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.

 

[mjnels]

The thing is though, if registrars get behind .pw.... it may not matter much anyway.

The better extension does not always win. 2

if 1,000+ TLD's wernt about to be released i'd agree with you.

butttttt.. registrars are about to have the ability to sell people entire pronounceable words. do you really think they're going to promote something which they have to explain what it means? there is a ton of value in having an "easy sell" (i.e. not having to explain the "brand")

there is a reason godaddy promotes .CO - because they like money and its an easy sell because you dont have to explain what it means or the perceived meaning.

 

[webdomain]

The test will be if the .pw registry does anything to market the extension after the great landrush. Hopefully they register more than 160K .pro's as it will open the door to interest in professional domains, but the likelyhood of the extension continuing a marketing program beyond collecting the 40 buck non refundable landrush fees is yet to be seen.

I'm sticking with .pro for sites I'm developing.

 

[ioana_bv]

And you say that because.....?

If .pro is considered much better than .pw, than why .pro is compared woth .pw? Don't forget .pw is a new and the first ccTLD that branded itself as professional.

 

[mjnels]

If .pro is considered much better than .pw, than why .pro is compared woth .pw? Don't forget .pw is a new and the first ccTLD that branded itself as professional.

.pro as a whole is weak.. regardless of what comparisons are used.

i keep waiting for someone from the .PW registry to come here and post "just kidding, we're not really trying to re-brand this" :lol:

 

[webdomain]

Here's an ad that helps get the word out to America. The best way to promote .pro is to promote your business. Will be running on some of the internet radio stations and talk shows here in the next few weeks.

http://www.pinless.pro/pinless-international-phone-card-radio-ads/

 

[inland]

Serious question: If I want to promote my "domain1.pro" web site by using a twitter account, would you register with twitter as @domain1pro or @domain1.pro

The reason I ask is that I've seen some domains register, for example, as "domain1pro.com" using twitter as @domain1pro The current assumption here is that the actual domain would be domain1pro.com

I hope that's clear.

Thanks

 

[Jawed]

I don't think you can use dot (.) in your Twitter username.

 

[webdomain]

domain1pro is the one that will work in twitter.

if that is not available you could try domain1_pro

you may want to try domain1

you can put your website in the link field. Also, I found that creating accounts with actual keywords in them could also be a good idea. It may help in google related searches to what you website is all about. Just some ideas.

 

[inland]

Thank you.

 

[akcampbell]

Total .pros registered to Nov 12 were up 4.2% in the month from 144,477 to 150,571. Average daily WHOIS searches were up 3.7% in Nov 12 from 92,900 to 96,300. Year on year, total .pros registered are up 95.3% and average daily WHOIS searches are up 206.9%.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

multivarka.pro

is being advertised on Russia.TV…

 

[webdomain]

.pw could be giving .pro a run for the money.

http://www.thedomains.com/2013/03/25/quick-poll-how-many-pw-domain-names-did-you-register/

ok..ok.., so I bought a few.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Toronto.pro

Created On:04-May-2012 08:59:57 UTC
Last Updated On:05-Feb-2013 15:49:26 UTC
Expiration Date:04-May-2013 00:00:00 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Encirca, Inc. (R2366-PRO)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:ENCIRCA-5219
Registrant Name:Domain Transfer Escrow Service
Registrant Organization:Sedo.com, LLC

 

[terol]

Chauffagiste.pro has been sold for 900 EUR :wave:

 

[Kuli]

Chauffagiste.pro has been sold for 900 EUR :wave:

Wow, great! Congrats! That's a very good sale.

I recently sold muslim.pro for 1200 Euro (Sedo fixed price).

-Kuli

 

[terol]

Content.pro was finally closed in 4,900 USD.

Invention.pro has just been sold for 1,000 USD.

:talk:

 

[sky]

.pw could be giving .pro a run for the money.

http://www.thedomains.com/2013/03/25/quick-poll-how-many-pw-domain-names-did-you-register/

ok..ok.., so I bought a few.

OK OK, so, are you serious?

The only reason I was ever interested in .pro was because it was a cool name for an extension. It sounds neat, and classy. No explanation necessary.

What does .pw have going for it? What does it even mean? As a software engineer, all that ever comes to mind is 'password' when I see pw. I just don't see the inherent relevance, recognizability, or appeal of that extension.

I hate to be one of those doomsayers for an extension, and for most of them I'm not; even for .mobi, though I find it weird, and its future is sealed as dubious at best, and .mobi suffers under the liability of the word-association with Moby Dick (not that there's anything wrong with that), at least I can see how a case can be made for it. But I would be willing to bet that if .mobi had been named .mobile instead
it would have been hot, hot, hot! I think the knee-jerk determination to abbreviate it killed it.

But .pw? I'd need a lot of convincing. If you have to explain an extension's use and meaning to Joe[sephina] Average, then I think it has a big liability right there.

I should really be a judge on Domain's Got Talent, or the .SEX Factor or something.

 

[mjnels]

i think in 2013 domain extensions are exactly where they should be. it makes sense..

although i disagree that .mobi being named .mobile would have done any better when we're talking real usage and people being comfortable using/seeing alt. TLD's as a whole. i felt the same way about the word "mobi" being odd in 2006 but image search the word and it isnt just the dotmobi TLD you'll see - phones, gadgets, etc.. mobile companies that have nothing to do with .mobi registry use the word now too.

all this doesnt matter though because the word .PRO is pretty good and well known and hasnt taken off. no alt extension has and thats probably the way it will be in the future.. dont count on any one TLD getting popular - thats the old way. you will now be able to put phrases together. if .pro was a new gtld though, it would look great against all the other new gtlds..

.PW trying to rebrand is hilarious..good luck to em but when the world has 1,000 different real TLD words to choose from they're not gonna pick something that requires an explanation for what it means just because its 1 character shorter than .pro..

 

[webdomain]

I think .pw is showing that you can sell any extension with marketing. They don't have the barriers that .pro has for restrictions so it is a much easier sell to get registrants. Of course I like .pro much better but it doesn't mean that .pw won't do very well on its own.

Also, with the 2 extensions closely aligned I think it may be creating more searches and interest into "professional domains" of which .pro is going to come up for as well.

 

[mjnels]

maybe it would have worked before thousands of real word TLD's that are coming.. people dont even think those will "succeed" and those are real words that need no marketing in that regard..

this is a flash in the pan (if that) and participated by probably 100% domainers.. absolutely nobody (not even domainers registering junk) will care about this ccTLD when the gTLDs are here. the idea of explaining what the TLD means will seem so laughable people will wonder why .PW even tried this.