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.

 

[robbiewang]

Does anybody know where the the cheapest registar for .pro, I have a very good idea, but they are too expensive to register.

 

[InvisionTech]

Andrew,

My vote goes to encirca... no complaints at all.

When prices were high, Tom was gracious and generous enough to provide coupon, which really helped me keep most of the domains since 2007. Recently, I moved everything (over 110 domains) from hostway, domainpeople and networkSolutions over to encirca. The transfers were cheap + factor in the discount from the coupon = $8 bucks for most of the .PROs. Beat that? :D

I hope they can keep the prices as low as possible and registrypro works towards removing whatever is left of the restrictions and bring .PRO into the mainstream.

 

[terol]

My 2 pennies are for Encirca. I would give them 4 ones if they stop sending me postal mails with renewals.

Domain People is not bad, but I had some problems with its DNS management. They also continue sending me daily mails for renewing domains those are not there anymore...

OVH really sucks. Be aware that people! I renewed several domains (not .pro ones) with them and they took the money but nothing more. I were writing them several time while my domains were deactivated. They just said: "Everything is alright"...

Netsol also sucks, but I suppose that all domainers know this matter...

Register, hmmmm... I am not enough rich for using Register.com :lol:

 

[mwzd]

$8 bucks for most of the .PROs. Beat that? :D

Uh huh, not really.

If they give me $8 reg /renew, i'll not only renew all of mine for 10 yrs ea., I'd also get about 100 more.

But then...not all of us are that lucky :p

 

[akcampbell]

Thank you for the comments, that's pretty much how I see things at the moment. I had alot of issues with Encirca technical support last September in terms of getting my .pros transferred into my name but since then they have been excellent, every problem has been solved either immediately or within hours. They are head and shoulders above other .pro registrars.

DomainPeople and OVH have been disappointing, I had the same problem Terol had at DomainPeople with reminders to renew domains that had been transferred to Encirca, domains also showed in my account after transferring them. I forgot I had transferred 5-6 domains from DomainPeople to Encirca, then decided to renew them at the last minute based on reminder emails even though they were already renewed at Encirca when I transferred them, they were mixed in with .pros I hadn't transferred, so I had 3-4 days of technical problems, and ended up renewing several of my weakest .pros still at DomainPeople multiple times. I called technical support 5-6 times, they either said they would call back but didn't, they had renewed the domains with my debit card but it didn't happen, or said there was a technical problem with the renewal or a problem with my card but they needed to investigate. All this because they don't remove transferred domains from your account and keep sending you emails saying the domain is about to expire with a link to renew which doesn't work.

I trialed several transfers to OVH, something went wrong every time and their technical support was unresponsive. I find their website very poor, whoever translated it from the French version couldn't speak very good English and navigating around is confusing. Encirca's website is basic but everything works.

 

[JoeBiz]

Very true. Some of the comparisons being made in this thread are ridiculous. IMO.

Check out THIS link if you want to see something truly "ridiculous."

Domain Sales | Microguy Internet Consultant
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[akcampbell]

Funny you should say that. I just finished penning this on another thread.

For a guy so damning in his appraisals, Microguy has the weakest and most overpriced domains I have ever seen. His "top" domain on Microguy.net is Hack.tv, a snip at $25,000, even though the .info sold for $1,650 and fits the keyword far better than .tv.

Like somebody is going to start a TV channel about hacking and then film themselves for the authorities to find them, doh?! Microguy note to self, Hack has a standard .tv renewal fee because it's a pretty lame keyword and doesn't fit .tv. The highest ever .com sale for a domain with Hack in is just $5,000. Selling the ill fitting .tv for a couple of hundred bucks won't keep you in baldness remedies for long.

"Like every domain in my portfolio, these were chosen using a very rigorous screening process that has taken me a total of 15 years to develop..." You've got to admire the cheek, I could develop a domain portfolio of this quality in 15 minutes of WHOIS enquiries.

I still treasure the time Microguy slammed .pro, then did a u-turn of epic proportions and bid $20 for Happy.pro, but the auction had already ended and I won it at $10. Priceless, 15 years of fine tuning those legendary domain screening skills only to put a $20 bid in for a .pro after the auction ended.

 

[MicroGuy]

Check out THIS link if you want to see something truly "ridiculous."

Domain Sales | Microguy Internet Consultant
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I should mention that anyone who mentions "Namepros" while ordering will get a 5% discount* through the end of November 2009.

*Discount applies to .TV domains only.

 

[b2b]

I should mention that anyone who mentions "Namepros" while ordering will get a 5% discount* through the end of November 2009.

I think you forgot to type the nr "9".
And maybe you should change the code to "Dreamworld".

 

[MicroGuy]

...maybe you should change the code to "Dreamworld".

Good idea. Those truly are "dream" domains.

 

[Kuli]

Encirca's website is basic but everything works.

It's not only that "everything works"; don't forget the fantastic bulk operations! If you've ever wanted to change contacts or name servers for 100+ domains in a row, you'll be lucky if you're stuck with Encirca. Try that with a different registrar!

And if you need an overview, you don't need to step through multiple pages listing only 20 domains or so.

For me, Encirca is one of the best registrars ever.

 

[InvisionTech]

Big plus for Encirca is that the domains are NOT auto set to AUTO renew.

I had to go through EACH and EVERY domain name on Hostway, Network Solutions and mark it not to renew auto... extremely time consuming and painful.

 

[akcampbell]

Agree about Encirca's bulk functionality, up to 500 domains on 1 page overview, and non auto renew default setting. When I started regging .pros, I bought a list of the top 17,500 keywords with PPC and Overture stats, sorted the top 2,500, then cranked through the bulk WHOIS check to identify which were still available to register.

I added Snowmobile.pro and Jetski.pro for $85 each during the week. I think .pros like this are dark horses, they have little reseller value but Pro branding is popular in both product categories. I use Google uniques for the keyword and Pro divided by Google uniques for the keyword to benchmark the level of Pro branding and Pro association and each one of these scores about 20%.

In simple terms, the word Pro appears on 1 in 5 Google indexed pages that also include the words Snowmobile or Jetski. The underlying reason for the association is Snowmobile and Jetski are sports, hobbies, and technical products, all 3 of which work well with Pro branding.

If .pro does become more mainstream, Pro branding potential and not just conventional keyword KPI's will drive sales. For example, MJS sold Antique.pro, Book.pro and Lingerie.pro between $1,000-$3,000, excellent keywords but not necessarily suited to Pro branding, but added Tennis.pro on Snapnames, and hand regged Raft.pro in December 2008, both of which are suited to Pro branding.

Where .pros have sold for more than they should on paper, for example Chef.pro at $3,650 and Freelance.pro at $5,440, Pro branding potential has been key. Where you get anomalies, for example Book.pro selling for $3,000 but eBook.pro selling for $3,900, there is a Pro branding explanation. On the ratio I used above for assessing the Pro branding potential of Snowmobile and Jetski, Book scores about 10% but eBook scores 20%. i.e. when you "tech up" Book by putting an "e" in front of it, it becomes more suitable for Pro Branding, consistent with the higher level of Pro branding in the electronic hardware and computer software sectors.

 

[JoeBiz]

Advertising


I pay $27 for a 28 day Sticky here on NamePros. A 30 day Sticky on DNF costs $200. Ain't that a blip.

I'm looking for suggestions on selling off as many of my Pros as possible. I want to use the money to develop some Nets for long-term income.

I currently have most of my pros on sale at the top of the Fixed Price auction section basically selling for $99 ea.

In the meantime I will keep the balance of my pros stickied in the Fixed Price auction on NP and try to bring traffic to them.

I am in need of suggestions for advertising of the $99 pros here on NP. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Any and all offers would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Charles
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---------- Post added at 03:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:37 PM ----------


PS: Regarding the registrar discussion, I have had 50 to 100 pros at Encirca for a year and a half or so and I do not have a single complaint. I personally would run, not walk, away from any other PRO registrar.

 

[JoeBiz]

Cats.pro

Hi Andrew,

Thanks again for the purchase. Sorry for the lengthy transfer delay. I will be in touch to discuss the website.

Best regards,
Charles[/SIZE]

.[/FONT]
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[InvisionTech]

In addition to Exhaust.pro, I registered DisasterRecovery.pro over the weekend, sounds like a good fit - even though its a two-word.

 

[Soofi]

And I thought this thread was for "The .PRO Discussion"

 

[mis_chiff]

And I thought this thread was for "The .PRO Discussion"

It is...and the advertising needs to stop!

 

[Soofi]

It is...and the advertising needs to stop!

takes you all away from the serious discussion happening in the forum

 

[b2b]

And I thought this thread was for "The .PRO Discussion"

It is...and the advertising needs to stop!

You guys are right! My apologies!
I've edited my post.

I encourage the others to edit their thread as well.