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.

 

[WordWalker]

……and the answer is market forces, simple rules of demand and supply. Investors invest in such commodities which are high in demand, not based on personal tastes. :imho:

That's why strange and bizarre stuff that most of us could do without is never sold through Informercials, right? Apparently I was mistaken in my belief that marketing and advertising often create demand where none existed before.

Jawed, riddle me this:

Before the Snuggie starting showing up on television around the clock, what exactly was the demand for a blanket with huge, bloomer size sleeves? And even though an oversized bathrobe worn backwards does virtually the same thing, why are people paying more for a Snuggie when they could be shopping for a deeply discounted, XXL bathrobe at Ross or Marshalls? It wouldn't have anything to do with the demand created by marketing, would it?

If, as you say, "Investors invest in such commodities which are high in demand...", who, then, was investing in the Snuggie?

And what exactly was the demand for This. True, marketing was simply by word of mouth at the beginning, but ultimately retailers jumped in, and due to the unique character of this product, free PR PR was soon everywhere!

Some people might call that marketing.

Thank you for attempting to educate me before taking a moment to read This.

 

[webdomain]

maui.pro is still a great buy! I was going to jump in there, but you guys have done a much better job. I agree, marketing a site can take a long time...well over a year in most cases which is the simple reason why I wouldn't recommend to any smaller budget company to run out and buy traffic...not to say it doesn't work for some.

go pro!

 

[steveteva]

Great posts here. I was a .pro fan and like someone said above . Pro is more desirable than many other Tld but never being professional choices same with .biz
Look I have a domain .pro that fit .pro and if was .com could worth over 10000$ easiely but I tried to sell to business owners in the past and none where interested or want for less than $100
Even the .info recently sold for $500 and doest really fit .Info tld. The .com belongs to a famous company that redirect to his site. So the best choice I have is to keep for ten years and wait for a better day and I m not the only one here.

 

[webdomain]

So wordwalker what would be a good marketing plan for .pro? got any good ideas on how they could promote the extension at this point? I totally agree that something needs to be done simply to raise awareness of the extension. Most people haven't heard of .pro.

1. If every .pro kicked in 10 bucks could we buy a superbowl ad? hahah

 

[steveteva]

Here are some marketing ideas that are also applicable to all other similar domains and have failed but anyway .com will still be king what ever made.

1- unrestricted to professional only.
In the past it shows that all restricted tld failed .travel as example.

2- Be accepted by domain registration companies and hosting leaders.
Just being for sale on Godaddy, hostgator... and other big names will make .pro popular

3- Commercial ads on TV, Radio, Exibitions, Expos, sponsor sports... not once but all year round.
This is no secret, branding is someting you need to do, look at .tel marketing or .me, .biz, .mobi... failure!!!

The reasons why none have succeeded is simple: For worldwide internet users there is only 1 or 2 tld they trust : .com and of course for people located in their country it's country code cctld (.fr .uk .de .cn .jp....)
Some tld like .tv, .mobi.... have done step 1-2 but couldn't do 3 or start 3 but ROI was not possible because what ever you do .com is king, it's like a local grocery store trying to fight the big supermarket like Kmart, Walmart, Target... you name it.

 

[WordWalker]

So wordwalker what would be a good marketing plan for .pro? got any good ideas on how they could promote the extension at this point?

1. If every .pro kicked in 10 bucks could we buy a superbowl ad? hahah

Great suggestion (as inspiration for the idea that follows below):

What if 30 .PRO owners each kicked in $300/month for a year? I've used a video production company in Sonoma County that does incredible work for broadcast commercials (including a few ads for national brands & music videos) I know we could come up with something smart and compelling and run it USING THIS.

I'll commit to $300/month right now. 29 more to go. Who else is in? I am dead serious about this. Let's form a team and make this happen.

 

[JoeBiz]

Would it be more effective to petition or otherwise persuade GoDaddy to support the Pro extension?

or

Moniker is running an MX auction next month. All of the domains belong to a company named Sales.MX. Can the same thing be done with Pro? What kind of motivation would Moniker need for something like that?

Now that I think about it, isn't step one getting Pro to completely lift the restrictions. They've been changed to the point that they are pointless. The only thing they do effectively is scare potential buyers.


8^X

 

[WordWalker]

Just Reg'd"

Question.PRO

 

[JoeBiz]

Props !!!

:ghost:

 

[WordWalker]

Would it be more effective to petition or otherwise persuade GoDaddy to support the Pro extension?

or

Moniker is running an MX auction next month. All of the domains belong to a company named Sales.MX. Can the same thing be done with Pro? What kind of motivation would Moniker need for something like that?

Now that I think about it, isn't step one getting Pro to completely lift the restrictions. They've been changed to the point that they are pointless. The only thing they do effectively is scare potential buyers.


8^X

Stock brokers used to be the exclusive information gatekeepers for anything pertaining to stocks and bonds. Not anymore. Trading fees are measured in pennies per share (or less).

Real estate agents used to be the exclusive gatekeepers of information pertaining to new listings, great deals, property steals, reo & foreclosures. With each passing day, the control exercised over the information that drives real property transactions is slipping out of the agent's grip. Like the stock market, in time, a different business model will emerge, and with it a new structure for compensation.

I'm suggesting that we go directly to the end users through broadcast TV. Before the Internet, the power was with these entertainment industry gatekeepers:

Movie Studios
Broadcast Networks
Advertisers
Management Companies
Talent Agencies
Advertisers

They were the movers and shakers without which nothing could happen. It was prohibitively expensive to get into the living room and on the TV of the end user. That too, has changed.

Gate keepers no longer represent the sole & exclusive path to success. The Internet has leveled the playing fields in ways we could never have imagined. We don't require the approval, consent, permission or authorization of the gatekeepers as the singular pathway to getting in front of the decision making public.

THIS IS WHY. Read it in light of the above and see if any of this makes sense.

 

[JoeBiz]

Are you in Sonoma County? My brother works for Napa County.

:ghost:

 

[JoeBiz]

.
Tort and Geology regged earlier today.

8^X

 

[WordWalker]

Are you in Sonoma County? My brother works for Napa County.

:ghost:

Yeah, Sant Rosa, not too far from the Flamingo Hotel.

Living in the wine country is why I registered Napa & Sonoma as dotPRO. Also, Sonoma & Marin as dotCO.

 

[Ben42]

I think to do this properly we would need to get Matt Buckland on board over there at Registrypro. I believe there would be TM issues to do it on our own.

So far they seem happy with sponsoring the ICANN meeting. WHO SEE'S THAT? Besides other domain professionals that already know they exist.

It's obvious they have 0 marketing budget. It shouldn't be up to us alone to get the word out and make them money. We need some people at Registrypro that are committed to it's success.

 

[WordWalker]

I believe there would be TM issues to do it on our own.

What are the TM issues you're concerned about?

I don't require Toyota's consent to run an ad to sell my Corolla, do I? Nor do I need authorization to reference Toyota, by name, in the ad if I want to hype the car and the company in order to get my car sold.

Why is a domain name different?

 

[JoeBiz]

There could be problems but I don't think that trademark infringement would be one of them. One criteria that would have to be proven by Pro is "The infringer's intent to confuse the public." So that's out.

But, I'm not a trademark or patent attorney and there could be other problems. Review of the project by an attorney should be part of the process anyway.


:ghost:

One case that I came across involved a guy who was using the AAA mark. Of course AAA wasn't happy and sued for trademark infringement. But the third requirement "that the alleged infringer has intent to confuse the public" could not be established. Check out AAA.org.

Anyway, I wouldn't spend a lot of time speculating. Common sense often doesn't apply so let the Legal Peeps take care of it.

 

[WordWalker]

I posted this Top 10 List thread a few days ago. Maybe somebody can come up with a clever no. 1 that has something to do with dotPRO. At the very least, it should be good for a chuckle. :lol:

 

[JoeBiz]

TRAFFIC, SMAFFIC you said there'd be hookers !!!

8^X

 

[JoeBiz]

VACCINE is available if anyone wants it.

 

[WordWalker]

.
Tort and Geology regged earlier today.

8^X

Nice!

(except for geology at the jr college - the class I dropped; the domain I would keep) :gl:

---------- Post added at 09:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 PM ----------

TRAFFIC, SMAFFIC you said there'd be hookers !!!

8^X

At a domaining convention, what's wrong with expecting somebody to say, "Yes, ICANN?"

Rep'd!

---------- Post added at 10:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------

VACCINE is available if anyone wants it.

Rep'd! I figured, why not take a "shot"? So I registered it.