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.

 

[dotprofan]

I wouldn't worry about this guy. If you are going to do any kind of sales you should be prepared for harsh rejections such as this. The guy could be cranky because he's going through hard times, having a bad day etc.. The fact is that .pro names do well in SEO and do have value just as other alternative extensions do. We all have heard .com is king, but that doesn't mean that there is no demand or use for other gTLDs. You should feel good about yourself for getting out there and making an effort to reach out to end users. Eventually if you keep it up, I'm betting it will pay off.

Congrats to those who had recent sales of .pro names Gulf and Cool - good to see those sales. It will be interesting to see if the names are developed.

I don't know if my faith in dot pro is gone or the end user trying to trick me.
I send a email to a business owner (end users) about my domain for sale a dot pro. Same name in dot com sold for $100 000, dot net $45 000.

Here is his answer:
No one wants a .Pro domain. That Domain is Useless to any ----- Store or Dealer. It still wouldn't rank high because it isn't a .com.

Did you really think you were going to get serious money for a domain like this? You could get more money from this doman veryverylongdomainname.com just because of the .com.

So it's like everyone have a dot pro worth nothing.

 

[b2b]

Did anyone get the $19.95 for new regs promotion from Encirca?

I'm really astonished about huge price decrease since a year ago when it was $99/year, and now $19.95. This will definitely pave the way for more registrations and affordable renewals.

It's cheaper then a .tv registration, which is on average $25 at the moment...
Just hope they don't implement premium fees, like they do with some .tv's.

I'm really glad that I have learned from my mistakes during my domaining years; and what I have learned is that I won't be investing any more money in .mobi & .asia.

The .pro & .tv are the way forward!! (and ofcourse a few other extensions!)

 

[sky]

BTW: Just in case you think .PROs have a hard time getting ranked by Google, guess again.
I reg'd http://recording.pro awhile ago, and I'm letting friends use it right now for their recording business which they're building up after a transition in their previous gig. I didn't put up the site (which is under construction), but surprisingly, it's only been up for a few months and has 3/10 page rank on Google.

3/10 isn't bad, right? It's my only .PRO that's above 0/10. In contrast, I had aeiou.com put up a minisite at http://treadmill.pro, and I re-worked the text.

I haven't made any money on treadmill.pro and the mini-site went live in January. In retrospect, I realize the text I put on the front page is too wordy not visually divided enough, and the graphic is too nerdy on the front page to get anyone interested in the ads But I'll be refining that.

Anyway... just thought people would like to see a .PRO climbing in visibility on Google and other pro's in development.

However, there are a few .PROs I have that I plan on developing into full service sites, and that's where I do expect to see some revenue eventually.

 

[steveteva]

I wouldn't worry about this guy. If you are going to do any kind of sales you should be prepared for harsh rejections such as this. The guy could be cranky because he's going through hard times, having a bad day etc.. The fact is that .pro names do well in SEO and do have value just as other alternative extensions do. We all have heard .com is king, but that doesn't mean that there is no demand or use for other gTLDs. You should feel good about yourself for getting out there and making an effort to reach out to end users. Eventually if you keep it up, I'm betting it will pay off.

Congrats to those who had recent sales of .pro names Gulf and Cool - good to see those sales. It will be interesting to see if the names are developed.

I don't know if my faith in dot pro is gone or the end user trying to trick me.
I send a email to a business owner (end users) about my domain for sale a dot pro. Same name in dot com sold for $100 000, dot net $45 000.

Here is his answer:
No one wants a .Pro domain. That Domain is Useless to any ----- Store or Dealer. It still wouldn't rank high because it isn't a .com.

Did you really think you were going to get serious money for a domain like this? You could get more money from this doman veryverylongdomainname.com just because of the .com.

So it's like everyone have a dot pro worth nothing.

BTW: Just in case you think .PROs have a hard time getting ranked by Google, guess again.
I reg'd http://recording.pro awhile ago, and I'm letting friends use it right now for their recording business which they're building up after a transition in their previous gig. I didn't put up the site (which is under construction), but surprisingly, it's only been up for a few months and has 3/10 page rank on Google.

3/10 isn't bad, right? It's my only .PRO that's above 0/10. I had aeiou.com put up a minisite at treadmill.pro, and I re-worked the text. I haven't made any money and the work was done in January. The front page is too wordy and the graphic is not enticing for the general public, so I need to refine it. But anyway... just thought people would like to see a .PRO climbing in visibility on Google.

So do you think I shouldn't sell but develop it and try get high page rank and wait for offers?
I'm still undecided. I've been sending hundreds of email to targetted potential end users without any respond or only a killer email return (see post above), on ebay with a reserve price not met it end at $70.00
In my mind I know it have value because of name, past sales of same name but .com, .net and all similar names. Mine is a dot pro and it was like have no value. It's like everyone have a dot pro worth reg fee or less than $100.00 I really don't know if I should sell cheap or keep and wait or develop, also it already cost me $200 was when encirca sold at the beginning + extended year for $30, now their price fall to $19.00
I'm sure that many of you here or in the same case as I'm.
I can see many signature of members here with dot pro and mine is better than some that are good too (some members have name that would have been sold for thousand if .com) but if it ends like $70.00 on ebay (listed featured: bold, on top...) it means that the dot pro market is plunging like economy because it's about pro?

 

[sky]

So do you think I shouldn't sell but develop it and try get high page rank and wait for offers?
I'm still undecided. I've been sending hundreds of email to targetted potential end users without any respond or only a killer email return (see post above), on ebay with a reserve price not met it end at $70.00
In my mind I know it have value because of name, past sales of same name but .com, .net and all similar names. Mine is a dot pro and it was like have no value. It's like everyone have a dot pro worth reg fee or less than $100.00 I really don't know if I should sell cheap or keep and wait or develop, also it already cost me $200 was when encirca sold at the beginning + extended year for $30, now their price fall to $19.00
I'm sure that many of you here or in the same case as I'm.
I can see many signature of members here with dot pro and mine is better but if it ends like $70.00 on ebay (listed featured: bold, on top...) it means that the dot pro market is plunging like economy because it's about pro?

I'm not the best person to ask, because I've only made $3.50 in parking in a couple of years of domaining. All I am is a seasoned SW engineer with a few keyword combo & brandable .COMs, and several keyword .PROs that I picked up a couple of years ago, that are in areas I have a particular interest in and passion for developing, so my plan is to pair my interest and skill to develop cool sites for business. One of my .PRO sites is way into development, and I have licensed resources from others and developed some good software for. But that's a slightly longer term strategy, because until I get laid off, I still have a day job that demands a lot of my energy. I hope to have my first full-featured .PRO site up and running within a year.

In the short term, I'm trying to learn more about domaining to make some PPC traffic, probably with .COM, .NET, etc... When I get my 'choice' .PROs built up I'll post about them here. Suffice it to say, there are definitely .PROs under development and that could help the TLD as a whole.

As to strategies about how you'll individually profit in the short term and recoup your .PRO investment, I'm not the best one to ask. I'm in it for the long haul with most of my .PROs, and willing to renew them at $30/yr (or hopefully less soon) to hang onto what I consider really hot 'storefront' names for my sites.

 

[steveteva]

I'm not the best person to ask, because I've only made $3.50 in parking in a couple of years of domaining. All I am is a seasoned SW engineer with a few keyword combo & brandable .COMs, and several keyword .PROs that I picked up a couple of years ago, that are in areas I have a particular interest in and passion for developing, so my plan is to pair my interest and skill to develop cool sites for business. One of my .PRO sites is way into development, and I have licensed resources from others and developed some good software for. But that's a slightly longer term strategy, because until I get laid off, I still have a day job that demands a lot of my energy. I hope to have my first full-featured .PRO site up and running within a year.

In the short term, I'm trying to learn more about domaining to make some PPC traffic, probably with .COM, .NET, etc... When I get my 'choice' .PROs built up I'll post about them here. Suffice it to say, there are definitely .PROs under development and that could help the TLD as a whole.

As to strategies about how you'll individually profit in the short term and recoup your .PRO investment, I'm not the best one to ask. I'm in it for the long haul with most of my .PROs, and willing to renew them at $30/yr (or hopefully less soon) to hang onto what I consider really hot 'storefront' names for my sites.

sky, recording.pro is really nice and hope it will be sucessful. I m really skeptical on Google ranking even if members here says that Google don't see differences in tld but content and back link is the way to reach the top.
Because if you put all your efforts, money and time on recording.pro and it get on top if type recording, recording studio... like recording.com well I'm ready to develop my dot pro but if it's impossible than dot pro have no value and I will forget about dot pro.
Also it looks like noone here have been sucessful since a year now for dot pro developing and ranking.

 

[Kuli]

Hi Andrew!

I'd like to do some email interviews with people who buy .pros for Total.pro, eg. Cool.pro and Gulf.pro, to find out how they found out about .pro, what they like about it, and what plans they have for the domains.

Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to ask the buyer first if it's okay and sent them your total.pro url. They didn't refuse, so I think it's alright if you contact them. The whois should be updated by now.

And thanks again to all the others for the congratulations!

Greetings,
Kuli

 

[akcampbell]

Hi Kuli, the WHOIS is still showing your details. Does the guy you sold Cool.pro to speak English?

 

[Kuli]

Hi Kuli, the WHOIS is still showing your details. Does the guy you sold Cool.pro to speak English?

Indeed. What makes me wonder, because he already accepted the transfer in Encirca. Maybe the registry updates are slow.

I'll send you the details via PM.

 

[mwzd]

After you accept the transfer at encirca, you need to go in and change the contact details to your customer ID.

This is not automatic, though it should be for approved accounts.

I just bought Paintball.pro from steveteva and am very pleased with the purchase. :tu:

 

[InvisionTech]

Nice sale Kuli

I've been getting 160 offers on sedo for few of my .pro... so after sedo takes their share ($150), you bag $10 bucks.

Good job with total.pro andrew!

 

[mwzd]

I've been getting 'price requests' on Afternic, no sales yet though :p

I wish they had a similar system to sedo, but then maybe its good that they dont.

 

[InvisionTech]

I submitted: SantaClara.pro (along with some other tech names) to

TRAFFIC Silicon Valley
Santa Clara, California
April 27-30 2009

and for some reason, it wasn't included? :td:

 

[terol]

We have seen big auctions for crap TLDs like .mobi or .me, but they don't want .pro there yet. Why? I suppose that it's because market doesn't run for quality, but for marketing reasons. And we know that .pro marketing is a disaster. :gl:

I also own several premiums like Yoga.pro or Relax.pro and they neither want them at their auctions. Anyway, you can be sure that I will never sell them for less than the fair price. Before or after somebody will want them and then people from TRAFFIC and other domain markets will understand the incredible business that they lost with .pro. :hehe:

 

[Ben42]

I think they are afraid of the restrictions...say someone buys a name and they are not certified or don't know what to put they will feel like they got ripped off bad.

Kind of like being in the US and buying a .IT which can only be owned by Italians, if I spent 10k on it, I'd be PISSED at the auction house.

 

[terol]

Then, we should tell them that .pro has almost no restrictions now... I suppose that somebody paying thousands of bucks for a domain must have a company or to be a professional of something. :hehe:

 

[sky]

Then, we should tell them that .pro has almost no restrictions now... I suppose that somebody paying thousands of bucks for a domain must have a company or to be a professional of something. :hehe:

I really wish registry.pro would get the "hitch out of their git-along" and remove those confounded restrictions. They're not helping anyone.

It's still mostly domainers who are buying up .PRO property, while the stuck-up registry doesn't notice that the "professional licensing" ship sailed at the advent of the registry's badly-worded ambiguous policies, double-standards and sketchy legaleze.

The Dot Pro rules are leakier than sieve, and I have no doubt the registry knows full well those rules are dubiously enforceable and that that it's really just a 'security by obscurity' house of cards, which is being held together with smoke and mirrors and some stubborn people with big egos.

There's an inherent conflict-of-interest between the profitability the registry and registrars want, and appearance of propriety they pretend to demand. The registrars want and need domainers to buy up and renew those domains, and the registry wants to maintain the illusion that it's 'really' about something else.; a something else that is really not happening statistically speaking.

All they're doing is screwing the TLD up for everyone, including themselves and their franchisees.

 

[akcampbell]

I submitted 5 .pros at Domainfest Hollywood in Jan 09, including Hollywood.pro, they all got accepted, but nobody bid.

Ben42 hit the nail on the head. Restrictions are the main problem, you don't want people bidding for a domain at auction that they can't own. Maybe only 5%-10% of bidders are licensed professionals.

Alternative extensions are like unquoted stocks, they are more highly geared to the economic cycle than .coms. Movie.info sold for $7,000 at Domainfest, I thought it was worth at least $20,000.

The US market is so .com-centric, I'm not convinced it is the best place to sell alternative extensions. My best offer for a .pro was from the Czech Republic and the only time I sold a .pro was to a UK buyer.

I added another blog to Total.pro this weekend called "A Dish Fit for the Gods".

 

[sky]

I submitted 5 .pros at Domainfest Hollywood in Jan 09, including Hollywood.pro, they all got accepted, but nobody bid.

Ben42 hit the nail on the head. Restrictions are the main problem, you don't want people bidding for a domain at auction that they can't own. Maybe only 5%-10% of bidders are licensed professionals.

Alternative extensions are like unquoted stocks, they are more highly geared to the economic cycle than .coms. Movie.info sold for $7,000 at Domainfest, I thought it was worth at least $20,000.

The US market is so .com-centric, I'm not convinced it is the best place to sell alternative extensions. My best offer for a .pro was from the Czech Republic and the only time I sold a .pro was to a UK buyer.

I added another blog to Total.pro this weekend called "A Dish Fit for the Gods".

As others have pointed out, development is the key. I think .PRO are plenty profitable and a great investment for developers. They're just not as flippable due to the licensing issues. So, if you plan to develop, as you have and as I am doing as well, my big project hopefully online within 6-months to a year before I disclose it, I think we stand to profit. I think we are going to see more pro's come online and it will start to get hot.

 

[akcampbell]

I updated my Total.pro blog today with news about the world's biggest .pro domainer. I counted them and he has 1,118 .pros.