poll Will a buyer buy your .CO? Let's discuss

[abstractdomainer]

Unless your .CO domain is too good, do you think a buyer has the probability of buying it from you at $2,000 to $10,000 or so?
I don't think so. Here is why:

The buyer has too many options

Imagine how many domain name investors would buy the $120 .CO domains which are decent to really good. Not many, I would suppose (an assumption here, given that one can buy like 12 .COMs or a decent 4-letter .COM for that price).
So, if you buy a $1 .CO domain now, thinking that a buyer may snap it up for $999 or so, things may be tricky here. The buyer has many options with the $120 names that he can buy instead of buying your .CO domain. That's where my doubt comes in.

Although I did book close to 200 .CO domains recently, there is always the factor of having the choice to book 20 .COMs instead. A difficult choice indeed. But given that .CO is so enticing, I could hardly resist the urge.

I think I picked up a couple of decent names. However, the time will tell.

What do you think of your recent .CO acquisitions of $1 each?

 

[CraigD]

The best keyword .CO domains appear to sell for a good price, and can be registered quite cheaply, but I think the renewal costs are a bit steep so most will be dropped after 12 months.

 

[alienbaba]

Many of the .co domains I bought this month are popular words which are taken in .com & I can outbound with a traffic leak prevention angle. Others are first names or last names which I will outbound on LinkedIn..

 

[Samer]

You’re still on .Co?

Only chance i sniff is if $0.99 .Co reg promo
(drop after year. never renew bloated co renew
$25 renewal? $20? What a joke.

.Com and only .net considered my #2 Sorry ; )

 

[D Haynes]

Sold a couple .co for good $xxxx profits. I don't hold many now and as already stated they might not be names you would hold for years on end (unless they're top draw names or names you get regular offors on) but there is definitely enduser demand and therefore money to be made.

 

[abstractdomainer]

The best keyword .CO domains appear to sell for a good price, and can be registered quite cheaply, but I think the renewal costs are a bit steep so most will be dropped after 12 months.

Exactly. $25 is a big tradeoff. If you are buying, chances are, we have a 1 year perspective in mind.

Many of the .co domains I bought this month are popular words which are taken in .com & I can outbound with a traffic leak prevention angle. Others are first names or last names which I will outbound on LinkedIn..

Try and share your story. As for me, .co outbound hasn't been very successful so far.

You’re still on .Co?

Only chance i sniff is if $0.99 .Co reg promo
(drop after year. never renew bloated co renew
$25 renewal? $20? What a joke.

.Com and only .net considered my #2 Sorry ; )

I know. Domaining is addictive! Sometimes, controlling the instinct is very very hard. Specially with the $1 promo.

Sold a couple .co for good $xxxx profits. I don't hold many now and as already stated they might not be names you would hold for years on end (unless they're top draw names or names you get regular offors on) but there is definitely enduser demand and therefore money to be made.

Did you acquire these recently in the promo - $1? Or were these registered earlier and renewed?
What was the venue of sale?
This is from a portfolio of how many domains?

 

[CraigD]

I have a couple that I plan on keeping, that are matches for developed sites, so they redirect.

eg: artemisprogram.co

But I will NOT purchase any extension from domainers trying to match my dot coms.

 

[D Haynes]

Did you acquire these recently in the promo - $1? Or were these registered earlier and renewed?
What was the venue of sale?
This is from a portfolio of how many domains?

Names I bought from GD expired for $xx and renewed for 3/4 years. Sales were from an inbound enquiry (single word) from a broker and afternic BIN (LLL). I only ever had 5 .Co names at most.

If you check the sales thread there's a guy that sells loads of .co names for good prices (can't remember his name) he's the guy to ask.

 

[equity78]

@Nikul Sanghvi can weight in and prove that theory wrong. He has done tremendous numbers with .co and every name was not super premium.

 

[lock]

Some generic keywords are strong but i don't have a single one. Observation shows that 2 words are going nowhere and single words that aren't too obscure are offering a return.

 

[NLP]

This is entirely dependent on the keyword. Keywords that are in demand are going to be scarce in any extension. Some words work better with .CO than other extensions. It also depends on the industry.
There are too many variables — in general, crappy/long words and two-word combinations are going to be a hard sell in ANY extension.

 

[7363824]

Yeah, there's alot of options, but there are alot of options within .com either...is x.com taken, how about tryx, getx, xnow, you get the picture. AT some point someone would rather have x.co than some frankinstein long .com like tryxtoday.com

IMO .co and .io are better .com alternatives than say NGTLD's. It's early days for them still but as .coms become even more scare other extnetions will have their time. Personally I think the real value for .co or .io is a long term hold but there are options for quick flips too if you are willing to take xxx, which given a 99cent promo and a one year hold time is not a bad return. But this is just my opinion one I am testing out myself with nearly 700 promo .co names. It'll be interesting to see how that ends in another year....I will say this though, with COVID more businesses are going online or starting up, but people also need to be frugal so a xxx .co sounds like a good choice for many of them I bet. Though many more will end up with a long winded hand reg .com to be sure.

 

[Nikul Sanghvi]

@Nikul Sanghvi can weight in and prove that theory wrong. He has done tremendous numbers with .co and every name was not super premium.

Thanks @equity78!

I guess the key with selling any domain is:

1) The connection between supply and demand
2) The suitability of the SLD on the TLD (does it the keyword fit what typically sells well on the extension)
3) Is the domain priced right in relation to the other available/competing extensions

For alternative extensions such as .CO, I mostly invest in SLDs where the .COM, .NET, .ORG, .IO etc are all in use. In scenarios where those alternatives are for sale, I look for domains where the asking price of the alternative is high enough for me to come in lower, and still have good ROI.

So maybe the matching .COM is for sale, but it's priced at $150k. The .ORG, .NET and .IO are in use. I would find that an attractive opportunity, and might try to sell the .CO for 2-10% of that asking price. This allows a smaller business that can't afford the .COM to buy an alternative extension and still get a clean match against their brand.
At a secondary level, for buyers that don't need a clean match for keyword.tld, you still compete with the alternatives on .COM such as GetKeyword, KeywordApp, HelloKeyword, KeywordGroup, etc - and some buyers might prefer those.

These three posts below go into more depth about the what I'm looking for in a .CO and cover my buying strategy in greater detail:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/almost-a-decade-of-domaining.1056328/page-3#post-6786857
https://www.namepros.com/threads/wh...ce-for-two-words-domain.1063706/#post-6557582
https://www.namepros.com/threads/dot-co-confusion.1033963/#post-6293060

My selection criteria means that nearly everything I would want to buy in .CO is now premium.
This is unfortunate as now I don't really buy many domains using the coupons or discounts.
It was excellent for me in 2017 but now the non-premium domains do not yield the same ROI for me. Even when the domains are only $1, I will only selectively buy a dozen - rather than hundreds, because even though you might still make a bit of money, the ROI on time and capital (vs. other opportunities) isn't worth it for me anymore.

And if you do reg $1 .CO in volume, needless to say, make sure you have auto-renewal turned off!

 

[abstractdomainer]

Some generic keywords are strong but i don't have a single one. Observation shows that 2 words are going nowhere and single words that aren't too obscure are offering a return.

Ya. That's what I am worried. And mostly, the names I picked were all 2 words, coz of lack of single words or my research.

Yeah, there's alot of options, but there are alot of options within .com either...is x.com taken, how about tryx, getx, xnow, you get the picture. AT some point someone would rather have no_url_shorteners than some frankinstein long .com like tryxtoday.com

IMO .co and .io are better .com alternatives than say NGTLD's. It's early days for them still but as .coms become even more scare other extnetions will have their time. Personally I think the real value for .co or .io is a long term hold but there are options for quick flips too if you are willing to take xxx, which given a 99cent promo and a one year hold time is not a bad return. But this is just my opinion one I am testing out myself with nearly 700 promo .co names. It'll be interesting to see how that ends in another year....I will say this though, with COVID more businesses are going online or starting up, but people also need to be frugal so a xxx .co sounds like a good choice for many of them I bet. Though many more will end up with a long winded hand reg .com to be sure.

That's a very valid point. Is this your first experiment or have you had similar experiments with some other extensions as well?

 

[abstractdomainer]

Thanks @equity78!

So maybe the matching .COM is for sale, but it's priced at $150k. The .ORG, .NET and .IO are in use. I would find that an attractive opportunity, and might try to sell the .CO for 2-10% of that asking price. This allows a smaller business that can't afford the .COM to buy an alternative extension and still get a clean match against their brand.
At a secondary level, for buyers that don't need a clean match for keyword.tld, you still compete with the alternatives on .COM such as GetKeyword, KeywordApp, HelloKeyword, KeywordGroup, etc - and some buyers might prefer those.

Thanks for this advice. Valid point. You spot the gap. But is that the case with almost every domain you acquire. Like you invest 20-30 mins researching every single domain to check if it fits or any other criteria like this?

Haha if you forget a portfolio acquired for $1 on renewal, chances are, that is going to be one of the days one would remember for life! This brings me to the question, is there a cancellation policy within 24 hours/48 hours that you ever happened to explore?

 

[7363824]

Ya. That's what I am worried. And mostly, the names I picked were all 2 words, coz of lack of single words or my research.


That's a very valid point. Is this your first experiment or have you had similar experiments with some other extensions as well?

I did a much smaller one with .info (on a 1.25 promo) with just over 100 names. After 2 1/2 months I had 2 small sales of $50 each, and one larger sale for $599 all though Afternic. So I am already in the black by over $400 on that (even after AN commissions), and IMO info is a much weaker extension than co.

 

[equity78]

Another example why @Nikul Sanghvi is the man when it comes to .co https://namebio.com/syzygy.co

Congrats on the sale

 

[D Haynes]

Another example why @Nikul Sanghvi is the man when it comes to .co https://namebio.com/syzygy.co

Congrats on the sale

It's pretty remarkable. I can't think of anyone else as individually prolific in a single extension.

 

[Samer]

It's pretty remarkable. I can't think of anyone else as individually prolific in a single extension.

His willingness to share his .co sales
matches his talent; i admire him for it.

furthest thing from co but much respect for him

 

[Recons.Com]

It's pretty remarkable. I can't think of anyone else as individually prolific in a single extension.

He is fantastic. We also have @DNGear for .xyz and @Federer for .eu .uk etc.