- Impact
- 3,651
Currently we seem to have two opposing camps - those who are adamantly against new TLDs who are pure .COMers and view all other TLDs as totally worthless and those who are heavily invested in new TLDs who believe new TLDs will be as prominent as .COM at some point in the next few years. OK there are some views in the middle.
I am not a pure .COMer as I do hold quite a few .Net and .TV domains, a few .Info and .Org domains and even several .COM.CO domains. Some new TLDs like Miami.Condos sound cool, and living in South Florida where there are many condo residents, one could think real estate commissions of 3% on a six figure sale would pay for the domain. However, I struggled with the idea of paying a premium to acquire certain keywords and then $69/year for renewals and then needing one of the domains to sell for enough years from now to cover what I had invested in the rest - just to break even. Having seen the low sales ratio of investments even in .COM, the lack of sales over $1500, the more common tendency of sales to be low $XXX and the reluctance of end users to pay for aftermarket domains I passed.
We now have some 16 million new TLD registrations spread across hundreds and hundreds of extensions. I do not own even one nor do I plan to in 2016.
What would cause me to change my mind? Unfortunately, publicly-reported sales of new TLDs from the registries would clearly not be enough. I have become skeptical of many reported sales particularly amongst new TLD registries. Of course these were reserved domains not available to your average domainer. But I just don't trust the registries to provide a true picture of aftermarket demand for domainer-held new TLDs.
What about domainer sales? If we start seeing end users buying aftermarket new TLDs in bulk that would be a move in the right direction. But I would need to see the developed site - not just a report on DNJ. A few end users with websites on new TLDs mean nothing if those domains were not aftermarket purchases. There are numerous cases of end users developing .Net or .TV or .Co domains acquired for reg fee. If you are investing in an extension, you need strong evidence there is a demand for what you continue paying for yearly.
So what would it take? I believe I would have to see a massive shift in end user sentiment toward domain names that resulted in an explosion of reasonable offers which converted to sales for my own portfolio - even though I do not own even one new TLD. If end users finally wake up and see how a domain name can be a useful tool to promote their business, then it will make sense to more aggressively acquire domains.
For those already heavily invested in new TLDs, it will ultimately come down to sales (just as I have seen with .info, .biz, .net, .TV). If your new TLD sales exceed renewal costs, you will retain a large portion of your portfolio. If not, you will gradually let lower-quality keywords drop. As the years pass if sales continue to disappoint you will drop all but your best domains which may mean you drop 90% or more of your new TLD portfolio. Time will tell.
I am not a pure .COMer as I do hold quite a few .Net and .TV domains, a few .Info and .Org domains and even several .COM.CO domains. Some new TLDs like Miami.Condos sound cool, and living in South Florida where there are many condo residents, one could think real estate commissions of 3% on a six figure sale would pay for the domain. However, I struggled with the idea of paying a premium to acquire certain keywords and then $69/year for renewals and then needing one of the domains to sell for enough years from now to cover what I had invested in the rest - just to break even. Having seen the low sales ratio of investments even in .COM, the lack of sales over $1500, the more common tendency of sales to be low $XXX and the reluctance of end users to pay for aftermarket domains I passed.
We now have some 16 million new TLD registrations spread across hundreds and hundreds of extensions. I do not own even one nor do I plan to in 2016.
What would cause me to change my mind? Unfortunately, publicly-reported sales of new TLDs from the registries would clearly not be enough. I have become skeptical of many reported sales particularly amongst new TLD registries. Of course these were reserved domains not available to your average domainer. But I just don't trust the registries to provide a true picture of aftermarket demand for domainer-held new TLDs.
What about domainer sales? If we start seeing end users buying aftermarket new TLDs in bulk that would be a move in the right direction. But I would need to see the developed site - not just a report on DNJ. A few end users with websites on new TLDs mean nothing if those domains were not aftermarket purchases. There are numerous cases of end users developing .Net or .TV or .Co domains acquired for reg fee. If you are investing in an extension, you need strong evidence there is a demand for what you continue paying for yearly.
So what would it take? I believe I would have to see a massive shift in end user sentiment toward domain names that resulted in an explosion of reasonable offers which converted to sales for my own portfolio - even though I do not own even one new TLD. If end users finally wake up and see how a domain name can be a useful tool to promote their business, then it will make sense to more aggressively acquire domains.
For those already heavily invested in new TLDs, it will ultimately come down to sales (just as I have seen with .info, .biz, .net, .TV). If your new TLD sales exceed renewal costs, you will retain a large portion of your portfolio. If not, you will gradually let lower-quality keywords drop. As the years pass if sales continue to disappoint you will drop all but your best domains which may mean you drop 90% or more of your new TLD portfolio. Time will tell.
