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.

 

[hakita]

I have France.pro.

hummm nice
I would agree to make exchange with some of those : learning.pro data.pro supplies.pro technical.pro bookmaker.pro :blink:

 

[sky]

Besides Registry.pro trying to get rid of its requirement for certs, any news or progress on the front of making the .PRO registrant restrictions less byzantine and draconian?

 

[akcampbell]

hummm nice
I would agree to make exchange with some of those : learning.pro data.pro supplies.pro technical.pro bookmaker.pro :blink:

I'm sure you would, it would need to be like for like though. You could always make me an offer I couldn't refuse, those 3 .pros would like to be rehomed together.

 

[mwzd]

Anything on the 1/2/3 letter .pros?

Anyone applied for any?

Or anyone waiting for the release? Don't even know what date that is...

 

[Ben42]

I was planning to apply for one, but it really looks like you never get to sell it without permission. So i changed my mind.

 

[hakita]

Anything on the 1/2/3 letter .pros?
Anyone applied for any?
Or anyone waiting for the release? Don't even know what date that is...

I thought about it, but they do not provide template, and it has to be offline docs....
Nowdays, you can spend 1,000,000,000$ online, but you must apply offline for a 3 letters .pro

 

[akcampbell]

Has anybody applied for a 1/2/3 character .pro? It seems a bit crazy to write a 15 page business plan, maybe compete against somebody else equally bought into the process at an auction, have to develop a site in 6 months, only be able to sell it to somebody professional qualified, and on top of that have to get RegistryPro's permission to sell the site on.

All I can see coming out of this process is 100-200 modestly developed speculative websites that do little to develop the extension. People will sit on sites waiting for RegistryPro to liberalise the extension, just like they sit on domains. Anybody with any genuine web design or marketing skills would never buy in to this strait jacket.

 

[InvisionTech]

Ben,

What do you mean "you never get to sell it without permission?"

I thought about it, but they do not provide template, and it has to be offline docs....
Nowdays, you can spend 1,000,000,000$ online, but you must apply offline for a 3 letters .pro

Its a dumb, stupid and asinine way of developing an extension.

 

[Ben42]

Ben,

What do you mean "you never get to sell it without permission?"

Looks like a lot of red tape.

Once transferred to the registrar of choice, the domain will be locked down at the registry level so that no transfer between registrants can be made without the express written permission of RegistryPro. Transfers of domain names between Registrants shall only be allowed in the event of a sale of all or substantially all of the assets of Registrant or in connection with any other merger or acquisition; provided that both the old and new Registrants execute an appropriate assignment and assumption agreement with RegistryPro (or any successor .PRO registry operator) to continue the programs described in your proposal and to continue to be bound by any written agreement by and between you and RegistryPro.

 

[akcampbell]

Total .pros registered at the end of November 2009 were 42,783, up 1,234 from October. Unusual movement considering there were approximately 3,000 .pros on Encirca's delete list. I thought there would be about 10,000 drops across registrars by the end of 2009.

One noteworthy milestone, reported .pro sales reached $250,000. March has been a busy month on the aftermarket with 8 reported sales so far. I added Local.pro at $3,500 on Sedo. Not reported yet but funds in escrow. Another milestone, this .thread has passed 2,000 posts.

 

[macjous]

could anyone PM me more about .pro domains? Im from Poland, no much I can see around that topic on our forums. The premium names in polish are mostly not registred yet.

Is there any diffrence in selling those domains ? can i registrer whatever I want lets say porn and business? not much information i could find

thanks in advance

 

[hakita]

could anyone PM me more about .pro domains? Im from Poland, no much I can see around that topic on our forums. The premium names in polish are mostly not registred yet.

Is there any diffrence in selling those domains ? can i registrer whatever I want lets say porn and business? not much information i could find

thanks in advance

Hi Macjous

However .pro is a nice extension, it does not fit well to porn content.
One of the best usage i can imagine will be a "plumber.pro" like domain on the back a a plumber's car.
Regards

 

[macjous]

alright, understood. do i buy and trade with. pro like with normal domain? i read you have to have company, but nothing more at all

 

[mwzd]

If you're really serious about exploring the extension, you'll find most of the answers already exist in this thread.

Essentially for owning a .pro you need to self certify that you're a practising professional and provide local govt certified credentials to back your claim.

If you goto any .pro registrar and read the agreement specific to .pro and you'll get a clearer view of it.

 

[hakita]

alright, understood. do i buy and trade with. pro like with normal domain? i read you have to have company, but nothing more at all

Hi, if you own a little compagny, this is easy.

 

[hakita]

Just thinking about registry.pro.
I guess they are actually receiving tons of thousand of hardcopy RFP.
I hope a few .pro will remain for auctions !

 

[JoeBiz]

I have bunches of .pros on Sedo. If anyone can figure out how to search by extension, please let me know. It would be nice to see how many .pros are out there. :ghost:

 

[JoeBiz]

:ghost:

I want to put ClassicCars.pro up for sale, somewhere. If the double-word thing bothers you maybe I can find a good single. And I know that a lot of people are going to say that ClassicCar.pro, singular, is the better of the two names, so I'm going to offer them together as a package. Actually the plural form gets almost seven times the searches ... FOUR MILLION exact.

I really don't like sticking domains in the Make Offer section. I've never had any luck with that. So I would like to put a price on it, maybe obo.

If I were to put it in the Fixed Price section on NP, where would you set the price? It's also on Sedo with no price ... just Make Offer. Would you put a starting price on it?

Are there any venues out there that are better suited for Pros?

Thanks.
Charles

 

[JoeBiz]

With two posts in April, I guess you guys have decided to kill the pro extension. Thanks for your response AK.

 

[mwzd]

I have two sites in the top 100 .PRO sites by Alexa rank -

Top 1000 Alexa rankings within .PRO

Sad that only 200 odd sites even rank though.

 

[akcampbell]

With two posts in April, I guess you guys have decided to kill the pro extension.

The volume of posts ebb and flow depending on news flow. I don't think it helps the flow of conversation if people use the discussion thread for classified ads.

Total .pros registered fell by 3.7% in December 09, down from 42,783 to 41,194, as more landrush drops flowed through.

DomainPeople were worse hit with registrations down 10.8%, probably a response to $35 renewal fees. I moved all the .pros I held at DomainPeople to Encirca.

 

[siga]

Agreed Andrew, big day coming up this following week.. Go .Pro ICANN do what is best for the extension

 

[akcampbell]

I agree with George Kirikos, the .pro contract should be put out to tender. RegistryPro have been a disaster for .pro. Removing the requirement to offer a digital certificate is a red herring, the more pressing matter to address is registration eligibility. With the revised contract they are proposing, .pro will go backwards, not forwards.

 

[mwzd]

http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/pro/proposed-renewal-agreement-02mar10-en.pdf

Section 7.3. Pricing for Domain Name Registrations and Registry Services.
(a) Pricing. From the Effective Date through nine (9) months following the Effective Date, the price to ICANN-accredited registrars for new, renewal, and redirect domain name registrations and for transferring a domain name registration from one ICANN accredited registrar to another, shall not exceed a total fee of US$6.75 (the "Maximum Service Fee"). Commencing nine months following the Effective Date, the Maximum Service Fee charged during a calendar year for each annual increment of a new, renewal, and redirect domain name registration and for transferring a domain name registration from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another, may not exceed the Maximum Service Fee during the preceding calendar year multiplied by 1.10. The same Service Fee shall be charged to all ICANN-accredited registrars for new, renewal, and redirect domain name registrations. Volume discounts and marketing support and incentive programs may be made if the same opportunities to qualify for those discounts and marketing support and
incentive programs are available to all ICANN-accredited registrars.

So from what I understand -
1. $6.75 max price, include a 0.25 icann fee and thats $7 flat. At least at the registrar level.
2. 10% increase permissible each year.

Isn't that a lot lower than what we're paying now?

OTOH, nary a mention of removal of the 'registration eligibility' as AK said.

 

[cdboard]

..... big day coming up this following week .....

what's the event?