I reached out to Stuart Lawley the CEO of ICM Registry the company that operates the .XXX registry about how much response they received to the big media push this weekend.
As of today over the weekend 500,000 visitors have gone to Buy.xxx, the URL used in all the TV commercials for the .XXX registry.
Alexa.com is reporting the same type of results.
From the chart below you can see that Buy.XXX went from having basically zero traffic last week to ranking into the top 17K+ of all sites in just a few days.
What does this mean in sales?
The Land Rush Period just ended today and the Go live general availability begins on December 6th, for which many registrars have been taking pre-orders for.
I didn’t get a firm number from ICM but got the following statement:
“We are comfortably into the six figures in terms of domains”
“registrars are reporting very strong launch numbers”
We know ICM got over 80,000 registrations from the Sunrise Period so “comfortably into the six figures in terms of domains” is what we expect.
Looking forward to seeing some real numbers but of course with litigation hanging over ICM we may not get actual numbers right now.
Personally I think we (Worldwide Media, Inc) will wind registering around 500 .XXX domains throughout the Founders Program, Sunrise, Land Rush and GA.
Here is the Graph from Alexa:
Appendix 3 of the ICM Registry agreement with ICANN is the mandatory “Zone File Access” agreement, so anyone would be able to get the approximate number of registrations pretty quickly, by counting the number of domains in the zone file (domains with no nameservers would not show up, though, e.g. if they were bought for blocking purposes).
Alternatively, each of the gTLD registries provides ICANN with monthly reports, which are posted on ICANN’s website (albeit with a 3 month lag).
It doesn’t mean they are all after a .XXX domain, they probably thought it was a porn site.
I’m really curious to know what one 30 second spot costs on ESPN during a football game.
(I just saw the BUY.xxx commercial).
Also curious if the ROI is worth it.
I’d imagine the instant nationwide exposure is worth the investment and effort.
Aron
Don’t believe everything you hear. The traffic spike was because they bought popup forced traffic from well known adult websites over the last week.
Looks like they made their tld promotion to success.
It’s a shame that ICM bought all of that popup traffic because I would have liked to see an honest answer to the question posed. I’ve always been opposed to dotxxx, but putting my personal feelings aside, I would like to have seen how much genuine interest there is.
I think that .xxx will do well generally, but it may take some time. Established ‘adult’ co’s on the web would be wise to get their .xxx, and perhaps use it as a unique marketing slogan in a similar way that domain “hacks” are sometimes used.
Good Morning!
I will try to answer all of the questions on this thread and the last and try to put some color around the ad campaign around http://www.buy.xxx .
The current campaign has an allocated budget of $4.5 million with about $2 million going on US TV alone.
The commercials will also be appearing on TV overseas and are being subtitled in German, Spanish and Portuguese.
The ads, at this stage are unashamedly targeted at selling .xxx names up to and beyond our Dec 6th launch.
There are 13 commercials produced by Rooster Network of New York and starring Gavin McInnes and well known adult performers Nina Mercedez, Kiara Mia, Stormy Daniels and Sophia Santi.
I personally think they did a great job as the spots have been very well received . The final ads are being polished in the studio as we speak so all of them should be available online be the end of next week.
They are very light hearted, PG rated at most and firmly tongue in cheek as they follow Gavin and the girls around the world looking at who is buying .XXX names and why.
Q1 next year will bring a whole new ad campaign based more around explaining what .XXX is and what the benefits are for all stakeholders which will, we hope, encourage willing adult consumers to surf for .XXX sites and generate traffic for our registrants.
In addition to the TV commercials, http://www.buy.xxx is being promoted online at many well known comedy and lifestyle websites such as http://www.loaded.co.uk together with some limited exposure on some well known adult sites.
We also have billboards up in major conurbations.
Finally, at this stage , we are featured sponsors at various events such as http://www.sexpo.com.au going on right now in Melbourne Australia and next week we are featured sponsor at http://www.race-of-champions.de a sort of end of season event for F1 drivers held in Dusseldorf which gets great coverage in the German market.
The traffic to http://www.buy.xxx has been phenomenal and around 50% of the, now over 600,000 visitors so far ,are coming from direct type-in traffic and the rest from referral sites and search queries.
Another blogger wrote to me yesterday saying his site had received over 1,000 visitors that day just from search as a result of mentioning http://www.buy.xxx.
The social media platforms are full of buzz about the ads with most strongly approving of the ads and saying how fun they were.
Enjoy!!!
“Established adult companies” have chosen to take one of two approaches: 1) To sue ICM (Manwin, Playboy and Digital Playground) or 2) to notify ICM that any use of their marks will be fought through legal channels (Hustler, AEBN, Evil Angel, etc.). These companies’ positions have been publicly documented. It seems to be the start-up and the struggling companies that see value in using .xxx as “a unique marketing slogan.” I see it developing as a sort of small business association of adult companies. These little guys can’t compete on their own, so they are attempting to find strength in numbers.
If it was a forced popup, I’d guess the cost to acquire that traffic would be under $2/CPM. Even for 500,000 visitors, that’s less than $1,000 total, if the assumption of $2/CPM or less is correct.
“into the six figures in terms of domains”
How about in terms of registrants?
Last time i looked the registrations : registrants ratio was about 4:1.
i.e on average each applicant is selecting 4 domains on average.
We have plenty of Solos and others seeking hundreds.
‘50% of the, now over 600,000 visitors so far ,are coming from direct type-in traffic and the rest from referral sites and search queries’
Wait, you mean 600,000 people DID NOT automatically append the address with ‘.com’ ?
How can that be? Doesn’t everyone understand that .com is the only tld on the shelf worth looking at?
Maybe people aren’t as programmed, or dumb as many would suggest.
Bring on New gTLDs
@TomG What are your thoughts on the failure of O.co? Overstock spent 15 million dollars in marketing and the naming rights to a NFL stadium, yet they couldn’t get people to forgo .com in favor of .co. Now Overstock.COM has pretty much abandoned their rebranding. A lot of money wasted. Why is .xxx any different?
@ann
I know you have serious opposition to .xxx you have expressed in several outlets but I’m afraid if you can’t work out the difference between the appeal and differentiation of gay.xxx vs gay.com, leather.xxx and leather.com and casting.xxx and casting.com then we really can’t help you.
@ANN
It’s tough to blaze a trail, but there is a flood coming.
.com is entirely entrenched in the U.S. , no doubt. xxx.com surely also received boatloads of typo traffic from the media.
A setback for .CO, but the registry is still very healthy. The principal investors are funding many new gtld initiatives.
.CO is a pure generic, and also very, very similar to .COM. That’s tough to compete head to head, but they did 30$ million in year one.
.XXX and many new gTLDs are topical, geographical, cultural.
Most people don’t know much about domain names, but they know who they are and what they like. Some people love .GOLF, or .FISHING, or .XXX content. They may operate businesses exclusively targeting .NYC or .LONDON. And people who are .GAY, well, really ARE.GAY. Some, are REALLY.GAY.
People will express their affinities, loyalties, cultural/civic pride, interests, professions and hobbies in the TLD closely related to their identity, or location.
Not all of them, but it doesn’t have to be. Not every registry needs to be a $6 billion business like Verisign, or provide great ROI to domain speculators to be successful.
215 million names and growing, almost 10% per year. Half of them are .coms. That means half of them are not .coms. There is room in the market for variety, specialization, focus, innovation.
There will be hundreds of moderately successful new tlds that generate excellent returns for the owners. There will also be a few wildly successful ones.
That said, .com is great, I own hundreds, with no plans to sell . . yet
that’s such a valubale point tom g has made, in my opinion. not every registry has to be a giant.
icann’s proposed program will not allow small scale operations and the consultants will probably never admit it’s even posssible as they are tied to the icann model, but a domain registry could be run on very little investment. it does not have to serve the entire world. and it does not have to be a cash cow. companies have been running “registries” since before icann existed. and anyone else can do the same.
icann is dictating how they want things to be, based on their past experience and vision of the future. that’s fine, but it is certainly not the only way things can be done.
the internet is full of possibilities, or limitations, depending on who you talk to.
@TomG Thank you for your thoughtful response. I agree that not every new TLD will be wildly successful. There will certainly be many small TLDs that bring in enough money to survive. And, who knows. If both the IRP and the law suit go in ICM’s favor, .xxx may well be one of them.
I also agree with you when you write “Most people don’t know much about domain names, but they know who they are and what they like.” However, I disagree with the analogy that you’ve drawn between .xxx and .golf or .fishing. While your average American dad can take pride in “who he is and what he likes” by wearing a t-shirt that says “TITLEIST.GOLF,” the average American dad is not going to take the kids to the state fair wearing a t-shirt that says “TITS.XXX” (unless of course, he wants Chilren and Family Services to pay him a visit).
Secondly, I know I sound like a broken record, but again I am going to assert the importance of having the support of the community you portend to represent. Yes, .golf could succeed if Titleist, Ping, Spaulding, and the PGA supported and promoted it. But, if Titleist, Ping, Spaulding, and the PGA were all fighting .golf though law suits, IRPs, boycotts, and word-of-mouth campaigns, I would not forcast a particularly bright future for .golf. That is precisely the situation for .xxx. Simply go to Hustler.com and see if you can find an add for .xxx. Try Playboy.com–nothing there either. How about EvilAnge.com? Nothing. If you search long and hard, you will find only a few established studios willing to promote .xxx. How do you overcome that obstacle?
I think except .xxx domains all porn website should be banned with .com or other tlds.
So that we can be safely browse internet with our family.
except .xxx no tlds should allow these porn sites.
India has banned porn site for .in tld. Hope others do so.
There’s a thread on the adult webmaster forum GFY about how BUY.XXX ads/forced popunders started appearing on a malware tube site over the weekend. That would obviously account for the sudden jump in alexa rankings.
To be honest, I’m not surprised that a company like ICMRegistry would resort to these kind of tactics (padding the numbers with fake/forced traffic).
I like how the writer of the article says they are personally buying 500 .xxx domains. How can we expect any kind of non biased reporting?
90% of adult webmasters hate .xxx…so who are you domainers going to sell to?
@Stuart Lawley …my wife and I operate several adult web sites and have been considering whether or not we should register the .xxx versions of our domains over the last 6 months or so. Your bestiality ad featuring the sheep helped us decide that this is probably something we should/will stay away from. We both are voyeurs for the most part on the GFY forums and it seems that other than your representatives, we cannot seem to find much in the way of support from the industry as a whole. We were also concerned that if we ever got involved with a .xxx domain, we might lose support from those in the industry we have long established relationships with. Without the support of the industry as a whole, how do you think this can bring long term success? Anyway, very distasteful ad with the sheep IMO, but thanks for helping us make our decision and best of luck with your venture.
To be fair to ICM, there are a few adult companies that do support .xxx: Corbin Fisher, Channel 1 Releasing, and Grooby.
@ M. Johnson
@ M Johnson Sorry some of the ads didn’t appeal to your sense of humor, as I said all supposed to be very tongue in cheek. There will be more , different, ads appearing from today. We have about a dozen in total and we expect half of them to run on National TV in the US.
Thank you for your good wishes though.
@Ann
Thank you for pointing those few companies out, there are thousands more that have signed up and hundreds that are in direct conversations with us about new opportunities and development ideas in this new space.
@ Jason- We bought an ad package from an adult ad broker, so have little control on exactly what sites the ads appear on at any given time. 50% of the traffic is direct type ins, presumably from the ads on TV, Billboards, sponsorship, adult shows we are attending , print media etc.
Of course you’re going to get type in traffic. You’re wasting millions on TV ads. The adult industry has spoken.
They do not want this, and good old Stuart has been trying to twist and lie to the world about his money grab for almost 10 years now.
These ads are a massive fail. Of course people on domaineer blogs are going to write stories about this mess, Greg Dumas is a domaineer and has all the bro hookups in the domaining world.
Way to go Stuart.
We will also be suing ICM soon.
Some .XXX domains are being extorted and sold for well over $100,000. This is absurd and highway robbery. Other back door deals were made before the landrush to those who did not own a trademark to the name. Many did not even get a chance to get a good domain because of these back door pre-deals.
This entire thing is crooked, and you Stuart Lawley, are a bottom feeder.
@Stuart Lawley when will domains applied for during Land Rush be awarded?
@ Tammy.
No back door deals have been done at all. How ridiculous. All phases , including the founders program were announced on our website, via our mailing list and also via Press Releases reported widely in the Adult press. There are thousands of premium names left in the pot for General Availability and also via our Premium Names program.
@ Chris
Sunrise and Landrush names (those not going to auction) will be awarded on December 1 and should be available in your registrar account between 3-5th December.
@M Johnson It seems that you are not the only one who considers ICM’s standard for decency and good taste to be a bit questioable, at best. Domain Gang just reported that YouTube has censored at least one .xxx ad.
Heres the video, decide for yourselves
@ Stuart – How about posting the ACTUAL video people were talking about.
Also if that is supposed to be an amusing commercial, well you missed the nail by about 400 metres.
@ Stuart
“No back door deals have been done at all. How ridiculous. All phases , including the founders program were announced on our website, via our mailing list and also via Press Releases reported widely in the Adult press.”
What about the domains that were directly sold to elite domain investors like Frank Schilling before the process even started?
According to Schilling, “they were actually purchased in January (at Domainfest) before the contract was awarded. ”
Feel free to clarify.
Brad
I am sure Stuart Lawley will make money with .XXX
Will many countries block it? Probably.
Will Mike Berkens and Frank Schilling make money with select premiums? Probably.
Can I make money with .XXX? I don’t know, so I won’t invest.
@ Hal
“Can I make money with .XXX? I don’t know, so I won’t invest.”
Just like most other new extensions, the winners are the registry and the insiders.
Most of the regular people are left holding the bag.
Brad
@ Brad
The founders program was announced and launched in December 2010.
Frank approached us at Domainfest in late January and we negotiated a group of generic names for $1.65 million cash.
This deal was done during the period the founders program was open to all.
Many others quickly followed and circa 1,500 names were allocated to around 35 separate entities over the following months under the founders program .premium names allocated under founders generally carried prohibitions on resale and carried development requirements also
@ Stuart
Thanks for the information.
The “Founders” program launched several months before the extension was officially approved by ICANN (March 18, 2011)?
Brad
Jason
“”90% of adult webmasters hate .xxx…so who are you domainers going to sell to?”
Assuming your statement is correct, your also assuming noting will change over time.
As a buyer of .XXX domains I’m going to assume that things will change, that over time the public will get to learn to type in .xxx at the end of an adult term to find adult content, that the micropayment system ICM has planned will be a huge advantage to adult sites.
I do know this.
If users adopt .xxx and start to using it in substantial numbers that “90% of adult webmasters that hate .xxx” is going to diminish quickly
I could not care less about the .xxx sTLD. Stuart Lawley and ICM has every right to try and make bank on an ext with bogus support from the sponsoring community. It is so despised that no one is admitting to buying up these domains because when that information becomes public there will be a backlash and they know it. If a program decides to use .xxx as an extension they better not be using the affiliate model for promoting their sites because they will lose almost all of that traffic overnight.
My issue is with IFFOR, ICM’s policing arm. The power these business owners are giving away when buying these incredibly over priced domains is absolutely ridiculous. Any business owner who would give a third party that kind of power over how they run their company is one that does not read the fine print or one that ignores the potential for rampant, money grabbing abuse by a company that has already proven to be shady as all get out to have their way.
@ stuart
you can’t differentiate between a type-in and a popup. If you seriously think you got that many type ins you are being hoodwinked.
The timing suggests you guys bought the popunders with the intention of boosting your alexa rankings to fake enthusiasm in .xxx
You made ads geared for regular people to BUY .xxx , you missed both your markets. You missed an op to show regular users a new tld and explain it and you missed your actual target of adult companies.
@Michael H. Berkens
“the micropayment system ICM has planned will be a huge advantage to adult sites.”
We disagree with that. That micropayment system is actually the reason we (me and my partners) decided to stay away from dotxxx.
To be honest, we never really liked ICM Registry. They would say one thing and then do another. A lot of people I respect in this industry were against dotxxx and their opinion certainly matters to me.
But in the end, we’re here to make money. So while we did not support dotxxx we did decide to buy the dotxxx versions of 10 of our main domains. Until we found mentions of this mystical new micropayment system. I say “mystical” because ICM has been talking about it for a long time, but no one has ever seen it or knows what it’s capable of or how it is even supposed to benefit us.
One of the first online lessons I learned (the hard way) back in 98 was: Don’t let your hosting company register your domain names for you. If you later decide to change hosting companies, your old host could get pissed off and hold your domains hostage.
We see similar potential problems with dotxxx and its micropayment system. It’s safe to assume that ICM will want to make money off of that payment system. They’ll probably charge a transaction fee (like Paypal or Paxum does right now). ICM thus has a reason to encourage people to use their new micropayment system. If more people use it, ICM makes more money. If more webmasters add it to their sites, ICM makes more money.
And that’s where the potential problem lies. Dotxxx is not just another TLD. It’s a TLD with rules and regulations. Rules and regulations all dotxxx domain owners have to abide by. Rules and regulations that are created by IFFOR and ICM.
What if we now invest our money in buying and promoting dotxxx domains and 2 years from now ICM decides that only their micropayment system is allowed on dotxxx sites? Do we really want one and the same company to control our domain names and our processing? Hell no.
So in the end we decided that we won’t be buying any dotxxx domain names. Dotxxx is too risky to be used for a main site and too expensive to be used as feeder sites.
If .porn and .sex ever get approved and the prices are reasonable (comparable with .com domain names) and there are no silly (or risky) rules attached to it, we will certainly be buying those.
Paul
I believe the micro payment system is optional you don’t have to use it.
IMHO after a couple of years traveling the ICANN circuit you will not see a .porn or .sex.
Governments have more power in the new gTLD system than they had previously and I don’t see a .sex or .porn being approved and certainly not for 5 years and if approved don’t be shocked to see the high bidder on these to be ICM once again.
@Michael H. Berkens
That is the whole point. It is optional now, but ICM/IFFOR could make it mandatory 6 months or 3 years or 5 years from now.
As BigJim pointed out; if you use a dotxxx domain name, you give a lot of power to ICM because in order to use a dotxxx domain name you have to abide by the rules ICM/IFFOR sets. And ICM/IFFOR has the power to change those rules whenever they want.
@paul
Aren’t registrant requirements part of the registry agreement?
Registries can’t simply change the registry agreement anytime they want, can they?
@Tom G
Yes, they can. Or at least IFFOR is reserving the right to do it. If you lease a .xxx domain you are agreeing to be bound by IFFOR’s rules and those rules can change at the whim of the governing counsel which was supposed to be made up of the sponsoring community members. In fact none of the ones I have seen appointed have the best interests of the adult on line community in mind.
Very strong cases have been made for how easily the system they are putting in place can be abused and judging from the long and twisted history that this sTLD has taken to finally get approved I do not trust them at all and I am not alone in this. The rules are whatever IFFOR says they are at the time and ‘best business practices’ are purely the opinions of those in charge of IFFOR at the time.
As far as I know people are buying up .xxx domains without ever having seen the rules they are agreeing to abide by. If Lawley can post a link to the best business practices laid out by IFFOR right now I might feel a little differently.
with the web’s first registry, back in the 90’s, charges were not processed immediately. lots of people never paid for their domains. look at how far we’ve come. this micropayment scheme sounds like the equivalent of direct debit from a domain owner’s bank account.
Wow
No the micropayment system is like iTunes which allows the domain holder to sell video clips or other material and get PAID for the material, so the money would go TO the domain holder not taken from the domain holder
WHO ARE THE GIRLS FROM THE COMMERCIAL??
the micropayment system sounds interesting.
what if the registry could offer shorter registration periods than one year?
maybe quarterly or something similar.
this way, a registrant could “test” the domain for traffic. and limit his losses.
a throwback to domain tasting perhaps. but efficient nontheless.
pretty sure verisign considered something like this once.
does the icann registry contract prohibit this?
does icann have to adhere to a “most favoured nations” principle with each registry?
would shorter registrations be unworkable?
thoughts?