discuss TOP 10 mistakes new gTLD investors are doing in 2018 - Are you GUILTY of any of them?

[Brands.International]

Hi friends,

I did not have much time for NamePros discussions lately (except my appraisal thread for new gTLDs, where I spend some of my time), but I still like to read new articles and threads here. As some of you might know, I invest exclusively in new gTLD names. It is difficult for me not to notice that some new gTLD fellow investors are not doing well, therefore I am going to write some suggestions & hopefully it will be helpful for some members here!

TOP 10 mistakes new gTLD investors are doing in 2018!

Mistake no.1 - you are registering BAD, WORTHLESS names!
This mistake is far far the most important one - everything else can be forgotten, but if you have bad names, you will never make any profit. The appraisal thread I am running is unfortunately full of such examples...

Mistake no.2 - you are registering lot of names, and will be forced to dropped them prior the first renewal.
This is because you ignore the fact that even in best portfolios which are really well selected, only 1% of names are sold yearly for price which can be considered significant. And many portfolios I see here are not well selected, and there will be 0 sales in total, due to mistake no.1

Mistake no.3 - you spend too much time at Namepros, instead of LikedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Twitter.
Just to clarify, I love Namepros, and I love to hang around here. I also like to buy domains here for few dollars. But most of your end users (when it comes to new gTLDs) are simply not here. You need to reach out on various platforms, as here you speak mostly with other domainers, which is great for educational or recreational purposes, but not for your sales. Largest sales are made to end users, not to fellow domain speculators/investors.

Mistake no.4 - you are trying to impress, or get an agreement/approval from hardcore .com investors.
I mean, come on - selected, high quality new gTLD domain names are direct competition to valuable .com portfolios - there is only limited amount of money spent on domains, and new gTLDs are redirecting part of that money flow towards them. It is therefore logical that it is an unwanted competition for many .com holders and we can not expect lot of praise on them because of that. Saying that, I can clearly see some .com investors are very nice and genuine here, so this can not be generalised - still, it is good idea to have this notion somewhere back in your mind, as seeking approval of your new gTLDs names from someone who spent years to build his or her legacy extensions portfolio can be an doomed effort from the very start.

Mistake no.5 - you are trying to get an appraisal of your new gTLD name from .com investors.
Again, even in 2018, you will get lot of "regfee" comments or "I would stick with .com" comments -this is one of the reasons I am runnig the appraisal thread exclusively for new gTLDs, and I would like to invite other new gTLD investors to be more active in appraisal threads as well. In general, anytime someone gives you an appraisal or advice, try to check the domain portfolio of that person ..for example, if you see lot of bad domain names, it also can give you some information about the quality of such "appraisal".

Mistake no.6: you do not have your own marketplace ..
It really takes only few minutes and few dollars to create domain name marketplace, using solutions like efty.com, or to create simple webpage using wix.com. There is really no excuse for not having your marketplace nice and ready. Especially after GDPR legislation in place since May 2018, we really need to project some more credibility towards end users, and having nice marketplace is very good way to do so!

Mistake no.7: you have your marketplace created, but you operate from .com domain name...
Really???If you sell new gTLDs, you need to lead by your own example...so your markteplace also should operate on new gTLD extension. How can you possibly persuade end user to replace his long or ugly legacy name with new gTLD, if you do not operate from new gTLD? Think about it for a minute.

Mistake no.8: you are registering domain names with renewals around 500 and higher.
And you persuade yourself that you will develop it, if not flipped within 1 year. Yes, you can have 1 or 2 such names, no problem, but if you buy 30 of them, there is no way you will be able to develop all of them within 1 year. So you will end up dropping maybe 28 of them. And then you willl be really hating new gTLDs and "those greedy registries and ICANN maybe as well". This happend to many people 4 years ago, and we saw that recently again few weeks ago (who can guess the extension?), and I am sure we will see it again in near future when other planned new gTLD extensions will go to General Availability.

Mistake no.9: you do not care what are companies behind particular extensions.
You even can not tell difference between registrar and registries. You do not understand that once you drop you new gTLD domain name, it can be easily re-priced by registry, or it can be reserved by registry. You drop your good name, and then you start topics on Namepros saying "Registry reserved my name, please help!"...

Mistake no.10: you registered 1000 of very bad names, which will be only pure money loss.
Then (because you got lucky), you finally get a really good new gTLD name, with low standard renewal. Finally something good! This is a name which you should keep and wait for good ofers. But (because you have spent money on those 1000 bad domain names and everyone laughts at you ) you feel you need some casflow now! And because you are lazy to create your own marketplace (and from unknown reason you cannot also create your LinkedIn profile which is free of charge), and you do not like to send emails to end users because it is too much work, and you do not like to make phonecalls (from your country it is expensive anyway), you start $1 auction here...then it goes like this:
1
up
up
last 24 hours, SUPER PREMIUM name, a STEAL!!!
2
up
LAST BID IS $2, SUPER PREMIUM, INSANE NAME!!! Can anyone give $3? Do I see $3 for it?
up
up
up
me: ok, I will take it for BIN, USD 10...

And then you are again left with your bad 1000 names.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So guys, are you guilty of any of this?

 

[bmugford]

So far in 2018 average sales price of all domain names $1393
So far in 2018 average sales price of ngTLD $5531
About 4:1 in favour of ngTLD.

So overall the ratio seems like 4/5 comparing ngTLD to all domains, about 1/5 as likely to sell as any old domain, but when it does 4x more cash per sale!

Because of the low sales volume, the average sales price is heavily skewed by a handful of registry sales.

Brad

 

[Brands.International]

gtld's are like a bag of haribo candy. They look nice but are not good enough for a meal or what you'd want to be known for if friends come around for dinner.

If you do not like new gTLDs, then of course invest in .com, it is not problem at all. Invest in something you know in detail and you believe in. And let other people have their ways. For example, I am interested only in new gTLDs, and I am completely NOT interested in .com names. The main reason is that competition in .com is INSANE, while competition in new gTLDs is much weaker and you can accumulate valuable assets much more easily. And why is that? Because people like you do not believe new gTLDs can be valuable assets - this is where you are wrong imho, and this is why you are not part of the competition (which is very good for me). So I personally like your analogy with haribo candy, why not

 

[lambo.com]

If you do not like new gTLDs, then of course invest in .com, it is not problem at all. Invest in something you know in detail and you believe in. And let other people have their ways. For example, I am interested only in new gTLDs, and I am completely NOT interested in .com names. The main reason is that competition in .com is INSANE, while competition in new gTLDs is much weaker and you can accumulate valuable assets much more easily. And why is that? Because people like you do not believe new gTLDs can be valuable assets - this is where you are wrong imho, and this is why you are not part of the competition (which is very good for me). So I personally like your analogy with haribo candy, why not

Reseller demand aside, how do you feel about end user demand? Is it where you would like it to be in 2018 and do you have concerns on this space you specialize in for the medium-long term?

 

[Kate]

Mistake no.11: ignoring the market trends and consumer demand. nTLDs are in decline. Yes, it's true that the figures were massively inflated through promotions, zone stuffing and artificial methods. But nTLDs are not picking up steam, the vast majority of end users are not embracing them and in my opinion they likely never will.
I think they now have lost whatever little momentum they had. They have normalized, just like .biz has normalized (and it's still pretty much worthless). New extensions are not 'new' anymore, they are already old news.

It's already hard enough to sell .com domains, if your portfolio is mostly made up of nTLDs you are going to struggle.

I would actually renumber Mistake #11 to #1.

If in doubt, analyze reported sales and figure out for yourself what the demand is.

 

[NickB]

@MrAcidic thank you for your kind words! And also for a honest post. In first year of domaining everyone is guilty of number 1. I think no.6 can be easily solved in few hours as well. The number 3 is very important - I am pretty guilty of that one myself Instead of selling to end users, I am chatting here with my fellow domain investors - I really like it and it is a recreational activity for me, but money-wise, it is not going to bring even a single dollar to my bank account. Still, somehow I like it, lol.

namepros - It's a guilty pleasure

But you are right, it does not help get a return on our investment - as you say no.6 will only take a few hours, will TRY and get it done over the weekend (I own chilled domains . com) as I have a mixture of extensions, this will do as a platform

Regarding number 3 you are right, networking and reaching out with your business details fully disclosed is critical and I will seriously look into how to improve this (I am not a huge fan of social media!)

All the best and I will keep an eye out for your future posts!

 

[NickB]

Mistake no.11: ignoring the market trends and consumer demand. nTLDs are in decline. Yes, it's true that the figures were massively inflated through promotions, zone stuffing and artificial methods. But nTLDs are not picking up steam, the vast majority of end users are not embracing them and in my opinion they likely never will.
I think they now have lost whatever little momentum they had. They have normalized, just like .biz has normalized (and it's still pretty much worthless). New extensions are not 'new' anymore, they are already old news.

It's already hard enough to sell .com domains, if your portfolio is mostly made up of nTLDs you are going to struggle.

I would actually renumber Mistake #11 to #1.

If in doubt, analyze reported sales and figure out for yourself what the demand is.

Hi Kate,

Do you own any non .coms? If yes which extensions?

Just curious, never reached out to you before and just interested if you own any or not

Thanks

 

[Brands.International]

Reseller demand aside, how do you feel about end user demand? Is it where you would like it to be in 2018 and do you have concerns on this space you specialize in for the medium-long term?

Yes, I get you. End user demand is improving as time goes, and it is growing. Still, many of end users are not even aware at the moment that some of new gTLD extensions exist, they hear it from my for the first time.

But my experience is that after they learn about new branding possibilities, many of them actually like it very much. The more technical/online is the end user's area, the more awareness they have. I think many domainers underestimate the ability of end users to quickly catch up with new possibilities.

I personally do not have any concerns about medium-long term fro new gTLDs. For me, it is very important now to accumulate best possible names I can, with as small renewals I can find, and to have some larger sales during a year to be able to sustain the portfolio and also to purchase new, better quality names, which I do on regular basis. I have also renewed many of my best names until 2026-2027....which indicates I am not going anywehere away from new gTLDs, at least for next 8-10 years.

 

[lambo.com]

for me, IF I was trying to be cute -- I'd be all over .it

not a ngtld but better than them all.

 

[Kate]

Hi Kate,

Do you own any non .coms? If yes which extensions?

Lots of ccTLDs. Zero nTLDs.

 

[Brands.International]

Mistake no.11: ignoring the market trends and consumer demand. nTLDs are in decline. Yes, it's true that the figures were massively inflated through promotions, zone stuffing and artificial methods. But nTLDs are not picking up steam, the vast majority of end users are not embracing them and in my opinion they likely never will.
I think they now have lost whatever little momentum they had. They have normalized, just like .biz has normalized (and it's still pretty much worthless). New extensions are not 'new' anymore, they are already old news.

It's already hard enough to sell .com domains, if your portfolio is mostly made up of nTLDs you are going to struggle.

I would actually renumber Mistake #11 to #1.

If in doubt, analyze reported sales and figure out for yourself what the demand is.

Totally wrong. Your personal mistake no.11 should be: investing into short ccTLDs. Then posting several times here at Namepros advices like "when offer to your domain name comes, take it - it can be your first and last offer". This seems to be your reality, at least from what you write and what I read from you.

I do not know how your portfolio looks like, as it is very well hidden. But I can assure you: if you have high quality new GTLD domain names, you do not post advices of "your first and your last offer" type. You post advices like: "my way, or highway".

Sorry friend, thank you, but ... no

 

[lambo.com]

Totally wrong. Your personal mistake no.11 should be: investing into short ccTLDs. Then posting several times here at Namepros advices like "when offer to your domain name comes, take it - it can be your first and last offer". This seems to be your reality, at least from what you write and what I read from you.

I do not know how your portfolio looks like, as it is very well hidden. But I can assure you: if you have high quality new GTLD domain names, you do not post advices of "your first and your last offer" type. You post advices like: "my way, or highway".

Sorry friend, thank you, but ... no

what are your lifetime sales from ngtld's - low/mid/high --- 4 figs, 5 figs etc?

 

[Brands.International]

what are your lifetime sales from ngtld's - low/mid/high --- 4 figs, 5 figs etc?

My personal finances/sales are not of public matter and I in principle do not disclose any of my sales. This is btw one of the reasons why some buyers prefer to work with me - they can be sure that next day they will not see their new acquisition all over the Namepros & indexed in Google.

Saying that, if you are really interested about some sale range, you can reverse-engineer a lot: most of my porftolio is visible to public, maybe only 20-30% is hidden atm. So you can figure out what the renewals are for each name. and get the minimum needed to sustain the portfolio, which will also give you minimum level of my yearly sales Maximum - I will not tell.

 

[JB Lions]

If you do not like new gTLDs, then of course invest in .com, it is not problem at all. Invest in something you know in detail and you believe in. And let other people have their ways. For example, I am interested only in new gTLDs, and I am completely NOT interested in .com names. The main reason is that competition in .com is INSANE, while competition in new gTLDs is much weaker and you can accumulate valuable assets much more easily. And why is that? Because people like you do not believe new gTLDs can be valuable assets - this is where you are wrong imho, and this is why you are not part of the competition (which is very good for me). So I personally like your analogy with haribo candy, why not

If you can't get the gold, sell the picks and shovels. If you can't sell new gtlds, sell ebooks and appraisals. The Add To Cart button on your site isn't working btw.

I'm thinking how much people are spending on new gtlds and if they took that money and spent it on .com at NJ/Snap etc. probably would be better off, easily. But at the end of the day, only you would know if you're making money or not. If so, congrats.

 

[bmugford]

My personal finances/sales are not of public matter and I in principle do not disclose any of my sales. This is btw one of the reasons why some buyers prefer to work with me - they can be sure that next day they will not see their new acquisition all over the Namepros & indexed in Google.

Saying that, if you are really interested about some sale range, you can reverse-engineer a lot: most of my porftolio is visible to public, maybe only 20-30% is hidden atm. So you can figure out what the renewals are for each name. and get the minimum needed to sustain the portfolio, which will also give you minimum level of my yearly sales Maximum - I will not tell.

Cool, but why should anyone just take your advice then? Otherwise it could just be like the blind leading the blind.

That is just as much of a cop out as the "my sales are subject to NDA" standard response that many people use when questioned.

Brad

 

[Brands.International]

If you can't get the gold, sell the picks and shovels. If you can't sell new gtlds, sell ebooks and appraisals. The Add To Cart button on your site isn't working btw.

Well, Add to Cart button is not working, as that book is not ready yet I write it for more then a year now, and as situation with new gTLDs changes, I also had to change some aspects of the book. Anyway, book is not ready yet, you have to wait...

 

[lambo.com]

Well, Add to Cart button is not working, as that book is not ready yet I write it for more then a year now, and as situation with new gTLDs changes, I also had to change some aspects of the book. Anyway, book is not ready yet, you have to wait...

fwiw you did the right thing giving up on the idea

 

[Brands.International]

Cool, but why should anyone just take your advice then? Otherwise it could just be like the blind leading the blind.

That is just as much of a cop out as the "my sales are subject to NDA" standard response that many people use when questioned.

Brad

Brad, this was already discussed several times - anyone here can discuss, support, learn, trade, or invest in new gTLD at Namepros without presenting his or her online account balance to you to judge. Those are personal information, and only idiot presents his or her personal information on internet (sorry guys, those of you who are doing it...).

I am also curious: why anyone here should take advice from, lets say @Kate, who is totally anonymous and we even can not see her (or his) portfolio? Having at least link to your porftolio is totally basic thing, imo..

 

[Brands.International]

Good points and all but got me thinking, especially the mistake no. 5...

I think by going the new G route from the very beginning, one never truly learns what makes some domains good and others not. Foremost, one never learns about the only two things that really matters when it comes to value of a certain domain, i.e. scarcity and uniqueness. And that's why their taste in domains is always going to be a bit off, or standards too low.

My opinion only.

Hmm, that is interesting opinion @nomen ... you might be right, I am not sure. But I can not test your hypothesis as it would require a time machine - I would become .com domain investors first, and then would switch to new gTLDs

Vice versa, I think it can be an advantage when you are not influenced with .com mentality: I know many successful .com investors who got very early in 2014 also into new gTLDs .. and they got burned. Mainly they made wrong decisions with renewals (they did not care enough) and with timing (they secured their assests too early, when really 0 aftermarket was there). So their .com experience did not help them in new world of 1000 new extensions and various premium renewals...

When it comes to uniqness and scarcity, when you read my appraisal thread, you will see large focus on "number of available alternatives". It is maybe little different then in .com world, but also in new gTLDs we care about it - if there is a large number of available alternatives for your new gTLD domain, you do not have enough leverage to end user to make him pay some significant premium for your domain name.

 

[garptrader]

Here is an idea for focusing on the best keyword combinations: Does the equivalent .COM. make sense and if so how much would you pay for it given a perceived end user value (to yield an acceptable return given the high risk of domain investments)? Then take ten years of renewals for that TLD to give you a reasonable chance someone in the next decade might come along. Example...

Miami.condos
MiamiCondos.com

I recall years ago Michael Berkens had the .Com domain with a $10k minimum offer. Who knows what his asking price might have been but perhaps into low six figures. Regardless most investors would agree the .Com makes sense. It seems the .condos renewals were $69 though it is possible for certain cities they may have been higher (at least during early access period). Selling domains to realtors can be a challenge but if the keyword is good enough and the renewals are not too high one could consider the new extension. What I see though among many ntld investors are registrations that I would not even backorder in .Com.

 

[equity78]

Cool, but why should anyone just take your advice then? Otherwise it could just be like the blind leading the blind.

That is just as much of a cop out as the "my sales are subject to NDA" standard response that many people use when questioned.

Brad

Exactly Brad, I have said for more than a decade, before we get around to listening to your advice, and if it is credible, tell me what you own, what you have sold and what you have developed. If those things can't be disclosed then the discussion is over for me. It's all meaningless, the domain industry has seen too many false Gods, pontificating their mantra, with no proof to back it up. But a lot of those people are so worried about the bigger players being transparent and hoping you send your sale to DN Journal if it's in an extension that fits their agenda.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Mistake no.11: ignoring the market trends and consumer demand. nTLDs are in decline......
I think they now have lost whatever little momentum they had. .....
If in doubt, analyze reported sales and figure out for yourself what the demand is.

Hi @Kate,

Normally I really like your posts because they are logical, supported by evidence, and you are one of the most clear and eloquent writers on NPs. However, I have issues with the parts of your post quoted above.

I say this based on....

(a) So far in 2018 the ngTLD total sales are just over $3.6M on NameBio. If the rest of the year continue at same rate this will be the best year yet, by a small margin, on NameBio.

(b) The top 7 ngTLD sales on NameBio of all time have all occurred in the last 17 months. The highest 3 sales are all within the last 7 months. I realize com had a much longer period, but if you look at the top 10 .com sales of all time, the most recent was 2015.

(c) Arguably the ngTLD introduction of APP was one of the more successful introductions of a ngTLD, and it has quickly achieved resales with values above $10,000.

(d) The big sales of ngTLDs this year have brought eloquent business leaders explaining why they made a choice of a ngTLD, which will trickle down to increase acceptance of less premium ngTLDs.

(e) If you look at the DNJournal top 10 (with ties) sales of year there are 2 ngTLDs (as well as the .com).

Do ngTLDs still have a huge struggle in recognition and are they hard to sell? Absolutely.
Is it easier in general to make a ROI with .com (and .org and .io and a few others). Yes, I agree.
I just disagree, respectfully, with your statement that the ngTLDs have lost momentum.

Thanks for reading,
Bob

 

[Brands.International]

If we look at the NameBio statistics, there have been 48,010 domain sales in total so far in 2018 of which 649 were in ngTLD. Sounds gloomy for the ngTLD investors.

However, important also to take into account that majority of domain names registered and for sale are in com/net/org or country code. Using Verisign global domain market most recent stats 333.8 million total domains registered, and 20.2 million ngTLD registered. Therefore we have:
So far in 2018 1 domain name has been sold for every 6953 registered in all domains.
So far in 2018 1 ngTLD domain name has been sold for every 31,125 registered
(these are registered, rather than for sale, so if we looked at for sale would be more optimistic in both)
Still gloomy for ngTLD , but 5:1 ratio not as bad as reading the NameBio daily reports would at first glance suggest. Many more domains are com than anything else, and many more sales are com too, naturally.

However, NameBio also gives price information so that should be considered too. I mean most of us would happily sell fewer domains if each sale was for more dollars )
So far in 2018 average sales price of all domain names $1393
So far in 2018 average sales price of ngTLD $5531
About 4:1 in favour of ngTLD.

So overall the ratio seems like 4/5 comparing ngTLD to all domains, about 1/5 as likely to sell as any old domain, but when it does 4x more cash per sale!

However, the registry (mean folks grrr.... ) take some of the ngTLD nice sales for themselves. I am trying to actually estimate this as part of my monthly ngTLD report, but it seems like something like half the dollar value (this number subject to change and is just for NameBio reported sales) If they do take 1/2 then it would seem that ngTLD investing, on average, is about 1/2 of 4/5, or ngTLD investing about 40% as lucrative as domain name investing in general.

Of course, the ngTLD haters keep reminding us how stupid ngTLD investors are, so I figure if the ngTLD competition is made up of, well not very smart folks, that gives me an advantage (or maybe I am one of them, oops disadvantage Bob ).

Don't take all this too serious and I am sorry if the numbers hurt our heads .

Getting serious, I think that the numbers support the idea that the easier money is in com, but it's not as one sided as first seems, and as some claim. I think we should all respect each other and what each individual choice is with respect to how they want to invest and contribute to the domain name business.

Have a happy day,

Bob

ps This is my favourite statistics book << NOT an affiliate link

@MetBob this is pretty good analysis, thank you!
So if I read it correctly (as reported by namebio):

a) FREQUENCY OF SALES:
So far in 2018 1 domain name has been sold for every 6953 registered in all domains.
So far in 2018 1 ngTLD domain name has been sold for every 31,125 registered
About 5:1 ratio not in favour of ngTLD domain names

b) DOLLAR VALUE OF SALES:
So far in 2018 average sales price of all domain names $1393
So far in 2018 average sales price of ngTLD $5531
About 4:1 in favour of new gTLD domain names

CONCLUSION:
Based on statistics provided by Bob, it seems that new gTLDs are 5 times less likely to sell in 2018 comparing to set of all domain names. But ... WHEN they sell, they sell in average at 4 times of the average domain name price!

I think that supports the general notion about new gTLDs - only the best sells atm, and new gTLD investors should really focus on best possible quality of their acquisitions (when they have resale in mind). So not second best possible alternatives, typos, crazy brandables, "playful hacks", etc - which means avoid Mistake no.1 at all costs

 

[Brands.International]

namepros - It's a guilty pleasure

But you are right, it does not help get a return on our investment - as you say no.6 will only take a few hours, will TRY and get it done over the weekend (I own chilled domains . com) as I have a mixture of extensions, this will do as a platform

Regarding number 3 you are right, networking and reaching out with your business details fully disclosed is critical and I will seriously look into how to improve this (I am not a huge fan of social media!)

All the best and I will keep an eye out for your future posts!

Thanks friend...btw, I think chilled domains / com is pretty good name for your marketplace. GL and wish you some nice sales

 

[Brands.International]

Here is an idea for focusing on the best keyword combinations: Does the equivalent .COM. make sense and if so how much would you pay for it given a perceived end user value (to yield an acceptable return given the high risk of domain investments)? Then take ten years of renewals for that TLD to give you a reasonable chance someone in the next decade might come along. Example...

Miami.condos
MiamiCondos.com

I recall years ago Michael Berkens had the .Com domain with a $10k minimum offer. Who knows what his asking price might have been but perhaps into low six figures. Regardless most investors would agree the .Com makes sense. It seems the .condos renewals were $69 though it is possible for certain cities they may have been higher (at least during early access period). Selling domains to realtors can be a challenge but if the keyword is good enough and the renewals are not too high one could consider the new extension. What I see though among many ntld investors are registrations that I would not even backorder in .Com.

100% agree. The idea that it is ideal that new gTLD combo should be registered in as many extensions as possible was widely discussed here at Namepros by several experienced new gTLD investors, most prominently by @Fancy.domains If I remember correctly

So for example: for Miami / Condos we would like to see that also "MiamiCondos" string is actually registered at .com, .net. org, .us, .co.uk, etc...if this is the case, it is some kind of assurance that this string is/was at demand. Then the next step is ideally to check who holds those domain names - if those are end users, it is great. If domain investors, not so great, but still ok. ..So this is the initial analysis every new gTLD investor should do prior any registration. The fact that many people are not doing it means that they will usually loose money with their investments.

As for renewals, personally I am not fan of $69 renewals, therefore I do not own any .condos, (yet). If I learn about some renewal/transfer promos for .condos, I will consider them strongly, as it is great, niche, new gTLD extension. But I own for example some nice .city domains - capital cities of some countries, something like (for example) London / City (those names are not publicly visible at my marketplace). Why I think they are great? Because I secured them with standard renewals attached, and year ago there was a renewal promotion at particular registrar for .city where it was possible to renew them for $5/year. So of course I renewed them 6 years in advance, with total cost of $30/name.

I think this game is very far from risky -for example in your case, as I have seen you have lot of nice .tv names in your portfolio, and you have to pay 28-30 each year for them. There are no renewal promotions for .tv afaik. So for cost of 1 .tv domain name, you can have 6 great .city names (if you can secure them with standard renewals and utilize correctly the renewal/transfer promotions when they are available). In summary - if you can handle larger portfolio of .tv, names, new gTLDs (well, some of them) will be just peanuts for you to handle, imo.

 

[lambo.com]

sorry but new gtld investi

100% agree. The idea that it is ideal that new gTLD combo should be registered in as many extensions as possible was widely discussed here at Namepros by several experienced new gTLD investors, most prominently by @Fancy.domains If I remember correctly

So for example: for Miami / Condos we would like to see that also "MiamiCondos" string is actually registered at .com, .net. org, .us, .co.uk, etc...if this is the case, it is some kind of assurance that this string is/was at demand. Then the next step is ideally to check who holds those domain names - if those are end users, it is great. If domain investors, not so great, but still ok. ..So this is the initial analysis every new gTLD investor should do prior any registration. The fact that many people are not doing it means that they will usually loose money with their investments.

As for renewals, personally I am not fan of $69 renewals, therefore I do not own any .condos, (yet). If I learn about some renewal/transfer promos for .condos, I will consider them strongly, as it is great, niche, new gTLD extension. But I own for example some nice .city domains - capital cities of some countries, something like (for example) London / City (those names are not publicly visible at my marketplace). Why I think they are great? Because I secured them with standard renewals attached, and year ago there was a renewal promotion at particular registrar for .city where it was possible to renew them for $5/year. So of course I renewed them 6 years in advance, with total cost of $30/name.

I think this game is very far from risky -for example in your case, as I have seen you have lot of nice .tv names in your portfolio, and you have to pay 28-30 each year for them. There are no renewal promotions for .tv afaik. So for cost of 1 .tv domain name, you can have 6 great .city names (if you can secure them with standard renewals and utilize correctly the renewal/transfer promotions when they are available). In summary - if you can handle larger portfolio of .tv, names, new gTLDs (well, some of them) will be just peanuts for you to handle, imo.

I think you are smart to try and position yourself as an expert in a niche of a niche with so many dumb speculators.

Snake oil marketing might be the only way to make a buck in ngtlds outside of being in the top tier of registrars that make it work; (maybe a few rare exceptions aside)