The first major Colorado city being auctioned off in the Land Rush .CO auctions is Boulder.co and with a day to go, bidding has topped the $10K mark.
The current high bid on Boulder.co is currently $10,150.
Bidding will get extended by 24 hours if there is a bid in the last day which beats the previously high bid.
Auctions for Vail.co, Aspen.co and Denver.co are yet to start
We are in this auction and will let you know how it turns out.
What’s the highest paid price in these private auctions so far? do you know?
That’s one of the best .co applications I’ve seen.
Owen
So how much do you think its worth?
Wasn’t Boulder.com offered for sale in the $200K range a year or two ago?
What is a .co worth compared to a .com?
1%, 5%, 10% or more?
WOW the GNSO may have to launch a PDP to have the ccNSO look into the status of the ccTLD .CO and have WIPO declare a world-wide UDRP as the IANA turns to the IESG to have the IAB consider the wide-spread implications of geo-centric domains in a borderless Internet where the free market public decides they like .CO for COlorado domains. How can the free market and the public know more than “THE Community”. Has anyone seen “THE Community” lately ?
Jeff
Michael is fine. Mr. Berkens, well I’m not that old yet.
So here are the two questions I have for you.
1. Is the .co version of a .com worth 5% of its value?
2. Are you in the auction for boulder.co and if not why?
too low price
boulder.co is one of the rare case of a .co domain that has more meaning (and more value) of its .com version
http://www.valuate.com/
Boulder.COM —> $516,000
Boulder.CO —–> $25
To TheBigLieSociety:
Since the bidding at Boulder.Co has exceeded 10,000.00, it exposes valuate as a ‘political’ evaluation machine?
Truth is that certain .CO are going to be more valuable than their .COM counterparts soon. I like both .CO and .COM, but certain small minded monopolists and self-interested individuals dominate this industry and are no good for the rest of us. They have been making money at the expense of everybody else. They know who they are. They can keep trying to keep .CO out of the game, but it’s not going to work.
I was going to add that, it takes a certain type of sickness to ‘evaluate’ a domain such as Boulder.CO at $25? I mean, to register the damn thing even at regular price is $29! Tsk Tsk
Thanks for keeping us up to date on this particular auction.
Glad to see .CO’s putting up solid numbers and creating a foundation for future geo .CO domain sales.
Good luck to all!
Ok so let me ask this question – Lets say someone reading this is willing to pay $25,000 for boulder.co whats the upside when you can get the .com for $150,000???
Will .co ever sell for more than the .com when the .com is available to buy – no …
Is there a fool out there to pay 2x times your price — sure, put maybe 1. Lots of better ways to double your money in times with a lot less risk.
If you plan on developing it then sure – sky is the limit to your business plan – but if you are like 99% of domainers who just buy to park and sell where’s the big upside here?
at 10k maybe .. which I still think is very overpriced for any .co to be quiet honest. Although .co did a great job marketing all the hype for every other alternative extension has came and went so buying any name over 10k is a pretty big risk and when the .com is available for a very fair price what upside do you expect?
I just dont see this name worth anything more than the current bid at all.
In fact boulder.org is available for sale which who knows the guy may probably sell for less than the bid of boulder.co right now
Has anybody even asked about it or are most just following the herd again?
I would bet out of the 100 bidders or whatever the count is in this auction not a single person emailed the .org owner but hey thats just me putting some logic to the while equation here and yes I know … logic and domainers dont really mix. My bad.
Alan,
True, a .CO is not a .COM, and no other extension is; for the fact that the debate is even going on is a plus for this ccTLD.
I remember not many years ago, people castigated .NET and the rest as untouchables. Even tho those ‘inferior’ domains are not raking in millions like .COM. they are holding their own. The difference between 516,000 for Boulder.COM and $25 for BOULDER.CO has got to be artificial. There’s only one BOULDER.COM, therefore the runner ups cannot do too badly. If the .CO is successful in branding their extension as a COMPANY extension, it wont be long before hundreds of countries that regard .CO as abbrev. for COMPANY begin the mad rush for these things. If you think about it, United Kingdom, to South Africa all prefer their .CO.UK, or .CO.ZA etc… so eventually, they will regard .CO as a short hand… at least we hope so.
Highly doubtful but even with that comparison – boulder is a us city. Most likely another somewhere in the world but the US will never change from .com to .co so the country code theory used in your argument doesn’t apply here.
Have no idea what you are talking about $25 … all automated appraisals are worth crap. The value is in the data not the “appraised value” – I said this years ago and will say it again – trying to find value from an automated tool is fools good. There is no conspiracy as you eluded to above – its just an impossible mathematical formula due to all the different intangible factors and lack of a liquid marketplace for domains. I wont even comment on appraised values anymore as they are all ridiculous.
Good luck all the same if you’re bidding.
“Wasn’t Boulder.com offered for sale in the $200K range a year or two ago?
What is a .co worth compared to a .com?”
Some are missing the point:
Boulder is in Colorado.
Colorado has .co as its abbreviation.
EVERYONE in COlorado knows what Boulder.co means and probably everyone seeking to visit them knows to. It’s Boulder in Colorado. Look at your mail, or any address; it’s …..Miami, FL – Boulder, Co – Philly, PA etc. People see this several times a day so it becomes second nature.
Boston.ma is another good one. As cities get their .nyc style tlds this will be worth a lot more.
.co is worth 100,000+ times less then .com
1/2500 traffic? how much money is lost there. no familiarity with public. seo disadvantages++
another very overrated extension where a couple people will get rich off of and 1000 suckers will lose money on.
timeline of a new extension goes pop, down, down, down, down
“1/2500 traffic? how much money is lost there. no familiarity with public. seo disadvantages++”
Huh? Google “Boulder Co” for a second and see how popular co is for Colorado :). Here’s a hint: as popular as NY is for New York
The official site is ci.boulder.co.us too
Einstein,
I get your point but unless an end user buys this who has the money to brand the domain and development skills to put it to use with more than a mini site then you are left with nothing more than a cute name and the same story most domainers have about “oh what a good domain this could be”
The lines between investment and dreaming often overlaps most domainers so if you are an investor who ends up paying 25k or whatever this ends up and plan to park the page then you are doing nothing to build value so you have to sell the dream – whereas with a .com there is no dream selling required
Could this name be great – sure, if you have a few hundred k and a solid plan but if your plan is to park the name its a pretty dumb investment given other opportunites available in the marketplace and is a very high risk bet
How about date.me or others that all make sense and are pretty cute – they were all bought and paid high for but due to the lack of development almost all became rather worthless overnight
We have seen this story many times over
Well, Einstein”s got a point there. Boulder.co is essentially a hack for city-state so to say it is worth 1-3 percent of the .com I think is undervaluing it. In this special case, I would say 15-20% of .com would be accurate. If it were missouri.co , yeah, I would say 5% of the .com.
EM,
But if you are not going to develop it then why even bid at this level? Lets say the .com is available for around 150k – which it is as indicated above.
Using your math the .co is worth 30k or less and yes I understand these all imaginary numbers but my point is an investor you are now paying full market value on a domain for an extension that has not proved itself – has nothing more than a lunch menu of recorded sales and is still not even sure how it will show up in search rankings.
As a developer hell pay as much as you like but as investor you have to look at the risk and reward. The chances of you ever selling this name for more than 100k are pretty slim – 50k is 100% an end-user pricing and 25k is quite likely the same.
At a 10k bid you already entered a range where maintaining the liquidity of this name (liquidity defined as a price most other domain investors would pay) is doubtful after the NameJet auction ends. I’ve seen it a thousand times – auction mentality is entirely different than aftermarket sales so the price you pay here is in no way guaranteed after the auction ends.
As an investor do you want to bank 5 digits on a domain like this?
As a developer sure but as an investor… you are a gambler or simply have enough room in your pie to gamble every now and then.
There is no need in this marketplace to gamble like the 1990’s with domains. Sure, some people like it and it works for some from time to time but they always have more losses than wins. The thing here is the odds for a big win are sooo against you since the .com and .org are available which are proven authoritative extensions already.
Domain investments should be treated just like stocks. Never fall in love with one because its cute – understand the dynamics involved, not the dream.
Alan, I follow your logic, and more importantly, I read your site, and I see your emphasis on Development, as opposed to parking; all that is proper and sound. I concur.
However, you seem to have a scientific mind and apply it to domain name valuations. In your lexicon, there is a pecking order set in stone when it comes to TLDs. In essence, once the .COM (and the .NET), and the .ORG are available, there is no need to buy any other TLD or ccTLD, regardless of how much the former are going for. I disagree. All Domains should be developed, and are worth less undeveloped, true, but that applies to all. If one spends 516,000 purchasing BOULDER.COM, the only way they would recoup their investment is either thru development, or selling it later at a higher price. That also applies to the other extensions. So, I agree in part and disagree in part, with your over all assertions.
But, to the core issue of how much a domain should be valued? In the case of BOULDER.CO, it is no longer academic; the valuation is going on right now, someone has valued at over $10,000.00, and he/she is doing it with what counts most: MONEY! So, like they say, money talks and I forgot what takes a walk.
Alan, I agree that going deep into 5 figures is very risky *for investors* but we dont; know who’s bidding. Maybe it’s the .com guy.
However, if Boulder.com sold for $150K, and assuming it’s worth that much, I’d easily pay $50K and maybe more for Boulder.co (if Colorado was my area and I was a developer.) I own a few top .usstate names and I can tell you that, right now at least ,I even get credit for the .extension as many people search for city, state code.
Let’s not forget that one does not need to be #1 to make a lot money.
Alan is pretty much clearing the point for Boulder.co !
For Domainers with plan A) Buy , Park and hope to sell with good profit. Bad investment at the moment! Domain is worth reg fee.
For Domainers with plan B) Buy and develop with a full blown Business plan, like selling real estate or lead generation for businesses in Boulder etc.? The name is worth 6 digits and more!
Just my 2 cents
http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/at-large/2010q3/006848.html
“The reality is that the folks buying .CO domains are not confused children”
“As for why .CO domain names are priced at a premium to .COM, the answer is
twofold. First, we wanted to create a disincentive to mass speculation.”
===
Note: The people behind .CO run .US. They were “groomed” into the domain industry. Anyone that thinks that .COM and .CO are not co-ordinated is a
“confused child”.
Update regarding Valuate.com/Estibot.com and the valuation of .CO:
When I launched Flipping.CO I asked Estibot who powers the appraisals of Valuate.com to serve .CO that made sense!
The response was basically “Estibot is based on past sales so today we cannot appraise .CO domains seriously” so today Estibot and Valuate do NOT appraise .CO domains!!!
What I have do for Flipping.CO is according my experience and the few first sales I seen appraise .CO submitted domains to 4% of the .COM value.
Some say it’s still too much and that the best value should be 1%.
At the begining I ever thought about update Valuate.com to also serve 4% of the .COM for .CO appraisals but this will have created a breach, we absolutely must serve the SAME appraisals as Estibot.com. The suggestion I got was to show a message “we don’t valuate .CO while there is not enough sales”, but I admit I did not coded as I did not did with new extensions like .ME for example, … Just be patient or do like me, valuate.com and apply a 4% to the result (or the ratio you estimate is the most accurate).
On flipping.CO for the moment many hundred dollars sales but none over $1,000
Now, we did not had the chance to have premium domains submitted like the ones you are talking here.
.CO Valuations are going to be very difficult…
A .CO and .COM pair may be worth more than the sum of the individual domains.
Migrations from CO.UK and CO.NZ add to the .CO potential.
.CO is more “natural sounding” when included with the Brand or Trademark (example CostCO vs CostCOM) [Many ads and commercials place the .COM a long way from the brand… { “Expedia…….Dot COM” } is an example
As people have discovered, all of the .COlorado names are taken. Surprised ?
What about the counties ? and the generics ? RockyMountainAnything.CO
The artificial .CO Registry cost (which should be 50 cents) could soon have a reverse impact on .COM. How long will .COM be restrained to “under $10” by the U.S. Government ? Will court cases now drive the .COM Registry to be private and de-regulated ?…with no price cap ?… or will .CO magically adopt the Registry pricing of .COM ?…or will Registrars appear who always sell .CO and .COM as a locked pair ?…masking the true Registry cost of each…
The .CO Tsunami may end up as huge waves that continue to wash back and forth for years, benefiting some and drowning others…
Uzoma
“In essence, once the .COM (and the .NET), and the .ORG are available, there is no need to buy any other TLD or ccTLD, regardless of how much the former are going for”
Actually thats not what I said. Anyone who the money and talent to develop a name can pay a billion dollars for a .crazy as long as the name and value justify the asking price but these prices are not comparables for the industry – they simply represent the largest intangible factor which leads to the impossible task of ever having an automated formula provide reasonable and consistent value output. These types of buys are never based on consistent data but a number which only has value to the buyer and this value can not be correlated to a database.
I never question why developers buy a name for XX amount – what I do question is when the .com is available for a comparable price why anyone would want to.
My comments here are not about valuating .co’s per say but asking with all the opportunities available in this market for more well known extensions why anyone would risk $10,000 for a domain which has an extremely limited upside? Sure its catchy but part of an unproven extension. If other opportunities did not exist sure – but plenty do.
My comments are never directed for the people who know what they are doing because these people understand all these new extensions are gambles. I try to chime in every now and then when I see articles which can pose new investors to think the whole world is full of gold again whenever a new extension is launched. It never has been and quite possibly never will but with headlines like $10,000 for boulder.co I’m sure Mike has some new blood here thinking about putting money in domains. Sorry but I don’t care much about the hype in this industry so for newbies think about what I said in terms of the upside and what s a better investment.
I’m happy with people spending money on .co’s. I hope 30 new extensions come out and everyone gets hyped up again and again as the fewer eyes on .com the better for people who stick to the proven markets.
I’m also very happy to be proven wrong and see people make a few bucks where I lost out but what I don’t want to happen is some new person read articles like this and never get a realty check about the risks of these extensions.
Last comment but something for everyone to reflect on
Maybe I’m starting to have my mid life crisis but at the end of the day I want assets which sell themselves and not have an asset where I have to convince someone its worth more than I paid and that’s the hidden element for all new extensions
Quality sells itself otherwise we will all never stop sounding like car salesman
There is no “formula” for assigning appraisal value of any tld based on the .com. Valuation is complex for premium domains. And more defensible for lower quality, commodity domains.
What does all this LosAngeles.ca worth for all you experts ?
What happens when the .colorado .california and all the states are offered ?
Does Boulder.co.us exist ?
Sorry friends – i see a bunch of hype from good salesman manufactured for suckers
“What does all this LosAngeles.ca worth for all you experts ?”
Some claim .LA has it’s own TLD already.
http://www.LA
If the Spin.Machine and Manipulation.Machine proceed as predicted… there will be a NEW .CA IDN ccTLD and the 2-Letter ASCII .CA TLD will become more available for .CAlifornia
What is the market for the .CA **IDN** ccTLD ?
Have you looked at what it takes to make an IDN work ?
They should develop it right away and avdertise it.
(The owner of the .com salivates)
Or did a domainer buy it?
All I know as a local native, boulder.com does NOTHING to capture the vibe of the city.
Boulder.co developed with the city vibe in mind and marketed with strong local traditional advertising, would do extremely well.
The people around these parts would never confuse the websites as they would most definitely go to the site that captures the vibe of the city best.
Those who have been to boulder know it is a unique city with a distinct vibe.
and Ghetto caveman …. “Boulder.co developed with the city vibe in mind and marketed with strong local traditional advertising, would do extremely well”
This is exactly with 99% of domain investors do not do … you are right, with the correct business plan and money to market it would be great and owners would not even need to care about SERP results but sadly thats an end user sale and when you buy a name like this for into the five figures you have to find one .. and most domain owners are not even good at that.
“with the correct business plan and money to market ”
Good God – that is the definition of the .com Internet space – he who does not have enough money to market needs a .com.
May God – with enough money you can put quotes around anything and make it a brand – even with a $5M marketing budget you can put “BoulderColoradoIsARealyFunPlaceToLive.com” – and take the town by storm
well said .. I think this applies 100x to domains that have specific markets like this
“he who does not have enough money to market needs a .com”
no truer words.
all the Colorado cities should buy their .co domain
“CO” is also the short form of the province of an italian city: Como
The best Boulder, Colorado domain is DowntownBoulder.com and that is why “Piety” outbid my $8500 bid for it 2 years ago at NameJet. My experience is he has a lot more money than me but he invests very wisely – it would be curious to see how many .co’s these high end guys are going after – I am the biggest “student” around.
has FBI registered the Quanti.co domain ? 🙂
http://www.census.gov/tiger/tms/gazetteer/places.txt
“::: GooStation.com – a $20 million domain??? :::”
Stop spamming dude, goostation it’s a stupid name, no matter how many forums you spam with it. Reg fee at best.
I just registered
DowntownBoulder.co & DowntownBoulder.org
Boulder.co does indeed get points for being a hack for Boulder, CO, and amazingly enough, Google has “Boulder CO” having more exact searches than simply “Boulder” (not sure I truly believe that to be the case as Google Trends shows the opposite, but still do believe it has significant search). So to me, it’s pretty worthy from a hack perspective let alone from the .co perspective. Throw in that it’s a Geo and geo domainers loooove their Geo’s, it’s no surprise that it’s bid up to what it has. We may see within 24 hours what a pure domain hack with nothing else going for it can sell for (Doma.in in TRAFFIC Dublin live auction – shameless self plug :P) which may shed some light on what the hack value of the domain could add to the overall value.
That said, I’m not really on the .co train and think that it will see just as much speculation-to-development ratio as .me and will fizzle out quite a bit after the hype dies down. I saw a comment the other day from a layperson about a .co that tells the whole tale and I think will ultimately be most laypeople’s view of the extension: “You forgot the m.” Simply put, .co domains LOOK like typos to the average person, and development on a .co would lose a significant portion of traffic to a .com, probably more so than any other extension in existence besides maybe .cm.
It will continue to have value for sure, but .co has even more extreme speculation than .me for instance given the prospect of collateral traffic from the equivalent .com domains. However, the intersection of quality .com domains and .com domains with enough traffic to make the traffic on the .co worth nabbing is rather tiny…which leads to many people getting quality names in .co probably already disappointed in the (lack of) traffic they see, and when hype dies down they’ll be asking too much for their .co’s, sales will slow, then when renewal time comes, they’ll find themselves with a ton of .co domains that may or may not be worth holding onto and some tough decisions to make, and we’ll see a massive amount of drops like with .me.
That said, I think right now at around $10k, Boulder.co may still be at an acceptable level for a reseller given it is also a pretty viable hack, but it wouldn’t take much more than that for it to really only be worth going after with development in mind (and a clear plan to monetize whatever site is put on it). That’s my take on it.
-Steve
+1
http://www.circleid.com/posts/the_web_is_dead_what_this_means_to_icann_new_gtld_domain_industry/
New DNS Software could combine .CO and .COM for better reliability, stability, security. Owning both may become expensive and necessary.
There is a lot of debate and excitement around the .co domains for good reason.
Bear in mind how new they are.
Not many other extensions have sold almost half a million domains in the first month.
.info domains sell for a decent amount and are not completely worthless.
How does .co compare?
.co has sold ~450k in first month at $30 a pop.
.info sold ~25k in first month at $30 a pop (see New York Times Article “Data’s Validity Is Faulted In Net Registration System”)
So put things in perspective!
=) Even viewed as being as bad as .info, which seems highly unlikely, a premium domain name like those that can be bought now for .co are worth multiples of the investment.
Auction Update
The auction for Boulder.co is now at $11,500 with the auction having been extended for another day, now due to close Tomorrow night
Sorry Friends-
I no longer have time for this .co support group.
Best of luck
7/25 Update
Boulder.co Now at $11,650 and auction is extended another day
“extended another day”
summs it up = lets reel in that last sucker –
Mike just delivers the facts – this is completely entertaining
I appreciate your info on the dotco names. I live in Colorado and am really curious what the Colorado city names will go for. Keep us posted.
I was wondering though if you are getting your information from somewhere on cointernet’s site (that we can look at as well), a special inside releationship, or because you bought into the names your tracking so you would have exposure… or all 3?
Is there a place where we can see a whole list of published sale prices?
I was also curious about the comment from Brian – “lets reel in that last sucker” – I lost something in the story… Please explain.
Interesting discussion, and some people got a little heated about it, but I think the name is good, as long as the buyer has the cash to make a good site on the domain. Calling it the Ford is not going to help anyone though. I have .orgs and .coms in top positions for their keywords, and since Google said they would treat .co as a .com, I think anyone can use the domain name and get to the top of the engines.
Joe, sorry to be nitpicky but your comment has a huge error: “and since Google said they would treat .co as a .com” – no, they said they would treat it as an international extension, which is a huge difference. FYI, that puts it in the same category as .mobi and .name, and when’s the last time you saw either of those rank for anything prominent?
As far as international extensions are concerned, Google gives major preference to the big 3 (.com, .net, and .org) over everything else and has for quite some time, so .co is most definitely NOT getting treated anything close to .com. The fact that none of the sites or domains right now would have any age compounds that.
I still think it’s worth it at around $10k for a developer, but said developer needs to keep in mind that the SEO benefits of the exact match isn’t going to be nearly as helpful with a .co as it would with a .com.
@ steve jones….great point, my developed .co is indexed, but has no meaningful rankings…yet…will be interesting to see if, how long and how much $ to achieve results…also noticed hardly any sales over at flipping.co these days..
“Google gives major preference to the big 3 (.com, .net, and .org) over everything ”
Folks that own and operate a business using a generic or commonly used .com do not need to rely on SEO and pay dearly for SEO – and all the games and rule changes that occur regularily with these fine folks.
As mentioned before if you have a huge marketing budget – buy a non.com – otherwise spend you money upfront and buy a generic self-promoting, self-marketing and self-advertising .com
8/26 Update On Boulder.co
Bidding today has hit $12,700
Auction is now extended until tomorrow
Didnt Google deny that they give preference of one extension over another.
I thought I read that somewhere.
So what is the deal with the auction. They are just arbitrarily extended the auction for another day because they feel like it? Extending it for 5 or 10 minutes is one thing but why is it being extended extra days?
Brad
Todd
The sales info from the .co land rush auctions is coming to us from the registry and we do not think it is available anywhere else.
Keep checking back we should have new info every few days
Brad
They are following the same pattern as the .ME auctions did.
If there is a bid placed within the last day of the auction that beats any proxy bid and therefore becomes a new high bid the auction gets extended for 24 hours.
If there is no bid within the last 24 hours that becomes the high bid the auction will end as scheduled.
“…FYI, that puts it in the same category as .mobi and .name, and when’s the last time you saw either of those rank for anything prominent?”
To gain a top listing on Google there is a laundry list of things that you need to be at the top of in the development of your site.
You can have porn.com and not have the number 1 listing or even be on the top 10 on a Google search for the keyword Porn.
In fact if a .TO rounds out the top 10 spots.
I know there are several factors that go into the Google ranking. Traffic plays a role, Link backs play another roll. Domain age also plays a huge roll.
No extension has the age that generic .com, .net, and .org have. Most of those sites (if they have been built up) have been around for a while. Huge link list have been associated with them. Its very very hard for ANY extension to compete with that.
Sure you can pay HUGE amounts to a professional SEO to get the top ranking spots but lets consider the owners who would buy another extension. Someone or some company buys a non .COM because (most of the time) they can NOT afford the .COM. Lets face it, generic .COMs are expensive.
I know for a fact that I do not have the money to purchase porn.com if it was for sale and probably neither do most of the people posting on this site.
So if I was a business and wanted a meaningful generic domain name that would fit my budget, I would have to look outside of .COM. That leads me to believe that the people who purchased another extension do not have the resources to pay the SEO to list in the top 10.
Also consider that .MOBI, .ME, .NAME, .TV where never marketed to the company/cooperation side of domaining.
Mobi was marketed as a mobile phone website extension. I guess you could possibly use this for a business but why would you when your .COM works just as well?
Me was marketed as a personal website. Not to much of a pull towards business there!
Name….. I have no idea where the hell that one even came into play!
TV was …. well marketed for site that are either TV related or feature video. I guess some businesses could use this??? But something like a tire company, car company, banking and loan company, real-estate… ect. I just dont see it.
None of these are very strong for the business/company world, therefor I think its safe to assume that not many companies purchased these domains.
Not much funding behind the development of the sites and thus the domains and there for you dont get the high ranking on the Google results.
If companies put their money into another extension, regardless of what anyone else says, that extension will take off. So now we just have to find the right extension that is marketable toward companies and that can be treated as a generic TLD like .com, .net and .org.
Long entry Slate – I have no use for ALL non.com’s but very good SEO info – thanks
I’ve done in-house SEO/SEM for nearly a decade and believe that the advantages of .com/.net/.org have less to do with Google’s preferences and more to do with site age and extension trust.
Currently, “.com/.net/.org” are primarily favored in one aspect by Google – the “exact match” bonus (which is diminishing). Here’s how I’ve seen the exact match work: if you own “redwidgets.com” and somebody searches “red widgets” or “redwidgets” your site may have a specific algorithmic advantage, albeit minor. If the searcher looks up “bright red widgets” – no exact match bonus is applied. To my knowledge, this exact match bonus is given favor with the .com/.net/.org.
As Slate mentioned above, there are hundreds of other factors that come into play and “exact match” is just one of them. Google has turned down the “exact match” bonus dial quite a bit lately too. Yahoo had given exact match strong credence in the past, but Bing is now serving their search results.
Keyword domains do benefit additionally from having the terms in their URL, because link anchor text pointing to that site will likely include those keywords, but this is a factor which isn’t directly related to domain extension.
In any case, I’d wager that a .com domain outranking a .info or .me for a competitive term, has less to do with any extension preference in Google’s algo and more to do with a preference towards aged domains (a .com site could have been around for years where a new extension couldn’t have been) AND the large volume of aged links to that aged .com domain. A strong link profile built up over time can easily trump the exact match bonus.
There’s also an inherent link advantage which certain extensions benefit from (.com/.org/.gov …). An established outside website is much more likely to link to sites built on one of these extensions, rather than a .info, .me or even a .net.
.CO has to achieve a certain level of known and trusted status, for sites built on it to become a suitable link target from other trusted websites. I believe .CO does have a solid shot at becoming a known and trusted global extension, but it won’t be years until we really know.
8/27 UPDATE
Boulder.co is now at $15,650 and the auction has been extended by another day
I understand that some auctions are set up to get extended another day with bids vs. another 5 minutes like NameJet & Snap.
How long have we been at it – a week now.
Almost seems like this extended bidding on a daily basis could be perceived by some as some kind a hype vehicle for promoting .co’s
Brian,
Everybody chooses to it different and if you owned .co how is this wrong?
To give Juan credit the idea being extending auctions a day I’m sure was to avoid any time zone difference, allow corporate buyers access during working hours and more. Nothing wrong with this – its only irritating to the people bidding possible but who else cares.
@ Alan,
I don’t buy it – otherwise NameJet and Snap – Pool and the rest would be extending auctions daily vs. 5 minutes intervals – in order to maximize sales.
All this rationalization just lifts an eybrow even further.
One can be cynical about anything if you want to be – I would probably get a cup of coffee and move on with your day Brian.
.Me land rush auctions were handled the same way and some of those auctions went on for weeks.
I certainly prevents last minute snipping
Dont do caffeine – just lots of booze
I might appear to be cynical simply because I have not bought one cent into non.com’s the lastest being “.co” – (actually I wasted $25 on one). The 1 days extensions is nothing more than a hype strategy to draw in another sucker – and some might think it might be something more.
@ Mike,
And look how .me took the world by storm – wow – wow – wow – its just a sales strategy to draw suckers in to buying useless worthless non-brandable non.coms’s
Those who do probably are not bidders anyway.
People investing are those who who like the .co and nobody is holding a gun to anybody’s head to bid past an amount so I really dont see how any of your points are relevant here about why they are extending auctions.
People will bid what they want to.
Grab a drink – its Friday.
To: BrianWick
What .CO did you waste your $25.00, maybe I will take it and give you your $25 for it? Contact me, and you could eliminate your loss in that one.
Alan
Sounds like a good idea
Where’s the Vodka
@Uzoma – CapitolHill.co – I may take you up on your offer to buy it from me for $25.
@Alan – “People investing are those who who like the .co and nobody is holding a gun”
“Investing” to flip rather than Investing to build a business is a recipie for guaranteed failure – I am constantly reminded of that going on 13 calendar years in the business.
Also – I do not start drinking heavily until later – I may drive up to Boulder and have a
.co cktail later today
I’ll take it, Brian. Where do you want to do the deal? You can click on my name and send me your Paypal, and I’ll send you the money. Thanks for the sale.
“Investing” to flip rather than Investing to build a business is a recipie for guaranteed failure
Wow – that quote is up there with Latona’s “There is no money in web design”
You sure you’re not drinking already.
@Alan,
I am not sure what was missed on that – ALL the money is in db programming and web design especially the Web 2.0 stuff (you know Windows on the Web) – and that is what building a business around a .com is all about.
FYI – I made all my money as a programmer before getting into .com’s – you know buying them back then – so I can build them out now.
@Uzoma –
As mentioned earlier or in a different thread SiteAnalytics.Compete.com shows 1 “.co” typein for every 2000-2500 “.com” typins.
At this early stage of “.co” one would have to assume those are pure typos – as no one is really wanting to go to a “.co” intentionally. This service is very consistant with my internal “.com” numbers so I beieve their numbers.
Typos ratios do not change over time. So should the ratio be reduced significantly in the next 3-6 months – say 1 “.co” for every 200 “.com” this represents “.co” gaining traction and I will pass on your offer. Should the ratio stay higher than that I will likely accept your offer – i.e. meaning “.co” has gone away to the non.com bermuda triangle along with .mobi dick and the all the rest.
Sound fair enough ?
all hype no game on .co
so a couple of things:
1) stinks for those of us in this auction who dont want to go above $15k because our initial $300 credit card charge is tied up all these added days, will extend tie up of funds for colorado springs, aspen denver(any guesses??) and vail thru october i think, any way to “opt out” of the auction?
2) the publicity for boulder has become a self fulfilling valuation rampup because everytime the Boulder.co is shown it just look sooooooooo darn cool.
3) i think the competitive nature of the com should have knocked down this one from $15k to $5k.
now if the com is taken by a plumbing or rock company, or a non competitive use, i makes the .co easier to be “the” portal.
im glad these auctions went in alphabetical order.
per page howe:
”
stinks for those of us in this auction who dont want to go above $15k because our initial $300 credit card charge is tied up all these added days, will extend tie up of funds for colorado springs, aspen denver(any guesses??) and vail thru october i think, any way to “opt out” of the auction?
”
There are snake oil salesmen willing to deliver something for everone desparate to be on the cutting edge of something new.
Although not explicitly stated – ACPA and UDRP have dictated the .com – the only one on the shelf – sure there are a few kangaroo exceptions. Cost me a lot of money in suggesting otherwise – at this point I look at those costs as “tuition” – and that is what anyone buying a non.com, including “.co” is paying.
Cheers to the “.co” Snake Oil Salesmen
Page
I don’t understand this:
“stinks for those of us in this auction who dont want to go above $15k because our initial $300 credit card charge is tied up all these added days, will extend tie up of funds for colorado springs, aspen denver(any guesses??) and vail thru october i think, any way to “opt out” of the auction?””
I mean if you are worried about $300 being tied up, you shouldn’t be bidding $15K
Brian
If you think the results have been crazy so far don’t miss my post tomorrow morning.
Got a whole new set of completed domain auctions and you won’t believe the prices
MHB:
I’m curious NOW. Let out a few …
I am not really that surprised by high prices in the landrush auctions, but it still doesn’t mean it is a good investment. Landrush auctions are always at peak interest.
LasVegas.asia – $30K is a good example.
It is taking money out of the market that normally goes to established investments, which is fine with me. It just means more deals out there.
Brad
Per Brad:
“LasVegas.asia – $30K is a good example.”
Good God – Good God – If I was willing to sell my soul – I would invest/buy into a non.com registry – however I just believe in Karma – and not bilking the naive.
Everything has a BEGINNING and an END !!!! Also the .COM
Everything changes and also PEOPLE,S MIND !!!!! NOTHING last FOREVER and also the . COM
This is ESPECIALLY to ALL .COM lovers who think that the “KING” (.com) can NEVER lose it,s crown;
Take an example at the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ( “KING of the world”) Nobody in this world
could imagine that one day the USA should end up into such a crisis; Banks and COmpanies (Genaral Motors) needed tax payer,s money to secure their existance, Americans (big time speders)running out of their houses, and handed over the keys from their precious homes to avoid Foreclosure
Prestigious banks like FANNY MAE (america,s pride) ended up in trouble They where the KING (mortgages)
The message to all dotCOM lovers is very simple, ” DON,T BE SO SELF-COnfident cause you can be surprised in an UNPLEASANT way one day since EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO A CHANGE ”
Have a nice day and greetz from Europe (dotDE) !!!
.COM DESTRUCTION
Boulder 8/28 UPDATE
High bid currently at $16,150
Auction extended another day
8/29 UPDATE
High bid is currently at $17K.
Auction is ended until tomorrow
FINAL UPDATE
Boulder.co sold for $17K today.
Denver.co auction starts on September 2nd
Thank you for reliable Updates, MHB. This is a great and useful Blog.
fyi aspen extended today at $11000 i believe
Aspen.co – Another ground floor opportunity – more like 6 feet under
Page
Thanks keep us updates on that one
Denver.co starts on September 2nd.
I strongly believe there is great future value in CO domains and the “CO” association with Colorado ads extra value. I would not be suprised to see in the long run for many existing Colorado related web sites to gradually migrate to CO extension, or even abandon the original domains.