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.

 

[sky]

I am not sure how this comparison even came up. You have a ccTLD vs a gTLD.

The difference here is the first is widely accepted and used in a major country. .PRO is well down the totem pole as far as gTLD goes. You can't really make any direct comparison since they have different purposes.

Brad

Well, I realize it's a stretch, and I did it to make a catchy title, perhaps a bit cynically. My point was that .COM.AU basically started to grow rapidly only after restrictions were lifted, and I'm saying I think some analog for that would true for .PRO. I keep hoping the registry will just take the hint and do the right thing.

The difference is credible extensions have buyers now. No one wants to buy a .PRO because it has little credibility and probably never will.

What do you mean exactly by 'credibility'?

What factors limit the improvement of credibility as you define it?

The problem I see with almost any extension - it's not what we as domainers think, but what normal Joe (at the keyboard) and what search engines think.

Well that's exactly it. And search engines are fine with .PRO. As I mentioned in a post above, Recording.pro has PR3 with virtually no promotion and it's still under development. There's nothing to stop it from rising toward the top of related searches.

I see that .PROs are lousy for parking right now and short term speculation and flipping. I'm sure there are some sales but fewer than in other areas. So that's obviously a weak side.

But from the standpoint of development and SEO and building up a brand, it works the same, and having the cool sound of .PRO could be a plus even.

Anyway, only time will tell. A lot of the experts say diversification is good. I don't mind having a few good keyword .pros, but I'm also looking at other things like .COM keywords, ccTLDs, etc...

 

[firefly]

missed a word...lol

I certainly won't attack you but I may run a ruler over your domains. Be nice to .pro and I won't make any comments about your 4 word .coms.

I take it you are a soccer hooligan with that mentality...don't say anything bad about my team and I won't glass you...lmao. Bit of a lowlife attitude...but I can take it big boy.

Those name that you very kindly ran a ruler over are at whypark for a reason...to see if they can get indexed and get traffic. Guess what they are and they do...more than your little stat tool suggets..lol

Why so defensive and aggressive??...Feeling a little apprehensive about your investments. You do protest too much...lmao.

Quote numbers all you want. Run your metrics over whatever you want. I dont care...lol. Unlike you who resorts to personal attacks to try to make a point.

The problem I see with almost any extension - it's not what we as domainers think, but what normal Joe (at the keyboard) and what search engines think.

:bingo:

Good luck with your dot pro...obviously you don't really have to be a professional in the true sense of the word to own one. Now go to a soccer game and glass some fans from the opposition team. _\|/_


.

 

[snoop]

Every domain on DataCube.com is well down the totem pole as far as .com, .net and .org goes.

The question is what is more likely to sell, something like Mobile.pro or one of the "premium" domains on DataCube.com like eMoron.com? Mobile.co.uk sold for $247,921 in Nov 07, Mobile.im sold for $7,000 in Jan 08, I can't see any sales for eMoron and only 1 for Moron, why do you think that is?

If .pro makes progress, Mobile.pro could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the exceptional fit and blockbuster keyword. eMoron.com isn't going anywhere. Moron.com sold for $25,000 in Aug 06, and that's the first and last domain that will sell with the keyword moron in.

As Oscar Wilde said, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars".

This is very unrealistic. For a start you taken one of your best name and compared it to one of his worst. Secondly something like "mobile.pro" is never likely to sell for the kind of price you are talking about. The whole post is quite amazing for someone who admitted 5 months ago they were yet to make any return at all from .pro.

I'm not fan of Brad but I will say it look likes he is making money, that is totally different from someone who makes bold claims but in reality makes nothing.

 

[seeker]

.us is not the country code of the United States, .com is.

LOL!!!
Thats a good one, I am still laughing.

Let me let you in on a FACT.
.US *is* the ccTLD of the US.
.com is a Global TLD.

P.S.
Still laughing.

 

[mwzd]

My portfolio is fairly diverse :lol: I have .com, .net, .org, .pro, .in, .co.in, .net.in, .org.in, .ws, .info, .biz, .mobi, .tv, .me, .tel, .cc, .ag. Just sold my .us and .gds :D

And any domain I buy I look at with a couple of decades of advertising experience and a decade of web development experience.

I will request for the 'personal' comments to be dropped here. Lets keep it civil and on topic please.

 

[snoop]

LOL!!!
Thats a good one, I am still laughing.

Let me let you in on a FACT.
.US *is* the ccTLD of the US.
.com is a Global TLD.

P.S.
Still laughing.

Reread what I said,

.us is not the country code of the United States, .com is. Staple that to your wall, it is what most people think. Only in a technical, geeky way is .us the country code of the US.

 

[sky]

LOL!!!
Thats a good one, I am still laughing.

Let me let you in on a FACT.
.US *is* the ccTLD of the US.
.com is a Global TLD.

P.S.
Still laughing.

Technically yes, but proverbially .COM is. Even Ron Jackson of DNjournal, who says that .US has value and is growing acknowledges is that the world has come to think of .COM as being the ccTLD of the USA, probably because the Internet started in the United States.

 

[bmugford]

.COM is widely seen as the de facto ccTLD of the US. There is no doubt about that.

Brad

Technically yes, but proverbially .COM is. Even Ron Jackson of DNjournal, who says that .US has value and is growing acknowledges is that the world has come to think of .COM as being the ccTLD of the USA, probably because the Internet started in the United States.

This is very unrealistic. For a start you taken one of your best name and compared it to one of his worst. Secondly something like "mobile.pro" is never likely to sell for the kind of price you are talking about. The whole post is quite amazing for someone who admitted 5 months ago they were yet to make any return at all from .pro.

I'm not fan of Brad but I will say it look likes he is making money, that is totally different from someone who makes bold claims but in reality makes nothing.

Thanks for the comment Snoop. I am sure most people know we are not fans of each other, but I do appreciate the points you made.

Rep Left.

Brad

 

[seeker]

Technically yes, but proverbially .COM is. Even Ron Jackson of DNjournal, who says that .US has value and is growing acknowledges is that the world has come to think of .COM as being the ccTLD of the USA, probably because the Internet started in the United States.

The World Wide Web started at CERN.
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/


I can assure you that the 'World' does not think that .com is the ccTLD of the US. This is especially true for the world outside of the U.S.
Within the US, yes, the perceived reality is as you say. But, that does not make it the absolute reality...
I still think its funny, and no, no insult was intended, so I apologize if my statement came across as insulting. I just thought it was funny.

.COM is widely seen as the de facto ccTLD of the US. There is no doubt about that.

Brad, on which Planet is that statement correct?
Globally, it is simply not so.

 

[bmugford]

If .US was seen as the ccTLD of the richest country on Earth it would have a lot more value. The fact that it doesn't is because .COM is seen as the ccTLD of America.

Brad

Brad, on which Planet is that statement correct?
Globally, it is simply not so.

 

[seeker]

If .US was seen as the ccTLD of the richest country on Earth it would have a lot more value. The fact that it doesn't is because .COM is seen as the ccTLD of America.

Brad

Brad, that doesnt make any sense.
The US$ is seen as the currency of the US. Have you seen its performance during the last few years??? (not getting into economics, just using it as an example with your statement).

Anyhow... It seems that the thread is getting heated up, and some facts are being lost.
To the rest of the World, .com is seen as much as their TLD as anyone elses. And to back this up, is the fact, that this IS a fact. It is a GLOBAL TLD.
Again, I must stress that I am talking on a World Wide basis here.
.com and .pro are Global TLDs, while .com.au and .us are Country Code TLDs, regardless of the success of the first, and the relative failure of the latter for now. I believe that .us will pick up, but that is just my opinion.

 

[Ben42]

Just about to launch Geeks.pro. I'm sure people from all over the world can tell what we do but our services are centralized to south Chicago. Go Figure.

Anyway, I'm a professional Geek and PROUD of it!

 

[snoop]

Brad, that doesnt make any sense.
The US$ is seen as the currency of the US. Have you seen its performance during the last few years??? (not getting into economics, just using it as an example with your statement).

He is talking about "value" not "performance". The $USD is still the world's highest regarded currency. Even still I'm even sure it is even right to say it has done badly over the few years.

Here is a table showing how the $USD has perfomed over the 3 year timeframe you state,

http://www.ratesfx.com/rates/rate-usd.html

Of the 29 currencies listed the $USD has outperformed 19.

As you say though, that is an off track issue.

To the rest of the World, .com is seen as much as their TLD as anyone elses. And to back this up, is the fact, that this IS a fact. It is a GLOBAL TLD.
Again, I must stress that I am talking on a World Wide basis here.
.com and .pro are Global TLDs, while .com.au and .us are Country Code TLDs, regardless of the success of the first, and the relative failure of the latter for now. I believe that .us will pick up, but that is just my opinion.

.com is seen as a international tld, it is also seen as the country code of the US, because almost all US based companies use.

 

[DnEbook]

i wonder why sky picked out .com.au ? he could have picked any cctld to have a silly thread about ?

 

[b2b]

That's right, if you check NameBio.com you won't see a lot of sales, which could lead to some discouragement for new interested parties willing to invest in .PRO. However don't forget that loads of domain sales are done privately and for an undisclosed amount.

So you shouldn't take something like NameBio or even EstiBot religiously.

Now also don't forget that several years ago (and probably still now) some people didn't take the .tv extension seriously, but look whois laughing now...
Many generic .tv's that people have luckily (and wisely) picked up a few years ago and happily kept them are the one's that are smiling now; and literally with a huge Colgate smile. Just go to the .tv thread and you'll be happily amazed about current skyrocketing sales happening

Now the reason why I mentioned the .tv, is because the same thing is happening with .Pro. It is a credible GENERIC extension that people all around can recognize, the same with .tv . And what is even a huge advantage that the .pro has over .tv is that there are no PREMIUM RENEWAL fees. Premium fees do make a difference when it comes to the renewal period.

Registry.pro & Encirca & etc..., they're all learning very fast from their mistakes ie. lowering reg fees from $99 to a drastic $19-$25; Big difference.

Anyway, to finish off (cause I need to take a shower, got a date tonight ), .PRO is an extremely cool gTLD. And I prefer it much over (believe or not) .net and certainly over .mobi, .asia, .tel, .biz, .travel, I think you know where I'm going with this.

Bla, bla, bla, have a great weekend guys!

 

[terol]

I totally agree with you b2b.

Good luck with your date! :hehe:

 

[Sam]

All i must say is look at this:

http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/565525-top-gtlds-by-alexa-top-1m.html

.Pro is bad as .AERO. Top million names = brand awareness. IMHO, this extension is dead.

 

[terol]

Sam, .pro is alive just from some few months ago, after stupid restrictions were (almost) removed, so we will have to wait some time for more developed sites...

By the way, there already are some ones...

http://alexa.dabout.com/alexa.php?keyword=.pro

http://www.google.com/search?safe=off&num=100&as_sitesearch=.pro

 

[akcampbell]

.Pro is bad as .AERO. Top million names = brand awareness. IMHO, this extension is dead.

allinurl: pro.com in Google = 1,560,000 uniques
allinurl: aero.com in Google = 18,000 uniques
allinurl: mobi.com in Google = 22,100 uniques
allinurl: biz.com in Google = 299,000 uniques
allinurl: info.com in Google = 3,810,000 uniques
allinurl: org.com in Google = 553,000 uniques
allinurl: net.com in Google = 7,060,000 uniques
allinurl: tv.com in Google = 10,600,000 uniques
allinurl: me.com in Google = 938,000 uniques

Conclusion = Developers add Pro to keywords in .com because it's brandable.

pro in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 15,131 marks
aero in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 874 marks
mobi in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 123 marks
biz in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 790 marks
info in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 1,101 marks
org in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 1,060 marks
net in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 7,731 marks
tv in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 5,478 marks
me in US trademark database uspto.gov unpunctuated marks = 7,870 marks

Bear in mind that org and net trademark results are skewed if you are analysing inherent brandability because half of their marks are actual .org and .net domain names.

Conclusion = Business owners trademark Pro more than they do any other alternative extension. The suffix Pro is inherently more brandable than any other domain extension. In fact, it's more brandable than .mobi, .biz, .info, .org, and .net added together.

If .pro featured prominently in that list, the top keywords would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The whole point of investment is to second guess what will feature more prominently in 5, 10, and 15 years. If .pro restrictions were removed, it would, without a doubt, feature far more prominently because it's more brandable than any alternative to .com, it has a wow factor, and fits a broader spectrum of keywords.

 

[AndyR]

pile.pro Finally started this site, please look and anyone with a pro directory, I would like it listed (Foundations, engineering).

Thanks, andy