discuss The new dot everything showcase and discussion

[Keith]

Well it appears as though it's happening. The launch of .land, .bike, .this, and .that is here and many more to come.

Show off your new .whatevers here and discuss why these are or are not good investments. Keep it cool, calm, and productive

I'll start with my new regs... absolutely none!

 

[Kate]

If they truly believe what they say, it means they have learned nothing from the past. The past TLDs have a history of overoptimistic projections. But that was then. And past TLDs were released one by one, in a context of limited competition. I hope they are not going to blow up corporate money on lavish parties based on their 'predictions'.

 

[Kate]

Why is it a bad strategy?

I think it is a bad strategy for two reasons:
First, shelving "premium" inventory means that lots of domains will not be available to qualified end users (possibly through a RFP process), that could otherwise develop them into meaningful websites and enhance the standing of the TLD. TLDs don't shine without development.

Second, the market value can go down very quickly past the launch phase and when the excitement and initial interest has waned.
.mobi is the best known example.
In the first two years, a number of premium keywords sold for 6 figures (you remember one guy was actually willing to pay 600K for music.mobi until the auction crashed).
Then poof - nothing.

A few months ago, .mobi domains like realestate, properties, hotels have dropped and were snapped easily.
In the history of domaining, there has been never a TLD losing so much of its value.
The registry has retained an inventory of domains like sex.mobi, that could have fetched good money back in the day. Now they could barely give them away.

In other younger extensions, the value has not appreciated either: .biz .us or .info are worth even less than in the past.

 

[jmcc]

Why is it a bad strategy?

When registries start acting like domainers instead of registries, there is a major problem.

They are effectively in competition with a section of the market that initially drives some of the growth in the early phase of a TLD's existence.

And once word gets around that the game is rigged, then the pros won't want to play. Pretty soon, that attitude spreads to most domainers and the TLD is left with relying on the mom and pop businesses who are using .COM or .ccTLD. And they have no real reason to switch.

So what happens is this: No landrush boost (or a very flat one) followed by disenchantment and the DotWhat? effect. The public does not even recognise or remember the TLD.

After that comes the Junk Dump (first anniversary when the highly speculative domains that could not be flipped are dropped). The percentage dropped can vary but there might be a few newbies ready to pick up the dropped domains but there may be no natural drops as the deleting domains might be hoovered up for auction by the registries or by large registrars.

The second anniversary is sometimes more lethal as it is the Hold'em or Fold'em time for those hanging on to their domains hoping for an increase in value.

Development and usage runs in parallel with all of this. If there is no significant development in the first six to eleven months, then the perception that the TLD is a Dead Zone will grow amongst prospective registrants. If you see registries providing dodgy figures about usage and PPC landing pages for undeveloped domains claimed to be simple redirects, then it is almost certain that there is a problem.

Regards...jmcc

---------- Post added at 05:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:47 AM ----------

Second, the market value can go down very quickly past the launch phase and when the excitement and initial interest has waned.

For a large TLD with global appeal, this tends to happen after the first six months of operation. I'm not an expert on market values but there are compressed landrush phases visible with some of the new gTLDs and trends that take months to show up (e.g the big weekend slowdowns) are appearing within weeks.

With the variable registration fees and renewal rates, some of these new gTLDs will have a battle ahead to break 100K registration in a year.

Regards...jmcc

 

[JB Lions]

did about 4900

.club
Day 1 - 26,063
Day 2 - 4,886

Little more on that, just watched the interview:

"Colin: Our target right now is five million names in five years, a million names in one year, and 300 to 400 thousand names on or about the week of GA."

They're not getting 300-400 thousand first week. Even if they did their first day, every day of the week, that would be 182,000. If they did day 2 the rest of the week, that would be about 55,000.

Part of the reasoning:
"if you do a route zone analysis, you will find that there are 489 thousand clubs with the word ‘club’ to left of the dot in .COM, .NET, and .ORG."

http://www.domainsherpa.com/campbell-sass-dotclub-interview/

Day 1 - 26,063
Day 2 - 4,886
Day 3 - 3,818
Day 4 - 1,975

Total - 36,742 as of 5/10 Saturday Night

 

[Kate]

Alternate extensions have been around for so long, and if they were any good for SEO purposes - then everybody would know and they would be more popular.

For SEO, you can have a crap domain actually and get it ranked fine, but when it comes to branding the rules are completely different.
The whole domain matters - both to the left and the right of the dot.

 

[scandiman]

OK OK

But how many of you are running critical business websites on alt TLDs ?

I for one am and will continue to do so. Also work with .com as well. Whatever shoe is fitting for the opportunity.

---------- Post added at 08:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:51 PM ----------

O.com.
I mean O.co :hehe:

The radio test is where the new extensions will have a hard time.

For goodness sakes, you can make better arguments than this. Hyphens suck for the same reason, but you can still make money on a hyphenated .com website that relies on SEO and SEM to bring customers. I've heard some absolutely absurd radio ads trying their best to help listeners spell their long ass URL that ends in com, problem is the listener is lost before they even got to the dot regardles of the TLD on the end. I think of all the sites I visit on a regular basis and don't recall any running a radio commercial stating their URL, sorta makes this argument a red herring._\|/_

Ghosts of mobi debates past haunting these new tld threads. :ghost: Folks wanting to dev are happy to get solid keywords for their websites, inexperienced domainers wanting to get rich quick on ground floor speculation hoping its the early '90's once again, experienced domainers working a decent margin during the hype phase, and .com domainers mostly failing to distinguish between them and dismissing all things new just because it's different.

 

[noonoo1]

I just picked up Traffic.Builders

Very nice name i would say!

 

[mjnels]

I was wondering the exact same thing!

Even preregistration for TLDs far into the future, even into 2015 ... all the good stuff is already taken / reserved!

Just wondering if all the old-timers from this forum are preaching "gTLDs are junk" while quietly registering those generic domains because every time I'm about to register one of those new domains, and I'm not talking some super premium names, everything is already registered.

So who the heck is registering all these "junk" domains? What am I missing?

believe it or not, its mostly people who are new to domaining.. happens every time a new TLD comes out, somebody buys everything or most things under the sun with some high hopes of flipping them or "holding them long term" (or so they say they're gonna hold them long term)

the difference now with 1,000 gTLD is you really cant buy everything under the sun - but even the really good terms are not gonna be flippable.. most of the people who publicly say they're gonna "hold for 5 years" probably registered sub-par stuff to begin with or their enthusiasm will run out when renewal comes around.

 

[JB Lions]

.club update

Day 1 - 26,063
Day 2 - 4,886
Day 3 - 3,818
Day 4 - 1,975
Day 5 - 1,064

Total - 37,806 as of 5/11 Sunday Night

source - http://ntldstats.com/

So should be 40 - 43 thousand for first week. Not quite the 300 - 400 thousand projected. That's with the best marketing by a company (so far) plus home page, above the fold exposure at GoDaddy, lower prices than most others.

Next week, .expert, .works, I think that's it. I guess .expert is .guru part 2.

 

[Ms Domainer]

Numbers Not quite Matching the Hype

.club update

Day 1 - 26,063
Day 2 - 4,886
Day 3 - 3,818
Day 4 - 1,975

Total - 36,742 as of 5/10 Saturday Night

So should be 40 - 43 thousand for first week. Not quite the 300 - 400 thousand projected. That's with the best marketing by a company (so far) plus home page, above the fold exposure at GoDaddy, lower prices than most others.

Next week, .expert, .works, I think that's it. I guess .expert is .guru part 2.

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I believe that .guru enjoyed what I call "firstism": first out of the box, this g had domainers falling all over themselves regging .guru.

Now we are experiencing domainer weariness...

Had .club or .expert been first, the total regs could have achieved higher numbers as well, especially .club, with all the hype and advertising.

The problem with hype: if the reality is so far from the fantasy, then the hyper loses credibility.

The most reliable numbers will come at the year 1 mark; the crappy ones will drop, the premium ones will stay.

And, hey, I have a small stake in the g's (not .club or .guru), so I'm not arriving from a viewpoint of a total naysayer with no skin in the game. But, at some point, one has to look at the numbers and have to do a realistic assessment as to what the future may hold.

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[DnEbook]

I did look for a few .clubs but the good ones were gone.

…… i have learned to walk away once i realise the cards are stacked against me
~
this sudden shift towards everything being premium is a joke

 

[jmcc]

.club update

Day 1 - 26,063
Day 2 - 4,886
Day 3 - 3,818
Day 4 - 1,975
Day 5 - 1,064

Total - 37,806 as of 5/11 Sunday Night

41,203 as of this morning's zone. There seemed to be a bit of a problem with zones over the last day or so and tracking the new gTLDs is a bit flakey. It has to do with some bugs in ICANN's Centralised Zonefile service being ironed out. (The CZDS is where those using the zonefiles download them). This is why some of the new gTLD stats sites may stop updating for a day or so at a time.

There's a lot of irrational optimism over these new gTLDs and many of the same arguments that were seen with other launches are being reheated. There's also a few blogs promoting these new gTLDs without doing any serious analysis.

When I see arguments that just because a TLD string is registered as part of a domain in another TLD, it is worrying.

Right now, the new gTLD launches resembles a bottle of champagne. Some people are going to end up happy. But in the process, a lot of bubbles will burst.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Ms Domainer]

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ganja.land

Interesting and descriptive name for a recreational marijuana business located in Colorado or Oregon Washington State.

Wouldn't want anyone in Oregon to get arrested because of bad info.

:O

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[McDuke]

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ganja.land

Interesting and descriptive name for a recreational marijuana business located in Colorado or Oregon.

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420.Land

 

[Ms Domainer]

HeyYou.Sexy

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Only one .sexy, and keeping it clean and sweet:

HeyYou.Sexy​

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[JB Lions]

5-10 years down the road .guru or any of these other gtlds will be just as "known" as .com.

It seems like everybody that joined the forum on Feb 2014 thinks that. Extensions with a few thousand regs, will be just as known as the one with 112,000,000+ and growing.

I respect everyones opinions but I personally believe .com is a thing of the past.

No, not even debatable. It's one of the sillier things new people are posting. There are simply not enough keywords for most of these extensions. They will always have low numbers. It's not like sometime in the future, keywords that nobody has thought of will magically pop up and get regged. These can't grow and grow and grow like a .com. It's really silly to compare them to a .com thinking they'll be just as known.

And you're making the same mistake other new people are making. Regging names you can get in a .com. If it's available in a .com, what does that tell you? You just regged a name that has no demand. You try to sell it to somebody, somebody can just get the .com. Does that seem like a smart investment?

 

[JB Lions]

Also keep in mind, the people who are usually wanting to develop, are going into markets that are already highly competitive. Take dog treat recipes

You're going to have to beat major recipe sites. There are many good ones out there. You have Animal Planet, Martha Stewart hanging out on page 1 as well. These are authority type sites, many links in, good SEO, social participation etc. You really need to do something great, bring your A game, can you put up a top 10 caliber page on the subject? I think that's why a lot of people get frustrated with making sites and then not making money.

 

[GreenDog18]

What is the purpose of a post like this? It adds 0 value to an otherwise productive conversation.

Just registered treatwilliams.dogrecipes and waiting for the URS filing because I'm such a drama wh*re.

 

[Kate]

Businesses have a number of options, like going for a brandable domain. Especially when they become big they they will want something more unique.
The other obvious option (outside the US) is the ccTLD.
That is assuming they don't want to purchase a domain on the aftermarket. But the so-called scarcity of domains is not so bad that end users are desperate and willing to put their businesses on unproven strings. Focusing solely on SEO is development with blinders on.

Of course, the new extensions are geared toward NEW businesses, those that don't already have a website and a domain name. I mean that's the official version, I think they are actually more geared toward speculators and TM holders
But I think new businesses are going to put themselves at a disadvantage. When I'm setting up a new company, I prefer to build some credibility by getting a better domain than my competitors. Using a .whatever is a telltale sign that you've not been in business for long and you don't have a track record.
There are a lot of hidden costs to not choosing the right URL.

 

[mjnels]

Just went against my better judgement and registered a .domains. I was prompted and had to agree not to use the domain in the same manner as a TM holder. Apparently someone applied for TM protection...

against your better judgement eh... well then there could only be a few explanations why you'd do it then..

YOU GOTS THE FEVER!

QUICK... step away from the computer, organize a barbeque, go for a brisk run! hurry before you start on .sexy and the scraps of .guru !!

 

[acucentric]

I just joined NamePros, because I love to theorize about where domaining and the internet are going, and I came across this forum. I wanted to join in this specific conversation, so now I'm in...

It seems to me that the primary difference between .mobi and some of the new gtld's coming out is that some of these are are actual words with practical meaning, not just fuzzy abbreviations.

And with words, come phrases and semantics. Because of this, I predict a whole new game of domain naming with be created.

Recent domain naming (within the context of .com is king) has evolved into bizarre, silly, made up and ridiculous names that are definitely fun to say and are many are super-catchy.

For example, I love the name Qriously.com. Great name! Super clever.

Now with .tlds like .tips, .today, .land, .guru, .ninja and so on—we have to opportunity to name websites with catchy phrases. The ending .tld simply allows emphasis on content or gives the previous words/names context. Or some other cool thing we haven't even thought of yet... People will get very creative, I am sure.

The generation coming up is extremely net saavy and really like the bizarre and awkward. So I feel this trend will continue for some time.

Regardless, to make money off a website, you've got to develop it. And the lasting rule that remains the same, irregardless of .com or not is: Short and Catchy.

Short and Catchy = Memorable.

Add to that search friendly, and you've got a tasty internet cocktail, IMHO.

In the past, I have stuck with .com and poo-pooed the .net, .biz, .me, and .mobi. (Who say's .mobi in conversation, EVER?!) That's why these tlds have never had major lift off power.

The ONLY reason .com is powerful is it was first, and was the only game in town for SO LONG, as it ultimately represents the blank sheet of paper. .Com can be anything. And that is ALL .com stands for to your average person.

With that in mind, .XYZ could potentially be the much cooler .com to the new internet generation. Albums used to be cool, but now they are just cool retro. Most people keep their music as MP3s. Naming will likely have trends that reflect culture. That's just my anthropological 2¢.

So yes, even though in the past I have only ever purchased .coms, the new gtlds with their full word semantic opportunities were just too tempting. I have chosen to sample a few (with no intention of selling right away...I think that idea is kind of laughable...unless of course, someone actively seeks me out and it's worth ($$$) my while). I

too see the potential in developing these domains into active sites. And obviously, it's a several years long project. However, potentially a lot of fun.

Here are some of the names I snagged and am looking forward to developing (and if it matters, I am a health care professional by trade, but have been "internetting" since 1990. Sadly, I was just out of my teens and didn't have the common sense to buy Cars.com back then. We bought MindVox.com instead. It was the third BB system in the world. Anyone remember the Well? LOL!!

Here's a little peek at a few names in my domain experiment:


Malibu.land
Sonoma.land
WineCountry.land
WineCountry.estate

Snap.Land
Jump.Land
Insta.Land
Luxe.Land
Meme.Land
Wiki.Land

Imagine.Today
Meditate.Today
Relax.Today
Vitamins.Today
Create.Today
Thrive.Today
Send.Today
Tunes.Today
Monetize.Today
Happiness.Today

Boom.Guru (<-- music/audio expert)
Noms.Guru (<-- who wouldn't want to be an expert in tasty snacks? LOL!)

Healthy.Tips
Fertility.Tips
Trending.Tips
Kid.Tips
Relating.Tips
Tween.Tips
Mindful.Tips
Tasty.Tips
GlutenFree.Tips
Paleo.Tips

I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the whole semantics/phrases aspect to domain naming. Domain names could now be slogans instead of company names. Kinda cool...

BTW, I am probably only going to keep this experiment list up for a week or so for the purpose of this discussion. I have no interest in keeping it up in perpetuity throughout the universe.

Cheers!

 

[JB Lions]

What I mean, is that they drop the "." It's like having a silent "e." They just say "Vine CO," for example.

So for one of your domains - Healthy.Tips, if you drop the ".", they would text Healthy Tips and somehow the person on the other end would know that is supposed to be a site? If you said it like that, most would assume it's a .com. With the Healthy Tips, wouldn't you have to put the "." in there or dot?

There is a new breed of customer out there is what I am wanting to discuss...

We'll have to see. Fun, splash, catchy, delight etc, could be used for a lot of domain hacks, but I think those are pretty horrible for actual business. We could be thinking of different customers like you said (and that's ok) but the ones I'm thinking of tend to go with what they know works, is serious about business, don't like confusion, novelty, etc. As demonstrated by even some people here, some are just happy with being somewhere in Google. I don't think with those kinds of limitations for myself when buying domains for use or for selling to end users.

It's going to be really hard for domainers to make money, take one you mentioned: "Vine CO,"

you have:
.co
.company

other general company/business type extensions
.holdings
.ventures
.business
.ltd
.inc
etc

then specific ones that actually defines their business
.I was going to start listing some, but there are so many

So companies have all types of options with these second tier extensions.

You have some .lands, maybe they wait and get .realestates

 

[scandiman]

Lots of losers and few winners in this game.

Looking at com drops the same is true there as well but at least there are more buyers. But back to the new tlds it will be even more true there, so much so that I'm sitting it out completely, even names for dev purposes. The extra it will cost to acquire later if/when things take shape will be more than offset by the money saved by not making bets in this fuster cluck. I'm more than happy to wait and see.:gl::zzz:

 

[Ms Domainer]

So looks like .ceo came out with a whimper, 380 total regs, came out Friday afternoon I think. I know the weekend is slower, so know better next week. Friday afternoon is bad day to launch, should be early in the week.

Ah, this should explain it, crazy general availability prices for "premium" keywords - http://www.thedomains.com/2014/03/2...t-landrush-here-are-our-picks/comment-page-1/

.glass coming in a few days

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They're all premium priced, even the obvious junk.

I think the .ceo folks are going to be highly disappointed.

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