If you ever registered a domain name over at Godaddy.com you know that they have a drop down menu for extensions.
So if you wanted to register a domain, you type the domain without the extension into the first box and then select the extension that you want in the second drop down box.
Since Godaddy.com at last report was the registrar of choice for 50% of all new domain registrations, where an extension falls on the drop down menu is pretty important.
At the moment Godaddy.com of course puts .com number 1 spot, but the second spot now belongs to .CO.
Of course we do not know the basis on which Godaddy.com allocates its positions, be it on a “commission” or pay for position situation if you will, on basis of popularity, on the amount of money they make on each new registration or a combination thereof.
Here is the current ranking order on Godaddy.com site for domain extensions:
Before the fold (Before you have to move your mouse down for more choices):
.Com
.Co
.Info
.Net
.Org
.Me
.Mobi
.Us
.Biz
.Co is clearly the big winner on placement on Godaddy right now.
Anytime in life when you have a big winner, you also have a big loser.
So who is the big loser on Godaddy.com right now?
.TV
The .TV extension is way down the list, relegated to a alphabetical listing, well below 46 other extension including some pretty uninteresting ones by domainer standards including, .Ws, .Ag, ..Ms., .Nu. .Tc, and .Tk just to name a few.
I have quite a few .TV domains, so I take no pleasure in saying this but .TV placement on Godaddy is not going to help it gain registrations and acceptance, keeping in mind once again that Godaddy is responsible for 1/2 of all new domain registrations.
BreakingNewsBlog.us says
despite the .co sales are very pushed now I don’t believe that .co domains could have a long term success
TV says
.TV was once number 2 on GoDaddy , until Bob Parsons threw his toys out of the pram because he couldn’t get premiums to sell,he then stopped using bobparsons.tv and changed to .me and made a pathetic video about .tv.
I moved all my names out of there after this,Bob is clown imo.
People have better options of buying their .tv names at other places cheaper than GD anyway, Name.com $10.99,Dynadot.com $12.99 etc.
With regard to .tv acceptence, over here it is well and truly accepted, and i see many adverts from big companies on TV every day using .TV, i would go so far as to say it is now the 2nd most seen extension on TV over here after .co.uk
Tommy Bolin says
Outside of .com it’s all a farce.
Paul J. Kapschock says
.CO is hot right now!
And with higher renewal costs, probably a higher profit margin for GoDaddy, they will be pushing it for awhile….time will tell.
Side Note: You have to congratulate the .CO registrars team for having a banner coming out party and looks like a successful launch.
I wish other registrars take note…….. especially Neustar and our .US extension.. …….. and get public enthusiasm ramped up with a great advertising plan. (I am sure other supporters of other extensions feel the same way.)
TV says
Just in regard to .co typo traffic, i bought one as an experiment to see just how much traffic they would get, the equivalent dot com gets around 49,000 visitors per day, after 3 days of parking my .co, it averages around 20 per day,not exactly what i would call great.
Mark Fulton says
There are several advertisements for .CO on the homepage. The logo button next to Danica and highlighted text promo directly beneath TLD drop down. They bump .CO up the list as usability service because so many regs are coming in.
It can’t be how much money they make; why in the world is .info placed 3rd?
BreakingNewsBlog.us says
personally, I don’t want to register .co domains unless I find a, still unregistered, .co name that could be sold at an high price… something like e.co (that, I think, will always be the #1 .co domain)
M. Menius says
Mike – This makes sense from a very basic business perspective. .CO is flavor of the month right now. There are not waves of companies migrating to .co, just domainers buying up in bulk getting all the typical keyword combinations that disappear in the first few weeks of a tld release.
Selling on domainer fever is 75% of the registry’s true business model. GoDaddy are simply scooping their hand in the till while the early speculation is hot.
.co will come and go, like all the rest, and with any luck begin to carve out a lasting niche as a business-type alternative alongside .com and .biz. .co may indeed find a place. Nothing particularly special or different.
Em John says
.co had been a domain extension wanted for such a long time (since 1991 in the private sector) because of shortness and recognizability. Everyone is in protective mode for .com but .co has nothing to do with .com. It was marketed as a .co “stand alone”, not a typo or even a competitor for .com. The typos etc. wil of course happen, but .co is a business company competing for market share. No comparison with .com necessary. It’s like Dr. Pepper will never be able to reach the height of coca-cola, but who cares. Should we get rid of Dr. pepper because coca-cola is scared? Hell no. Dr. pepper has its own customers that want dr. pepper, not Coke. The same goes with .co and .com.
Maybe it would be a better idea for people to look after their .com portfolios and not whine about .co.
RW says
“Just in regard to .co typo traffic, i bought one as an experiment to see just how much traffic they would get, the equivalent dot com gets around 49,000 visitors per day, after 3 days of parking my .co, it averages around 20 per day,not exactly what i would call great.”
As far as monthly typo traffic, some of the large companies have the potential to benefit from owning their name in the .CO extension (source, Compete.com):
Google.co = 462,989 unique visitors
Facebook.co = 265,657
Yahoo.co = 115,723
Maybe names with lesser traffic will only see a trickle.
Wallace says
$30 .co is not cheap, you can buy almost 4 .com with a promo code,
anyway .co a ccTLD is not worth, let’s see if i tell the truth.
Samir Patel says
Has anyone found yet if they will change the policy to allow early adopters of premium .TV domain names to begin paying the regular renewal rate instead of continuing to pay the outrageous premium renewal rate? Michael have you had any luck on your premium names to get around this?
MHB says
Samir
No luck as of now they are keeping the old premiums which is why you see so many of these dropping, as people try to pick them up without the annual fee
Ridiculous
Samir Patel says
That sucks. Thanks for your input.
Christopher says
I can’t believe there is still so much sour grapes here from people that are unwilling to register .co. I think they want to see it fail because they may be kicking themselves really hard when they see how wrong they are. There is a lot of confirmation bias going on here.
Josh says
The only thing I hang my hate on is habit. No extension that has followed the dot com will form such a habit with the human race as to become as powerful, not by a long shot. These releases do nothing but feed those who missed the only extension that matters. There is no logical reason to believe anything will come that can take the place of dot com. The only reason we see such high prices paid for so called contenders is the human race has another habit, stupidity. Some humans profit from others stupid, which one are you?
RW says
MHB,
Great post! I have a few of my .CO names over at GoDaddy … which I tried listing in their Premium Domain Listings (which would have popped up as for sale when a person did a search at GoDaddy).
Dean says
I think 100 years from now when we all have microchip computers planted in our brains, .Com will still reign supreme. I like .Co and I like .TV, only at the moment I don’t own any. I think too much emphasis is put on the Domain Du jour. Every extension excels in it’s own manner and when used categorically that’s when it resonates the most. For example, I think .TV is most suitable for anything to do with video, cinema, television, etc,. while .Co makes for great generic, trademarked companies, industry etc,. I see people using extensions such as .org for porn sites, and while I understand that the other major extensions may already be in use, something about a .org being used for a porn site just seems wrong and ill fitting. I think assuming that .Co is superior to .Net is premature, while that may be the case, only time will really tell.
@TV
thanks for mentioning the lower registration rates at Name.com and Dynadot.com for TV. I will probably register some now that I know about this lower rate.
@Tommy Bolin
any relation to Thee Tommy Bolin?? I am a huge, huge fan of his music, while many have never heard of him, I think he was one of the greatest guitarists EVER!
@MHB
sorry to go off topic a little.
BullS says
Wow…I saw the poor farmers and families of Columbia pooling their money buying the dot co domains.
National pride.
Dean says
Not true,
Columbia is home to one of the worlds largest grossing corporate entities.
Cocaine.co
Gazzip says
“I have quite a few .TV domains, so I take no pleasure in saying this but .TV placement on Godaddy is not going to help it gain registrations and acceptance”
As for the GoDaddy promoting .TV
This is the honest truth, I was on GoDaddy less than a week ago looking up a few names and I saw “Tuvalu is sinking!” right next to the .TV extension LOL
I can’t remeber exactly where I saw it as I don’t use GoDaddy very often but I thought it was pretty strange for a registrar to have that when they’re trying to sell .TV names. (GoDaddy humour perhaps??)
I’ll try and find it again but GoDaddy is so cluttered it could take a month of sundays 🙂
David J Castello says
There is something a wee bit strange going on with dotTV, GoDaddy and other ccTLDs. Take a look at GoDaddy’s descriptions of these three ccTLDs:
.me – A domain that’s all about YOU.
.ws – An all-purpose Web Site Domain.
.tv – The official domain for Tuvalu residents.
brianwick says
it’s a sucker’s domain extension – but if I could do i would offer it up as well to to utterly naive
brianwick says
eco – oops – i mean e.co reminds me of with I used to own ci.gs
Chris says
“Who is the big loser” The fools that fall for it! That’s Who.
MHB says
GoDaddy Wants You To Know: Tuvalu Is Sinking
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-burdick/godaddy-wants-you-to-know_b_194077.html
BreakingNewsBlog.us says
Q: which domain is easier, the average user, to search and remember
? e.co or eco.com ?
A: despite it’s longer, I believe that eco.com will be searched (and found) first
MHB says
So?
BreakingNewsBlog.us says
so… I believe that is better to spend (e.g.) $500,000 to have a .com domain, rather than, only (e.g.) $100,000 to have the .co “equivalent”
I really don’t see any advantage in today’s multiplication of TLDs
they reduce the value of the old TLDs domains without add a so big value to the new TLDs
Dean says
MHB,
Tuva is sinking, BP is leaking and the world is going to hell!
any chance we can get a “who is your favorite guitarist” thread going here?
If Van Halen can’t save us then we are fuc*ed and what good are domains anyways?
🙂
Mr T says
We all know that Bob isn’t a big fan of .TV domains and the godaddy website still claims .TV is sinking. (I don’t see how that’s relevant because .TV will be around no matter what.) He even advises people to go with .com, .net or .info instead.
Bob has never done anything to promote the .TV extension and I don’t think that’s going to change. Why should he? The .co registry has problably paid him top dollars to get that #2 spot. It’s all about business.
To be honest I don’t think it matters where .TV is put on the godaddy map. I couldn’t care less about Bob, Godaddy or any other registrar website because they’re not the ones who make .TV popular. It’s up to the devs, .TV owners and future media corps to make .TV visible to the “web surfers / end users”. We can’t rely on registrars like Godaddy to do the job for us.
I’m pretty sure if someone is determined to register a .tv domain, he or she will find it on the godaddy website. I don’t see why anyone would use godaddy for .TV’s in the first place. $39.99 (most people don’t know about the coupons) is a ripoff while other registrars sell them for $10.99.
It’s all about the money for Bob..it’s all about the money. It always has been, it always will be. Then again, it’s all about business so I don’t blame him.
Em John says
Wow, so much anti this and anti that. Where’s your enterprising spirit? No risk, no reward. That’s the way business has always been and always will be. That’s why Rick Schwartz keeps saying if you don’t have the guts to accept success and failure in equal measure, stop your whining and find something else to do that is more conservative.
Once again, no need to compare .com and .co. in terms of supply and demand, availability reigns supreme. If i want to have a web presence and I WANT the word “location”, am I going to try and buy location.com for 1 Million or try to get location.co for $5000? As an average person with average income, i’m going to go with location.co because i can afford it. Because of the availability factor, you could well see .com prices go down. If there are more well marketed extensions, like .xxx or .sex or .berlin or .idn , there is going to be more good availability, more competition and .com prices will come down.
The viral nature of the internet isn’t going to stop, it’s going to continue to grow and expand because that’s nature.
Andrew Douglas says
Em John: the problem will be when that average joe buys location.co for $5,000 (never gonna happen, but just playing out your fantasy) and subsequently sends an email to his friends and family saying “I just bought location.co for $5,000 in order to launch my new online business. It’s going to be great!”. He’s on cloud nine until he gets a dozen replies saying. “Wow, you bought location.com for just $5,000!?? That’s great!”
.COnfused says
I’m a domainer with only a humble amount of cash to maintain my current .com portfolio. I was thinking of building a blog type site with a keyword based .CO TLD. Will it be worth it or should I just get a .com. I read Google now ranks .co as generic now but I’m still unsure what to do.
tekkie says
All +ve reviews of .co domain gives me joy!!
i bought webstudio.co (.com is a brand site) also networker.co(again company site)
and all famous cashparking.co( all .com/.org /.me owned by godaddy!!!) .. now i dont know wot to do with them…
i am first time investor in domains and i dont know what is best to do to sell..
guide some one plzzzz!!!!!!!!!!!
cell phone says
I can’t believe when I try to dropdown type of domain in godaddy , it seem .co domain is heading to number second..
Must wait for further news with .co or Colombian domain?
Stephen Douglas_Successclick.com says
Hi gang,
Just a quick lesson in logic:
Right now, we all agree that the TOP EXTENSION IS .COM
Right now, we all agree that there are tens of thousands of domains in .COM that should be owned by ENDUSER, but they aren’t.
Right now, we all agree that the business world, nay, the marketing world and it’s players installed within any company, STILL DO NOT “GET IT” regarding buying generic descriptive domains.
Since .COM is still KING, and tons of these .COM domains aren’t being gobbled up by desperate marketing directors or owners or whoever is in charge of advertising at any company, then something is WRONG with the domain industry’s ability to SELL JUST THE GENERIC DOMAINS IN THE TOP EXTENSION.
It’s simple logic, my friends.
So if you want to start buying generics or whatever in OTHER new extensions, before the .COM’s are even sold out to end users, go ahead.
The new extensions are always magnets for the people who want to believe something will CHANGE for the domain industry in its relationship with their MAIN CUSTOMER – THE END USER.
But I’m afraid .CO is only a small burp and distraction for some endusers and domain buyers who believe that this new extension is somehow going to JOLT end users into buying those generic prodservs they NEED.
My assessment, if worth anything, is that if we can’t even sell the .com generics for clear prodservs existing for thousands of companies, then how can we truly entertain NEW extensions to sell to the public/business sector?
Call me a spoiler, a dog, a poopy head, I can take it.
But don’t think if you buy a .CO version of a .COM domain that hasn’t yet sold to an obvious end user, that your new .CO domain will do that for you, cuz it’s a GoDaddy top focus. (don’t get me started on GD)
This is just my logical take on the domain industry and new extensions. IF I’M WRONG, I really love to hear reasons why.
Em-Bee, you have great domains, are YOU really sold on the .CO extension?
mr. joe domains saladino says
.co will be a success which means .company and is ONE LESS letter then .com which is more easier for people. to say .co won’t be a success is STUPID of anyone! who are you??? a little nothing in your little house not even on the praire! GET A LIFE LOSERS! Guess you weren’t able to get any fool! bottomline is EVERY good name is nearly taken unlike some other extensions which have been around for years and generic terms are STILL available. in any event all the BIG registrars have it in their top results! once again KIDS treat EVERY extension as if it is worth a LOT of money because selling like a cheap prostitute makes you just that! RAISE the stakes and guess what DUUUHHHH the demand of the price will go up where it should be! whether is is sex.com or sex.us.com or sex.bz MEGA dollars should be commanded and would definitely be gotten if their weren’t these 5 dollar sucky fu*(*(& people selling domain names for $54 like a piece of trash!
mr. joe domains saladino says
e.co will be number one! DUHHHHHHH!!! how about o.co which sold for $350,000 and MANY other .co’s which will sell for mega buck! all the people with negative posts are like little p&^%&^% who are crying because they didn’t get any great domains WHY DUHHHHHHHH because .co is going to be equal or better than .com. there is a new sheriff in the town! heard that term? it is true here also! when .co is around as long as .com it will be FAR better!
Jon Schultz says
I think if .CO domains reach the level of becoming widely advertised then that will create confusion between .CO and .COM and all the other extensions will benefit, because people want a domain name that stands out, is memorable, and is not likely to be confused with another domain. GoDaddy’s strategy may be to hawk .CO for a while, then do a big push for .TV.
In the meantime, it’s an opportunity for other registrars to grab some of GoDaddy’s market share. GoDaddy can fall, just like Network Solutions and Register.com did when they refused to lower their prices.
Dean says
Yatta, yatta,yatta…
here the same drivel every time a new extension is released. So what a handful of .CO sales, as far as I am concerned it was just a marketing ploy where little actuall money exchanged hands, but it got every fool rushing to pan for gold.
Not saying .CO doesn’t have it’s place in the world, but let’s see what happens 1,2,3, years from now.
NotSocialist says
Mistake on GoDaddy’s part. If I showed them my data they would drop something else and push .TV and .DE up, but if a company that sells domains can not get it right beats me.
.CO is already a success, and it does not have to compete with .com and it’s not for Columbia. Majority got this tld wrong. Very happy. I liked the negativity in the beginning.
InternetMedia says
What is the metric for a TLD to be proven successful? IMO, everyone has a different idea. If .CO were to become successful, could it ever change from a ccTLD to a gTLD?
Dean says
Further,
I think from a developers standpoint it could be good, especially if it is recognized (as it’s rumored) as a gTLD and not just a ccTLD. Some generics may get the traffic, and be a success as developed sites, but at $29.99 yearly renewal fee, 2-3 years of renewals is going to add up mighty quick. I doubt that 75% of .CO”s will be worth $90 3 years from now, that is when they will start dropping like flies.
emma says
It would take 50 years for .co domain to get even to the level where .net domains are. .CO will never get to where .com is because .co is only good as a typo.
brianwick says
Moving from “.com” to “.co” or any other non.com is like moving oceans and creating new beachfront property – and how much money has been invested with the existing beachfront property?
Some of you will remember as .cc (an easy abbreviation) gained a certain degree of acceptance years back – that acceptance created confusion with the consumer and corporate America. That limited success ultimately became its recipe for failure and sent .cc to the vast wasteland of worthless, useless non-brandable non.com’s.
As Emma says – and has been said countless time .co is just a typo ultimately – but if some of you can make a quick buck preying on the utterly naive – go for it.
Christopher says
So many haters here…you will never be any more successful by crapping on other peoples positivity. I’m a little disgusted at the flaming here. Many of us are here to invest intelligently. Let’s help each other out instead of calling each other stupid. Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen with .co so why does everybody think they do? Lack of self awareness? Vainglorious ignorance? I don’t want to be like that. Em John is right…stop whining or GTFO. Business and political leaders are never people who talk sh*t about other people or their ideas. It’s a waste of time to be petty. A lot of the comments here are constructive or insightful or display curiosity…all good. To people that live in the narcissistic bubble of absolute certainty…your arrogance will be your ruin.
Em John says
Stephen Douglas:
Everything starts with how deep pockets are. So essentially your logical argument stops where the buck begins. Generic .com’s are way, way out of the price range for most companies and the average joe and the availability is so sparse. So I would rather get a web presence buying location.co for $5000 rather than location.com for 1 mill. It’s my right to have a web presence and just because i can’t get a decent .com that doesn’t mean i have to stay off the web! .co is a nice alternative. Once the word is out about .co and even if people commit typos , they will correct themselves and eventually they will get to the right place. .co is not .com , its lives on its own merit.
brianwick says
Per Em John, Stephen Douglas and Christopher and others,
“WILLING” success in “.co” or any other non.com defies all odds and is no different than all the garbage “.com” variants I reserved 12 years ago when I could not get what I wanted – at $70-$100 per ill-advised reservation – the numbers are big.
However, I used the consolidations (dot bomb market implosions) of 2000, 2003-2004 & 2009 as opportunities where as of today 35% of my portfolio someone else used to own (drops) with 10% (pre drops) having originally been reserved before I even got into the business.
The “.com” market will come to you – but not in large porfolio numbers – albeit this new market needs the business behind the domain – meaning for those who are Web 2.0 programmers – this new market is your oyster.
Dean says
“Everything starts with how deep pockets are. So essentially your logical argument stops where the buck begins”
Agreed, I am speculating that most of the one word, two word killers were picked up by guy’s like Mike, Rick possibly Schilling and other heavy hitters with deep pockets and connections. I am sure others got some crumbs, but the rest are just pigeon shit and as the pigeon flies, pigeon shit is pigeon shit no matter what extension comes after it. It’s just some have stars in their eyes right now and can’t see straight.
I am not trying to piss on anybody’s parade, but wake the fuck up!
Dean says
Sorry,
I re-read my post and I realized I am starting to sound like some of the people I rail against. Undoubtedly some will have success with .CO, really it’s an individual thing and to some degree it’s how much you persevere and how hard you work, so I encourage you to pursue your dreams.
MHB says
Internet Media
Wanted to answer your first question because I think its a good one:
“What is the metric for a TLD to be proven successful? ”
(as to your second question, “If .CO were to become successful, could it ever change from a ccTLD to a gTLD?” the answer is no)
People argue about this all time, how do you determine whether a TLD is successful?
My answer is always the same; from whose perpective and by what measure.
What I mean by that is a domainer is going to looks at an extension and consider it successful pretty much by the aftermarket.
Is there an active aftermarket for an extension where you can see resales of domains occurring on a regular basis for increasing prices, domainer will consider the extension a success.
But if you look at a TLD from the perspective of the sponsoring registry its a whole different ballgame. A registry can be highly profitable running an extension which a domainer wouldn’t touch.
Consider the .Biz registry, most domainers consider the extension a failure as there are not a lot of aftermarket sales and prices haven’t increase, but the registry by all accounts is making money, so from their perspective its a success.
Others like SEO guys might consider any extension where they can get a good domains for cheap ranked by a search engine a successful extension.
I could go on but again its a matter of the perspective of the person looking at the extension that will determine whether it is successful.
By what measure, is again individual. I know domainers that would be thrilled to register a domain for $30 and sell it for $100 all day long and be quite happy while for others its not worth their time that’s why I say “by whose measure”
brianwick says
To Mike’s point non.com might be worthless and useless to some (like me) but when the consumer can not get what they really need and want – they settle for a non.com for $20-$50 for a few years before they realize they are valueless and non-brandable. Who cares – multiply $50 times say 500,000 non.com registrations per year – that is $25M – and speaking just for myself – just for helping folks new to the Internet live their “Land Rush” lie.
Question for Mike:
Mike, having his own registrar, might be able to give us some insight as to what kind of initial investment for the .xxx, .biz, .co and some of the other registries was made.
Martin says
I also registered some .tv at the time and it was also in the second position in the godaddy list as the .co right now, I don’t remember for how long but it wasn’t too long. Let what happens with the .co!
Stephen Douglas_Successclick.com says
@ Em John
You say:
“Everything starts with how deep pockets are. So essentially your logical argument stops where the buck begins. Generic .com’s are way, way out of the price range for most companies and the average joe and the availability is so sparse. So I would rather get a web presence buying location.co for $5000 rather than location.com for 1 mill. ”
I can truly tell you of 100 top domainers who own literally tens of thousands of .com domains that are clearly strong brand/prodservs domains and AFFORDABLE.
How many companies do you know that spend, oh… $10,000 a year in advertising online, or newspaper, magazine, whatever traditional ad/marketing medium that’s available to them?
Even the smallest businesses, if they were smart, would designate at least 30% of their startup cash in advertising. If they don’t have $1000 to advertise/market their business, then… God Bless them… I wish them luck.
But more realistically, most new businesses understand that a great portion of their investment is going to their advertising budget. Let’s just say on average, a yearly ad budget is $5,000. I can tell you with confidence that most companies can get a good .com prodserv generic for under $5000, leaving enough for them to waste on banner ads and traditional ads.
The problem isn’t that all the “good domains” are costing millions of dollars. That’s just not true. I own domains that clearly define either individual or corporate prodservs, and after contacting hundreds of businesses to make them aware of this, they respond with “I already have my domain name in my company’s name “xdjudcompany.com” and your domain just describes what my company does… it doesn’t promote my company’s name! ”
In other words, there is still a majority of businesses that DO NOT GET IT about generic domains. And that’s with .com domains that will sell for $500-$5000, easily within most companies’ ad budget.
I’m not going to fall for the trap of promoting my domains here as an example of what can sell for under $5000 and clearly define a company’s prodservs. So all I can tell you is that your statement of my “logical argument stops where the buck begins” is not applicable in real world domain sales.
If we cross that barrier of ignorance in the general populace about what domains MEAN for promoting a company’s prodservs, then the .com domains willl be selling like spring water on a popular hiking trail in Oklahoma.
The problem with all the new extensions like .co is that investors are still trying to find some killer generic word, and own it, and then hope that everybody else “buy’s into” the new extension. So essentially, you’re trying to sell TWO DIFFERENT CONCEPTS at the same time. If the majority of domain investors can’t get hundreds of companies contacting them to buy their .com generics, what makes you think a company (ENDUSER) will be chomping on their fork to get that juicy steak of your .co domain?
So, as I stated before — once the .coms start selling hot, and they can for under $5000, then I’d be looking at other extensions. For now, if you buy domains in a non .com extension, you’re just promoting the domain in the .com. So…
1) You find a domain “xyzblahblah.co” (a .co domain top generic word) Wow! This hot word/phrase is available and I now own it!
2) Now I need to promote the extension “.co” ALONG with the fact that OWNING this domain is a good idea for the ENDUSER”
I’ve been buying domains since 1995, and investing in them since 1999. One thing I learned, and it’s undeniable:
THE ENDUSER IS THE FINAL PROFIT BASE FOR A DOMAIN NAME. If the domainer wants to be the ENDUSER then they’ll develop the domain, and take the time and money to make it a success (Go El-Silver). If you can’t convince the ENDUSER to own a .com version of their prodservs for $5000 or a portion of their annual ad budget, then how will they buy into a new extension that they most likely never even heard of before?
Personally, I DO LIKE the .co extension, and I’m very close to picking up a few domains in that extension to cover my butt, just like I did with .cc, .ws, .biz, .us domains that I’m still in love with, and have been renewing for over six years now.
The only other extension I know for a fact has public recognition power is .org domains. Ironically, most top non-profit organizations have purchased their appropriate domains and some backbranded .orgs to their benefit.
I’d buy up .org domains before looking to invest in .co domains. The public will remember a .org domain before they even know what a .co domain is.
Soud says
It may stay there in second place for a while but in the end it’s the market (not the aftermarket) that will decide the rankings. i.e the longer time it takes till we see developed .co websites the more .co will be unpopular.
Louise says
Hi, May I throw out a couple suggestions?
1) @ Stephen Douglas, enjoy your comments; absolute genius; this one I printed out and saved! It’s two pages. Everyone, sign up for @ Stephen Douglas’ newsletter, NameProspector.
2) @ .CO registrants, you can create temp pages by directing your .CO domain name servers to ns1.EpikWiki.com and ns2.EpikWiki.com, which will create an informative site based on the domain name, such as, Internet-Television.biz, mine . You can edit the machine-generated text and add other content. There’s even a way to put an Adsense ads with your ID to collect all the Adsense revenue! <== I haven't signed up for Adsense, yet, so I didn't try it. Most importantly, if you add your own unique content, it will likely get your .CO spidered by Google.
It is a good word in behalf of Stephen & Epik, but they are good suggestions from someone who is SEO expert, me, which fit the topic and discussion.
Mike says
“THE ENDUSER IS THE FINAL PROFIT BASE FOR A DOMAIN NAME.”
The end user is the ONLY profit base. NEVER sell to another domainer and assume all inquiries ARE domainers in disguise, until proven otherwise.
Stephen Douglas_Successclick.com says
@ Mike
You’re right on. I hoped I got that across in my comment.
However, cash is king, and I’ll sell domains for a profit to further growth of my business and other domain investments, so if I have a domainer who’s smart enough or willing to work on a domain I own, I’ll give them wholesale prices on my non FT domains. Subscribe to my NameProspector newsletter (SHAMEFUL PROMO HERE, 18 yr old Scotch triple owed to Em-Bee..)
MHB says
Stephen
A neat glass of Blue @ South Beach will suffice
Stephen Douglas_Successclick.com says
Em-Bee… ohhhh man… you call the shots and the Universe says “hmmm… nice call!” Now I have to leave beautiful PacNorwest for that hurricane ridden, oil-polluted Florida beach? grrrr
J/K – hope Florida isn’t being polluted by BP…
Dr. Cohen says
@Stephen Douglas
Many thanks. You are what my old boss would call a “mentsch.”
You shared so much with so few words. Good on you, and thank you for sage guidance. I’m still finding .com’s to register, brand-new, yes, one-word generics, including some we find funny, from deathlessly and godlessly, to cuntables and decapitalized or demerged… if only for the fun of owning these for life, for what, a couple of hundred each?
As for income generation, there is no reason to think that domainists will not benefit from the myriad of two- and three-word domains that are still unregistered, whether to flip (ucch!) or to insert ads and make a little something (times the hundred or thousand domains you repeat it with), or market to targeted endusers.
The original comments of this post are best illuminated by highlighting the reality that, outside of Rolls-Royce generic dot-coms, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THE EXTENSION IS, only what you do with it. Erskine said life is a game of cards; It’s not the cards you are dealt, but how you play them, that determine the outcome.
Explain to me how it’s possible that, by 2010, after fifteen years since someone thought of domaineering, no one had bought DarkestChocolate, or CourtesyDiscount, or CrapsAction? All easy dot-coms to think of. Yes, it’s an extra year or two of registration because of the backlog in throwing together a hundred intelligent sentences to throw into each one to get it ranked nicely, and that’s one price.
To put it to a point, we have only let go of one domain for profit of more than 1,000 we’re thrilled to “own,” and that’s because someone offered us 20x what we paid for a DASHED dot-com from our better-domain series. How funny is that? Everyone kept telling us that domains with dashes are a waste. Yeh.
At the bottom of every page of life is, “How excited are you?” Those who are on fire win more, because the hungriest man always wins the race.
This site is a standout, and the comments of Mr. Douglas further burnish your reputation. Thank you twice.
Dr. Cohen says
FOLLOWUP:
How did I miss it the first time? Ouch. How many of YOU missed it, or caught it?
This wizard even included his dot-com address licitly, in his name.
Every time he posts, he’s promoting successclicks.com, which I am now heading to, to see what else I can learn from this now-certfied genius.
Dr. Cohen says
Whoops, sorry, successclick without the “s” – LMAO – one letter to hit or miss. My bad. Thank God for happy, correctable accidents, ey?
Stephen Douglas_Successclick.com says
@Dr. Cohen,
Sir, please indicate your comments were not paid for by me… your comments are enough to get my wife to remember why she married me. 😉
Seriously, your comments honor me, and I can’t say anything else but – I like being called a mentsch! Ultimate honor.
UPDATE: The signup for my domain sales newsletter is actually “Titledomains.com” or you can sign up at my blog by just clicking on my “name” on this comment. I do make mistakes, and Louise tried to do me a favor promoting my signup domain sales newsletter, when I gave her the wrong name. (Sorry Louise, my bad!)
Anyone who wants to sign up to receive my premium domain sales newsletter weekly, you can do this at either my blog http://www.successclick.com or at our new domain sales “source”, http://www.titledomains.com.
And don’t forget, if you see this info appearing here, it’s because of the charity of my buddy Em-Bee… who is beginning to stack up top notch scotch, a steak/sushi dinner and something even better when I meet up with him at Domainfest. I love Em-Bee… and I’m not gay.
Thx Em-Bee