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.

 

[webdomain]

It's a cheap ripoff, but..marketing can make a huge difference if done well.

 

[-EM-]

I've heard about .pw 2 months ago and the first domain I got in my mind was password.pw :lol: never thought about professional web.

 

[webdomain]

So what does everyone think...are .com values going to be toast?

Somebody should step up and do something like this for .pro!

 

[terol]

http://support.godaddy.com/groups/g...pic/pro-auctions-godaddy-to-support-pro-soon/

cottanman said 10 hours, 46 minutes ago:

I have moved my .pro (pullan.pro) to Godaddy. Now Go daddy can support .pro

 

[webdomain]

Terol...if this is true, this is big! Anyone know anything more please report.

---------- Post added at 10:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:49 AM ----------

Here's the whois. I'm seing it registered to public domain registry.

Domain ID:D276158-PRO
Domain Name:PULLAN.PRO
Created On:01-Oct-2012 23:20:01 UTC
Last Updated On:10-Oct-2012 00:32:42 UTC
Expiration Date:01-Oct-2013 23:20:01 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:PDR Ltd. d/b/a PublicDomainRegistry.com (R2339-PRO)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED

 

[terol]

GoDaddy uses other different registrars for some TLDs, but this is still weird at this time ...

 

[Edward Smeu]

GoDaddy is a big step for .pro but let's wait something official from them.

Also, regarding .pw I think it's a good thing for .pro as it will create competition for "professional web" and sooner or later I think people will choose .pro instead of .pw but we'll see.

 

[webdomain]

I like one posting I read on thedomains.com that .pw was the worst acronym for a country code yet! Hey, they could still kick our but so I'll reserve judgement if they come out with an exceptional marketing plan.

fyi...do think pro is hells better!!

 

[Jawed]

http://www.thedomains.com/2012/10/0...-the-professional-web-cctld-at-icann-toronto/

At first I was like "What is this?!", but honestly if another company is really wanting into the professional web space this bad to spend over 1/2 million to develop .pw....that's got to be a huge plus for .pro!

How do you think it is going to be a huge plus for .pro?

Do you think it will create awareness about .pro? It's really wishful thinking.

There is already an excessive supply and low demand for extensions. I reckon it's not going to happen but for sake of argument supposing .pw is seriously taken as an extension for professional webs, it will do nothing but claim .pro's share of the pie, which is already very very tiny.

 

[webdomain]

Jawed, I don't think I explained myself well in that post. What I was trying to say is that if another company is spending money to enter the professional web space and willing to compete with .pro, it is an indication for the potential growth in this area.

However, now that I read your post I would have to agree that this type of competition may not be the good for .pro. This .pw extension is clearly a knock off and take a look at the tie in the logo. The real threat would be marketing if they have the budgets. Afilias doesn't appear to have a strong marketing plan like .me, .co, ect...that have some real game and are enticing new companies to develop in their channels.

What gets me is how can ICANN allow these country codes to be used way outside of their original intended use?! In addition, it makes no sense to me that .pw can just instantly become professional web and not have any of the restrictions that .pro has! It's just one big giant loophole.

Thanks for your remarks.

 

[Kate]

I was trying to say is that if another company is spending money to enter the professional web space and willing to compete with .pro, it is an indication for the potential growth in this area.

I have a different theory: .pw is not a common acronym or abbreviation, so they had to be creative and find something. So they came up with professional web but it is a joke Like .ws for website or .cc for credit card.

Years ago, they tried branding around 'personal web':
http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/pw-registry-opens-comment-period

What gets me is how can ICANN allow these country codes to be used way outside of their original intended use?!

ccTLDs are delegated to sovereign nations. Icann has no say on the matter. gTLDs/sTLDs are different.

In addition, it makes no sense to me that .pw can just instantly become professional web and not have any of the restrictions that .pro has! It's just one big giant loophole.

We have to think about the actual benefits of the restrictions. In my view, they confuse people and they offer no guarantees.

Currently it works on a self-certification basis with possible spotchecks. But for practical purposes, anybody can register a .pro domain and pretend they are a 'professional'. They have not been actively vetted, they may not even qualify for a .pro but they can have one.
Years ago, .pro applicants were screened but you know the deal on that. They relaxed the rules for a reason.

 

[JoeBiz]

How do you think it is going to be a huge plus for .pro?

Do you think it will create awareness about .pro? It's really wishful thinking.

There is already an excessive supply and low demand for extensions. I reckon it's not going to happen but for sake of argument supposing .pw is seriously taken as an extension for professional webs, it will do nothing but claim .pro's share of the pie, which is already very very tiny.

It's all about money and marketing. It has nothing to do with what people THink they want. You can sell ice cubes to Eskimos with good marketing and a healthy supply of cash.


8^X

 

[forceoflight]

Hello,

I am planning to drop some of my pro domains. Which one would you keep or drop?

brian.pro
chili.pro
console.pro
effect.pro
festival.pro
furnishing.pro
furnishings.pro
harris.pro
household.pro
instrument.pro
interracial.pro
mundo.pro
nudist.pro
parkour.pro
shemale.pro
shooting.pro
sweet.pro
tarjeta.pro
tiempo.pro
trailers.pro
vegetable.pro
vegetarian.pro

 

[-EM-]

I'd drop all of them.

 

[JoeBiz]

Hello,

I am planning to drop some of my pro domains. Which one would you keep or drop?

Email the list to me, preferably in order of expiration.


8^X

 

[gkjunior]

Hello,

I am planning to drop some of my pro domains. Which one would you keep or drop?

brian.pro
chili.pro
console.pro
effect.pro
festival.pro
furnishing.pro
furnishings.pro
harris.pro
household.pro
instrument.pro
interracial.pro
mundo.pro
nudist.pro
parkour.pro
shemale.pro
shooting.pro
sweet.pro
tarjeta.pro
tiempo.pro
trailers.pro
vegetable.pro
vegetarian.pro

Keep most of them...

 

[sky]

Hello,

I am planning to drop some of my pro domains. Which one would you keep or drop?

brian.pro
chili.pro
console.pro
effect.pro
festival.pro
furnishing.pro
furnishings.pro
harris.pro
household.pro
instrument.pro
interracial.pro
mundo.pro
nudist.pro
parkour.pro
shemale.pro
shooting.pro
sweet.pro
tarjeta.pro
tiempo.pro
trailers.pro
vegetable.pro
vegetarian.pro

I'm just guessing here, but I suspect most of these don't pass the sniff test. I would never buy most of those. I would check for keyword popularity and ad competition with Google AdWords keyword tool and make sure each keyword itself has inherent strength (I doubt most of those have any strength or much search popularity at all). I would also use Estibot to get an idea of where the domain names rank with respect to one another. Estibot's price valuation might not be right but it uses solid consistent metrics. It is good for *relative* valuations to one another and to other .PROs. Estibot is useful to understand where the keyword is strong or weak, and about how strong. Estibot doesn't give much value to the .PRO extension in general, but it appraises some the strongest keywords at thousands of dollars, where most it values at under $100. The downside is that you need to join Estibot for at least a 1 month membership to use it for more than 1 domain a day. Personally I only do it on a given month when I am sifting around for domains to hand reg seriously and can put some serious time into it.

Then I would use common sense. Let's face it. .PRO (Professional) just doesn't sound good with everything. It doesn't make a lot of sense in some cases, that is, it sounds contrived. While in other cases, .pro it sounds very real, respectable or cool. For example (and I don't own this one), Investment.pro - *that's* hot, for obvious reasons. Magenta.pro - meaningless to the point of absurdity. Is anyone trying to do business with magenta or need professional advice or services with magenta? Anyone searching for it? In any kind of volume to justify the investment?

Remember - you're not dealing with .COM here. I believe .PRO does have a value proposition, but with caveats. Even the best .PROs claim only a small fraction of .COM in the market in general, so the cost of buying and holding .PROs is less worth it. It's harder to profit off of .PRO in general at the current time and foreseeable future. Having said that, I own about 20 .PRO domains, all carefully researched. None like sex.pro, but some moderately strong keywords. I will probably let 15 of them expire if I can't sell or develop them by renewal time.

 

[webdomain]

Sky does estibot do any type of bulk research for more than one domain at a time. It would be nice to have a tool that could scour a domain list to help identify domains with stronger strength as you've suggested.

Otherwise it's one by one on a spread sheet. Seems many of us are in this position right now of evaluating our domain portfolios.

Unfortunately a lot of the potential for .pro imo relies on the popularity and adoption of the extension would make most any .pro one word domain be worth something. However what you've said here makes great sense.

 

[sky]

Sky does estibot do any type of bulk research for more than one domain at a time. It would be nice to have a tool that could scour a domain list to help identify domains with stronger strength as you've suggested.

Otherwise it's one by one on a spread sheet. Seems many of us are in this position right now of evaluating our domain portfolios.

Unfortunately a lot of the potential for .pro imo relies on the popularity and adoption of the extension would make most any .pro one word domain be worth something. However what you've said here makes great sense.

Estibot allows bulk search for I think up to 500 domains total per day on their lower cost plans. It's a good research tool. But I'm not a serious enough domainer to keep the subscription month after month or pay for the higher priced (and feature full) Estibot plans.

 

[JoeBiz]

Estibot allows bulk search for I think up to 500 domains total per day on their lower cost plans. It's a good research tool. But I'm not a serious enough domainer to keep the subscription month after month or pay for the higher priced (and feature full) Estibot plans.

I pay the basic fee (I think) ... $19.95. That allows me to run appraisals 500 at a time. There's no limit overall. That pulls up quite a bit of information and I'd say it's saved me from making bad buys many times.

And ... if you download the data you get even more information. Right now it's the only thing that I'm willing to pay for.

BUT ... the absolute biggest advantage and time savings happens when you come across a new post on NP selling 300-400 names. You can drop all of them in estibot and in 45 seconds you'll know if there are any names worth taking a look at. Or you could go through them one by one and see if anything catches your eye.





8^X