.PRO promotion

[Kate]

Just got an E-mail from Encirca
25% off on .pro domains
= $75
http://www.encirca.com/html/pro-registration.shtml

 

[akcampbell]

Is it for new .pros or all .pros, including renewals? I tried to renew a .pro and the charge was still $99.

 

[ownthisdomainnow]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[jido]

I took two domains I had doubts about with the promotion.

Newspapers.pro and Operations.pro

:tu:

 

[zuriko]

yes 75$ I just regd Lucky.pro ; Keno.pro and Ride.pro

 

[Ben42]

Good luck with your .pro's!

 

[akcampbell]

A temporary $75 reg fee doesn't wow me. Encirca's last .pro promotion was $49 so $75 isn't going to do much to push registrations up, apart from maybe offset a seasonal lull. .pros are at least tenfold overpriced at $99, if a gTDL isn't financially accessible to everybody and registerable by everybody, don't call it a gTLD.

 

[labrocca]

I would pay max $30 and I would want multiple year renewal option at that price.

 

[zuriko]

I would pay max $30 and I would want multiple year renewal option at that price.

and sell for $xxxxxx?)))))))))

 

[jimlast]

Are .pros worth anything at this point? I seen a few I'd snap up but I don't see much long term advancement with the domain. Feels like it will always be a 'fm' type thing?

 

[zuriko]

worth!!!)))

Are .pros worth anything at this point? I seen a few I'd snap up but I don't see much long term advancement with the domain. Feels like it will always be a 'fm' type thing?

is it generic top-level domain? yes!!! easy to remember? yes!!! brandable? yes!!!
its because until this year not many people new about dotpro. now yes!!! and best names already registered.
I sold: Booking.pro £xxxx
Event.pro £xxxx
claim.pro £xxxx
claims.pro £xxxx

 

[localexperts]

got pest.pro and remodel.pro during the promotion.

Already have the mockup for www.pest.pro, that will be launched along with www.yellowpages.pro by Jan 08

 

[Ben42]

Pest.pro is a great name! I'm sure any professional exterminator would love to own that. Would look great on the side of a truck, very memorable. Nice pick!

 

[likepeas]

whats the highest price these domains were sold for ?

 

[ownthisdomainnow]

Recent .PRO domain sales of note - (acording to NameBio.com)

video.pro - $35,000
movie.pro - $22,000
streaming.pro - $18,000
stream.pro - $11,000
foto.pro - $6,100
photography.pro - $2,210

Many other sales, but those are the highest reported sales to this point in 2007.

I have sold several for $$$ this year as well.

I am currently offering Videogame.pro - which I believe to be a top level name, along the lines of movie.pro.

Maybe I am deluded. It has been said before. But certainly Videogame.pro is a $$$$ name. No?

 

[akcampbell]

Videogame.pro is an excellent fit with the .pro extension, I think you'd sell it easily with the right .pro conditions and for more than your $250 BIN. Videogame.tv has received 6 bids on Sedo and Videogame.mobi has received 1 so it's a desirable keyword combined with extension goodness of fit.

The main reason it's not selling is it's usually used as a 2 word expression and .pro hasn't reached the point where 2 word phrases are desirable on the aftermarket. Very few domainers reg .pros and even fewer buy .pros on the aftermarket so you are probably advertising this to about 20 potential buyers on Namepros.

Another downside with the keyword is that it was more commonly used in the 70s and 80s than it is now. It's a bit like "personal computer" or "micro computer" but not as outdated. Nowadays people talk about games rather than video games. If you mean something other than a "video game" game you would add an extra word on like "board" or "card".

Offset against that, game playing online is on a steep upslope so the value of any keyword, even a formal and slightly old fashioned one like "video game", will go up so I think it would be a good investment for anybody buying it.

The problem with selling mid-teir .pros, is when you can still register short commercial single words like Pest.pro for $75, it's a tricky pricing proposition.

I regged Display.pro (3.06, 2,593.8, 20.1/15.7, 86.7m), Leads.pro (10.57, 1,242.1, 28.6/21, 23.8m), Desk.pro (3.41, 9,968.3, 7.8/22.1, 15.4m) Battery.pro (2.47, 8,808.90, 10.4/17, 15.3m), Gear.pro (1.81, 7,771.8, 9.7/4, 24.7m), Total.pro (1.51, 2,167.20, 12.1/14.1, 169m) and Manual.pro (0.92, 6,262.4, 21.1/24.1, 27.4m) today.

I've added the brackets to explain how I analyse .pros. The brackets are ($PPC estimate, daily clicks benchmark, "Pro" and "Professional" goodness of fit %'s, total Google uniques). My total Google uniques are coming up lower than usual so the last number is only a relative comparison.

The goodness of fit %'s are the Google uniques of the keyword and pro or professional in a Google search box devided by the total Google uniques of the keyword. It gives me an idea of how frequently the keyword appears with either "pro" or "professional" on the same web page.

On this basis Videogame.pro would score (1.42, 768.10, 23.3/14.7, 6.8m) so the 7 .pros I regged today outperform it on 3 of the 4 domain value parameters each time. I don't mean to criticise Videogame.pro, I'm just pointing out how someone who buys .pros on the aftermarket might analyse .pro value.

If you compare what I regged today and Videogame.pro to something I bought on the aftermarket like Mobile.pro $2,000 (2.65, 21,010.50, 37.4/31.3, 80.4m) or Training.pro $1,800 (3.24, 13,511.50, 30.7/77.4, 43.3m) it's a whole different ball game in terms of the benchmark scores a buyer would be looking for.

 

[ownthisdomainnow]

Nice thorough post. I think I understand most of it... LOL.

I have some other .pros, and some top-tier I will reg if I can move some of the ones I have.

Time will definitely tell with this extension. Though I like the tld, it seems to be on auto-pilot... which does not bode well for .pro.

 

[ulasbbtr]

very nice post akcampbell, I think newbies should read your post before regging a new .pro domain.

 

[jido]

hey Display.pro was on my Wanted list. Oh well, there are still plenty of keywords left.

 

[labrocca]

and sell for $xxxxxx?)))))))))

I am actually one of those rare domainers that develop most of his properties.

Why should I or anyone develop on a namespace that's more expensive than the rest of the TLDs?