BusinessInsider.com just published an article entitled “Will Dot.com’s Eventually become the Dinosaurs of the Internet?
“During the Internet bubble, you were an automatic millionaire if you owned a one-word domain name that matched your business (example: Car.com, Hotel.com and Sex.com etc). Now that all the good ones are taken, it seems to be more than popular to snatch up a domain name with a crazy extension.”
“Ever heard of the Internet tool to shorten a URL called Bit.ly? Chances are that you have, and if you haven’t, you have probably clicked on one of their nearly five billion links that have been created to shorten website links. How about Justin.TV, Del.icio.us or Last.fm? ”
“”History has shown us that .com and .net were the standards for most businesses, while .org was the norm for organizations and .gov were limited to governmental entities. However, over the past couple years, everything has changed.”
With hundreds maybe even thousands of extensions coming, it may eventually be more about something that is brandable and memorable regardless of whether a .com is involved or not.
I can tell you out of the 75,000 domains I own one of the most inquired about domains are meet.me and date.me and with the AOL purchase of About.Me is goes to show that brandable domains may well involved what is right of the dot not just the keyword to the left.
All and all an interesting article that everyone should check out.
no
only the webmail services will move (as I hope) to the .mail TLD to have safer emails with less spam and phishing
MHB, can you share with us the highest offer you received for .ME?
It’s all about, keyword, domain age, seo-work, and marketing. The TLD is becoming less and less relevant.
LasVegas.VC
Bahamas.VC
Caribbean.VC
Jamaica.VC
Credit.AC
Insurance.AC
We be sittin’ on a gold mine, baby 😉
– TBC
It’s a one man’s opinion.
And meet.me and date.me are very specific to make a trend.
For a blog, any extension will do. For a real business? Hard
IMO for the foreseeable future .COM will still be king and you will continue to see so-so keyword .COM domains sell for high $xxx to low $XXXX. Search-phrase .COMs will command even higher prices. However, I have seen at SEDO an increasing demand for .Net domains and DNJ is reporting more CCTLD sales including .CO and .TV. I believe there is a market, though more limited in scope, for quality keywords in these other TLDs where a small business can get the keyword they want without spending five to six figures on the domain.
Oh god… This can hope a whole can of worms.
This should be a fun one to keep an eye one.
I happen to own many .COMs (more then any other extension I have by a LOT) but I also know that sooner or later, everything has to come to an end.
I have NO idea when that will be!
I have NO idea if there will be another extension in its place!
But sooner of later people (as a whole to include businesses) will grow weary of not being able to obtain the domain name they want, especially if you consider that there are so many services out there now that allow anyone to build a site with little to know experience.
Domain names are starting to become popular for the average person for their own personal blogs, personal sites, and so forth.
Other extensions are catching on. There is an appeal about them to the average Joe.
Does that mean the end of .COM… I have no idea but sooner or later it will have to give way to something else.
Just the way I see it
Cheers
I wholeheartedly agree…..Kev
Out of four examples he made, one he pointed out Del.icio.us. However this domain now redirects to the .com. He was unable to even find four solid examples. One of them shows it’s worth being on the .com.
I think we’re seeing a growing trend and the future will most likely be less about .com and more about simple, highly brandable names. Meet.Me and Date.Me and About.Me are three excellent examples, Michael.
Extensions like .Me, .It, .Tv, .Us and probably even .Info will benefit immensely from this growing trend. Extensions like .Co, .De and .In probably won’t because they’re not “brandable” extensions.
Domain hacks are a completely different story too.
It all comes down to what you’re looking for. If you’re looking to build a brand online, brandable domain extensions are a big plus these days. If you’re looking to register a company name, the extension is less important even though .com is still preferred.
It’s the age old Branding vs Keyword vs Extension argument –
– given a choice, I would factor all three and go for the .Com
Why ask someone who does not even own a domain name?
If s/he has own a domain name, then the story will be different.
“Join the Caribbean-Vacation-Club Today! @ Caribbean.VC”
“Get your FREE Credit-Access-Card Today! @ Credit.AC”
My point is, “domain-hacking” with great keywords is easy, brandable, and can be HIGHLY profitable, considering the cost of obtaining the domains (reg-fee).
RIP, .com 🙂
– TBC
Isn’t business insider one of the companies being sued by the content people for IP violations ?
““Join the Caribbean-Vacation-Club Today! @ Caribbean.VC”
“Get your FREE Credit-Access-Card Today! @ Credit.AC”
My point is, “domain-hacking” with great keywords is easy, brandable, and can be HIGHLY profitable, considering the cost of obtaining the domains (reg-fee).”
Build the business… then talk.
“However, this is a big “if” because finding your website in the first place will be a hard task. Not only may search engine optimization play a factor, but users may default back to a more familiar domain name simply because they trust and understand the idea of a .com.”
——-
I think this is highly likely, with so many new extensions people are going to have to remember both the keyword/s before & after the dot, they won’t be as intuitive for the most part so they’ll be more reliant on the search engines to be found. How will these new extensions rank in search engines compared to .coms or cctld’s ?? – nobody really knows.
The other thing that is going to make a big difference to whether they are a long term success is going to be how are they released to the general public.
Will all the best keywords all be held back & auctioned off by the registrar?…more than likely. There is no shortage of good .coms available at aftermarket prices right now its just that many endusers don’t want to pay high prices, the same will happen to all these other extensions if they are run like .tv, .me, .co etc
Sure the registrars and some domainers will make a mint but will the extensions be adopted and used in the same way .com & .cctld’s have been, I’d say no chance.
“Why ask someone who does not even own a domain name?”
He has his own domain – MyTwoAndAHalfCents.com
I guess he did’nt fancy buying mytwocents.com 😉
…that’s my two cents
@ MHB – are you getting many offers from middle east countries for your .me’s ?
@Gazzip:
You hit the nail on the head.
Non .com extensions will continue to grow in the future because the Internet and the number of people who want/need to be online will grow.
In almost every case, the use of a non .com or .org extension is an admission that you could not get the .com or .org. While the fact that you have to use a lesser extension will become less of a negative in the future as people become more exposed to various extensions, .com/.org are now and always will be the place to be if you can afford to be there.
In any event, the growth of the Internet continues to present unbelievable opportunities for all.
Other extensions will grow in popularity, but .COM will always be the most in demand virtual real estate.
Other extensions are like houses in the suburbs, .COM are like mansions on the beach.
Brad
why not a DOTc TLD that unifies DOTcom and DOTco?
@ .Com
In almost every case, the use of a non .com extension is an a ADMISSION that you could not get the .com
========================================
NICELY SAID!
END OF THREAD! 🙂
I wouldn’t take branding advice from a guy whose idea of a good domain name is mytwoandahalfcents.com
Like all technologies the next wave comes and renders the previous obsolete.
TV killed the radio star.
Eventually it will be more social and geo smart names such as facebook pages and the like that kill the need for actual domains at all regardless of their extension.
Its not yet but as soon as it (eventually does) become optional to have the .com a lot of the true value will evaporate
It’s just like toll free numbers. 1-800 will always be the most popular, but that does not mean that folks won’t fiercely grab up new extensions, like they are currently doing right now with the 855 toll free numbers.
There is room for all extensions to grow, but nothing will be in demand or grow like .com in the future, besides ccTLDs. It will still be this same way in 20 years.
@Greg
Radio’s still around.
The Y2K bug was an issue because no one thought Cobol programs written in the ’60s would still be in use 30 years later.
Behavioral habits and business practices can be very resistant to change, even in the face of rapid technological advances. There’s nothing as ingrained on the Internet as that .com is the expected extension for a web site.
yeah kids these days, they could care less about.com
and big companies, they’ll get their own TLD
and with Chrome, and search, and links etc etc, direct navigation goes down and down (unless you cant tell the diff between epik content and epic content)
meaning counts and .com already sounds old, sorry
not to say domainers aint cool and smart, but on the net change happens
my question is, given that the big boys will move to their own TLD, does that effectively put a cap on .com’s of a certain class? I aint paying 500k for (.commercial) when i can own (.my business) for 200k..
also, once the fortune 500 goes with their own TLD, we will see that .com isnt the big boy anymore, and that undercuts all the bs it was built on and we see the multi million dollar ad campaigns were about the brand, not the .com
Michael its good to see a big dot com guy like you is open to riding the new wave with your newTLD consult gig
ps – newTLDs and especially new geoTLDs will be awesome for ccTLD values as they further the geo trend but dont touch national – that space is carved out and protected
biggest thing is the localization of the net in our lives – = ccTLDs
about.me, meet.me are perfect examples of fact that it should eventually be more about something that is brandable and memorable and MEANINGFUL regardless of whether a .com is involved or not.
peace domainers, but open your eyes ok?
.com per se isnt that cool anymore unless you’re old:)
btw meet.me and date.me are totally awesome and MODERN names as you know Michael; call Markus from plenty of fish and he’ll tell you how he works 15 min/day and makes millions:)
LOL.
Yeah. I find insight on domain names by listening to some schvartz who builds his primary web presence on a flaming bag of shit like “MyTwoAndAHalfCents.com”.
Now *THERE’S* a guy who really “gets it”. {chortle}
@ .Com
In almost every case, the use of a ….. non .com extension ….
…… is an a ADMISSION …..
that you could sadly not ADDORD the .Com
========================================
Dreamers In Denial:
THE DUMMIES STILL DON’T GET IT!
Everyone cares about a brand including kids. dot com is now aligned with more quality than any other brand. that will not change. It still grows with foreign language dot com taken by the leading national / international companies. Dot whatever is not the brand. dot com keyword or brand trademark is the real deal.
I have very few domains like this.
I hand reg’d Doctors.bz a a few years ago, I figured how could I not? It was a random check and it was available in one of the suggested alternate extensions when I was first starting out. I think it’s a cool domain, but nobody is really banging down my door for it.
passing by has right. No more wheel, no more .com
Hi
Why not try to talk on the end user point of view not only domainers and resellers.
Bit.ly is brandable? For what? A company or firm called Bit or Bitly?
I really don´t agree with your futuristic and quiromantic previsions on the dot com or even dot net, dot org or dot info. Of course this is all controversial and experts may fail on their expentancies as sometimes they don´t hear what end users really want.
And we can´t forget that domains were created basically to serve a future web site with a particular name. Someone that has a horse racing company certainly aren´t interested to buy a hor.se or a hor.co. They will tend to find something like VintageHorse.com or dot info or some4thing that has the word horse on it.
.co and many other extensions never will be compared with those “dinos”. Dot com never needs a Jurassic Park. See what happens daily on the auction web sites like Bido, Epik or SnapNames. Mostly of the names sold are dot com or other big extensions (the other dinos). Not .co or .me or .im.
Regards to all
The only Dinosaur in this conversation is BusinessInsider.com itself. who:
A: Still uses a .COM
B. None of us will be alive the day other extensions have more $$$ tagged to advertising than .COM
C. Been hearing the same nonsense since 1996. Just comes in a different wrapper each time.
D. There are only 26 letters in the alphabet so why waste any more time discussing something so silly
That said there is more opportunities in domaining right now than I have ever seen. Other extensions will emerge, but none will replace. That is the bottom line. And when they have great success with that other extension, they will go to sleep each day wishing for the .COM version. If not, that will be okay, because each night a domainer will go to sleep with a big smile on their face knowing things the other guy will never know. 🙂
It’s so interesting how things change. If you look at some of the comments on this blog from a couple of years ago, people (not MHB) were saying things like “.ME is so yesterday” and that it was a fad. A crap extension with no traction, and only a few auctions that broke $10,000.
I’m not one of those “.com is a dinosaur” people. .Com is the closest thing to an aged, bankable investment, and will always be what people think of first. But for newer companies who are taking their brands in a different direction, non-traditional extensions can be appealing. 1) It costs less. 2) In some cases, it can help them stand out from the crowd.
Like.com is an insanely valuable domain, but has a generic ring to it, where as “like.me,” sounds a lot more specific and like a call to action.
I agree with a lot of comments like Nadia’s, the .com will be more sought after no matter how many extensions are released. I also get a lot of inquiries of a few of my top .ME names but I feel they are very low and better if I sit on them a while. I like Rik’s comment that other’s will come but none will Replace the .com
Great article as always, Thank you.
Interesting discussion guys
My take is while no one extension is going to replace .Com’s and considering 97% of my portfolio is .Com’s I’m certainly not rooting for .Com demise.
However I think there is a place for brandable domains in other extensions and you will continue to see an every expanding list of possibilities in coming years.
Right now I like, .com, .org, .me., .tv and .Co
I track the whois searches of all my domain names. My .coms, .orgs and .nets are searched constantly.
No one is searching my any of my other extensions (although they are in the minority of my portfolio).
WIth the exception of hacks and specific brandables I think the top level domains have quite a few years to be king.
We turned down a $1,500 verbal offer this morning for Sportsbook.VC. The offer came from someone who linked to our landing page through a comment I made yesterday here on theDomains. They saw Sportsbook.VC and then called me to make the offer – after consulting with my partners, I turned down the offer without countering.
We hand-reg’d Sportsbook.VC five days ago for $39. After doing some digging, I found out that someone bought Sportsbook.VC for $1,800 on Moniker over three years ago…and then they LET IT DROP! There are still some values to be had out there;)
Funny…
– TBC
I have to say that I partially agree with some points in that article. The sad truth is that we cannot ‘wish’ something to happen. We cannot hope that a business will come knocking for our .coms, they have to actively seek them out. And to be quite honest guys, most business owners that I know will never pay $xx,xxx for a domain (of course there are some that do). It just isn’t going to happen, especially with the new extensions coming.
We are seeing a splintering of the web here. Now, I too have many .coms and have a lot invested in them, but the reality cannot be denied. It’s largely still the outliers of the business world who make the purchases.
And honestly, there has been more and more seo talk lately of PageRank and how it is due for a change. SE’s displaying results based mostly off of links is bound to change, which will give newcomers with their .whatever sites more leverage and visibility.
Just my $0.02
Here’s the issue – domainers can’t monopolize registrations when there are hundreds of extensions. That’s not to say that all the new registrants of Blah. Hotel will develop the sites they register because they are all end users, but it just means that it changes the business model for domainers.
Domainers already do a piss poor job of recognizing value of extensions that are available today – .TV, .INFO, .ME and .US all have ridiculously low valuations in the reseller market. While I don’t have scientific evidence, I have noticed that the gap between end user and reseller prices (ie, our margin) for .com domains appears to be contracting as the number of “low hanging fruit” .com domains is drying up for domainers (just look at the prices paid at namejet for example).
As a domain investor, I try to capitalize on where I see the most potential profit margin even if there is greater risk (future trends, ccTLDs and prime keywords on relevant gTLDs), while still trying to maintain a portfolio of keyword .coms which are as liquid as possible in this industry.
Lucky you but it no proves that dot com is or will be a dino. The meaning and meaningful (dictionary words or acronyms that hazardous means a name of an individual, a firm or company), are the future of domains. I also have some like dub.im but unless a dub manager (or particulrly a reggae music producer as dub is a genre of reggae), will look on it, i will never sell it, not for thousand or even hundres and of ocurse it deserves more. I´m auctioned it on Bido, the newest. Hope sold it by 50 or a small fee over it. I will donate it to help australians.
The domains i had with .me and some .mobii i shooteed them down something William Henry Bonney did with corporate farmers´ gunmen when they tried to steal ther assets.
The pool of entities that need a domain name keeps on growing as the internet grows. Different .tlds and quality of keywords provide different price points for everyone, and it’s a big market. You can buy a used car for $1000 or a fancy sportscar for $200,000. The used car salesman and the Mercedes dealer both can make money, even though their products have different quality and pricing. I think the domain market is similar, there is profit to be made at all price levels, and you have to decide where your domains fit in.
domain names will ALWAYS be hot and in demand until Jesus returns which will also take place and one never knows when! this shorter keyword tool will never be adapter fully!!! people barely know how to use the internet as it is 20 yrs later and have busy lives then to RE-INVENT the internet. besides there are SO many businesses and this shorter tool will NEVER be understood correctly before Jesus returns!!! keep promoting DOMAIN NAMES PEOPLE verbally to friends and others as well as throughout the internet! REMEMBER WE THE PEOPLE! Similarly WE THE DOMAINERS!! WILL keep it the way WE want to keep it if we stand together!!! God bless! In Jesus! JS
@JP,
Doctors.biz is not anything related to a business. If you owned MedicalSupplies,biz, and even MedicalScrubs.biz, you would probably attract a few leads.
@to others,
.com will always be the best. Find a popular niche you know about. Test: If you can list 25 keywords relating to the niche in 2 minutes, you know about the niche. You will be able to find .com in that niche to flip for a profit.
I only own one .me. I plan to keep the domain for a long-term investment. With 50 million average keyword results and 200,000 searches, the name is fairly good, and is a word recognized across the world if converted into their language. Thanks.
@Jason
MedicalSupplies.bz just expired on the19th (I just checked out of curiosity). If it showed up on a NameJet droplist you think anyone would even bid on it? (I wouldn’t). How bout the same for Doctors.bz?
@JP,
The domain names I mentioned are more of an example of the type of name and the extension than what you need to buy.
You have to contact who you think may use the name. Medical Supplies is mainly a business between the medical supply company and the hospital.There are many medical supply chains that deal directly with hospitals.
Medica Scrubs would be better because it is an actual item that sells online. The other site may work if you integrate medical items that usually sell to the consumer.
IMO, medical supplies usually suggests a company that cater to hospitals. I’m not sure who supplies to the medical supplies, but I can find out. My brother used to work for a medical supply company. Thanks.
@J
Sort of an interesting hypothetical question for you then. If there was this lucky situation where you had the opportunity to register (choice only between) Doctors.COM or MedicalSupplies.COM and neither had ever been an existing site, no backlinks, etc… Purely based on your stance on the intrinsic value of the names themselves to both end users other potential wholesale/domainer buyers that may some day buy it from you or your ability to develop it to something successful, which of the two would you register if you could only pick one (or neither is an option).
I only own one .biz, and only attempted to sell the domain a few times. Monocular.biz. I will eithertry to sell again or let it drop later.
I prefer to buy .com and .us. Job .us sites are good to sell. .info are good to make ad revenue. I sold one .info. Never sold a .net, but own several dozen names. .com is the best to sell to the end-user. Premium .net tend to find buyers. Good luck. Thanks.
IMO,
I would buy Doctors.com. The domain is very valuable. You can set the site up as a web directory.
I’m sure the domain can be monetized in some way – implants, jobs, and etc… It’s definitely an aged domain, one word generic term, and has a ton of average keyword results and searches.
MedicalSupplies.com is a valuable name, but less valuable than doctors.com. Many may prefer the singular version. However, the plural probably has more appraisal value, but the singular is more brandable.
IMO, both domains are excellent, but I would prefer doctors.com over the medicalsupplies.com domain.
@JP
Using my iPhone. Cable and high speed is not working. The IMO was displaced.
IMO, I would buy Doctors.com. The domain is very valuable. You can set the site up as a web directory.
I’m sure the domain can be monetized in some way – implants, jobs, and etc… It’s definitely an aged domain, one word generic term, and has a ton of average keyword results and searches.
MedicalSupplies.com is a valuable name, but less valuable than doctors.com. Many may prefer the singular version. However, the plural probably has more appraisal value, but the singular is more brandable.
IMO, both domains are excellent, but I would prefer doctors.com over the medicalsupplies.com domain. If both were available with no history, the doctors.com is an excellent site to brand as either a job site or something like a professional forum to ask medical question. Maybe one can partner partner with JustAnswer.com. People like to communicate to physicians. There’s a big market for physicians on Just Answer.
IMO, Even though there’s possibly liability issues, an end-user will have it covered. Very valuable end-user potential.
@J
Ok so if it is in .com you would pic Doctors, however if it is in.bz you would pick MedicalSupplues? Curious, why?
@JP
There’s a different criteria. I would prefer one word generic domains. However, I would have a tough time choose whether to buy Doctors.com, or LaserHairRemoval.com. Even the second .com has strong market value.
Doctors.com is a brandable one word generic .com with many organic results. IMO, medicalsupplies.com is a quality domain, but no way near as good as doctors.com. I would actually prefer Movie.biz to your doctors.biz. The.biz seems to be a tough sale unless their plans to develop the domain. I would read past DNjournal sales to determine which .biz has sold.
Also, i would prefer Resume.biz. Think like a business. Restaurant.biz, directory.biz, shopping.biz, and etc.. There’s a major difference between Doctors.com and doctors.biz.IMO, it’s like the US GDP versus a small nation. I don’t buy .biz unless I could afford Resume.biz and Movie.biz. The names communicate with the extension. Job sites are best as .com, .org, .net and .us. I believe businessjobs.biz was available, or may still be. Reason the domain is available because the .biz is less appealing in certain names (IMO).
I had some challenges with trying to sell some .com service domains in various categries. However, I flipped a .com that was in a niche I know a lot about. It really depends on whether an end-user has a plan. People will find certain names to be valuable to their overall business.
Doctors.com is a major domain with marketing appeal. The keyword starsalso support the case, as it is searched more and east to remember. Your .biz is in a different category due to the extension. Doctors.net is another good domains. I wouldn’t mind owning doctors.org. You can build out any of those domains in anything to capture a market – medical education, schools, info, insurance, and etc.. IMO, you evaluate a domain based on the extension and the name.thanks.
24 Billion.coms and its going to be a dinosaur? What’s this guy smoking
Excuse my random errors. Definitely not a good experience typing a comment on an iPhone. In any case, I’m sure you have an idea about the difference in the extensions and names.
Watch auctions to see what sells. Review the DN Journal. Do a search on Valuate for top .biz sales. There’s not too many in the top sales list. .com populate the sales chart. I believe music.mobi sold in the $600k+ range. That was during the height of the popularity of .mobi. Moreover, it at a .mobi auction.
Every name and extension has a meaning. I would have a hard time choosing between Resume.com and Jobs.com. I’m sure I would go with Jobs.com because people identify with jobs more than the other business. You can subdomain all types of jobs to build major traffic.
For the most part, you could develop a business beyond the domain industry. Instead of just selling a domain, you will be selling a company with customers – whether it be traffic or membership.
There are many subdomains sites to the generic term that outperform the site. They may have a good marketing plan, spend on affiliate programs, bid on keywords, and have other agendas to capture traffic. One .biz name can be worth more than another, but then the .com can be reversed. IMO, I will choose a one word generic .com because I don’t own one, and likely will never acquire one. It won’t affect my decision to keep buying and selling. Thanks.