It was just 10 days ago that the 1st .XXX site was launched, Casting.XXX and it already has as much traffic as Sex.com which was purchase for $13 Million dollars late last year.
According to Alexa.com Casting.XXX over the last 7 days is in a virtual tie for traffic with Sex.com (graph is below)
Yup I know its hard to believe.
It was hard for me to believe.
So I reached out to the owner of Casting.XXX, The Really Useful Ltd, yesterday for more info and they sent a ton of information including the Google Analytics for the site.
Its a remarkable report.
In the 10 days since launch, Casting.XXX has gotten 238,388 visits and 182,085 are “absolute unique visitors” as Google calls them.
The visitors have come from 182 countries with the United States leading the way with Brazil, the Czech republic and Spain next in order.
More impressively is that 87.14% of all traffic is “Direct Traffic”.
Although only launching 10 days ago the site is somehow ranking in the search engines since over 4,000 visitors have come from Google, although the owner says he has done zero SEO work on the site.
The owner of the site also told me that they have conversion ratio of 1:229 from visitor to members since they launched.
As someone who has owned adult domain names since 1997, I have to say a conversion rate from visitor to member in this day and age of 1:229 is unheard of in the adult .com world.
So big congrats to the Really Useful Ltd.
Now as a domainer I honestly would say if I had a choice of picking 5,000 .XXX domains, Casting.XXX would not be one of them.
So the numbers are for me incredibly impressive.
Maybe when someone types in a .XXX domain they are pre-qualified as already looking for adult material like someone typing in a .NYC domain in a year might be said to be pre-qualified as looking for a business in New York.
The numbers although very early would indicate that.
Here is the graph from Alexa comparing Sex.com to Casting.xxx over the last 7 days:
How did 182,000 different people know to type in .xxx or let alone this domain. Ok I believe it but I don’t get it. Have people just been typing in .xxx for years and gotten nothing till now?
Site Analytics shows traffic at Casting.com has increased exponentially in the last few months – albeit the site does not resolve to anything expect what appears to be a blank page.
Casting is a great term for a production site – not exactly an adult term intuitively
He posts his videos on established dotcom porn sites with the casting.xxx address embedded in the video so that if people want more of the same, they visit there.
Nothing new here. Just viral marketing via porn videos via established adult dotcom sites.
it’s only the hype of all new things
adult traffic exchanges do that, these are not type-ins
and to answer the question why convert is so high – because you have to see the video clips to understand
They’re getting the traffic because of all the press coverage.
That’s exactly right Tony. The tld has absolutely nothing to do with the traffic. The same exact thing can be done with any tld. All it takes is having one popular adult site and you have the ability to send hundreds of thousands of visitors any where you want with the right screenshot.
Something is fishy here. Or temporary because of press.
There is no way that casting.xxx is more popular than sex.com when it comes to direct type ins.
“All it takes is having one popular adult site”
Business 101 – kind of like when people say to me “I wish I had my own business”
The very reason why they say that is the very reason why they will never have their own business.
I guess what I am saying is it takes enormous work to have a popular website (adult or otherwise) – not just a passing thought or assumption
It will be interesting to see what casting.xxx’s traffic rank settles down to after the initial burst of press wears off, and whether there are any permanent traffic benefits to the title “first”.
within two years the .xxx could become the .name of sex sites
What is the direct navigation traffic camparison with Sex.com?
Yawn.
Let me get this straight…the porn advocates are against it since it will ghetto-ize them and make them easy to block, while the Godl-fearin’ folk are against it since every sleazy .COM website will now mirror their domain and thereby increase the number of naughty online destinations.
So, who IS in favor of this — other than attorneys and IP lawyers?
Sorry fellow domainers, but as such, I think it’s obvious that the tld is doomed to fail. Stick with .com.
With more dot xxx sites coming in, casting will be just a casting away site—nothing special-another “BullS” site.
@David Castello: Right on, Man! Some of our colleagues don’t get the difference between artificial (ie, expensive traffic) and natural, organic traffic (ie, free). The former is temporary and a blip in time while the latter is an ongoing stream of customers knocking on your door for years to come.
Or, perhaps they do “get it” but have ulterior motives to promote other registries that clearly have no ability to succeed in an online ponzi scheme.
Seems obvious to me that the guy who owns the alternative domain is unknowingly but unquestionably helping his .com competitor with his misdirected traffic who erroneously go to the wrong location. The .xxx guy will never have any clue as to how many customers he lost, but his .com colleague will be laughing all the way to the bank since he will be getting run off traffic — not just from the one .xxx domain, — but from each of the other alternative derivations as well.
“the tld is doomed to fail”
true, great part of them will not be renewed after one-two years
Hello dot co…where are you?
Haven’t heard about dot co for a while and maybe for a long long time.
@Brian
You act as if the guys getting into XXX at this point don’t already have popular adult sites. Take a look into the company that owns casting.xxx and see if they have the ability or the connections to send mad traffic to their new site. Building an adult site with massive traffic may be difficult but many of the xxx players have been there ,done that making monetizing dot xxx is that much easier.
@Shane,
Exactly – you hit the nail on the head – only established networks can benefit from .xxx – the remaining 99% are buying .xxx purely for defensive purposes. If you have enough money or traffic you can put quotes around anything and put in on a billboard – if you do not have those kind of ressources – well you need a .com.
This is not to say the registry and its owners / operators will make exponentially more than other non.coms the first 2 years – including .co, before the extension ultimately ends up in the bermuda triangle with .mobi dick and all the rest.
Domain blog comment sections just ain’t what they uses to be.
Wow…very nice…less than a dollar a day to join…i’m signing up…gotta go..bye!
Another dog and pony show to promote new extensions. If this company registered dogandpony.xxx they could have replicated the same thing.
Tony is spot on the money with “He posts his videos on established dotcom porn sites with the casting.xxx address embedded in the video so that if people want more of the same, they visit there”
100%
David said “What is the direct navigation traffic comparison with Sex.com”… the answer is none imo
You will see these types of articles with every new extension. I just wish somebody would just launch .stupid so these articles are at least humorous.
But hey … as far as PR goes .xxx just probably made another $100k or more from suckers who think there is hope of type in traffic.
Whats even more priceless if you pull the charts up (which are not always accurate and many times include PPC traffic) is that casting.com receives only 2,035 a month
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/casting.com/
One day I must apply for .stupid to get on the money train.
Gradually, over time, probably years, .com will erode as the default. Adapt or perish.
@TAG,
.com (and its only-one-on-the-shelf status) will go away when the Internet goes away.
Everything else is new twists on selling snake oil.
I just wanted to answer some of the comments on this thread regarding my companies website http://www.casting.xxx.
Being the first company to launch a .xxx domain, obviously we featured heavily in the media. Each time our domain http://www.casting.xxx was specifically listed, our bounce rate to the site would go up to 70-80% and views from mobile devises would increase significantly too. Without PR traffic, the bounce rate yesterday 13th Aug was 8.72%. We have seen a lot of affiliates join our program and this increases in conjunction with PR.
We have never operated websites before so I do not know if the bounce rate is low, but comparing our site to an existing site in the same genre, their bounce rate is nearly 30% according to Alexa. I can only assume that people typing in http://www.casting.xxx automatically expect their to be an xxx site at the end. You could argue that of course, the traffic coming to the site from the tubes would be highly targeted traffic and therefore should have no bounce rate, but the tubes and other referring sites only amount to 13.07% of my sites traffic. Even discounting the traffic from the other PR, that leaves a big percentage of traffic coming from direct type ins. I’m sorry but I can’t explain just where that has come from, but I am grateful for it. We have not bought any traffic and we simply have not had a chance to do any SEO, in fact we are looking for help with this.
Of course, we joined the partner programs of 2 tubes and the traffic has been good. We released 6 videos so far to 2 tubes and these videos have had more than 2million views in 10 days that we have been live. I am told that we are getting exceptionally high click through rates on the promotional banners under the video players. The videos are among the highest rated and most viewed each day. I can only assume that is down to the quality content that we produce and there is a demand for it.
Regarding Google Analytics, I have accessed the analytics as I am typing this and will issue you the numbers showed from 3rd Aug – 14th Aug inlc:
272,623 visits
205,227 Absolute Unique Visitors
84.63% direct traffic
13.07% referring sites (incl 2 x tubes)
2.31% Search Engines
Regarding the company that owns http://www.casting.xxx, the company’s name is Really Useful Ltd and you can find its details on Whois. We are a brand new company and http://www.casting.xxx was our first site live. Myself and my business partner have a background in content production, we were managing the production department and on the board of directors at a .com adult brand before circumstances saw us go our own way and set this new venture up.
We were told about .xxx and the founders program with the company ICM Registry and after speaking with them, we took the decision to only have sites live on a .xxx extension. To us, as a brand new network, it made sense. We used a couple of .com’s to build the sites but as a network, we are not looking to operate domains in any thing other than .xxx. In fact, joining the founders program, it enabled us to secure some top-level domains and also allowed us to purchase a few keyword domains worth up to $100,000 USD.
We would never have had an opportunity like this on .com and despite the mixed reactions of .xxx, at this early stage, everything that’s happened so far has exceeded even our best assumptions on our forecasts. I read all of the negativity the industry feels towards .xxx and even read that one pay site owner was going to boycott the company that I host my site with. All I can do is tell you about my experiences and give you the facts and you make your own mind up.
We have a roadmap of launching 5 brand new exclusive sites with-in 12 months and then adding 2-3 sites per year thereafter. I would have made it in .com, but life is a little easier when you have managed to secure domains in the founders program like http://www.Casting.xxx, http://www.Kiss.xxx, http://www.Mom.xxx http://www.Orgasms.xxx
I apologise for the long post but I wanted to make sure I covered the main points raised on this thread.
casting.xxx
is a complete fake
It is a make believe casting.
not real.
Hi Lewis:
Congratulations, but I sincerely question you receiving 84.63% direct traffic out of
205,227 visitors. By doing so, you are implying that an incredible 85% of your traffic is direct type-in traffic – even though I’ve heard most is coming from imbedding your URL on videos. Correct me if I’m wrong – unless Google now has a new definition of “direct traffic.”
Excuse my skepticism, but I’ve been in this business almost 15 years and this isn’t making sense.
Yes, the traffic is pure type-in traffic…but its only coming because this video is posted in youporn.com and pornhub.com and several other top porn video sites…people are watching these videos and seeing your signature casting.xxx on the video…then they just type it in the browser…making it a type in traffic…duhhhhh!
Anyways, good luck…i would stay away from .xxx domains as an investment.
Successful .xxx websites will only make the .com domain name worth more.
Casting.com is worth much more now…just because of your casting.xxx
@Anunt
Thank you for the explanation. THAT makes sense. However, this is not true type-in traffic that would excite domainers and speculators. Furthermore, what’s bothering me is that Lewis is trying way too hard to sound green behind the gills:
“We have never operated websites before…”
“We simply have not had a chance to do any SEO, in fact we are looking for help with this.”
In other words, he has little idea what he’s doing and is getting blasted with traffic simply because he bought a generic dotXXX.
@Anunt Hi. we only joined the xhamster and youporn programs, so they are the only 2 we should be appearing on. (can you let me know if you have seen the videos on others please, appreciate that). But on each of those sites, they place our banner linking to our site under the video player so that if users like the video they have just viewed, why would they bother to take the time to type our domain name into the browser when it is very clear to click the banner.
@David Hi also. We really have not operated websites before but the company we worked for for 10 years did upload their clips to the tube sites and it made a really big difference to them at a time that they were really starting to struggle. That is why we took the decision to have our clips on the tubes, as we knew they type of content we can and have produced would do really well. You only have to see other sites posted on the tubes in the same genre as casting.xxx to see this for your self, many getting 300,000+ views a day with lots of positive comments.
Of course, we got all this traffic because we had the first site ever to launch on a .xxx and we worked round the clock to make sure we were the first. That certainly paid its just rewards however, I wouldn’t want you to think we are complacent. That is why I know we need to do SEO and I have no ideas on who to get to work with me on that and simply have had no time to even think about it.
I was simply asked by the website The Domains to give some feed back on how the first 10 days had gone. We are extremely proud of what we have achieved in this 10 days so we were extremely happy to hand over the numbers (and hopefully get more free traffic). There is no magic wand here David, just hard work and grabbing an opportunity which like it or not, was ICM and the .xxx domains.
As for being green behind the gills, in running a website yes, extremely green. In producing content, you will see, with my other sites coming online soon, that I am extremely experienced. Not all sites are like Casting.xxx, its just that was the first one we had ready.
Just a taster of the BS that is going to hit us with new tlds. Will anyone fall for “reports” like this…probably yes.
The traffic is very questionable and as mentioned many times above.
ok the traffic is mentioned which is questionable…Now talk revenues of casting.xxx (you dont need to mention exact numbers) but how many sign ups a day are you receiving?
@alan dunn-agree and good points
I dont have anything against .xxx really but .com will remain the king and at 99 dollars renewals a year for .xxx, surly expensive to maintain. Maybe they are trying avoid the speculation of domainers and seek out developers.
Who knows but maybe 1 out 25 new extensions will do well. .nyc will do well.
mom.xxx gross!
Not Convinced & Everyone else:
As I said in the post the stats are hard to believe but I have the Google Analytics in hand and the stats are the stats.
As to sign ups a day, I guess you can do the math, Mr. Thomas gave you his conversion rate.
I don’t know Mr. Thomas and never heard of him until he launched Casting.xxx and don’t him as a player in the adult space, at least until now.
So with the stats in hand I’m ending the day off the day like I started it with an amazing amount of traffic going to a brand new extension.
Congrats and continued best wishes.
Hi Lewis:
My feeling is that you have an excellent brand with casting.xxx that will suite your needs even though casting.com will always cast a huge shadow (big point in your favor is that casting.com is currently doing nothing). However, I highly doubt casting.xxx is getting any direct navigation in the truest sense of the word. In other words, if casting.xxx was up with no links anywhere how much traffic would it receive based upon the public’s recognition of the brand and TLD? That is true type-in traffic.
MHB:
I have no doubt that if Lewis was promoting casting.net the same way it would get the same traffic. It is being implied here that the TLD dotXXX is a factor, and with all due respect to dotXXX, that is not true.
f*** this crap.
Bring
.Co
back.
This is the only real story writing about.
@Robert Cline
Hahaha, I spit out my drink while reading that.
why not a new .co.xxx TLD to make the .co and .xxx fans happy? 🙂
breaking news
Google Buys Motorola For $12.5 Billion
techcrunch.com/2011/08/15/breaking-google-buys-motorola-for-12-5-billion/
so, finally, Google may sell some of its smartphones 🙂
Mr castello your notion that it is only direct type in traffic that excites or is of interest is simply not true. If it were true there would be no such beast as ppc arbitrage. You need look no further than this blog where yesterday there was a story about marched winning because they owned a domain name corresponding to a movie resulting in an 8 fold traffic increase. By your standards this would not excite them. I would opine that the traffic is appreciated and does indeed excite. frank schillings servers nearly melted when dick Cheney confused fact check dot com with the org an event schilling claims caused him to rethink the value of his portfolio. So what that the traffic to this guys xxx isn’t pure type in. So what? It’s obviously targeted and is converting which is after all the measure to be tested
I suppose traffic that results from news reports advertising And word of mouth is no dned good either at least according to your standards
It’s not about type ins dude it’s about conversions…sales. Stop hating
@Some Of The Best –
“why not a new .co.xxx”
Lets call it what it is -“.non.com” – however the “.non.com” TLD might be too revealing to the gullable looking to lose their nest egg getting in on the bottom floor of the lastest noncom gold rush “Bust”.
Bud,
David is not hating anything nor discounting traffic – he’s simply saying that its not direct navigation traffic. There is a big difference.
You can re-write this story with a billion different domain names if the traffic is not being generated via type in traffic. It could be casting.xxx or trytofindahotwomaninthenorthpole.xxx – the story is impressive from a viral marketing standpoint but not from a domain valuation standpoint. There is no more value to casting.xxx than hundreds of other .xxx’s since they do not come with type in traffic.
The only people hating are quite likely those who have a vested interest in the new domain extension of the week.
.Xxx will end up doing pretty well but as shane said above its due to the amount of developers in this industry who will use their already established networks to feed traffic to their new properties.
Im curious what the adult industry feels about the .me domains? I have pussy.me, cock.me and pics.me and have been considering unloading them in the near future. Thanks
Haymog
IMHO I would unload the .me adult domains at this point with .xxx coming.
I have a couple of hundred .me domains and don’t think any of them are adult.
@Alan
Well said – making dough however way is one thing – but the story is direct navigation as it relates to .xxx – something David kept in the forefront – casting.xxx is an overwhelming, deceptive and misleading “exception” of direct navigation.
…would be interesting
A list of if .whatever comes along, then it is time to unload your .?? or .???
To demonstrate direct navigation traffic to casting.xxx you’d better be given the g.anal stats before the whole PR thing. But guess there was nothing to show
and with referrer blanking techniques everything comes as direct referral
some said casting.com gets around 2000 hits per month according to Compete or whatever and casting.xxx gets hundreds of thousands????
you’d better be kidding because this looks so stupid from the common sense stand-point
Well the stats are the stats and speak for themselves suggesting that perhaps google has a different definition of direct traffic than domainers
Which ever way you slice it traffic is what it’s all about and this guy is getting some in fact WAY WAY more than any type in name. You stick to type ins I’ll take the rest and see you next time you visit the caymans
First of all Compete is a month or more
So we are at August 15th and the best stats Compete has are still for June
Alexa is current and therefore shows the last 7 days of traffic
MHB, i got it. But in reagrds to Compete we are speaking about casting.com traffic which has not had a viral campaign.
anyone who wants to know how to get “direct” traffic in G.Anal can google “double meta refresh” to clean the referrers
Understood but since casting.xxx didn’t start until August and Compete has June stats up not sure what the point is.
We will see in October how much additional traffic casting.com got off of casting.xxx on compete
But if you look at Alexa for casting.com you can see they aren’t getting much traffic.
Ok for all the doubters out there go build out a site on a brand new domain
A .com, .net or .anything you want and get 240,000 visitors within 7 days of launch which convert to a sale of something for every 233 visitors
Then report back and let me know how unimpressive these stats are.
MHB
LOL C’mon Mike, they didn’t build a “brand new site.” They made it a conduit for traffic from massively popular sites. Big difference. 🙂
David,
“they didn’t build a “brand new site.” They made it a conduit for traffic from massively popular sites. Big difference”
Exactly
David, you should register palmsprings.xxx then redirect some traffic there … do a post on all the hotel bookings you get from .xxx and help all the .xxx geo’s owners sell their names.
You can then stop redirecting the traffic when the next new extension comes along and then do it again.
This dog and pony show could ride forever.
@Bud Abbott:
Notice my last name is Castello, not Costello 🙂
Hating? Are you joking? If you knew anything about me you would know that I love this business and want nothing more than to see everyone else to make a killing, but I will call BS when I see it. Casting.xxx is a great brand within the dotXXX space. And IF the General Public begins to associate dotXXX with the XXX industry it will be worth a fortune. However, there is no way the general public (much different herd than domainers) will embrace anything that quickly.
Furthermore, I’m noticing a lot of BS PR passing for news in some of the blogs lately. Will I simply sit back and think, “Cool”?
No. I care about this industry way too much. If newbies get burned we all lose.
@Alan Dunn
If the truth be known my brother and I were offered PalmSprings.XXX and others last year. We respectfully declined.
The real message here is how compete, alexa stats get gamed – and deliver results contrary to their reputations – no different than SEO
“If newbies get burned we all lose”
Nice attitude, I respect that.
Well mr castello i dont get it then
What are you saying
That google analytics are wrong
That marchex is unhappy about the movie coming out
That frank shilling was upset by the factcheck confusion ( probably returned the ppc earnings caused by the confusion right)
Domainers could learn something here but about marketing but no it’s easier to trash this as bogus
If you are the business men others believe you to be you would acknowledge what this guy has done right as opposed to making the conversation about direct navigation which was not the focus of the story by the way
Mb never claimed it was a type in domain he merely reported what google claimed as fact
To suggest that the traffic is anything but real anything but targeted and anything short of an amaZing accomplishment for a seven day old site shows little of this love of seeing others do well which you claim to have
I bet all the type in guys here would trade traffic with this guy in an instant
So much for type ins
@Bud Abbott:
No disrespect, but I find it offensive when someone hard questions me behind the skirt of an alias. It’s like wearing a ski mask to a debate.
That being said, your “questions” simply give more legitimacy to my suspicions that this is only the beginning of a plethora of bogus PR stories to get the newbies excited about the new TLDs. I never said that casting.xxx wasn’t a great brand within the dotxxx space (if you read my earlier post you would know that). I said that this article was promoted to give the impression that the public is already intuitively flocking to dotxxx and that is simply not true.
Bud,
David is not discounting or discrediting the owner’s success. In all fairness David is one of the very few people without an agenda in this business and simply explaining his opinion on the difference between the type of traffic casting.xxx is getting vs. a premium domain name with type in traffic.
You obviously need some education on this so let’s explain.
A premium domain name like paydayloans.com gets significant traffic since people intuitively type the domain in. You DO NOT need links from other sites, banner ads or embedded codes to have a significant quality customer base that repeats itself over day after day. The traffic is always there because people type the domain name in.
As for your continued arguments about the Marchex and Dick Cheney stories .. they are like owning a winning lottery ticket and not representative of the domain itself. If Obama came out and had a new catchphrase tomorrow and you owned the .com guess what, you would probably win the lottery too. However understanding how to value a domain outside of these lottery ticket prizes is different.
The traffic of Casting.xxx is NOT solely attributed to JUST the domain name. It is purely from other sources which can be turned off in a moment’s notice. All the embedded links can be replaced with castingcall.xxx, whogivesashit.xxx etc. In short, the traffic is exclusive of the domain name – just the domain name benefits from the traffic given to it by other sources at the moment.
Now take away the links to casting.xxx and let’s compare apples to apples.
Casting.xxx with no links …. No TRAFFIC
Casting.xxx with links … lots
If you take away all the links to a domain and can measure the performance of that domain on type in traffic then that is the difference of a domain name with PURE direct navigation traffic.
If a visitor clicks on a link on another site to end up at another site that is more or less RE-DIRECTED traffic which as the word defines, can be re-directed anywhere anyhow.
Sadly this whole conversation is a result of the article itself (sorry MHB) as its extremely misleading about the type in traffic associated with .xxx names.
“More impressively is that 87.14% of all traffic is “Direct Traffic”
All David is trying to do in my opinion is clarify what direct navigation traffic is for people listening who may be inclined to invest in .xxx and how this sets a false example of the potential for .xxx investment.
If you dont understand this then you either (a) have a vested interest in .xxx or (b) only started investing in domain names.
Again we disagree
The domain sucks
The “brand” sucks too
But that don’t change the numbers
I guess the purist that you are demands type ins to be real
This guy is eating your lunch for breakfast and while you an the others lie in doubt this dude is makin bank
Guess you don’t do Seo cause that traffics not real right
Your offended?
Suck it up princess and deal with the facts
Your comment that anything other than type ins is less than exciting is less than inspiring
Alan
“If you dont understand this then you either (a) have a vested interest in .xxx or (b) only started investing in domain names.””
Really?
The numbers which are real ( I have the stats from the owner) can only be interpreted one way or else someone has a hidden agenda or is ignorant?
Wow
Bud Abbot – can you read? We stand up against the B.S. that is being published everywhere that “visitors recognize XXX brand so much that they naturally type in casting.xxx all night long”
Bud Abbot – can you read? We stand up against the B.S. that is being published everywhere that “visitors recognize XXX brand so much that they naturally type in casting.xxx all night long”
I bet casting.porn gets as much type-in traffic as .xxx
@ David
“Furthermore, I’m noticing a lot of BS PR passing for news in some of the blogs lately. Will I simply sit back and think, “Cool”?
No. I care about this industry way too much. If newbies get burned we all lose.”
Good post. I totally agree.
Brad
Alan
Castello said that since the traffic was not type in it was not the kind of traffic that would excite domainers
I call bullshit
Domainers want any kind of traffic wether by way of arbitrage linking forwarding typos etc
Google called it direct traffic not me not berkins
So while you high and mighty holier than thou domainers scoff at all the source of this guys traffic which is an obvious joke he is rakin it in 3 ways from sunday
Funny how anyone with a contrary opinion must either be somehow involved or a newbie
Again the article never claimed it was type ins
It merely reported what goog claimed
Big difference here and bottoming is who cares
The numbers speak for themselves so while you and your brethren count your two penny clicks this dude is creating a massive monty revenue stream
Keep parking your domains and we will see who ends up on top
@Abbott (& COstello) (Not David Castello) –
“I bet all the type in guys here would trade traffic with this guy in an instant”
Not me.
@Alan
“The traffic of Casting.xxx is NOT solely attributed to JUST the domain name.”
Your are far too diplomatic – It has nothing to do with the domain or the extension
Where I am at – Baby Bell Qwest is changing its name CenturyLink – and they advertise that change on their existing Qwest network. I had never heard of CenturyLink until Qwest pounded all over me. “CenturyLink” is a new brand no different than “Casting.xxx” – without an existing network and/or deep advertising budgets – neither are nowhere to be found.
The issue David and Alan hammer home is the Direct Navigation stats after 10 days suggest serious gaming of the system and dramatically reduce any credability in Alexa and Compete.
Mike … that wasnt for you … that was for BUD !!!!
@Bud Abbott
What I said was that you could take any name the way Lewis is promoting it and practically have the same stats. You would have the same stats. MHB would have the same stats. Google would have the same stats. My dog would have the same stats. Lewis may be new to the game, but he’s got his hands in some fabulously powerful sites.
However, there is a branding factor playing well for Lewis. If people see casting.xxx on his videos, etc he stands a good chance they will remember it the next time they go to type it in. It’s generic, easily memorable and dotXXX should have appeal for that specific audience.
You guys are full of yourselves
When newbies lose we all lose
What a pile of shit
Castello while being a speaker at umpteen conferences have you eer called out domainers on their shannanigans
You do t need to wait for xxx to call out the lies and bs
Plenty of that in .com
The Ica of which you Re a part was founded by squatters no?
Clean up your own extension before ragging on everyone else
I love the selective “everything” that goes on in this space
Mike
“The numbers which are real ( I have the stats from the owner) can only be interpreted one way or else someone has a hidden agenda or is ignorant?”
I didnt say this … you did.
What I said is if BUD is defending Google’s direct traffic numbers as TYPE IN’s then yes, someone has a hidden agenda or doesn’t have a clue about direct traffic.
How direct is traffic when its actually being re-directed?
This is not to say the traffic is not any less valuable but very few people here are actually getting David’s initial point.
David
“”I’m noticing a lot of BS PR passing for news in some of the blogs lately. Will I simply sit back and think, “Cool”?””
I take offense to this statement.
This story was not send to me by .XXX, its not a PR or bullshit that was made up.
I;ve been tracking the site since I read Kevin Murphy chatting about the site being launched to see how the site was doing.
When I saw the Alexa stats I reached out to the owner of the site.
Lewis responded to my email with stats, I didn’t believe the stats either then he sent me the Google Anaylistic on it showing 87% of traffic from “direct traffic”
So that’s the deal
When I publish a PR I say its a PR.
If you choose not to believe it then don’t.
But don’t label a story you don’t like as some “PR bullshit”
Alan
He knew it was for bud
Can’t you read
He disagrees with your comment which lacks insight and ignores the fact that the site is rocking
Smart guys don’t care where the traffic comes from
They only care that it comes
Call the traffic what you want but he has it and no type in name can rival it
End of story
@Bud Abbott
Excuse me, Mr Mystery Man Hiding Behind An Alias, but I have called out many domainers. And dotCOM has come a long way. It’s now one of the safest investments out there. I have no horse in any of these races. I gave advice to Juan and Lori of dotCO and am thrilled with their success, but I will also be the first to point out when one of their cheerleaders goes into propaganda mode. And, yes, when newbies lose we all lose. I’m still trying to pull investors back into the game who got burned by dotMOBI. I didn’t say anything back then and will never be silent again when my BS radar hits a blip.
@BUD (or Mickey’s Big Mouth – but not Guinness, Coors Light, Olde English 800)
“Call the traffic what you want but he has it and no type in name can rival it
End of story”
The end of the story is if you have an existing network (presumably adult) or deep pockets for promotion .xxx has a limited life – outside of that .xxx only life is 99%+ defensive.
Bud,
I dont care where the traffic comes from. If the guy makes a million from it in the next 24 hours kudos to him.
At the end of the day however the success of this domain is about the development and linkbuilding and not one single iota about the “quality” of the domain name.
davidsdog.xxx could have the same success.
Am I happy for the guy – sure, I love to hear stories like this but I also dont like stories like this that can be read by new people the wrong way and give false expectations to the type in traffic associated with new extensions.
Lets put it this way – out of almost EVERY new extension outside of .com, .net and .org ever launched all have been miserable failures for direct type in traffic.
Many of the people reading these stories are not the developers who know the difference but people who are probably thinking about investing in .xxx and all of sudden there is a glimmer of hope for type in traffic with .xxx when in reality there really isnt imo.
Is .xxx a bad extension – no, I think its a great extension for the adult marketplace but for the guy who wants to max out his credit card and bet on parking .. thats another story.
MHB
I consider you a friend, one of the best bloggers in the industry and I don’t pull punches because I respect your credibility. And if this wasn’t sent to you as a PR I stand corrected. However, when I first read your analysis I was somewhat surprised because the credit given for the site’s massive traffic seemed to highlight its TLD – instead of the other and very obvious reasons. I have no doubt if you and I were drinking a beer and I told you about a friend who was suddenly receiving 250,000 uniques in a week you would turn to me and say, “C’mon, David. Look where he’s linking and promoting the site.”
“I also dont like stories like this that can be read by new people the wrong way and give false expectations”
Good thing Rick Schwartz gave up blogging. You’d never have enough time in the day to warn everyone. Keep on trying to save the world though. They have been waiting for a domainer like you to come along.
Disclosure: I am a brand new domain name investor and I just purchased a .xxx
@Saints Preserve Us
Next time you may want to “disclose” who you are 🙂
Brian, there was life before and there will be life after .com
to suggest that xxx will have a short life based on what we know today is naive at best
It may or may not fly, but only time, not you or I can tell from the vantage point we are at now. Personally, I think it has way more power and appeal than almost any alt extension offered todate. The web was made for and made popular by porn and xxx is the face of the porn industry. On the surface a great fit. Way better than .info, .biz, .mobi imho. Where there is money, you’ll find interest and porn is the conucopia of internet commerce
@Shortie,
What happens when other 1st Amendment TLD’s are introduced like .porn, .sex, .pussy, .RubOneOut, .asshole, .FarmAnimals –
I will wager my entire business that says anti-trust laws say .xxx cannot corner the adult market – so in the unlikely chance .xxx gains some kind of limited traction beyond defensive domains – a whole bunch more will come out – therefore further confusing the cusumer back to .com.
Remember – UDRP, ACAP, US LAw and Internation laaw and opinions have dictated .com the only one on the shelf.
Signed – 4.5 inch longie
@ Brian UDRP, ACAP, US LAw and Internation laaw and opinions have dictated .com the only one on the shelf.
Guess that explains all the other tlds out there now and the many many more to come.
don’t forget there will be .gay, maybe .lesbian too, me thinks that .sex could be great too.
David
Never doubted your friendship
But:
“However, when I first read your analysis I was somewhat surprised because the credit given for the site’s massive traffic seemed to highlight its TLD – instead of the other and very obvious reasons. I have no doubt if you and I were drinking a beer and I told you about a friend who was suddenly receiving 250,000 uniques in a week you would turn to me and say, “C’mon, David. Look where he’s linking and promoting the site.”
David
Well Its a story.
Not to mean its made up, but to mean this is a blog which like a newspaper looks for interesting things to write about.
Not only interesting but timely.
So when I saw the traffic stats for this domain and reached out to Lewis who gave me numbers I fell off my chair.
I mean I own 7,000 Adult domains and know what these things do.
So I said I wasn’t going to publish anything until I saw the Google stats which he sent me in 5 minutes later and again fell off my chair again
Google has some traffic coming links like Youporn.com and a couple of other sources but still showed over 87% coming from what Google calls “Direct Traffic” and over 4,000 visitors from Google itself through search which is pretty amazing in and of itself.
So the numbers are the numbers.
I personally haven’t seen anyone built that kind of traffic, from 0 to 233K in a week on any domain, any extension, anytime.
Is it the extension?
Is it being the 1st .XXX and getting a lot of publicity?
I don’t know.
Hell If I knew how to create 233K visitors out of air in a week and get a 1:233 conversion rate I would be doing that instead of wasting my time on the blog.
So like I said everyone is welcome to their opinion as always, I just wanted to make it clear that I don’t post stories as PR unless they are PR in which case I say so and link to it.
At the end of the day as I said I own 7,000 .com adult domains and maybe I will go for a few hundred .xxx domains.
If .xxx replaces .com I’m not going to win.
I’ll recoup some but its not a net win for me.
Like .Co haters think I want .co to replace .com while I’m sitting with 75K .com’s and 200 .co
Ridiculous
On the other hand like all other things, stories are hot.
.xxx is going to be a hot story all this year.
There will be thousands of stories on Google news from now to the end of the year written about .XXX.
.co was hot last year
New gTLD will be hot next year
So as a blog I’m going to continue to cover hot stories, things people are interested in and want to read about.
Finally just by the Google search traffic coming to thedomains.com I can tell you that .XXX is a Hot story.
People are interested in .XXX and they are not domainers.
Covering a story doesn’t mean I have an agenda or trying to do anything but cover the story.
I do think as an adult domain owner I would be crazy not to cover my investment and revenue stream which is significant, by just disregarding the extension.
I think you will see .XXX domains sell into the six figures on the aftermarket.
Its another extension.
It’s not a zero sum game
There is room for the internet domain space to expand.
.XXX isn’t going to be .com but it doesn’t need to be .com
Anyone in the domain industry who tells me they don’t think oralsex.xxx or fetish.xxx isn’t worth $100 registration fee they have a lot to learn about the domain industry
I
Casting
.Gay at this point at least from the group out front with their application will not be adult oriented but to serve a different community
for as an .sex, or .adult, or .porn I give it a 20% or less chance of getting approved
“What happens when other 1st Amendment TLD’s are introduced like .porn, .sex, .pussy, .RubOneOut, .asshole, .FarmAnimals – ”
“for as an .sex, or .adult, or .porn I give it a 20% or less chance of getting approved”
Why? There is only allowed to be one adult extension?
Brad
Brad
Because the .xxx was granted under a different system different rules
The new gTLD program has many other rules in place including government objection which the program under which .XXX applied didn’t have.
So the rule book has changed and the way I read it is any other “adult” extension is not going to be approved
@MHB
All great points, but, what would a casual observer deduce from this headline?
“10 Days After Launch, The 1st .XXX Site, Casting.XXX Has As Much Traffic As The $13 Million Dollar Domain Sex.com”
Put it this way, I’ve already had twe phone calls asking me if they should invest in dotXXX 🙂
David
As I have said before I grew up in New York and read the papers everyday.
I learned that a New York Post headline is going to draw more readers to a story than a New York Times headline.
We do want to get readers over here.
Otherwise its kind of lonely
LOL Hey, I read the NY Post everyday on the subway. Best part? Any musician arrested (the guy could be playing in a polka band in Bayonne) was deemed by the Post to be a “punk rocker.”
David
Of course the headline has to match the story which in fact this .XXX story did.
The traffic has nothing to do with any properties inherent to the domain.
It has everything to do with marketing- offsite marketing via the tubes, media chatter with their being the first to open shop on .xxx, etc, etc.
It will be interesting to see how it evolves- if adult is heavy to adopt .xxx and it starts to cave out mindshare in the brains of users, then maybe the top generic terms get meaningful type ins, one day.
LS
I agree
Its an interesting story a week into the extension and we will see how it plays out
carve
“More impressively is that of all traffic is “Direct Traffic”.
———-
I seriously doubt there are any devloped one word .COM domains that receive 87.14% of their traffic by way of “real” direct type in traffic.
A keyword like casting, not a chance…nada
I do like the look of .xxx though, looks really nice but I doubt I’ll be buying any, most the best one will have been creamed off already 😉
Have you bought any yet MHB ?
“Furthermore, I’m noticing a lot of BS PR passing for news in some of the blogs lately. Will I simply sit back and think, “Cool”?
No. I care about this industry way too much. If newbies get burned we all lose.”
————————
Well said David
Gazzip
I give you big up street cred for being the 1st to acutally ask me if I have any .xxx domains
Congrats
You got the big.B..lls to ask
So congrats to you
For the rest all you have to do is ask.
I got a whopping 3 .XXX domains through the founders program against 7,000 or so adult .com I own.
If newbies get really good .XXX domains for a few hundred a piece I doubt they will get burned
As always. if you know what a good domain is from a crappy domain name, you will make money.
If you don’t then you don’t
I wonder if some names will be pre-banned?
I mean surely they will not countenance registering underagekids.xxx , perhaps davidsdog.xxx would be a grey area. The range of exact match animal names is a minefield – surely noone would object to such names as beaver.xxx pussy.xxx cock.xxx or even perhaps turkey.xxx ( 😉 ).
What about daschund.xxx ?
Or what about eighteen.xxx? Fine in most places. sixteen.xxx , also fine across europe and most states – utah if you are married.
fourteen.xxx is pushing it but of course fine in russia and japan.
Apparently mom.xxx is fair game ??
Things like this kinda gross me out to think about but really it is a serious issue that I hope they have addressed.
Linda
I think some of the obvious one’s will be banned like childporn.xxx
The imagination is quite wide and I don’t think the registry can think of or anticipate every sick use but they do have a quick take down period in place and are fimrly against anything related to children and porn.
On the other hand if mom.xxx makes you upset I don’t think you will be that happy with milf.xxx, and I will leave that for someone else to explain to you
“I give you big up street cred for being the 1st to acutally ask me if I have any .xxx domains
Congrats
You got the big.B..lls to ask
So congrats to you”
——————————————
Not sure why that would take Big Balls to ask, it was just a question 🙂
So did you get Sex.xxx, Porn.xxx and Chat.xxx ?
..kidding 😉
Gazzip
“Not sure why that would take Big Balls to ask, it was just a question 🙂
right but no one asked
So did you get Sex.xxx,
no
Porn.xxx
no
and Chat.xxx ?\
no
Why don’t you just say what three they are or is there an NDA ?
Mike will a domainer be allowed to just register a .xxx without an affiliation to the adult industry ?
I was kidding, FS got the last one 😉
So what three did you get ? 🙂
(Thats if you don’t mind saying)
RH
You have to say you are affiliated to the adult industry
Since i have owned adult domains since 1997 its not an issue for me
MHB– why are you responding to all comments on this BS thread?
You must have money in this scheme.
First was the dot co, now it is XXX
Do you guys see the timing..never 2 tlds at one time.
Time to move on …..
Again folks, dot com is KING!!!
Bulls
Very observant 1 at time until until there are the new gTLD;s when there will be hundreds at a time
Sure you will have something negative to say then also
MHB–I never never have any negative things to say as I am a very positive person.
Anyway, wait till all the new TLDs come out at once and we all be so Konfuse.
time for my smoke…
@Shortie
“@ Brian UDRP, ACAP, US LAw and Internation laaw and opinions have dictated .com the only one on the shelf.
Guess that explains all the other tlds out there now and the many many more to come.
”
UDRP / ACPA and other legal opinions do not suggest (or mandate) unlawfulnes in owning a non.com – they just reinforce .com being the only one on the shelf – big difference “Shortie”
Is the reason you cannot identify yourself is you are asshamed of your small genital area – hence Shortie. Come on we are real himan here – no aliases – some of us concerned about the next non.com causing bankruptcy, lost homes, squandered inheritance and bank accounts and maxed credit cards for the next gold rush bust !!!
@Brad –
“Why? There is only allowed to be one adult extension?”
Point well taken – which will present anti-trust issues should .xxx gain even partial traaction in any capacity.
Furthmore the success of .xxx will be its own fall – including from the aforementioned anti-trust claim to ISP’s and entire nations outlawing or heavily sensoring it.
I donot make the rules – I play by them – my business model eill not allow me to play by these unstable rules.
Brian
No big conspiracy this time.
Under the current rules in place, governments have a right, lets call it a veto to object to extensions they find objectionable, which they didn’t have under the rules that were in place when .XXX 1st applied ( i think that was like 2000).
Rules change, life changes so you have to play by the rules you have now not what they were 10 years ago or 10 years from now
Hi Michael –
Remember – I am the world biggest domain investing student – Judges and Panels have been great teachers to me…so far my “tuition” has cost me just under $300K
Anyway – So what you are saying is even though each time I renew a domain I have to agree to the new / current rules set forth by ICANN and UDRP ……….. But in your opinion because any TLD’s first application was around 10 years ago or so – they are grandfathered in regardless of what laws rules are currently in place in any goverrnment regarding acceptance or approval of any new TLD.
Do not know if that will stick.
Yes the rules they applied under is the rules they are subject to.
Remeber t.XXX is not a gTLD its an sTLD and registrations are subject limited to those in the community
@Brian Wick who is concerned about penis size
Hey Brian why don’t you do another one of your surveys
58 people said…
Get real dude
As far as using aliases that’s something you are pretty familiar with no
Used a couple in respect or your domain registrations right
Let me give you some advice that might help stem the tide with respect to the 300k you’ve spent defending @ wipo naf and the rest
The time to use bogus Whois info is before you get the c&d Brian
Not after you get it
DOH
Having a small penis is not debilitating Brian but having a small brain can really limit ones life options but after spending more than a quarter mil maybe you finally figured that one out
Keep up the good work there are panelists out there with kids to feed and they are depending on you
@Ban Don & Dunes
Wow – man you you must feel really really smart researching 10+ year old stuff that is not hidden – and in front of God and everybody else for geniuses like you – and no effort is made to hide it (unlike you loser) on this new thing called the Internet – gee wiz.
http://www.ConstitutionalLawyer.com – lots of cobb webs on this stuff – but it will be good for a reserach genius like you Ban Don & Dunes
Back to stuff happening in the last 10 years….
@MHB – do not know enough about the application stuff involved with .xxx – other than lots of money was invested in it – and .xxx will likely make exponentially more than .co and all the other non.coms. Still does not mean it will have much impact.
“I do not make the rules – I play by them”
“so far my “tuition” has cost me just under $300K”
Brian 300K is alot of money for someone to have pay defending their domain registrations. Especially so for someone who ” plays by the rules”
LOLOLOL, good one but you forgot to mention that the rules you play by are apparently your own.
Did you ever think it was a good idea to register domain names that were identical to law firms?
An amazing business model Brian. Not sure how you came up with that one. Registering lawyer names…real shrude. How’s that worked out for you?
Good that you diversified into brandables but honestly Brian did you need to spend 300K to figure out that registering domain names like qwestcommunications.com and avery-dennison.com might not be a good idea? Ah wtf, it don’t matter anyways cause afterall you are, I mean have, a huge penis right!
@Hugh G Dick, Shortie,Ban Don & Dunes & 400 1st amendment .com’s of Law Firms,
You are one frustrated dude – what about JohnnieCochran.com research genius.
Come on – crawl out from under the rock, “teach” yourself a lesson you will never forget and go to casting.xxx and let your imagination go wild – that might be good tuition for you !
Andrew wrote a good article which explains some of the success this particular domain nae is enjoying in google atm.
http://domainnamewire.com/2011/08/15/google-toolbar-doesnt-recognize-xxx-yet/
also PETA will buy an .XXX domain
theregister.co.uk/2011/08/16/peta_to_launch_animnal_pron_site/