I can get the 10 out of 10 for Sign Pro when I search Google.com through the proxy HideMyAss.com. That's pretty amazing, I didn't think we'd find a 10 out of 10 keyword pro seach. As I say, I don't think you can do that in any other domain extension, including .com. What it's picking up on is the colossal brandability of .pro.
Every one of those 10 Sign Pro sites would arguably be better off with Sign.pro from a short is better branding angle and if they used a permanent 301 redirect correctly, they could transfer their existing page rank.
Sign.pro is quicker to type for surfing and email addresses, easier to remember, you can use a bigger font on marketing merchandise or business cards, it can be integrated into a logo easier, and is more economical in conveying a business name than .com because you are cutting off 3 letters.
The key to unlocking the potential of .pro is for everybody to be able to use it. By saying only qualified professionals can use .pro, RegistryPro you are throwing away virtually their entire market because accountants, lawyers, and doctors are hired by businesses, they don't necessarily start them or have any influence over what extension is used. An entrepreneur or developer decides what extension to use; entrepreneurs are invariably not professionally qualified and developers don't meet the registration requirements to register a .pro.
RegistryPro have one final opportunity to remove the residual restrictions on .pro when the current registry contract expires in May 2010. ICANN cannot possibly expect RegistryPro to rack up losses for another 5 years with nothing left over for marketing while every new gTLD is sold off with no restrictions. .pro had restriction imposed because it was operating in a tiny club of extensions where it was better to exist with restrictions than not at all.
If RegistryPro don't get restrictions removed in their new contract, I will drop 2/3 of my .pros at the end of 2010. The extension isn't financially viable now with just 6-7 gTLD's and it will go out of business if there are 60-70 new unrestricted registries. There will be no strategic logic for Hostway to continue funding RegistryPro's losses. Total .pros registered will fall to under 10,000 within 2 years.
If RegistryPro got the restrictions removed, they could get on the registration panels of more big registrars before new gTLD's were launched and that would give them an ageing advantage over any new gTLD's which combined with tremendous brandability and a seismic shift in demand that would dwarf what happened in September 2008, could transform the extension's fortunes.
