.PRO in 2008???

[Ben42]

Was curious if anyone else thinks 2008 will be .pro's break out year. I have a bit invested so I am one-sided?

Will the restictions be lifted?

Will end users learn of it?

Will they see that Newhampshire-Exterminators.com is horrible compared to Pest.pro?

lol

 

[domainer50]

I doubt it. :imho: This extension will never really take off. Maybe a sale here or there, but no major liftoff :imho:

 

[dotprofan]

I'm guessing domainer50 is unaware of the recent statements by Tom Barrett of Encirca regarding the efforts at ICANN currently underway to relax/remove the restrictions on .pro. If the restrictions go, and the price goes down, the extension will fly. If it doesn't the names can still be effectively used for development and SEO. All it takes is for your site to earn $99/year to make them an asset rather than a liability, and you'll find it's not too hard to accomplish this with a minimally developed site.

 

[domainer50]

I'm guessing domainer50 is unaware of the recent statements by Tom Barrett of Encirca regarding the efforts at ICANN currently underway to relax/remove the restrictions on .pro. If the restrictions go, and the price goes down, the extension will fly. If it doesn't the names can still be effectively used for development and SEO. All it takes is for your site to earn $99/year to make them an asset rather than a liability, and you'll find it's not too hard to accomplish this with a minimally developed site.

Yes I was unaware of these statements. Sure the name could make $100 in a year. As for it being mainstream I do not think this will happen. Also the fact that your are a "dotprofan" leads me to believe that even if those statements were not made you would think the same. Which is fine, though I would consider the statements to be a bit one sided. :imho:

 

[dotprofan]

Of course you are entitled to your opinion, you just might want to know all the facts so your opinion can be more informed. I am a fan, but that doesn't change the fact that there are genuine efforts underway to relax the restrictions on .pro. In addition the ICANN/RegistryPro contract for .pro is up for renewal in 2009 at which point another opportunity for major changes will occur. Here is the statement made by Tom recently, interpret it any way you want:

"Dear .pro fans,

I have not forgotton about promising to respond to your questions. I have decided to delay our response for a very good reason.

We hear that RegistryPro and ICANN are close to a preliminary concensus on relaxing the restrictions regarding .pro domain names. EnCirca supports these changes as a positive step forward for the .pro domain. In the up-coming weeks, look for a "call for public comment" from ICANN regarding these .pro changes.

I think these changes will ease many of your concerns about the future of .pro. This will also be your opportunity to address your questions directly to ICANN and RegistryPro about .pro.

best regards,

Tom Barrett
EnCirca"

 

[Ben42]

Relaxing the restrictions and going mainstream are two different things. First the restrictions need to be relaxed and only then can it be huge. If early in the year the rules are changed, I think by the end of the year we'll have a least one big company advertising a name with a .pro ext. If this happens the thing could explode overnight.

 

[domainer50]

Relaxing the restrictions and going mainstream are two different things. First the restrictions need to be relaxed and only then can it be huge. If early in the year the rules are changed, I think by the end of the year we'll have a least one big company advertising a name with a .pro ext. If this happens the thing could explode overnight.

You are absolutely right. However :imho: An American company is not going to stray away from the .com or .net mainstream.

 

[akcampbell]

Domainer50 what about all the American companies that voluntarily add the word "pro" to their domain name...like Namepros? I get 7.33m unique page impressions for the search term "pro.com" in speech marks on Google. The .com in that was the obvious choice, not really a choice at all, but the pro bit was picked from 500,000 other words, somebody wanted it there because they liked the sound of it.

There are 1000's of pro/generic keyword or generic keyword/pro .com names. Take Proquote as an example, it was spun out from the London Stock Exchange and provides financial data to member firms. It uses Proquote.com and Proquote.net. That's great but if somebody had never heard of .com, I think they'd agree that Quote.pro is purer, more aesthetically appealing and memorable.

Obviously, the world has heard of .com, it's fixated by it so there are 75m sloshing around. The problem is 74.9m of them are poor apologies for brands in my view. There are only 6,000 .pros and I can't find anything I like anymore. Any alternative extension can be slapped down by invoking big bad .com but the fact of the matter is that every year more Internet users find out there are extensions out there other than .com and their country code so gradually awareness and acceptance of more exotic breeds grow.

Alternative extensions provide something .com can't offer. Relatively affordable blockbuster generics. Individuals are priced out of blockbuster single word generics. If that's what they want and some will, they will have to consider alternatives like .info, .mobi, .biz, and .pro.

As to whether 2008 will be the break out land rush year for .pro, I hope so, but it's in the hands of ICANN and Registry.pro. They have to cut the reg fee and remove restrictions to level the playing field with other alternative extensions. If they do that, it will breath new life into .pro and maybe it will surprise a few people.

12 months ago few people had anything good to say about .info and it had a fantastic 2007 breaking the $XXX,XXX sales barrier and fetching $XX,XXX more and more regularly. .mobi has gone from zero to hero in 2 years so anything is possible with alternative extensions, especially a gTLD, because there aren't many of them and Internet usage is still growing exponentially in some parts of the world.

 

[InvisionTech]

You are absolutely right. However :imho: An American company is not going to stray away from the .com or .net mainstream.

Yeah, but what are the alternatives? The pesky L-L-L-L.coms? lol Very professional!

 

[mwzd]

I love .pro but don't see any movement, its like in a suspended state.

It'll be interesting to see what Tom has to say, but as of now its only about adding countries to the allowed list.

Too little imo.

 

[Kate]

To me it looks like it's a dead TLD. Years on and it's got close to nowhere.
I have said it before: the distribution scheme scheme sucks. It's supposedly only available to qualified professionals from USA, Canada, UK, Germany.
There are more than 240 countries on Earth - not just 4 and outside domaining circles nobody knows about the Encirca loophole.

If the Icann contract is too restrictive the least that the registry could do is streamline the registrant accreditation process.
I do not see any real promotion taking place. Things are pretty much the same they were at inception time.

I think .pro sounds more palatable than .biz but at least .biz works and it's growing.

 

[Spade]

Several things would have to happen in order for .pro to be successful in 2008 - the first, we would need laxation on the TLD (as already addressed) Secondly, we would need to see atleast some developed sites, being advertised in mainstream mediums. The issue mostly is with the public awareness of this TLD (and many others)....

Could it happen? Yes.... Will it happen? Thats another story....

 

[malibumobile]

Lower Prices.
Raise Awareness.

= See .pro rise in usage...

 

[nrmillions]

Will they see that Newhampshire-Exterminators.com is horrible compared to Pest.pro?

I think pestpro.com would be much better than pest.pro. Even pest.ws would be better than the very long name you listed above so would that make all domain extensions valuable? In fact if I were going to develop a .pro domain such as pest.pro I would only do it if I also owned pestpro.com and then directed pestpro.com to pest.pro. If you only own the .pro and not the pro.com of your developed site then you will just lose a huge chunk of your traffic to the .com. When people hear "Pest Pro" they will automatically think PestPro.com.

Also, if they get rid of the restrictions on .pro then it seems like it wouldnt be any different than .biz.

 

[malibumobile]

Also, if they get rid of the restrictions on .pro then it seems like it wouldnt be any different than .biz.

agreed!

 

[Pred]

LOL :sold:

 

[mjs]

One matter I've not seen addressed is the possible grandfathering of .Pro names already in circulation. I can't see Encirca's Pro Forwarding program continuing forever. At the same time, given that many of these domains have been held since March 2005, I can not see the Registry, nor even ICANN, attempting to cancel any such registrations lest they be entagled in litigation for years. Assuming these domains are grandfathered, would transfers to otherwise non-professional third parties remain protected. If so, .Pro could still enjoy a healthly secondary market beyond whatever professional designations are eventually implemented. I don't have the answers to these questions, but so long as these issues are left unresolved, there remains cause for additional hope.

 

[htmlindex]

For .pro to take off in 2008 I think that they need to seriously reduce the reg & renewals drastically IMO.

 

[srisri24]

For .pro to take off in 2008 I think that they need to seriously reduce the reg & renewals drastically IMO.

I agree. REDUCE renewal charges.

 

[akcampbell]

PestPro.com is more valuable than Pest.pro now, but if .Pro cost $10 to register Pest.pro would be worth more than PestPro.com within 12 months. .Biz is worth more than .Pro but it doesn't sound as good.

.Com has virtually no competition as an extension for multinational companies. .Org and .Info aren't suited to commercial branding, .mobi is an awkward construct with limited keyword suitability, .biz is plain ugly and shoddy sounding, .tv isn't a gTLD and would be laughable as a blue chip brand. That leaves .Net which is OK but it's doesn't add much to the keyword unless your business has something to do with IT.

.Pro has the sort of legitimacy and credibility that would appeal to blue chips. Unfortunately, it's failed miserably for 4 years because of inept registry management. People develop alternative extensions because they are 1) Cheaper than .com to register, 2) There are so many registered that certain keywords are perceived as being unusually valuable and exclusive 3) They are universally recognised and accepted to the point where visitors will not hold the extension against you.

.Pro has failed to make any headway on all 3 points, hence there are virtually no .pros developed, or if they are developed, they are muddled homebrew concoctions, template rollouts, ugly database plug ins, or a combination of all 3. I would love to develop my .Pros but while only 1 in 10,000 Internet users have heard of .Pro it doesn't make any commercial sense to do that.

The ball is in the registry's court. They have to remove all registration restrictions and cut the reg price otherwise .Pro will get as far in the next 4 years as it's got in the last, precisely nowhere.