I love the new gtld-ies

[Helmuts]

Hi boys and girls

This is a very beautiful Sunday here in the UK and I wanted to share a thought why I love the new domain extensions

Many of you say: "new extensions is just a waste of money!"

.. but that is a domainers perspective for selling them

.. on the other side there are sh*! loads of new companies (just remember yourself when you registered your first domain for your company) that just don't give a flying monkey about .com .. all they care are cool, cool domains for they companies, that they can put on business cards and move one.

One particular extension I love is .productions - a friend of mine (adult content producer) is using it and I have to admit - I love it .. the first impression was a total shock, but now I think his lostboys(dot)productions (warning - adult content) is really cool and describes his business 'inch perfect' where .com part would even kill the charm of it

.. no, no the doors of hell are wide open and the new extensions will do just fine .. please note, i'm not touching a subject of seling them

.. as for myself - I have just registered my .productions domain as well (while writing this post) ...

My new domain is dark(dot)productions and I don't care who owns .com as the only visitors to my website will be people who know who we are and what we do .. my field? .. shooting bdsm videos .. does it make sense now?

anyway, this was just to remind you guys that there is a different approach

About the higher prices (I paid £25 for my .productions domain at godaddy) ..

>> I hate them as a domain invester, BUT I love them at the same time, as they keep domain investors away - and that results in cool domain availability, so these domains WILL be used for real busineses and therefore will promote the whole extension as well.

.. here you go .. just few thoughts from the other side

have a great, great Sunday
Helmuts

p.s. would I pay 5k for the domain if it was on sale? hell, no

p.p.s. I apologise for misspellings - I'm writing it on my iphone and the spelling suggestion feature is switched off.

 

[RU]

Nice thread

 

[Kate]

I think your argument is a little flawed and here is why:
there will always be people to register domains in oddball extensions and even develop them.
But most of the time the big players won't touch them (other than defensive registrations).

So you are not going to see so many high-profile websites in uncommon TLDs.

People are free to go with non established-extensions, but it's not business lost to domainers anyway, because those people had no intention to buy a preowned domain on the aftermarket. Whether their strategy is a good bet in the long term is debatable and a different story.
Decent domains can be had for $$$ or $,$$$. It's not like they are unaffordable and out of reach of most businesses. Somebody who is willing to invest money in a quality domain will want an established extension most of the time, there is so much choice that you can afford to be picky.

Anyway, this is why I think domainers don't have to be afraid of new extensions. They have a marginal impact on our sales, because their impact on the Internet as a whole is limited too.

So, if you found good keywords to develop I am happy for you, because that's the whole point of releasing more TLDs after all, at least this is what have been told But icann and the registries have been quick to turn this game into a farce, the registrars being the new domainers, hoarding lots of keyword domains, and zany pricing that effectively keeps a lot of domains out of reach for developers.

 

[Nattydomain]

My 2cents: I looked these new gtlds and said as a investor I will pick up a few of them just to see how it goes. i have a year to see if out the box they catch on. Here is something though that as domainers we have to remember...

We have the inside scoop. We knew these were in the works before the "general public" we saw this grow from a sperm to full born. We seen the politics behind it but the small business owner has not. In fact they STILL most likely do not know they exist unless they go to Godaddy and see on their main page some weird extensions. Hell they may even think they cant get one.

Until a huge company starts to market their business with one of these and it catches THEN those who bought now may see some ROI. This is not going to be an overnight thing for us domainers. If you bought into any of these new gtlds keep them for at least 3 years min.

it is going to not be us that helps promote these but big business. They will have to use this in their commercials, print ads etc. Once the public sees this then they may come to us with that golden question...How Much?

 

[RaiderGirl]

.. on the other side there are sh*! loads of new companies (just remember yourself when you registered your first domain for your company) that just don't give a flying monkey about .com .. all they care are cool, cool domains for they companies, that they can put on business cards and move one.

And for these names you'd be lucky to sell for over $100

It's almost like trying to market your domains to adult webmasters, they will use any name that is available and for a low price because the domain is not important, traffic is not important, Put the name on affiliate sites and your good to go, put the name on business cards and your good to go.

I agree small businesses may use them, but don't look for these businesses to pay a lot of money, and if their not willing to pay, why would you invest in them?

 

[Helmuts]

@RaiderGirl 9 out of 10 companies in the world are small ones

@Nattydomain well, I don't care that 99% people worldwide haven't heard about this it isn't really important.. wait, it can be an interesting topic to talk about with your clients, laugh together and establish personal connection.

@sdsinc as I said - this post isn't about domain sales

it just seems that some readers missed the main thought, but that's ok

anyway, have a productive week and don't forget to have fun
Helmuts

p.s. who said that the domain can't be a little complicated and twisted, like a beautiful woman?

p.p.s. .. and still - this thread isn't about flipping domains..

 

[tomcarl]

IMO At this point in time, anyone with serious, long-term development plans (involving actual investment money and not just a part time hobby site) which the primary goal is to make money and start a legitimate business is not going to risk anything hindering their efforts or negatively impact their business (no matter how big or small) and is going to stick with what is credible and trusted Today and for the next few years.

Trust & Credibility outranks Sounding "cool" when you're collecting personal information and processing credit cards, you have enough stacked against you, why add to it? Even myself personally, a person who actually deals in the domain industry and understands everything about a domain name would not want to or feel "iffy" about buying something off of a website that ended in a non .COM - It makes me think, "how serious are they if they didn't even shell out a couple of dollars for a decent .COM or at least brand a .COM?" It automatically puts into my head "Fly-by-night operation" or a business that settled for less and isn't all that serious.

10 years from now can be a different story but 10 years from now the internet can be an entirely different place as we know it -- the world can be an entirely different place as we know it for that matter.

Could some gTLDs be "cool" for a hobby site where credit card payments are not being collected and the only traffic you're planning on getting is from search engines and spam, and you're not asking for personal/sensitive information - Sure. But these aren't people who invest in a Premium .com if it was presented to them anyway, so it's not a major loss. They are only a step up from working exclusively on a Facebook page or a Tumblr.

 

[DomainVP]

New extensions are a waste of money unless they are gTLD.gTLD or they make sense. As in the Luxury.Estate sale.

In addition, so much money has been placed in the .COM namespace that those that control and own the names would never let another extension become popular. I'm not knocking anyones empire of greed, but this whole gTLD program was a complete scam for an enterprise that wanted a massive cash injection.

They had a bridge in the desert they wanted to sell, and they sold it.

Here is a task for you @Helmuts Meskonis. Search the NamePros threads for all of the .mobi related posts and you will quickly get a better grasp of the reality of the new extensions.

New companies ESPECIALLY need a good .COM; it's authoritative and conforms to the norms of the internet.

My new domain is dark(dot)productions and I don't care who owns .com as the only visitors to my website will be people who know who we are and what we do .. my field? .. shooting bdsm videos .. does it make sense now?

You are going to care when DarkProductions.com starts getting your emails and traffic.

Your intentions are well placed, but you need to do a lot more research before you have your own bridge in the desert collecting a large .production of dust.

 

[Kate]

@sdsinc as I said - this post isn't about domain sales

it just seems that some readers missed the main thought, but that's ok

Don't worry this was perfectly clear. But I can't help pointing at the ramifications

Because this is a money grab by Icann and the registries. The whole justification of new TLD is to increase choice and the availability of good keywords but in practice the reality is very different.

Even if I were TLD-agnostic (I'm not) I would be wary of setting up my online presence on a TLD that is unproven. In the future you can expect that some TLDs will crash and be retired (I repeat myself I know ).

This will happen, because the registries are in this business to make money, not to sustain losses. This will happen because they can, they are under no obligation to maintain their extensions forever.... more like 3 years of continuity. It's a very short period in Internet time. But sometimes people need to get bitten at least once
Remember, Icann don't care. The registrants will be left holding the bag.
I just hope you don't bet on the wrong horse.

 

[RogueWriter]

Helmuts, there are a number of members of namepros that will not, ever, accept new extensions as becoming valuable to an investor. They just won't. As much as it is interesting to discuss the new extensions, every single thread will be turned into a 'why you are going to fail' event.

Following everyone else is a great way to become average.

So, invest in the .com crumbs that have been left to you, and maybe you will be profitable. Or, reflect upon the fact that -no one- knows what the future will be, or what kind of demand there will be for .ngtld five years from now, and maybe get into a new investing sector first.

You might lose money. Invest in the stock market, and you know what, you might lose money. Buy a rental property and you know what, you might lose money. Start a brick and mortar business and you know what, you might lose money. Put your money in the bank and do nothing with it, and you know what you might lose money. I bet there are a few hundred thousand people in Greece that wished their money had been invested in anything rather than the 'security' of a bank a couple years ago.

Every person here understands that investing in a new extension is a risk.

One of the things that I think will happen with the new extensions is that the top tier of domainers, the top ten or so actual individuals, will downplay getting into these extensions and then a few years from now it will turn out that they have researched and picked up thousands of the best keyword.ngtlds possible. There will be some t.r.a.f.f.i.c. event or some such convention a few years from now, when all of a sudden the top guys will be auctioning off .ngtlds for s---loads of money. They will prognosticate a new era in domain investing, and by the way they have a few of the best ones to sell to you if you want a sure fire win.

One of the worst investments I ever made, was actually my best, only the timing was off. I bought shares in Dell, back in it's infancy. It might have been called PC Limited still, not sure. Held it for 1 1/2 years, and the price went down from like 14 to 5, something like that. Then I read an article in the WSJ talking about how a young Michael Dell might be in over his head trying to run this company. Dell had purchased semiconductors when the price was high, but his competitors had purchased at a better price; the article's author predicted bad times for Dell, so I sold out, took my loss and invested elsewhere. Two weeks later, Dell announced surprise earnings for the previous quarter, and the stock skyrocketed, I mean it tore a hole through the roof, tore a hole through the clouds and kept going. Had I kept to my original course, I would have made a small, six figure fortune. It is important to separate opinion from fact. I listened to the wrong expert, and allowed that guy's opinion to affect my judgment.

Keep your own counsel on investments, just make sure the money you invest is money you can afford to lose. And be patient.

 

[dnrevolution]

I like your style Helmuts!.. and I also believe that the new gTLD's are now in the process of doing some severe damage to the aftermarket value of ".com".

 

[Helmuts]

I like your style Helmuts!.. and I also believe that the new gTLD's are now in the process of doing some severe damage to the aftermarket value of ".com".

thank you .. exactly my thoughts as well

... Even myself personally, a person who actually deals in the domain industry and understands everything about a domain name would not want to or feel "iffy" about buying something off of a website that ended in a non .COM - It makes me think, "how serious are they if they didn't even shell out a couple of dollars for a decent .COM or at least brand a .COM?" It automatically puts into my head "Fly-by-night operation" or a business that settled for less and isn't all that serious...

.. can't really come up with a positive comment on your thoughts (I tried 3 different replies, but deleted them all)..

anyway - in my world cool and sexy trumps the boring

have a great evening all .. I'm raising a glass of wine for all the different opinions that we have on this and other topics

cheers
H

 

[biggie]

as you 'fall in love' with these .whatevers ... you'll develop an emotional tie, which may be hard to divorce from later.

imo...

 

[dnrevolution]

as you 'fall in love' with these .whatevers ... you'll develop an emotional tie, which may be hard to divorce from later.

imo...

It's not a case of "falling in love". The simple fact is that .whatever, as you refer to it, is just more authoritative than .com...

After all, .com means nothing, whereas the gTLD's, if they are being used as a hack, do mean something and they are also much more visually impressive than .com.

I don't doubt that those who are invested in .com will want to shout up for the TLD (or scream, if you happen to be Rick Schwartz) but the take up rates on gTLD's already prove their popularity; and that popularity means that .com pricing will have to take a beating.

 

[bmugford]

It's not a case of "falling in love". The simple fact is that .whatever, as you refer to it, is just more authoritative than .com...

After all, .com means nothing, whereas the gTLD's, if they are being used as a hack, do mean something and they are also much more visually impressive than .com.

Someone is drinking the Kool-Aid when it comes to new gTLD marketing.

.COM means nothing? Sure it does. It means commercial. Outside that it is also the unquestioned leader in actual use and awareness. The extension grew with the internet and is synonymous with the internet.

Any term + .COM works.

As far as a new gTLD being more authoritative than a .COM... Yeah right.

Brad

 

[dnrevolution]

Someone is drinking the Kool-Aid when it comes to new gTLD marketing.

Hardly. I believed that .com was a fake paradigm long before gTLD's came on the scene.

Anyway, .com means "commercial" then does it?!.. Okaaay, so what exactly is the value in that then?

As for your comment about .com being the "unquestioned leader", well... something had to be, now didn't it.



And don't forget, .com domainers have also been propping up the .com nonsense for the last 15-20 years, and have had a vested interest in perpetuating it.

They did that because they knew that .com was "the truth"?!.. No!.. because they spied an opportunity to make some money out of it. And so 10000001 domainers, just like you, bought the kool aid (along with some .com's of course) and recited the same bullshit tale over and over, to anyone that would listen, that .com is the undisputed leader.

And anyone who doubts the story, clearly doesn't know a whole heap about domains.

 

[biggie]

it's not just domainers propping .com

it's the businesses that use .com in their advertisements, commercials and prints ads

they spend the BIG money promoting .com, along side their brand name.


when companies and other entities start "switching" from .com to .whatever, then you'll have end-user support.
until then, all you got is hope.

imo....

 

[dnrevolution]

it's not just domainers propping .com

it's the businesses that use .com in their advertisements, commercials and prints ads

they spend the BIG money promoting .com, along side their brand name.

Ah, my favourite!.. the tried and true "billions of dollars have been spent on .com" type of remark.

And, yes, it's absolutely true; big money has been spent on .com. But then, big business has gone with .com because it is convenient to do so, not because they think it is valuable.

Will they switch to a new gTLD?

Who cares if they do or not. What matters is that a new choice of TLD is now being offered to the thousands of online co's that start up every day all around the world.

when companies and other entities start "switching" from .com to .whatever, then you'll have end-user support.
until then, all you got is hope.

The "switching", you refer to, need never occur!... as thousands of online businesses start up every day around the world. All of them need an url and they now have a mind-boggling array of choice.

Domainers will still think in terms of url hierarchy, but the only thing that really matters is a company's ability to market innovatively, and the new gTLD's allow them to do that.

 

[RogueWriter]

Domainers will still think in terms of url hierarchy, but the only thing that really matters is a company's ability to market innovatively, and the new gTLD's allow them to do that.

Agreed.

 

[Helmuts]

nice conversation where all the sides have valid arguments

have a great evening all
H

 

[DomainVP]

And, yes, it's absolutely true; big money has been spent on .com. But then, big business has gone with .com because it is convenient to do so, not because they think it is valuable.

Nothing says convenience like .productions or .horse.

I'm a domainer and a developer. I would sooner shoot myself in the face before I build a brand on a new gTLD. It's sad to say... but on average the population has a very low IQ. People barely understand the internet, but they know .COM. That isn't going to change.

For example... Torrentz [dot] eu; a major torrent and file sharing site.

Whenever one of my friends here in the US has asked where they can get movies online, I tell them about the site. (We can have a piracy discussion another time) When I try to explain to them the .eu they always say TorrentzEU [dot] com... and my favorite, "where do I put the dot."

.eu is still a better extension than most new gTLDs... yet most of the world is clueless about it.

How in the world are people of average intelligence supposed to remember all of these new extensions. They won't, they don't, and neither should investors.

.whatever believers can buy all of the gTLD domains they like, its your right as a citizen of the planet. If you look at .biz and .mobi you have to ask yourself... why isn't anyone using them? They exist, they are just sitting there... unused.

Nobody needed them, and nobody wants them. Just like every other new gTLD.

Once registrars stop promoting them heavily, they will not sell themselves, and they will die. Just like the other ones.

Find a good .COM niche and focus on that, or end up like some of the top domainers that still mention .mobi on DomainSherpa and shake their heads in frustration of a bad investment.

I guess for me it's hard to understand why people still advocate for new gTLDs, or invest in them, when history and facts are staring them right in the face. It's one thing to be a trailblazer, and it's another thing to be a lemming jumping off the cliff with your fellow lemmings.

 

[hawkeye]

...for me it's hard to understand why people still advocate for new gTLDs, or invest in them, when history and facts are staring them right in the face. It's one thing to be a trailblazer, and it's another thing to be a lemming jumping off the cliff with your fellow lemmings.

Then there's the view as noted in my sig. Time will tell.

 

[DnEbook]

I wish all developers well, in all extensions, kinda think booking.yeah didn't help them much

 

[RU]

People say the same thing ...
.tv extension 2004-2010

 

[RU]

.tv sales