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.

 

[ulasbbtr]

I agree with Andrew. Sedo's %20 is too much commission and dictating fixing price is meaningless. Maybe, they are forcing sellers fixing prices for success of their MLS.

Afternic called me yesterday, maybe I should try their DLS. But, I wish someone in this industry fix this gap by providing a niche domain sale platform asap.

 

[webdomain]

I'm convinced and am ready to pull the sedo plug. nice post.

 

[mwzd]

Why should Sedo dictate or influence your pricing or selling strategy?

Coz they have the buyer base and they spend, fairly heavily I might add, to promote their marketplace to Startups and SMEs.

The results? $1 million in sales in a week - http://www.thedomains.com/2011/07/06/sedo-com-sells-1m-in-domains-led-by-jewel-com-for-75k/

certainly don't warrant doubling their current 10% fee whether they are the biggest player in the market or not.

Unless you can build a marketplace to rival Sedo I'm afraid we're at their mercy and they don't look very merciful atm.

 

[JoeBiz]

OK. No more serious posts today. Too gloomy. But I do agree with EVERYthing EVERYone said.

On the lighter and hopefully more prosperous side ...

"In an NPR interview former ICANN Board Chair Esther Dyson commented: "I think it's kind of a useless market," she says, "and if I had $185,000, I'd spend it on something else."


And the new Sedo Terms and Conditions at least imply that .Pro minimum commissions will drop to a more reasonable $50.

"24 more TLDs, including .fr and .it, will benefit from drastically-reduced minimum commissions of 50 USD, rather than the previous 150 USD."



8^X

 

[JoeBiz]

I'm convinced and am ready to pull the sedo plug. nice post.

Where to from Sedo? I was looking at some Afternic information yesterday but it's been a long time since I've listed anything with them.

And is Afternic already in the Sedo network?

8^X

 

[JoeBiz]

That's just one particular keyword sir, imho. As an extension, don't see anything that would 'beat' .pro in that sense. The association of .pro with 'professional usage' is just too strong. .CO is a ccTLD, plus it's a different kettle of fish.

It also works as a typo of .com / .co.uk / .co.jp / .co.in ad nausaeam.

Typo.co ........ Sounds good ........ But if I was looking for some good typos I would definitely go with Typo.pro. :bah:


8^X

 

[dotprofan]

What are .pro registrants going to do about Sedo putting up their fees to 20% at the end of July unless you park a domain and set a fixed price? I am planning to remove all my .pros, I can't stomach paying 20% commission, it's too much. Sedo's customer service is awful and I am fed up with non-paying bidders. I have sold 3 .pros on Sedo and and not received payment, fortunately I went on to re-sell two of them, one for the same price and the other for 3-4 times the price I originally agreed to sell at. 3 buyers bid $6,000 or more for Coupons.pro at Sedo auction in May, the highest bidder didn't pay, the third highest bidder accepted a second chance offer and then didn't pay. And I'm meant to pay $1,200 on a $6,000 sale for that level of service and protection from August.

I'm also interested in another sales channel besides Sedo, especially one where there would be someone actively seeking buyers for the domains and brokering for the best prices. If anyone knows of something that fits the bill, let me know.

 

[mwzd]

If anyone knows of something that fits the bill, let me know.

Total.pro

So Andrew, you going to open up a section on your site to allow us to list our .pros? :p

I'm sure we'd all be happy to have a dedicated sales channel for .pro

 

[Ben42]

So Andrew, you going to open up a section on your site to allow us to list our .pros? :p

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

 

[InvisionTech]

Nexus.pro would be a great name for .pro domain market place. :D

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.

 

[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: