.WS prediction?

[.Matt]

Hi All,

I'm curious to what your opinions are on how long, if ever, will it take for .WS to actually take off?

I read at one point that they were going to be extremely popular, yes they are to some extent but do you beleive that the average internet user will ever type "Something.ws" after trying "Something.com/net/co.uk"? Will they even remember to type in .ws for future refrences? (One day they visit a nice site called "Something.ws", will they remember that it's a ws?)

I know no one can predict the future, or speak for those average internet users, but has anyone experienced any luck from .ws? ~ I've got a few that I could register, quite good ones for what I'm wanting, I don't know if it would even be worth the time though.

Please post any opinions or stats even.

Thanks a bunch
Matt :D

 

[kjmz]

I don't know if it ever will. They must make the domains cheaper. Who wants to pay $35 for a .ws when you can get a .info for $2.88? Also what's with the pricing? It's so stupid: Standard Domain: $35, 3 Character: $500, 2 Character: $1000, 1 Character: $50,000. Every domain should be the same price! The extension that will be the most successful will have to try and mimic the .com in almost every way, then beat it in some categories like only 2 characters. It's funny though how no one has ever thought of a number extension!?!?! Maybe that would have some success.

 

[Jonathan]

I don't think it is ever going to take off. I mean, there is nothing wrong with .ws, but companies aren't going to decide one day that they want .ws instead of .com for their business - and that's where the value lies.

People also aren't going to type in a keyword dot ws, they are going to go with the com or net. At least for now. But I don't ever forsee that changing to .ws.

 

[skyraider]

I don't know if it ever will. They must make the domains cheaper. Who wants to pay $35 for a .ws when you can get a .info for $2.88? Also what's with the pricing? It's so stupid: Standard Domain: $35, 3 Character: $500, 2 Character: $1000, 1 Character: $50,000. Every domain should be the same price! The extension that will be the most successful will have to try and mimic the .com in almost every way, then beat it in some categories like only 2 characters. It's funny though how no one has ever thought of a number extension!?!?! Maybe that would have some success.

Maybe .123 would work for companies who produce easy-to-use products. The only problem I see with number extensions is that people may not be as good at typing numbers as they are at typing letters (especially keyboard peckers, and no, that's not me, lol), so it may annoy them. That'd be interesting, though.

 

[kjmz]

Maybe .123 would work for companies who produce easy-to-use products. The only problem I see with number extensions is that people may not be as good at typing numbers as they are at typing letters (especially keyboard peckers, and no, that's not me, lol), so it may annoy them. That'd be interesting, though.

How about .com1, .com2, .com3, etc. maybe that would bring the .com down, lol.

 

[Jonathan]

How about .com1, .com2, .com3, etc. maybe that would bring the .com down, lol.

No way. No extension with a digit like that would stand up to a .com.

I mean
games.com
games.com1
games.com2
games.com3

The bottom 3 look stupid.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

I can see some development of Extremely good keywords as actual websites (particularly personal or very small business sites), but I don't see them becoming mainstream any time soon. They are about 8 rungs down the ladder from .com now, and if new gTLD's get introduced in the next year or so will be several rungs lower still.

I have very few of them (Antique.ws, DigitalPhoto.ws, Images.ws, Dates.ws), but I think they are very good keywords and I really intent to hold and develop. I think .info or .biz is probably a better investment if the name fits the extension.

 

[Joey]

I think the .ws really sucks. Whenever I type a domain I'm looking for of something on TV or such. I'll type in this.com then this.net then this.org. Then I'll just give up. I don't think anyone will remember the .ws, .com is way to popular.

 

[IAmAllanShore]

.ws has been promoted in a multi-level-marketing scheme.

Go to eBay and search "internet land rush", and see all the mid-life crisis folks (you know the type, I'm fighting like a dog with the snips to the junk to stay just this side of that line in the sand...) swearing that .ws is the next "gold rush". meh.
That just cheapens the whole market, IMHO. Makes us all look bad.
Saw a dern infomercial on public access the other day. I almost called the guy who paid for the spot, but thought better of using my limited vocabularly on that expedition
-Allan

 

[theparrot]

I like .ws best of .ws, .cc, .bz. I just wish they did not have a wildcard dns running so the capture all typos. Now that you can get them for under $10 they make a decent choice for sites that you will be able to get people to return to via bookmarks and market online via links.

 

[kjmz]

I like .ws best of .ws, .cc, .bz. I just wish they did not have a wildcard dns running so the capture all typos. Now that you can get them for under $10 they make a decent choice for sites that you will be able to get people to return to via bookmarks and market online via links.

So you can't snap the domains or how does that work with .ws? Also where can you get them for $10?

 

[theparrot]

So you can't snap the domains or how does that work with .ws? Also where can you get them for $10?

I don't know of anyone doing .ws drop catching.

Domainsite.com has then for under $8 last I looked.
(hmm.. I just looked and they don't have .ws right now anymore!)

 

[DN Tycoon]

You can register .ws domains at Godaddy for less than $9.00.....I heard that x360.ws is one of the most popular .ws domain names in the world

 

[Sabre]

I dont think that .ws will ever take off particularly well, i said that a couple of months ago, and i stick by it

 

[Redleg]

Extension doesn't matter much IMO...
Type-in traffic is really nothing compared to search engine ranks, and the SEs don't care much about the exension...

I couldn't care less about the extension when I develop a site, only the keyword...
I'm making a pretty good penny on .ws sites (and also .nu/.cc) right now, so I'm quite happy with the extension.

And I'm also quite happy that many others doesn't like it since there will be more good keywords available for me...
So please step away from the .ws, they are useless and worthless!
Hand them over to me, and I'll take care of them for you...

www.unique.ws

:D

 

[.Matt]

Thanks for all the replies!

I think I should just take a stab at getting the ones I've seen. They're all really good keywords. I can't really go wrong.

 

[Redleg]

I think I should just take a stab at getting the ones I've seen. They're all really good keywords. I can't really go wrong.

If you plan to develop, it's pretty hard to go wrong as long as the keywords are good
(and you develop them in a proper way)..
.WS (and many other ccTLDs) are still a bit hard to resell for good $$$, but I still have some hopes for the future of .ws (and other ccTLDs), so you never know..
"Who Dares Wins..." :D

I personally (still) haven't regretted registering a single one of my 140+ .ws/.cc/.nu domains, and I've got plans for development of almost all of them if I can't sell them in a year or two..
I even got .ws typos and dropped "old" .ws sites with 10-30 type-ins/uniques a day each, generating some nice revenue..

Good luck with the regs.
Do you want to share the names with us after you've regged them??

 

[LeDomain]

.ws

I know of one site (Purchasing and Supply Chain Association) which used to be NAPM.org switched their address to ISM.ws (inst of supply management) atleast a couple of years ago...

Now this is a very niche area and I have no idea why they made the decision to go that route...

In any case, I have followed ws for atleast 3 years and the only difference is now more domainers are talking about it...

The momentum is not there in my opinion for it to take off anywhere...Have a good number of excellent .ws names and am holding on to it...just in case...

Currently using them to forward only...

 

[merlix]

I don't think .ws will ever take off. I wrote an article called "Dot What?" several years ago that talked about .ws, .cc, .to and other ccTLD names that were trying to be sold as the next .com that in summary said, in the late 90's, we had a dot com boom and then around '99 and 2000, we had a dot com bomb. There was never a .net boom or bomb or any other TLD for that matter. In my opinion, .com will always reign. Now I do think that .eu will be the next runner up when it is released early next year. The population in Europe far exceeds that of the US, so I think that you will see .eu within one year of being released be the second most popular TLD extension.

Then again, what do I know. I registered my first domain in 1994 when it was free before loans.com, money.com and business.com were registered. I didn't see the Internet train coming

 

[WingFat]

You can register .ws domains at Godaddy for less than $9.00.....I heard that x360.ws is one of the most popular .ws domain names in the world

Anyplace else you can get them for < $10? How is GoDaddy selling them for $9 when everybody else is selling them for $25+?