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.

 

[bocanames]

sites reviewed

InvisionTech , that's a nice theme and design elements for golfclubs.pro, and plenty of content, really impressive. I would comment out the display of the blogroll section entirely unless you have some plans for it. Also maybe try displaying the tag cloud higher up on the page and labeling it "Find golf courses", "Gold courses in your state" or something similar? Just thinking outloud.

Ben your geeks.pro is a home business ready packaged - great job, beautiful clean code. As you said a bit more content, some SEO work and you're set! This is surprisingly well done, as I haven't heard you talking about too many sites you've developed; you're a natural.

Pile.pro looks like a work-in-progress, so I'll not comment on that one. Andy it's obviously a topic that you have some passion for, so keep going. But it's hard not to be negatively biased when confronted with broken primary navigation links.

To keep it fair, I'll offer up my last completed site creditrepair.pro for sacrifice. The very next item on the to-do list is to give it a design overhaul, the graphics are horrible. Yet I'm satisfied with the first pass at the content because I'm getting some good results. Extremely high value clicks from the google ads, extraordinary performance from the google search, but still poor conversion rates from the afilliate ads. All feedback welcome!

 

[InvisionTech]

and what did they say?


3rd party dns (not registrar, not webhost) might be a good idea during domain registrar changes or website server changes.

Sorry, I meant to write what they said. They said its fixed. I haven't had time to log back to see if it was really...

Boca,

Thank you.

 

[akcampbell]

I have added another blog on Total.pro called "Catch a Falling Star". It's about drop catching .pros on SnapNames. I have been doing this for about 6 months and have picked up Stockmarket.pro, Drive.pro, Local.pro, Code.pro, Help.pro, People.pro, Politics.pro, Promo.pro, Exhibit.pro, Speed.pro, and Date.pro, amongst others.

SnapNames added .pro to it's drop list around the same time restrictions were eased last September. Before that, you had to monitor what was dropping on Encirca's expiring domains feed, count 40-45 days forward, and then check the WHOIS at certain times of the day.

Does anybody know if Encirca and Find Inc are both owned by Tom Barrett? I noticed that Video.pro and Movie.pro registrant details have been switched from Encirca to Find Inc. Find Inc and Encirca use the same address details and Find Inc are themselves registered as a .eu registrar;

http://list.eurid.eu/registrars/ViewRegistrar.htm?id=3120

Alternatively, does anybody know how to find out the Directors of US companies? In the UK, you can download an annual return from companieshouse.co.uk.

I'm still intrigued how Video.pro and Movie.pro could sell for $35,000 and $22,000 respectively to a Belgium guy called Mauritz Rijkeboer, he then doesn't renew them, Encirca pick them up before they drop, Tom Barrett tells me he has decided to give Mr. Rijkeboer's estate more time to claim the names, I investigate and it appears Mauritz Rijkeboer is still very much alive, then finally Encirca transfer Video.pro and Movie.pro to Find Inc which has the same contact details as Encirca.

 

[sky]

I have added another blog on Total.pro called "Catch a Falling Star". It's about drop catching .pros on SnapNames. I have been doing this for about 6 months and have picked up Stockmarket.pro, Drive.pro, Local.pro, Code.pro, Help.pro, People.pro, Politics.pro, Promo.pro, Exhibit.pro, Speed.pro, and Date.pro, amongst others.

Ha! Exhibit.pro used to be mine I tried selling on EBay. I just didn't want to pay the renewal. I have about 20 .pros, maybe 10 - 15 real 'keepers'. That wasn't a bad one.

---------- Post added at 09:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:22 AM ----------

I have added another blog on Total.pro called "Catch a Falling Star". It's about drop catching .pros on SnapNames. I have been doing this for about 6 months and have picked up Stockmarket.pro, Drive.pro, Local.pro, Code.pro, Help.pro, People.pro, Politics.pro, Promo.pro, Exhibit.pro, Speed.pro, and Date.pro, amongst others.

SnapNames added .pro to it's drop list around the same time restrictions were eased last September. Before that, you had to monitor what was dropping on Encirca's expiring domains feed, count 40-45 days forward, and then check the WHOIS at certain times of the day.

Does anybody know if Encirca and Find Inc are both owned by Tom Barrett? I noticed that Video.pro and Movie.pro registrant details have been switched from Encirca to Find Inc. Find Inc and Encirca use the same address details and Find Inc are themselves registered as a .eu registrar;

EURid - Registrars

Alternatively, does anybody know how to find out the Directors of US companies? In the UK, you can download an annual return from companieshouse.co.uk.

I'm still intrigued how Video.pro and Movie.pro could sell for $35,000 and $22,000 respectively to a Belgium guy called Mauritz Rijkeboer, he then doesn't renew them, Encirca pick them up before they drop, Tom Barrett tells me he has decided to give Mr. Rijkeboer's estate more time to claim the names, I investigate and it appears Mauritz Rijkeboer is still very much alive, then finally Encirca transfer Video.pro and Movie.pro to Find Inc which has the same contact details as Encirca.

Yes, it does sound remarkably suspicious. The broker fee for auction one's own domain oneself is just the cost of advertising, I guess

 

[seeker]

I'm still intrigued how Video.pro and Movie.pro could sell for $35,000 and $22,000 respectively to a Belgium guy called Mauritz Rijkeboer, he then doesn't renew them

Thats not good news for us .pro owners...

 

[terol]

akcampbell, thanks for sharing with us the .pro drops at Snapnames... Now you will never get more ones at good prices there. :hehe:

 

[seeker]

akcampbell, thanks for sharing with us the .pro drops at Snapnames... Now you will never get more ones at good prices there. :hehe:

there is one thing worse than competition - the lack of it.
"seeker"

 

[dotprofan]

Thats not good news for us .pro owners...

He also purchased video.us for 75K and let that drop as well so something unusual seems to have happened - see http://www.namepros.com/domain-name...rijkeboer-video-pro-video-us.html#post2717616

 

[terol]

Someones own too much money... :wave:

 

[akcampbell]

Jan 09 registrar stats are out. .pro registrations were up 8.5% on Dec 08 at 32.5k. DomainPeople was the biggest gainer absolutely and in % terms, up 1,227 .pros or 20% on Dec 08. Encirca lost .pros which hasn't happened for a long time. Netsol were up 9% in Jan 09, leaving them only 455 .pros behind Encirca. It looks likely that Encirca will have lost it's crown as the biggest .pro registrar by March or April.

 

[b2b]

Last time I checked, weather.pro was on auction at $11.500 with a few days left. Anyone know the end result?

 

[hakita]

Hi Akcampbell, i checked you nice list of .pro and appraised it with http://DomainAppraisal.pro, and it seems to me that your domaine Storage.pro or Project.pro is underevaluated.
I just snaped Data.pro, would you evaluated it as a 5 stars belonger ?
Best regards

 

[terol]

Hey hakita, nice site!

I have bookmarked it for future references. Thanks! :hearts:

 

[Soofi]

Evaluation de domaine avec EvaluationDeDomaine.com

Your site appraises my two domains.. and I like the price of one domain

Address.pro = $5000 :lala:
Open.pro = $110

 

[mwzd]

DomainAppraisal.pro is interesting, if limited.

Here is one sample screenshot of 20 names (mine).

http://bmp.in/images/domainappr.jpg

 

[Soofi]

DomainAppraisal.pro is interesting, if limited.

Here is one sample screenshot of 20 names (mine).

http://bmp.in/images/domainappr.jpg

Actually paji.. but I wonder what is being considered while evaluating them domains!!

 

[InvisionTech]

DomainAppraisal.pro is interesting, if limited.

Here is one sample screenshot of 20 names (mine).

http://bmp.in/images/domainappr.jpg

DomainAppraisal.pro is a good effort, can be improved though. I am getting similar appraisals for .PROs.

 

[akcampbell]

Hi Akcampbell, i checked you nice list of .pro and appraised it with Evaluation de domaine avec EvaluationDeDomaine.com, and it seems to me that your domaine Storage.pro or Project.pro is underevaluated.I just snaped Data.pro, would you evaluated it as a 5 stars belonger ?

I agree! I put them up to 3 stars. I was bidding against you for Data.pro, I dropped out at $700. I had already picked up Database.pro, People.pro, Code.pro, Help.pro, and Date.pro in that drop and although I rated Data.pro as the best of the bunch, I didn't have the stomach for a $X,XXX bidding war.

On my star scale, I would rank Data.pro as a top ***. Data and pro have excellent association and the domain is highly brandable and versatile.

I wouldn't rank it as **** because it doesn't have the keyword competitiveness and commercial angle of something like Piano.pro, Boat.pro and Guitar.pro, the blockbuster appeal of Italy.pro, Spain.pro and London.pro, or the exceptional fit of Salon.pro, Survey.pro, or Hire.pro.

My star rating is how much I value a domain, not what I think it is worth in relative terms. I don't go out and actively market my .pros, when RegistryPro remove the remaining .pro restrictions and the level of acceptance and awareness improves, I hope to develop alot more. The star rating is just a guide for people who bid me $200 for Mobile.pro and France.pro.

I had Elite.pro as ****, now marked down to ***, and Local.pro is still ****, I don't think domainers would agree with me, but I'm wowed by fit, for example, Freelance.pro, would be a **** on my scale, it might even be a ***** because it's the best fitting alternative extension for the keyword, similar to other .pros I have ranked as ***** like Staff.pro, Office.pro, and Expert.pro. If you look at mid $X,XXX .pro sales, fit is often critical, Chef.pro and Freelance.pro are good examples, I turned down $4,500 for Offshore.pro.

It will be interesting to see if valuation sites like yours ever get to grips with keyword extension fit. For example, in my star rankings, I have Rates.pro and Coupons.pro as a *** but if I was comparing my .info domains, Rates.info and Coupons.info would be *****. When the market gets flooded with new gTLD's fit will take an increasinly prominent role in alternative extension domain valuation because PPC key phrases will be more freely available and search engines will be ever more saturated with sites with accumulated backlinks chasing ad revenue for those key phrases but there will only be one Poker.pro and Golf.pro.

 

[bocanames]

DomainAppraisal.pro is interesting, if limited.

Yeah a site like this always gets my interest. Nice work indeed, although this is the kind of thing that you need to continue to refine endlessly.

But valuations for the .pros I tried seemed too high frankly, based on sales I've seen. It's not too hard to get $xx,xxx valuation there, yet only mjs has ever managed to get a sale in that range AFAIK. Still loads of fun to play around with

.

 

[akcampbell]

Interesting to see that 3 of the 4 domains sold on NP member Wot's $200 fixed price sales thread were geo .pros.

RegistryPro have applied to ICANN for permission to issue 1,2, and 3 character .pro domains.

ICANN | Public Comment: Single, Two and Select Three Character Names in Dot-pro

There is a period of public consultation running through to 5 June and you can add a comment here;

ICANN | Public Comment - June 2009

Also, noted that RegistryPro are sponsoring the 35th ICANN International Meeting in Sydney, Australia on 21-26 June.