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.

 

[JoeBiz]

This is ridiculous.

ancestry.pro
personaltrainer.pro

bought off the drop list? How can we still see premium domains being dropped like this! wtf.

Those are the people who drop in here from time to time and ask where they can sell their Pros for a profit. They had no intention of buying and holding and by the end of year one they have moved on.

 

[Ben42]

I really like ancestry.pro, nice grab.

 

[Blue24]

Can everybody reg .pro domains or i must provide same ID?

 

[MicroGuy]

This is ridiculous.

ancestry.pro
personaltrainer.pro

bought off the drop list? How can we still see premium domains being dropped like this! wtf.

I'm not surprised. This is only the beginning of the dropfest. IMO.

 

[mwzd]

Imho neither of them are truly 'premium', at least not in .pro

I've rarely seen truly premiums drop, most of them get listed at snap.

And I'm not sure those drop if they don't get bid either.

 

[JoeBiz]

I'm not surprised. This is only the beginning of the dropfest. IMO.

I thought I saw something slither in under the door. :zzz:

Just kidding M'guy.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

The droplist of EnCirca contains only domains registered through them.
That's all.

 

[JoeBiz]

Imho neither of them are truly 'premium', at least not in .pro

I've rarely seen truly premiums drop, most of them get listed at snap.

And I'm not sure those drop if they don't get bid either.

Hi Samit

How do you / we / they define a premium once you get past the COMs? Most people, especially in the sales forums, use it very loosely. Just curious.

And why does this link keep appearing above some of my posts???

Charles


8^X

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Can everybody reg .pro domains or i must provide same ID?

No ID needed to reg .PRO 2.0
Only one additional field to complete: "profession".

Regards,

 

[webdomain]

Imho neither of them are truly 'premium', at least not in .pro

I've rarely seen truly premiums drop, most of them get listed at snap.

And I'm not sure those drop if they don't get bid either.

I'd agree with that! But they are pretty good.

 

[beltelmer]

Just regged boarding (in dot) pro

Prоfessiоnal Bоаrding. Could be used this name to skаtеBоаrding, snоwBоarding, surfing, wаkеBоarding and all other Bоаrding? What do you think guys? Thnx.

 

[mwzd]

I'd agree with that! But they are pretty good.

Pretty good is a tough sell in non mainstream extensions, at least imho. And .pro isn't maturing as well as some ccTLDs are, so the upside is limited.

While the numbers for personaltrainer are fabulous, it is 15 letters and two words. And Ancestry might actually have tm issues.

Personal.pro would be a super-premium and trainer.pro a good domain in my book. PersonalTrainer.pro is excellent for development, probably not as much for resale.

 

[akcampbell]

I dropped Ancestry.pro, from experience I have found .pro works best with keywords that don't involve sentiment. I have sold plenty of .pros that other people have dropped but so far it hasn't happened the other way round. I am sure it will happen eventually.

I think something like Personal Trainer works very well in .pro because personal trainers want to be perceived as professional. However, I would drop it because two word .pros are difficult to sell no matter how good the keyword combination, the only one I have ever sold is ForSale.pro and I only got $1,250 for that, so if I had held alot of them, the renewal fees would have eaten up most of the profit on that sale.

Ancestry.com have a trademark on Ancestry.com, they wouldn't get a trademark on the word Ancestry. I offered Coupons.info to Coupons.com several times before selling it and they never came back to me and said there was a TM issue. I sold Booking.pro and Bookings.pro to Booking.com and they wouldn't have bought them if they could have picked them up by a UDRP.

Total .pros registered at the end of August 2011 were up to 71,033, excluding the Hostway Zip Codes, with average daily WHOIS searches of 38,801, up from 27,664 in July.

Did the sale of Macbook.pro for $3,000 get reported? I can't find any record of it and want to add it to Total.pro. Have any other sales over $1,000 been reported recently?

 

[webdomain]

The extension needs a catalyst of some sort to give the overall extension a boost. Either a big investor to step in or company that develops a .pro would be nice.

I agree with all the comments above, but I got into this with the belief that .pro has a chance of becoming main stream. Right now the market continues to be tough outside of the very best single word domains.

However as I watch Andrew's total.pro chart keep growing every month. At some point that chart could turn up sharply. But at that point, you mine as well enjoy what you own...because like a lot of other extensions is is just too late to get in.

 

[MicroGuy]

...because like a lot of other extensions it is just too late to get in.

There are many, many people who believe that the longer you wait the easier it will be to "get in". Based on the history of other failed launches and with the current state of domains, I think it is obvious that these people are likely correct.

Developing a viable and expeditious exit strategy would be a prudent exercise for anyone holding onto this high-risk/no-reward extension. Mass adoption is an impossibility. IMO.

 

[Kate]

The extension needs a catalyst of some sort to give the overall extension a boost. Either a big investor to step in or company that develops a .pro would be nice.

A big investor ? For a start, there is one entity that owns nearly a half of the .pro supply. One single investor will change nothing to the landscape. Even if Overstock relocated on .pro it wouldn't make any difference on a whole.

I agree with all the comments above, but I got into this with the belief that .pro has a chance of becoming main stream. Right now the market continues to be tough outside of the very best single word domains.

I hate to say this, but the extension is practically dead. It's been dead since inception and there is nothing you can do about it. Domainers have zero influence on the success or failure of TLDs.
There are already too many extensions flooding the market. I wouldn't waste too much efforts on doomed extensions.

I think the problem is that domain investors don't realize they actually are domain collectors

 

[akcampbell]

There are many, many people who believe that the longer you wait the easier it will be to "get in".

What like you with .com? You waited 26 years to sell UUChurch.com for $45 on eBay.

I hate to say this, but the extension is practically dead. It's been dead since inception and there is nothing you can do about it.

Total .pros registered have increased from 8,386 in August 2008 to 71,033 in August 2011. It has grown month on month for 34 out of those 36 months. Average WHOIS Daily Searches have increased from 7,706 to 38,801.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

To boost .PRO we need GoDaddy + 1and1.

 

[MicroGuy]

To boost .PRO we need GoDaddy + 1and1.

I agree.

If Godaddy would pick up .PRO and promote it at the Super Bowl this year. And if Bob Parsons would develop a personal website using .PRO, the extension would go from having no shot whatsoever to having a single shot in the dark. IMO.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

So send link to this thread to Bob.