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.

 

[Kuli]

Animal.pro and Building.pro are the best, IMHO.

I wouldn't have taken (wo)m(a|e)ns.pro, puppies.pro, kittens.pro, risk.pro, parks.pro, offers.pro, handmade.pro, makemoney.pro, and golfclubs.pro. (Why do all people like tzhose Golf domains so much?)

But that's just my personal opinion.

 

[Ben42]

RegistryPro Advisory Board Meeting Schedule
Posted: 4 Dec 2008 17:10:50 GMT
The 2009 RegistryPro Advisory Board quarterly meeting schedule has been tentatively set for the following dates:

Wednesday, March 11
Wednesday, June 10
Wednesday, September 9
Wednesday, December 9

RegistryPro values public opinion in shaping and improving the .Pro registry and welcomes your feedback. To suggest a topic for Advisory Board discussion, please email [email protected].

If you have any questions or comments about registry policies or procedures, email [email protected].

http://feeds.feedburner.com/RegistryProNews

I recommend if you'd like to give them feedback submit it for discussion to them. I've submitted topics of lessening restrictions whereas Licenced Salon workers can reg names, but certified software developers cannot. Also, I'd like to see them release 3 letter .pros.

 

[zuriko]

Building.pro
Risk.pro
Offers.pro
(pozdravliaiu!))

 

[terol]

I'd rather have Nirvana.info. :D

Hey thanks! :blink: I've just taken Nirvana.pro.

By the way...

1) Animal.pro

2) Risk.pro

3) The other ones

Happy.pro for $10 was a steal. Happy.info has 22 bids on Sedo. Happy.pl has 10 bids. HappyLife.ch is at Sedo auction for 70 Euros. iHappy.net sold for $1,111. BeHappy.com sold for $13,000 and the .co.uk sold for $9,250. I bought Happy.pro to develop but it would be a good site name for a psychiatrist or happiness in the workplace advisor.

Totally agree. This is the proof that there already are several opportunities to get really good .pro domains. :gl:

 

[deleted984054565403]

If I might ask, what are all of you doing with all these .pro names you develop? Are you holding them in hopes that the extension magically gains traction and buyers emerge, or are you actively developing them to promote the extension to non-domainers?

I just fear a .eu/.mobi/.asia/.me-like extension that's ever so common with new extensions. .Pro, along with any extension, is going nowhere unless it's recognized outside of our little bubble of domaining.

A lot of the non-domainer .pro buyers are buying .pro because the .com of what they want is taken. I'd rather have a somewhat longer .com than to pay top dollar to afford the .pro I'd like to have. :imho:

 

[MicroGuy]

One should never leave the warm and fuzzy bubble, the bubble is good.

There are too many scary brainwashed end-users spending all their time (and billions of dollars) jamming mainstream .com sites outside the bubble. :santa:

 

[mjs]

If I might ask, what are all of you doing with all these .pro names you develop? Are you holding them in hopes that the extension magically gains traction and buyers emerge, or are you actively developing them to promote the extension to non-domainers?

I just fear a .eu/.mobi/.asia/.me-like extension that's ever so common with new extensions. .Pro, along with any extension, is going nowhere unless it's recognized outside of our little bubble of domaining.

A lot of the non-domainer .pro buyers are buying .pro because the .com of what they want is taken. I'd rather have a somewhat longer .com than to pay top dollar to afford the .pro I'd like to have. :imho:

Point is well taken. A limited number of .PRO owners are developing/promoting. Most, including myself, are doing little or not enough. I concur with you that this must change if .PRO is to ultimately succeed. Thank you for your honest, thoughtful comments.

 

[GF]

If I might ask, what are all of you doing with all these .pro names you develop? Are you holding them in hopes that the extension magically gains traction and buyers emerge, or are you actively developing them to promote the extension to non-domainers?

I just fear a .eu/.mobi/.asia/.me-like extension that's ever so common with new extensions. .Pro, along with any extension, is going nowhere unless it's recognized outside of our little bubble of domaining.

A lot of the non-domainer .pro buyers are buying .pro because the .com of what they want is taken. I'd rather have a somewhat longer .com than to pay top dollar to afford the .pro I'd like to have. :imho:

I'm using a few that I have registered for my own businesses, others I plan to use to promote the extension to non-domainers.

 

[akcampbell]

Realistically there won't be much development of .pro until RegistryPro removes the remaining restrictions, cuts reg fees, offers .pro for sale through all popular registrars, and starts promoting .pro to business users.

The Catch 22 with .pro is the technical people who can develop them can't register and the people who can register are working round the clock to hold down their day jobs. Big registrars can't be bothered with the hassle of license checking so .pro doesn't get on the radar screen of businesses.

I view my .pro collection as new world land I would like to develop at some point if I can get to the point of paying my mortgage through my various ventures outside work. I went to night classes to learn PHP and HTML and I'm launching my first .com early in 2009. It's a modest site but took me 100's of hours to develop. If you are coding an original database driven site from scratch and have to pore over PHP guides and tech forums, development is very time consuming.

Development quality is more important than quantity. One Last.fm is worth 1,000 templates in terms of raising the profile of an alternative extension. Domainers can contribute to the success of .pro by developing or direct marketing .pro to an end user who develops.

 

[zuriko]

we can promote .pro and we promoting, but i think its time for registrypro, who have to spend money to promotion!!! Bloomberg tv, FT, BBC WORLD, CNN, FOX , EUROVISION...Lots of Possibilities!!!!
BTW
my new: Crewing.pro
+ i have Crew.pro and Crews.pro
I am planning to develop this domains for tv crewing

 

[Fundraiser]

I have observed an interesting characteristic of dot pro - some search engines appear quite friendly to the keyword + extension. I have a modestly developed dot pro that had for a few years been ranked 1 out of 266,000,000 listings for a very generic industry keyword and ranked above some massive and popular sites focused on the same keyword. After the site was offline for 6 months (due to an odd Registry Pro issue), it has now returned to the #4 position in about 3 months since returning to the index. While a few in the domain community are only now beginning to register dot pros due to the restrictions, eventually developers might discover this quirk and you may see more demand for dot pro. I have no proof other than my own experience though so who knows really.

 

[deleted984054565403]

Realistically there won't be much development of .pro until RegistryPro removes the remaining restrictions, cuts reg fees, offers .pro for sale through all popular registrars, and starts promoting .pro to business users.

I agree about everything except for lowered registration fees.

As I've always said, keeping registration prices higher (but not too much higher), keeps domainers and speculators out more and legitimate businesses in -- that's good for the early/serious speculators, and good for the Web and the .pro extension.

By the way, RegistryPro, IMHO, can't do much by telling business owners to start using .pro. It has to become a viable extension by virtue of developed sites popping up using the extension. Network Solutions pushed the heck out of .us.com, but it got the "extension" nowhere as not many legitimate sites resulted. The best form of promotion is following a trusted example. RegistryPro's promotion of their extension certainly can't hurt, but we as speculators of the extension can't rely on that alone.

 

[sundari]

Hi

There is one suggestion, for all of us. In namepros We have separate section for .mobi which is going to grave, .tv and .us. Why not all of us request for a separate section .pro like the above.

So that this extension also gets its importance amongst np members. It will slowly start influencing the domain industry.

If all of us can write to namepros regarding this. There can surely be changes brought about.

I am sorry if I have violated any rules.

sundari.

 

[GF]

There is one suggestion, for all of us. In namepros We have separate section for .mobi which is going to grave, .tv and .us. Why not all of us request for a separate section .pro like the above.

So that this extension also gets its importance amongst np members. It will slowly start influencing the domain industry.

If all of us can write to namepros regarding this. There can surely be changes brought about.

I am sorry if I have violated any rules.

sundari.

Making a suggestion about NamePros is never a violation of the rules... I'll make a note of this for our next Staff meeting.

-Galel

 

[d0main]

fundraiser, what is the name of the domain if you don't mind me asking? Please pm

 

[dotprofan]

I've noticed some nice SEO results with my .pro names - especially if the keywords are commonly searched with the term "pro" ( e.g. "pro fighter").

I have observed an interesting characteristic of dot pro - some search engines appear quite friendly to the keyword + extension. I have a modestly developed dot pro that had for a few years been ranked 1 out of 266,000,000 listings for a very generic industry keyword and ranked above some massive and popular sites focused on the same keyword. After the site was offline for 6 months (due to an odd Registry Pro issue), it has now returned to the #4 position in about 3 months since returning to the index. While a few in the domain community are only now beginning to register dot pros due to the restrictions, eventually developers might discover this quirk and you may see more demand for dot pro. I have no proof other than my own experience though so who knows really.

 

[mwzd]

Why not all of us request for a separate section .pro like the above.

Because there are a lot of other tlds that deserve it more, including .in, so I doubt its going to happen.

So that this extension also gets its importance amongst np members. It will slowly start influencing the domain industry.

I doubt NP would like to be seen 'promoting' any TLDs, I'm assuming .tv/.us/.mobi were listed top of the page as discussions were really heavy at that point in time.

Interesting info on the SEs, thanks dotprofan.

 

[Kuli]

Development quality is more important than quantity. One Last.fm is worth 1,000 templates in terms of raising the profile of an alternative extension. Domainers can contribute to the success of .pro by developing or direct marketing .pro to an end user who develops.

These are true words! Many domainers "develop" their domains by installing a cheap PHP template and copying arbitrary information that you can find somewhere else on the internet, just to have something where they can place some advertisements.

That's okay; I don't want to judge this. But this does not help the .pro extension. .pro needs at least one big community site to become a popular extension, as Andrew already said.

Regarding the role Registry.pro could play: I think you overestimate the possibilities of this company. Registry.pro nearly was bankrupt just a few year ago, and it still is a little rat-shop compared to the other players in the market. It doesn't have some million dollars to invest in marketing.

I'm currently implementing an email providing system, that's why I registered most of my 200+ .pro domains. For me, it's the best extension: There were (are?) a lot of top keywords available, it sounds good ("pro" for profession as well as professional), and it's a better extension for email adresses that .info, .biz or some exotic ccTLD.

However, chosing .pro domains was a pure monetary decision. Nobody will develop a big site just to make .pro more popular, it always is a monetary decision. If I had 1 mio to invest, I maybe had bought some top .com domains. (Otherwise, flickr.com is named flickr.com because the domain flicker.com was too expensive; maybe some time another internet company will choose a .pro domain for the same reason.)

I agree with Steve that low registry fees won't help the extension. You can't just count the registered domains as long as most of them re only held by speculators. In my case, I wouldn't have chosen .pro domains for my business if they'd been much cheaper, because in that case all good names would have been already taken.

I don't want to promise anyone when, or even if ever, I'm ready to start my email service. When my money is used up, and s.o. is offering me a good job, then I'll do that and continue my own business later. It simply is a lot of work to develop a good site.

 

[wussadotcom]

Hi there, before this someone offered to make for free a .pro logo like some of our members here have for avatars according to country.
Example like http://www.namepros.com/image.php?u=20368&dateline=1223250545

Anyone know where is the thread or the person doing it? Thanks :gn:

 

[zuriko]

Hi there, before this someone offered to make for free a .pro logo like some of our members here have for avatars according to country.
Example like http://www.namepros.com/image.php?u=20368&dateline=1223250545

Anyone know where is the thread or the person doing it? Thanks :gn:

ask akcampbell