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.

 

[akcampbell]

I paid for the transfers on 31 August and the domains transferred in on 6 September so 7 days.

 

[terol]

Thanks for the info! :hearts:

 

[d0main]

how do you think .pro will fare against the new TLDs coming out, taking into accounts the former's reg requirements?

 

[steveteva]

I've had a few inquiries on some of my .pro names. Now I've listed my entire .PRO portfolio with BIN for individual names at:

http://www.namepros.com/domains-for-sale-make-offer/560428-more-than-100-premium-pro-names.html

Some are great but didn't find what I like because I want to spend $500 or less on a dot pro that worth $1000+ a one word or 2 words that fit dot pro and is developable. I didn't post in Make Offer as I don't see much .pro domainers going there.
So if you've got a remarqhable .pro like marketing.pro, homestaging.pro, job.pro, pilot.pro, homebuilder.pro or any similar that worth thousand but need cash you can PM me, of course I reserve right not to buy if don't fit my needs.

 

[akcampbell]

how do you think .pro will fare against the new TLDs coming out, taking into accounts the former's reg requirements?

The application process for new gTLD's starts in early 2010 so by the time they are awarded .pro will have a 5 year+ head start in terms of gTLD ageing. Only .com, net, .org, .biz, and .info will be older. There are two potential benefits for .pro of the new gTLD's; abolition of restrictions more awareness and acceptance among end users of alternative extensions like .pro.

If RegistryPro don't use the upheaval to get rid of restrictions, total .pros registered will crumble and the registry will go bust. .pro cannot possibly compete against a wave of unrestricted gTLD being sold by everybody to everybody when .pro's market is so tiny. I don't see how ICANN could object to the removal of .pro restrictions, .pro was restricted as one of few very gTLD's, when it is one of many it will only lose even more money.

The greater awareness issue is contentious. Some people would argue .com will benefit from the confusion and lesser known alternative extensions like .pro will suffer most. Trophy .com sales are unlikely to be affected by the extra gTLD's but that's only a thin slice at the top of 81m .coms. I think it will make life harder for people trying to make money further down the .com chain because money will be spread across more extensions at lower price points.

This intra-extension flight to quality will be repeated across existing alternative extensions. More people will know about .pro and hopefully more people will be able to register it so demand for the top keyword fits like Golf.pro and Poker.pro will be higher. The pressure will be on keywords where there is no obvious fit with .pro. If you can buy those in another 50 gTLD's and some of them fit better than .pro, you are going to have a problem. Will there be 5m .info domains registered after another 50 gTLD's appear? I doubt it. Total domains registered in current extensions, particularly alternatives, are likely to be hit by new gTLD's.

If .pro drops its restrictions, I think it can compete. If not, it will be a lingering death for RegistryPro and the extension itself might not survive. I will continue to renew my top fitting keywords because there will still be a chance another registry will take it over in return for the removal of restrictions and the waiving of the $50,000 ICANN new gTLD application fee. If RegistryPro don't get rid of restrictions in May 2010, I will reduce my .pros by 50% during the following year.

 

[InvisionTech]

My entire .PRO portfolio, looking for offers:

http://www.namepros.com/domains-for...omains-encirca-business-industry-related.html

I was charged renewal fee for a domain that I transfered to another person (was set NOT to auto renew) at hostway last month. Sick of hostway!

 

[terol]

My transfer from Domain People to Encirca is complete now, about 7 days later, like Andrew said. :wave:

 

[akcampbell]

Interesting list of WIPO cases involving .pro

Search WIPO Cases by Domain Name

Here's a good .pro news feed. Interesting comment about Godaddy now being authorised by ICANN to access the .pro TLD and that RegistryPro have invited them to offer .pro. Underlines the importance of removing the onerous .pro verification and audit procedures, until then the hassle of offering .pro will outweigh the benefits for big registrars like Godaddy and that will severely limit growth.

RegistryPro News

I think this has been posted here before but RegistryPro are also on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/RegistryPro

 

[InvisionTech]

I think I missed something...

Hostway charged renewal on .PRO domains that expire in two weeks... wtf is up with that? As far as I understand it, auto renewal shouldn't kick in until the last day ends!

 

[akcampbell]

Does anybody ever decide to drop a .pro then just before the axe swings give it a last minute reprieve and renew? I did it tonight with Democracy.pro.

With a pure domaining hat on it's a drop, the keyword has sold 3 times in .com and domains with Democracy in on Sedo have 6 bids in total.

On the plus side, there are 58m Google indexed pages which include the word Democracy and of those 17.8m also include the word Pro. Additionally, there are 830,000 Google pages with references to "Pro Democracy".

I'm going to do an experiment, I don't directly market my .pros, but with Democracy.pro I will try to sell it to an end user. My logic is, if I can sell a .pro to an end user that I renewed on a whim 10 days past expiry, there must be development and resale potential in my other .pros. If I can do it, I will write a blog about it on Total.pro.

Tomorrow is the last day of the Game.pro tee shirt competition so get your slogan entries in if you would like to win it. If Game.pro ever got developed into a popular site, you might be able to sell it on eBay in 50 years time in the Internet memorabilia section.

 

[namewaiter]

Game.pro because... Everybody's Got Game

 

[akcampbell]

The Game.pro competition has ended. The voting period is now open. Just to remind you of the voting rules, voting is open for 7 days, anybody who has posted on this thread prior to the competition can vote, you get one vote, and you can't vote for yourself. Here are the entries to pick from;

Game.pro looks cooler on a tee shirt than Juegos-Gratis.com because...

1) it's for pro gamers just like me.

2) when you're the best at the game juegos-gratis.com just wont suffice.

3) it's memorable, easy to spell, sounds much cooler, has 13 less characters, is in English and overall just damn highly marketable.

4) it is so much cooler.

5) you don't have to turn around to show the extension.

6) the game... is my profession.

7) it fits.

8) professionals are cooler than freeloaders.

9) everybody's got game.

I will start the ball rolling, I had two favourites, I thought 5) was funny and original but 7) gets my vote. I liked the clever link between Game and Pro fitting and a tee shirt fitting. It was also the shortest entry and that's another advantage of .pro over dashed two word .com alternatives like Juego-Gratis.com.

 

[InvisionTech]

All entries are good, however, my personal favorite is #7, so my vote goes to that.

The entry is short and "fits" just like domain name.

 

[siga]

Going for 7 myself. Short has double meaning and is two words exactly like game.pro

 

[Jawed]

#7 is too blunt. Slogans need to be sharp and elegant.
I cant find any that I like. :]

 

[steveteva]

Just a not to say that I've got 5 dot pro for sale at fixed price for very very low, you'll be surprise to see the price for these quality names: http://www.namepros.com/domains-for...emium-dot-pro-sport-industry.html#post3605691

 

[dotprofan]

Just a note for fellow .pro enthusiasts, I just received notice that payment has been received for ebook dot pro. It was picked up immediately at my counter offer price of $3900 (which I'm of course wishing I had set a bit higher). A good sale nevertheless.

 

[Terrains]

wow, super good sale dotprofan

 

[akcampbell]

Fantastic sale Bob, congratulations! Book.pro sold for $3,000 so this raises the bar. Was it through Sedo? I see you only picked it up in November 2008 too. Last day for Game.pro slogan voting if anybody is interested.

 

[dotprofan]

Thanks for the congratulations. It was through Sedo, so unfortunately got stuck with the commission fee. Interesting to hear about the book.pro sale - glad I hadn't known about it or maybe I would've set my expectations too low! I know some folks who make a lot of money via ebooks, so I 'm sure they buyer will do well should they develop the name to it's potential.

Fantastic sale Bob, congratulations! Book.pro sold for $3,000 so this raises the bar. Was it through Sedo? I see you only picked it up in November 2008 too.