The state of Alabama has become the latest jurisdiction to move its official travel site to a .Travel domain name.
I was at a movie last night and saw an ad for Alabama.Travel and today I checked and it appears the state has moved their official travel site from Alabama.gov to Alabama.travel
Alabama becomes the latest in a what is becoming a trend for official travel sites switching over to using a .travel domain.
Just a few weeks ago we wrote noting that Fiji, Germany, Colombia, Egypt, Ecuador, and Canada moved over to .travel domain names for their official visitor sites.
The use of a .travel domain name for what is pennies on the dollar compared to a visit……. com domain name is what I think you will see in the future as new gTLD’s roll out for a lot of verticals.
For those thinking there will be a lot of leakage from Alabama.travel to AlabamaTravel.com that does not seem to the be the case.
Alabama.travel has a Google page rank of 6, an Alexa rank of 370,000 and a Compete Rank of 26,000.
TravelAlabama.com has no page rank and an Alexa and Compete rank of 0.
As long as you are going to use a non.com in travel – well this is a nice lateral move – maybe a bit downward – to be diplomatic 🙂
And I have $69 to backorder AlabamaTravel.org – should they drop it – but I still think I will pass
I guess they did not feel like putting out the money to acquire VisitAlabama.com. That is owned by Worldwide Media, Inc 🙂
The new gTLD registries are going to be playing the role of speculators. They are in it to make money and most of the best terms will not be available to the general public for standard registration fee.
I could see a user developing an amazing term on secondary extension, if the cost was cheap to acquire, but that is not going to be the case.
Brad
just goes to show… if you wanna move backwards… alabama is the place for you. chicken fried steak and jesus for everyone.
Brad
I think this is what your going to see.
As more options become available a certain amount of end users are going to take them rather than coming up with the big bucks to acquire the .com
I like chicken fried steak
))::
Pretty sure I remember Eric Bogros saying he sold a Vist???.com for around $25K – and I think he said he felt he sold it for too little – and others have sold for significantly more.
Never went that direction 🙁
But never went the direction of worthless non,.com’s either – so I got that going for me.
With the upcoming new gTLD “fever”, we’ll be seeing a larger and larger number of these astonishing acquisitions by important entities and official institutions, but that’s destined to be only a fad.
“As more options become available a certain amount of end users are going to take them rather than coming up with the big bucks to acquire the .com”
Yes, I agree a certain percent. I don’t think anyone disagrees with that.
A certain percent use secondary options now.
What percent? 10%, 15%, 20%?
If all the best terms are reserved by registries playing the speculator, and wanting premium prices for all their top terms, it is going to kill interest. Many people who are interested now think they are going to end up with a top term for cheap. It will not happen.
Also, it does not always take big bucks to acquire a quality .COM that is suitable to a small business. The vast majority of all domain sales are .COM and in the $1K – $3K range.
Brad
The “new gTLD fever” is all about registries selling lots of non.com domains – very few of which will never get used at all – and that is very very big business for these new registries 🙂
“very few of which will EVER get used at all” –
Roll on Roll on Alabamaaaaaaaaaaa
the place where you marry your cousins.
Eyeeeeee Aaaaaah
@BrianWick
As only a tiny portion of the new keyword.newgtld domains is going to have resale value, yes, it’s safe to say Registries are the ones that will get by far the largest piece of the pie.
Brad
The $1K-$3K domain sellers might still get hurt Geo based or vertical based domains as opposed to brandable domains still could lose sales to new gTLD’s priced at $20 to register.
Joe – yes –
Just like Brad states:
“all the best terms are reserved by registries playing the speculator”
Its all about selling non.com domains that will never get used – and there is a ton of dough in that. Its just not my gig – I will stick with my crusty 15 year old .com business.
This is a perfect example of where a new TLD like .travel does a better job than an old one like .com.
The “travel” branding cue for the State of Alabama Tourism Board could not be better.
Google appears to agree. Try any search containing alabama and tourism, vacation, etc.
The domain was registered by them back in 2006. I’m not sure when they did the actual migration from their old web address.
BullS salutes Brad and Brian—so right on.
I have never heard of companies using dot whatever until one of the lame domainers post them in their blogs.
Snake oil my friend , snake oil….
Like I said I saw an ad before a movie for alabama.travel before the fast and furious 55 or whatever number they are up to
anyway you guys need to get out more
MHB…I think what you saw was AlabamaTravel
got your eyes check lately?
i saw an ad for the site which is alabama.travel, its pretty big screen in the movie hard to miss
“anyway you guys need to get out more”
You mean like “getting out more” and seeing billboards and TV’s at bars and pubs advertising “Alabama.Travel” the government is spending trillions of tax payer $$$ on vs. (in the end) spending a lot less dough and buying Alabama.com, AlabamaTravel.com AND VisitAlabama.com ?
In the end if you have a lot of dough like apparently Alabama you brand around a non.com like Alabama.Travel – but if you do not have a lot of dough like me for example – I will work with the .com – thanks you very much.
Actually I mean what I said was a major release movie theater with a pretty nice ad which cost a few bucks to produce.
Hey believe me I’d be MUCH happier if the state which as you said has trillions of tax dollars have spent $100K of that, to buy the visitalabama.com domain I own but they didn’t.
I’m just calling it like I see it even when its to my detriment
Email just sent to the owner of AlabamaTravel.com – Stephen Gregory:
From: Cheap Yellow Pages [mailto:Admin@CheapYellowPages.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 2:06 PM
To: ‘zerofat@zerofat.com’
Subject: AlabamaTravel.com
Hi Gregory –
My name is Brian Wick – I operate a portfolio at CheapYellowPages.com.
With Alabama making a decision to brand their tourist business at Alabama.Travel – I would think you traffic has increased significantly.
Possibly you would like to make a post at
http://www.thedomains.com/2013/05/28/alabama-moves-its-official-travel-site-from-alabamatravel-org-to-alabama-travel/
Have a good one.
Brian
303-893-0888 USA
Let the fun begin. This is only the beginning 🙂
Travel.com should create alabama.travel.com because I’m sure a lot of people will put .com after everything.
If owner of Alabama.com is reading this article and comments, I am curious if alabama.travel people contacted you to see if alabama.com was for sale.
Anyway, congrats to you. Many people will be typing in alabama.com instead of alabama.travel
It seems like most of the state.travel domains are owned and redirected to the states main site. If you have a travel UIN the state of Ohio is the only one available to be registered. Maybe worth a 100 dollar gamble at Name.com. Send me a kickback when you sell it. 🙂
Yes Rob –
Then who cares if google is de-indexing those subdomains – per another thread – because they will be getting the lion’s share of the destination AND stry traffic.
@Brad
“If all the best terms are reserved by registries playing the speculator, and wanting premium prices for all their top terms, it is going to kill interest. Many people who are interested now think they are going to end up with a top term for cheap. It will not happen.”
Unless the registry is won by Frank Schilling’s Uniregistry – their intent is to severely limit the number of reserve names and offer premiums up in general availability.
I think alabama.travel is very fitting and marketable.
What I think you really have here is reality:
GOVERNMENT Employees that want a .com but feel they would lose their jobs or not get reelected if they “invested” $100K-$1M on some or all the aforementioned .com domains they need to REALLY promote Alabama,
– so instead the tax payer gets screwed with a failed marketing attempt of Alabama.Travel – and tons of money spent on advertising / marketing agencies that greases them with table dances 🙂
The problem is that they need a call to action for TV ads which usually involve a state themed song that engrains the keyword in the mind of the viewer so as in “Sweet Home Alabama” the logical call to action would be Alabama.com or SweatHome.com but Alabama.travel… I think there will be problems because advertisers are already confusing the public like the booking.com ads that end in booking.yeah where .yeah doesn’t even exist.
No one has put the pedal to the metal with focus groups of customers which is unheard of before making changes or multimillion dollar ad investments.
and see I already proved you need sweat and sweet
If Frank S does not reserve the best domains then domainers will, either way the general public won’t see them. Somewhere I saw that new GTLDs can only reserve 100 domains per extension. If that’s true they will auction the rest.
I believe Alabama got a pile of money from BP to compensate for lost tourist revenue due to the oil spill.
The only thing I have heard in the media (no, I don’t get out much) about new gTLDs was a guy ranting on people who “reg the whole thesaurus and want $1000 each for them”. He was happy because now he will be able to get beer.com for reg fee. College grad, that one.
Travel is not a new gTLD, it is an old one, 2005, I believe, and one of the very best possible extensions. Better than all but a few of the new ones, I believe. Yet it is small, and if massive promotion were profitable they would have been doing it all this time.
MHB: “As more options become available a certain amount of end users are going to take them rather than coming up with the big bucks to acquire the .com”
Most of those options will be either closed TLDs or Google Free-with-ads domains. The drop-off in pre-registrations between the best few TLDs and the rest of the pack is steep, as I have pointed out. The top TLDs will go to Google and Amazon. I think some people are in denial about this.
The main result I see is a growing introspection among domainers. This can be a good thing, revitalizing and re-defining domaining is overdue.
.travel is an older extension but with the new gTLD roll out its going to be new again
Maybe their really smart and just getting a jump on the reverse of that being Travel.Alabama!
Yes, there will be lots of options…and cause confusions…..Alabama.travel should get:
Travel.Alabama
Visit.Alabama
Alabama.visit
Alabama.city
Alabama.traveler
Alabama.travellers
Alabama.cruise
Alabama.play
Alabama.adventure
Alabama.explorer
etc……
“.travel is an older extension but with the new gTLD roll out its going to be new again”
I – more than once – have been accused of forming the “Branch Wickedians”
But with your comment – I believe you need to form the “Branch Berkensidians”
Come on Mike – .travel is a “cult” of denial 🙂
Raymond
Only problem with your theory is no one applied to run:
.Alabama
.visit
.traveler
.travellers
.adventure
.explorer
Moreover the .travel domain is getting substantial traffic and the .com version is not getting ANY spill over traffic
Michael, why bother trying to convince people wearing the good old .com blindfolds? In time they’ll understand what the “new internet” is all about.
Like you said, they need to get out more. If they knew what’s going on outside the US, I’m sure they’d “get it”.
It’s all about change and adapting. It happened 50 million years ago, it happened 50 years ago, it’s happening right now and it will happen in the future.
No, I’m not saying ALL .com’s will be worthless.
No, not ALL new gTLD’s will be successful.
No, I’m not saying companies shouldn’t buy the .com if they go GLOBAL (though they may not have to in the future)
BUT – sometime in the future the .com won’t be as important as it is today. People adapt, they learn – they’ll know what “right of the dot” actually means. They’ll know that there are other extensions than .com, .net and .org. They’ll know that “Alabama.Travel” is a website, that it is a brand. The general public won’t go to Alabama.com, they won’t go to Alabama.travel.com or whatever else is out there.
It’s not by chance that companies choose .Travel, .Info, .ME, .TV or .CO to brand their products or companies. What about the new APP.io? (they actually dropped their .com to go with .IO), Germany.Travel? Slovakia.Travel? Or Girl.ME which currently has a $30,000 bid over at SEDO? I’m sure the .com fans have an answer to everything, but it doesn’t change the following fact: For every future gTLD that is a success, the value of .com’s will come down, little by little. Why? Because in time people out there, the masses, the public, will “get it” and they’ll realize that there are other alternatives out there.
I can’t wait for the large corps to start promoting the new gTLDs. Once this snowball gets rolling, people (the masses) will catch on FAST.
“what’s going on outside the US”
Well we are just finishing a deal where our .com will be replacing a .de – for very decent 5 digit money.
And we have done that a handful of times in the last 15 months, including .co, .de, .eu.
And it seems rather odd that someone who knows so much about all the new non.com’s has to hide behind “Mr T” – which means – without any credentials – your words fall empty 🙂
Mr T.
Its not that I’m trying to convince people to buy new gTLD’s or drop .com’s.
I’m just calling it like I see it and I own 70,000 or so .com’s so its not like its a good thing if .com prices drop as a whole.
I started ROTD.com because I saw this coming a few years ago and felt I needed to get involved in the new gTLD process just to offset the probable loss in .com values.
I do think the values of .com’s will come down for many types of domains.
There are others that will continue to increase.
However if the current values of domains were unchanged when the inventory of available domains increases by 1,000X it would be the only business in the history of the world that held prices with increased inventory.
you kids and your “hiding” comments. this is the internet guys – it used to be OK to use a “handle” remember?
im not even wearing pants and you want real names… ill throw on a pair of underwear just cause i think its the respectable thing to do.
anyway.. its pretty neat a guy like Michael with a ton of .COM’s is willing to follow the situation as it unfolds rather than take on a sports-team like mentality and speak in 5 word domainer sound bite sentences..
cause the conversation is more than “my team will win”
“However if the current values of domains were unchanged when the inventory of available domains increases by 1,000X it would be the only business in the history of the world that held prices with increased inventory.”
That is assuming the inventory is of the same quality. There have been plenty of times that products of lesser value did not effect the best.
Do Toyota, Honda, Hyundai lower the price of a Ferrari? Do thousands of watch companies lower the price of a Rolex? Not all things are created equal.
Brad
RE: “Do Toyota, Honda, Hyundai lower the price of a Ferrari? Do thousands of watch companies lower the price of a Rolex?”
yes, it would…..
if Ferrari and Rolex were the only viable choices at first… then came along 1,000 other choices.. so YES not as many people would be forced into buying a Ferrari or Rolex (when that was the only choice before) and it would be socially acceptable to now wear a $5 watch cause it tells time JUST LIKE THE ROLEX!
bam!
“if Ferrari and Rolex were the only viable choices at first… then came along 1,000 other choices.. so YES not as many people would be forced into buying a Ferrari or Rolex (when that was the only choice before) and it would be socially acceptable to now wear a $5 watch cause it tells time JUST LIKE THE ROLEX!”
There have already been alternatives for many years.
Extensions like .BIZ, .INFO, and others have been around for 10+ years and are a blip on the radar screen when it comes to usage. Many internet users do not even know they exist.
What is different this time?
I guess the theory is despite the past commercial failures of secondary extensions, this time it will be different because there are going to be many more. People are betting on changing the behavior of the consumer, or in other words if you fling enough crap at a wall, some will stick.
Brad
Brad
Lets not forget that the people that will be running a lot of these registries are not the suits, for the first time they are domainers, Entrepreneurs guys who are coming from a whole different direction than the big corps that ran a lot of these other new gTLD’s
Its going to be more of the type of ownership and fresh marketing and out of the box thinking you saw from .co, lets also not forget that as we sit today only 68% of all godaddy domain registrations are .com’s that;s a lot of other domain extensions being registered as we speak
Brad
Your right to say
“”That is assuming the inventory is of the same quality. There have been plenty of times that products of lesser value did not effect the best.
“”Do Toyota, Honda, Hyundai lower the price of a Ferrari? Do thousands of watch companies lower the price of a Rolex? Not all things are created equal”””
But your assuming that every .com is a Ferrari and everything not a .com is a Kia
Not so
Of the 108 million registered .com there are plenty of Kia’s and Yugo’s and mopeds
I can argue that some .me domains are more valuable than a ton of .com’s
There will be new gTLD’s domains that will be a lot more valuable than a .com.
Great Ferrari .com’s will still be Ferrari’s but how many of those do you own, or do I own?
So Brad:
“People are betting on changing the behavior of the consumer, or in other words if you fling enough crap at a wall, some will stick.”
UDRP, ACPA, Federal Courts, US Courts have programmed .com in the “consumers” brain.
How many claims for non.com’s have been made where the Complainant did NOT already own the .com … maybe 1 out of 10,000 ?
And 1,000+ new non.com’s will never change that “behavior” – but there are numerous folks – some on this thread – desperate to be sold a bill-of-goods 🙂
So what do you think – you are as much a realist as myself – lets just let them live their lie – just like Robert Cline 🙂
more TLD’s = more ways for “them” to make money this time. or as some put it “trick people into using substandard TLD’s”
but its only “tricking people” until its normal to do… too many people are looking for a particular TLD to “catch on” at first. for that to even happen on a large scale people have to be OK with using .weird first..
which is why i still think some domainers fascination with .web is hilarious.. some that are against the new TLD’s say “its the only one with possibility” hahaha
BrianWick:
consumer behavior is already changing slightly. a few people use .ME and .CO for their website now.
that didnt exist 5 years ago. open your eyes.. that is the definition of change.
now multiply that by 1,000. how do some of you guys still think this is a zero sum game with 100% winners and 100% losers?
“consumer behavior is already changing slightly” –
no is NOT changing – the consumer realizes he needs his own internet address vs. FacePlant.com/BSStoreName – oops I mean Facebook.com…..
But anything intuitive like the 400+ people a day during the football season that type in CheapJerseys.com without knowing me, for example, – will always end in a .com.
And Anybody operating a site at CheapJerseys.me, CheapJerseys.co… well I will probably get 3-5 typins for each of theirs.
And that is why I am at $7800 currently for Wallcoverings.com on auction at NameJet – because I am counting on geniuses like you to build websites at Wallcoverings.{non.com} – thanks you so much
Brad – the main reason why alternatives extensions never made it big is because the timing was off. The internet today is totally different from just 5 years ago. Social media, the explosion of new online ventures, apps, mobile devices and a lot of other factors have increased the popularity of alternative extensions. Lets alone the fact that huge corps now invest millions into marketing/branding of their new gTLDs.
Like I said, far from all gTLD’s will be successful. But believing that the new gTLDs won’t have a direct impact on the value/use of .com is just wishful thinking. 10-15 years from now the current heavy use of .com will have shifted towards a more balanced mix of extensions.
“That is assuming the inventory is of the same quality. There have been plenty of times that products of lesser value did not effect the best.”
How do you determine the quality of the inventory? Do you compare it to the current popularity of .com? What is the perfect fit for a future brand? It’s not necessarily a .com.
If the value and popularity of “the king of extensions” decreases as more and more gTLD’s roll out, the “king” will slowly fade away into a mix of endless alternatives. I’m not saying that you’ll wake up one day and all .com’s are worth reg fee. All I’m saying is that in the distant future .com’s won’t be what they are today and they won’t play the same role they have been playing for the last 20+ years.
Also keep in mind – an extension that is perfect for one company could be a complete misfit for another company. Stream.Music would be a great brand. Rent.Cars would be another great brand. Alabama.travel is another great brand. Stream.cars, Rent.Music or Alabama.Music not so much.
Michael – that’s why I like your blog. You call it the way you see it. You have no hidden agenda and you always say it the way it is. 70,000 .com domains is a lot, but I’m sure you have quite a few premiums to cover any potential loss.
“However if the current values of domains were unchanged when the inventory of available domains increases by 1,000X it would be the only business in the history of the world that held prices with increased inventory.”
You’re right, and that’s why the value of .com will come down, little by little. The snowball started rolling over a year ago.
ontheinterweb – “you kids and your “hiding” comments. this is the internet guys – it used to be OK to use a “handle” remember?” & ” its pretty neat a guy like Michael with a ton of .COM’s is willing to follow the situation as it unfolds rather than take on a sports-team like mentality and speak in 5 word domainer sound bite sentences..”
Amen to that!
Brian – congrats on the .com sale. I’m not saying I know much about non .com’s or the new gTLD’s, but I’ve “been around” since the early 90’s and I’ve watched a lot of changes take place over the years. I come here to read about domains and the latest news. Who I am doesn’t matter. If my words fall empty to you, that’s ok too. What matters is that we get to share our ideas and thoughts about the future. What you make out of it is up to you 🙂
i really hope you arnt serious about wallcoverings.com at $7,800 – as a domainer purchase.. but OK.
secondly, despite your “success” with this traffic leakage that doesnt mean the business set up on the .CO or .ME will fail because of it.
.Me and .Co are two letters and have clear, intuitive, business-friendly meaning. No new gTLDs are two letters. The only new gTLDs that have anything near the usefulness of .Me and .Co are .web and .shop. Amazon or Google will get those and close them or offer free websites with ads – no business that is now buying a premium name wants Google ads.
Again I ask — if massive promotion can increase profits for a TLD why are the existing extensions not doing it NOW??? .Co is the only one, and I question if they are still getting investment from the Colombian government.
ontheinterweb – what some people still don’t realize is that the traffic leakage will be greatly reduced as more and more people become aware of the gTLD’s. As these gTLD’s roll out one by one, the average Joe won’t “accidentally” type whatever.com, because he knows .com isn’t the “only” extension out there anymore. Again, I’m not talking about noticeable changes from one day to the next, we’re talking years.
.Com has been a habit for so many years because it has been branded by so many companies all over the globe. It was part of the internet evolution in the early days and that has given .com a huge advantage. BUT, as the new gTLD’s roll out, in combination with a lot of marketing the average internet users will catch on to the new extensions. They’ll know that whatever.travel, whatever.Me or whatever.info are alternatives to .com, they’ll know that it’s a URL that takes them to a brand or product.
“that doesnt mean the business set up on the .CO or .ME will fail because of it.” – agreed – that is not the issue – it will just cost more to promote it because of a non.com – which takes us full circle:
It will cost a lot more to offset the intuitive AlabamaTravel.com by putting Quotes around “Alabama.Travel” on billboards and other media sources.
@OnTheInterWeb – Wallcoverings.com – I am out at $9000.
Maybe I will just wait until .shop comes out and buy Wallcoverings.shop maybe for $100 🙂
My 800+ Facebook fans ( 90% are artists) are asking me when is .art on market.
They are waiting for .art on market and they want to buy their PersonalName.art
These Consumer behaviors are slowly changing and they are adapting new things……
Raymond Chai wrote:
> These Consumer behaviors are slowly changing and they are
> adapting new things
Well, because when it comes to a person’s name, most people really have no choice. I reg’d my name (.COM) in 2000. (Which was actually kind of late.)
In any event, it looks like there will be a flood of new websites with Alexa ranks well over 10 or 20 million. These artists you speak of would probably do just as well traffic wise, and be better off by getting a free Google website.
“They are waiting for .art on market and they want to buy their PersonalName.art”
Well, .art has at least 10 applicants, and a priority draw of 1800+. Looks like those people will just have to put their business on hold for a couple years, or more, until .art is actually available.
Even when that happens I hope they don’t have a popular name, because there is no guarantee they will get the domain they want.
Brad
RE: “Even when that happens I hope they don’t have a popular name, because there is no guarantee they will get the domain they want.”
hows that different from .COM then?
thats the idea right.. filling demand?
For a .art if people are waiting to get their personal art name should be a problem if they are going to try to register modern.art or auction.art those will probably be reserved depending on who gets the string and what the plan is to run the registry
@ Grim
“…These artists you speak of would probably do just as well traffic wise, and be better off by getting a free Google website.”
I don’t think artists care about Google ranking or Google traffic…..and they don’t want free Google websites either.
These artists like to project their own personality, individuality, artistic flavor and a sense of belonging, ego and status….
They don’t need SEO traffic or Google search ranking….. what they need is to own their unique identity domain names to reflect their own personality using .art
So owning the personal name domain name is like owning an ID card or driving license. eg RaymondChai.art is a great personal brand which gives a powerful statement of identity and a sense of ownership.
But, there are thousands of Raymond Chai in the world…..so it’s got to be quick to snap up your personal name.
Traditional extensions sure mined the excitement over new extensions, while the new gTLD community is ironing out the kinks!
Case in point, .travel. Case in point, .io. Check out my public appeal to MHB to create a category for dot io on the right. After all, Google analyst Pierre Far stated about the list of ccTLDs treated as generic
So, it’s a favorite among Google personnel!
Thanx, @theDomains, for this thread, and inspiring me to do research on the dot io extension – much of it on theDomains! Domaining linked to my article,
The Seductive SoundIO of BellagIO
Please find it and enjoy!
In it, I make a public appeal to theDomains to add the .io extension to the right column, alongside .tv and .me, as extensions which confer authority. Read the article to find out!
Find, The Seductive SoundIO of BellagIO, on:
http://www.domaining.com