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.

 

[Ben42]

Wow and Sail.pro is going for only $220 with under an hour to go. I guess I just choose poorly! lol

11-09-2011 Purchased for $75
Site Design: $500
Hosting for 18 months $100
Featured Auction: $70
Complete auction fee: $11
Time invested: Lots.
Total: $756
=============
Sold for $220
Ad Revenue: $20

Profit: -$516

GOOD RIDDANCE

Where's Microguy!? lol

 

[PolishGuy]

Sorry that I don't read all the 146 pages. How come you are able to register all those generic .pro domains? I thought the extension was available only for licensed professionals - that's what the registry website says. Can I just register a random name without any papers stating that I belong to a licensed profession?

 

[gkjunior]

phonemarket.com 180,000 USD


Sail.pro 220 USD

is it just me or does the above just not make sense ?

 

[mwzd]

I'd never put a domain of that quality (sail) up for auction without a reserve, too risky with an extension like .pro - though I've sent one to auction much lower than what I'd expect too.

.COM is the undisputed king, but alternative tlds are getting there and .pro is among the best in a brand sense, at least imho.

Just need a few to break into the first page of google for an important terms, then see the prices going north, fast.

 

[webdomain]

mwzd, I agree with you that a first page rank on a .pro under a major keyword would be killer promotion and good for the site owner I might add. It certainly can be done.

 

[terol]

Good luck with Table.pro, mwzd! :wave:

 

[Ben42]

Best of luck to the buyer of sail (Has posted here a few times), he got a great deal!

 

[webdomain]

The market has to really heat up to get competitive bidding on .pro domains outside of the 3 letter auctions that attract enough .pro buyers to start some good bidding wars. I think the extension is certainly headed towards becoming a popular well known extension which really is the good news for current holders..

 

[PolishGuy]

I think the extension is certainly headed towards becoming a popular well known extension

It certainly doesn't help when you read that you need to be licensed professional to buy .pro.

 

[Edward Smeu]

PolishGuy, there is already a helpful talk regarding this issue a few pages earlier,please read.

I just practically stole Broadband and WebHost in the professional extension . Can't believe names like these sell for peanuts.

 

[PolishGuy]

PolishGuy, there is already a helpful talk regarding this issue a few pages earlier,please read.

Yes, I've found some talk (page 131 - that's 20 minutes of my life that I'm not getting back). All I read is that the clearly stated rules (http://nic.pro/pro/eligibility.shtml) are not enforced currently. That really boosts my trust in that extension...

 

[Edward Smeu]

Try page 144, how come you missed that?!

 

[JoeBiz]

It certainly doesn't help when you read that you need to be licensed professional to buy .pro.

The requirements include two very important things that you haven't mentioned. First, it is open to "Generic" professionals. That pretty much covers everyone who gets out of bed in the morning. And, the registration process is Self Certified.

Provide a profession: Painter.
Provide, in this case your city license number.
Then provide the website of the entity that issued your license.
Done.

I'm an engineer but I did antique repair for ten years. The antique repair is just as legitimate as the engineer.



8^X

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

PolishGuy, nothing special here.
You can certify yourself. Just your unis diploma number or driving lic. number.
And reg as much as you can!

 

[PolishGuy]

Thanks for reply. There is still no legit website where I could input any kind of number and get my personal information, that most probably would be against Polish law, which is restrictive about personal data protection. I would probably have to open a business, but that would involve paying an extra tax.
If me, a domain freak, can't be bothered to bypass the system then think about the end users.

 

[MicroGuy]

I think the registry would prefer for you to just wonder and marvel at the extension and forget about asking intelligent questions. In my opinion, it is now time to do a mass purge and remove these TLDs from your accounts. I see a great drop trend on the horizon. IMHO

It certainly doesn't help when you read that you need to be licensed professional to buy .pro.

You don't really silly. This is the wonder of the extension.

 

[Edward Smeu]

I think the registry would prefer for you to just wonder and marvel at the extension and forget about asking intelligent questions. In my opinion, it is now time to do a mass purge and remove these TLDs from your accounts. I see a great drop trend on the horizon.

Great then, let them drop, others will pick them up if they are good enough.


This talk tends to direct to a major problem that .pro had in the last years, the restrictions about registering a name.

As they are gone and the reg price dropped over 50 times, what's holding this extension back besides the people's biases about this TLD? And I know there are many and they must be educated to look at .pro different as they did before.

Look at .me which is the best example of what it was and what it become. Domain hacks are another example with the recent xx,xxx sales and the 100k sale.

In closure, there's even a high .xxx sale on DNJ last week. And .xxx is for porn what .pro is for services/professionals. Every extension has it's own role besides .com

 

[Kate]

Look at .me which is the best example of what it was and what it become. Domain hacks are another example with the recent xx,xxx sales and the 100k sale.

.me has found a limited but working niche, with active promotion by the registry and the registrars, and no restrictions. And unlike .pro it's carried by all mainstream registrars.
Problem with .pro is lack of visible promotion, and not being carried by the large registrars.
But imo the biggest issue is lack of identity, .pro essentially competing against .com (just like .biz that has no raison d'être either).

 

[webdomain]

I think .pro will gain that needed visibility as Afilias gets going. My take on this is that .pro will ramp up later this year or early next as the transfer to afilias is not til the summer per their press release, but they have suggested another prominent 3 day auction as well.

The trend is very much up...imho.

 

[Edward Smeu]

Problem with .pro is lack of visible promotion, and not being carried by the large registrars.
But imo the biggest issue is lack of identity, .pro essentially competing against .com (just like .biz that has no raison d'être either).

True, lack of promo and identity and there are so many asking what is .pro

There's still much to be done but I think it's better than 1 year ago and will be better next year and so on.

There's a big difference between .biz and .pro because of their meaning and the trends (one sinking and one which just took a big breath of air and struggling to come out. We'll live and see.

.pro competing against .com can only be a good thing in the future if the extension will go up because there are very few .com names to grab for less than xx,xxx.

 

[webdomain]

There you have it STP .pro's can be still bought at a fraction of the cost of a .com

...translates to a whole lot of room for growth!

 

[Kate]

I think .pro will gain that needed visibility as Afilias gets going.

Afilias took over .mobi, and that did not breathe new life in the TLD.
Perhaps their plan is just to buy extensions in order to kill them.
Even .tel got more registrations than .pro, so you can appreciate how popular .pro really is.

 

[Edward Smeu]

Afilias took over .mobi, and that did not breathe new life in the TLD.
Perhaps their plan is just to buy extensions in order to kill them.
Even .tel got more registrations than .pro, so you can appreciate how popular .pro really is.

.tel and .mobi as many said were released like 10 years later than supposed to. Because the technology advances every day and is a very important variable to these extensions they are less used day by day, variable which does not apply to .pro

There are countless online websites that use PRO in their name but not in the extension though, because of PRO's meaning and that's the big advantage.

Again, .pro is in the top 3 used gTLDs (from the bottom) but the real question if this will change over the next years. There are many that say it won't and die just like .tel .mobi .asia etc but there are others + the recent facts that disagree. And by recent facts I mean :


- Afilias purchased the registry(the move will take place this summer as webdomain said) and they intend to bring this extension at it's true potential as the reported sales are begining to grow in value and number.

- At the auction organized recently by GoDaddy the highest sales were : Go.pro at 40,000$ ; Xxx.pro at 18,900$ ; Job.pro at 5,450$.

- Recent other sales(2012) : Tech.pro at 25,500$ ; Serrurier.pro at 7,620$ (locksmith in French) ; Business.pro 4,600$(re-seller bargain price) ; Telefon.pro at 2,225$ or Smile.pro at 2,200$ and other lower.

- There will be a bigger .PRO auction announced by Afilias later this year

-The restrictions for registering a .pro had been a big problem in the last years but now almost anyone can reg one.

-The reg fee dropped a lot.


Right now Table.pro is auctioned in sedo and Reboot.pro(website) on flippa with 5 figure offers.

 

[Londoneli]

Good news:
one of the biggest UK registrar 123-reg.co.uk started registering .Pro domains:
http://www.123-reg.co.uk/order?domain=cloudpixl&search=search&ajax_enabled=true

 

[MicroGuy]

-The reg fee dropped more than 50 times.

I would not consider this a positive indicator as it suggests a loss of demand. When demand drops so does price. A good example would be the cost of dial-up networking. As the demand reached zero, so did the price.

What you are seeing with .PRO is the final stages before the entire collapse of reseller market value. As I have previously stated, this is probably one of the worst investments on the face of the Earth.

The expedited development of a comprehensive exit strategy would be something that anyone reading this might consider. IMHO