The .PRO Discussion

[InvisionTech]

It seems .PRO is slowly coming out of the cage with cheaper reg prices than they were a year ago and major registrars like netsol taking notice of the extension and promoting it.

Here are some that I picked up in last couple of days:

Alexandria.pro

Anchorage.pro

Arlington.pro

Belfast.pro

Birmingham.pro

Budapest.pro

Durham.pro

Fairfax.pro

Italian.pro

Lisbon.pro

Fire away with your regs after the relaunch on September 8th, 2008.

 

[JoeBiz]

Great Idea! I have no problem paying 10% on any sales there!

Nor would I. And maybe he'd be willing to broker a few for an extra fee. He seems to be pretty good at that. LOL.

We could possibly do some advertising, sharing the cost among the participants. We'd have to have someone willing to put a little time into the pre-administration, i.e. find out who wants to be involved, etc.

Just thinking out loud ... but I do like the idea and would be first in line to put up my pros.

We're also not limited to Total.pro. I own Sure.pro and there are likely some better ones out there.

On a different subject, I have prepared my first cold call letter for GoldCoins.pro and am in the process of making a list of prospects. I'd love some input from everyone. If you would be willing to take a look at the letter please drop me a note and I'll send it to you via PM.

Thanks much guys!!! Hope you have a great weekend!!!

Charles


8^X

 

[Ben42]

In my experience Charles end users seem very interested....until they hear the price .

 

[webdomain]

I had thought about doing something like that for facts.pro orginally offering portfolio accounts to other users. Still open to the idea..and probably wouldn't charge a commision at all. Perhaps a certain percentage of sales could just go into a marketing budget to promote domains. 3-5% of sales or something like that. We could look at that if Andrew is not interested.

 

[JoeBiz]

In my experience Charles end users seem very interested....until they hear the price .

LOL. Fortunately I'm starting with gold and silver dealers. They're doing very well.


8^X

 

[Londoneli]

I can offer my Premium.pro for .pro market place

 

[mwzd]

Coming up with a domain for a new platform is the easy part.

The tough part is getting the buyers in.

We've been beta testing dnplex.com for a while now, but the marketing plan needs to be 100% full proof before we launch.

 

[JoeBiz]

I just picked up:

Radar.pro

Oven.pro

Brick.pro

I always thought that Radar.pro and Sonar.pro would make a great package deal. If we could just figure out who owns Sonar.

---------- Post added at 08:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 AM ----------

The problem isn't setting up another medium to sell dotPROs but registrypro doing enough to market the damn thing to businesses, registrars and end users. They aren't.

As much fun as it would be putting together a site to promote and sell Pros I have to agree that location is not the problem. The majority of the big sales are to end users and we either approach them or they find us through Whois. The only reason I leave my Pros on Sedo is to add credibility to cold call sales pitches and timid buyers. But the chances of making a sale are probably roughly the same with or without sedo.

:ghost:

---------- Post added at 09:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:51 AM ----------

test

 

[akcampbell]

Total .pros registered excluding zip codes went up by 4.6% in March 2011 from 59,280 to 61,996. Average daily WHOIS searches reached 23,136 in March 2011, up fourfold year on year. The Russian registrar RU Center is still driving about half the monthly growth. People have asked about listing .pros on Total.pro before but it's not a direction I want to go in. I will probably set fixed prices for my .pros at Sedo and park the domains to keep the commission at 10%.

 

[JoeBiz]

I will probably set fixed prices for my .pros at Sedo and park the domains to keep the commission at 10%.

A few years ago a Sedo rep told me that you not only have to have your name parked at Sedo but you must also have at least one verifiable visit to the parked name.


8^X

 

[JoeBiz]

If I didn't know better (??) I would think that no one was managing or updating RegistryPro. There is no mention of Karim Jiwani and his plans for marketing and expansion (except in the old press release). IMO a new CEO should be out front with some fresh news discussing his strategy for growth ... crank up the energy level a few notches.

And maybe I overlooked them but I didn't see anything that would qualify as a bio for the board members.

:ghost:

 

[webdomain]

nothing. remember they are owned by hostway the company that represents the main registry and can't transfer a .pro domain and still advertise the 9.95 transfer price.

it's a shame really with all this potential just sitting here.

 

[JoeBiz]

nothing. remember they are owned by hostway the company that represents the main registry and can't transfer a .pro domain and still advertise the 9.95 transfer price.

it's a shame really with all this potential just sitting here.

Still seems to me that they should at a minimum showcase the new CEO and have him present an outline of what he has in mind for RegPro.

And on RegistryPro's homepage, when did they add "all businesses" to the tag line (below)? I don't recall seeing it until two or three weeks back. Of course it could have been that way for the past year but I don't check the site every day, especially when it's just static. They don't even have the date on page one.

But I really like "All Businesses." There's nothing vague about it and it requires no explanation. If they were to broadcast those two little words I think it would virtually be as beneficial as lifting the restrictions. And that's pretty much what it does.

"PRO registration is open to all businesses, professionals, and other entities across the globe."


:yell:

 

[webdomain]

They may have added the one word. Honestly, I have to think that they are doing some work behind the scenes. .pro has a growth track and with the limited press releases they have and the fact that the new ceo doesn't seems to be a go getter.

good point! The restrictions is just a mental hurdle to get past because it really is way easier than registering your car to get a .pro! Hell for a business, its probably the simplest thing your going to do all day.

 

[JoeBiz]

Honestly, I have to think that they are doing some work behind the scenes.

Good point.

The restrictions is just a mental hurdle to get past because it really is way easier than registering your car to get a .pro! Hell for a business, its probably the simplest thing your going to do all day.

Perfect tagline ...

Dot Pro. The simplest thing you'll do today.​

8^X

 

[JoeBiz]

Hang tight and someone will give you an answer sometime today.


8^X

 

[mwzd]

Is it possible to register a .Pro domain without meeting these requirements

I guess it is, though they will cancel your registration once they find out that the requirements aren't met.

Say I'm going to register cluedo.pro (board-game), how am I supposed to provide the required licenses etc.

If you own the company that makes Cluedo, you should have no problem providing the licence info.

And if you don't, you need to spend more than a few hours reading about trademarks and cybersquatting and understand your liabilities for such actions.

Could you open a McDonalds without a licence from the main company? Why not?

 

[JoeBiz]

I guess it is, though they will cancel your registration once they find out that the requirements aren't met.


If you own the company that makes Cluedo, you should have no problem providing the licence info.

And if you don't, you need to spend more than a few hours reading about trademarks and cybersquatting and understand your liabilities for such actions.

Could you open a McDonalds without a licence from the main company? Why not?

No, No, and no. This is the kind of misinformation that is keeping people away from dot Pro. Wiz you don't know anything about Pros and should not be dishing out advice. That's not at all accurate. I own over 200 Pros. Do you think I own two hundred companies. AK owns 300 to 400. This is a SELF-certification process open to businesses. ALL businesses.

If you really want to dot your i's and cross your tees,

1) Pick a name for your business. "DomainDude"

2) Go to a local government office and register it as the name of your business. You should get some sort of certificate with at least one number on it.

That's all you need. A number.

Your Licensing Authority will be the city, county, state, province where you obtained your permit or license.

The License Number comes from the permit.

Link to Licensing Authority's Web site ... I would assume that the permit issuer will have a website. If not, then choose a very large registrar and use them as your home base.

Also can talk to AK or Webdomain for certification information. And remember that the recently modified regs from RegistryPro say "Any Business." RegistryPro is trying to bring in more domain buyers, not scare them away. They need you as much as you need them.

Charles


8^X

---------- Post added at 07:40 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:03 AM ----------

Samit. You have to understand that anything, anywhere that anybody says publicly about the Pro extension potentially has a large effect on my future finances. So when I read a post like that it feels like you're taking money out of my pocket.

RegistryPro has a new CEO and with the lightened restrictions there's no telling what kind of marketing they have in mind.

We all know it's a long shot and I'm certainly not planning my retirement around the potential growth of the Pro extension. But long shots are still shots.

Take care
Charles

 

[webdomain]

Follow Charles advise. Go register a business and open up shop. Use that information to provide as your business. Once you have done that, you are allowed to register as many .pros as you want.

If you want a .pro don't let these simple rules stop you from getting in while the getting is good.

 

[Kate]

You have to understand that anything, anywhere that anybody says publicly about the Pro extension potentially has a large effect on my future finances. So when I read a post like that it feels like you're taking money out of my pocket.

You mean the TLD is so shaky it cannot withstand criticism ? I think you should rather question your own investment strategy.

 

[webdomain]

You are correct, .pro has already withstood a sell off and with a multitude of domainers still not interested in buying in... the registry grows each month.

 

[JoeBiz]

You mean the TLD is so shaky it cannot withstand criticism ? I think you should rather question your own investment strategy.

Regarding my investment strategy, I have registered over 200 Pros and my first three sales easily payed for all of them.

And there is a difference between criticism and misinformation. Do you have anything constructive to add or any legitimate criticisms?

 

[mwzd]

Samit. You have to understand that anything, anywhere that anybody says publicly about the Pro extension potentially has a large effect on my future finances. So when I read a post like that it feels like you're taking money out of my pocket.

Actually I think you misread my post. I was mostly advising against registering tm domains.

As for the registry.pro requirements, most companies / professionals should have no issues in registering / owning these domains.

Otoh, if registrant is pretending to be a business, they're better off staying away from this particular extension.

 

[sam7uel]

Follow Charles advise. Go register a business and open up shop. Use that information to provide as your business. Once you have done that, you are allowed to register as many .pros as you want.

If you want a .pro don't let these simple rules stop you from getting in while the getting is good.

Advice taken, special thanks to Charles and "webdomain" !
I've arrived at this stage with the following screenshot:
http://i54.tinypic.com/n1cbjl.png

However the WHOIS contact has yet to reflect my ownership, it's still under Registrar's contact, is there anything lacking ?

Thanks for enlightening

 

[cdboard]

However the WHOIS contact has yet to reflect my ownership, it's still under Registrar's contact, is there anything lacking ?

what registrar ?

 

[sam7uel]

what registrar ?

Registered with Encirca.com