argue all we want about its meaning as 'network' etc... however, in the average Joe's mind, up to this time, .net is second to .com.
it isnt so much as liking a specific extension as much as realizing as in the market, and in the thought of NON domainers, it is the second most destinguishable TLD.
the threat is basically from the .com version of the domain becoming active, which will cause traffic bleeding, but that would happen with any other TLD. at least with .net, you have minimal loss IMO.
more ans more people now think of .net as "interNET" than "NETwork".

 

[Barrucadu]

Personally I think .NET looks nicer then .COM - but since people tend to associate domains with .COM more than anything else, I tend to only register .COM.

 

[gazzip]

well, Supercross.net just went for $1250 to BenFranklin

Bonkers & Vaxis also tried to get it, I guess the big fish are still looking to buy them !

.

 

[gattoplano]

Well ok. If you like .net take a look at my post. I'm sharing all of those that I didn't reg. with you
http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?p=1601153#post1601153

 

[floatingworld]

in general I will ignore .net and consider hyphen.com or .org as options .... .net has its fans but i am not one of them........................

 

[gattoplano]

I can't understand how things went this way. Com has to do with commerce while Net as to do with networks or net in general. Is everything commercial?

 

[nmr86]

Even then I have come accross ones that are not sold at $10,000 even thought the the same word in .com would probably be snapped up for $500,000 or more.[/QOUTE]

name some of thos .nets...

dont know if you right on this one pal

 

[gazzip]

Even then I have come accross ones that are not sold at $10,000 even thought the the same word in .com would probably be snapped up for $500,000 or more.[/QOUTE]

name some of thos .nets...

dont know if you right on this one pal

Less than three months ago I emailed an owner of a short one word .net (in a very lucrative area) domain not parked or in use, he has been offered over $5,000 but is firm on selling for $10,000

However, I am not going to say the name, maybe one day I will be in a position to be able to buy it to develop.

The exact same name in .com (developed)has an overture with extension of 506
The singular .com has an overture of 168 with extension (not parked or in use but the owner replied that he is not selling)

It is of course up to you if you beleive me or not - makes no odds to me either way

They are out there, I guess you must have missed some !

.

 

[GoPC]

I like .net for some applications... Like if you are developing a "Sellers Network", than Sellers.net might be a great branded domain as opposed to SellersNetwork.com

Or, Mortgage Network at Mortgage.net... reads "Mortgage Net"... which I like very much.

I think shoe horning domains in the .net that are only and actually networks is SO 1980 and not the way the average Joe thinks about this extension. They think "dot com isn't it, let's try dot net." After that, it's Google and off to wherever.

dot net has the next best value to dot com and is better than most of the other dot commons with the exception to dot org in "social awareness", non-profit or politically topical type sites.

GoPC

 

[Sniffey]

i actually see .nets getting more popular. I see more and more tv shows, movies, companies using .net because they arent willing to pay the obtrusive amount that people expect for the .com versions.

prime example: jimmykimmellive.net

 

[cityforums.com]

.net should have been the king imho.

 

[gingeman]

I am a big fan of .net myself, as it does make a great second to .com, but I think that in general, here in the UK, .co.uk is second to .com. I can absolutely guarantee that over here, the 'average joe' who is not a developer or domainer, considers .co.uk as the second to .com, and with some people I am sure they type .co.uk first. As such, I think the 'secondary' global TLDs, like .net, .org and .biz, may have suffered slightly from the introduction of a number of recent ccTLDS, like .us, .eu etc. There is now such a ridiculous array of extensions that will work in search engine terms that if you can't afford the .com, you have a huge choice.
I do hope we'll see a resurgence in both .net, .org and .biz - I see .info as in a currently strong position already, but I think that many domainers may underestimate the better established country extensions if they are not ones they have had direct dealings with themselves.
For example, I would not be surprised at all to see the .co.uk version of any of the names in Gazzip's list fetching a higher price than the .net (maybe hun.net excepted).

The same stands true of .de, and give .us a year or two and I think it may become second-choice to .com in the states as well. I like .net, but I think within domaining communities it is easy to see a clear ranking of extensions, when that is not really true from the public's viewpoint.

Where .us, .eu etc will leave the .net I really don't know, but I think it needs to re-invent itself quickly or risks appearing like it has no purpose other than as a second-rate .com. This is already part of the stigma attached to .biz IMHO, and as much as it pains me, I do wonder whether .net could head the same way.