1and1.com which started a multimillion dollar national television advertising campaign which seemed to start around the first NFL games three weeks ago, just crossed the 2,000,000 mark in new gTLD pre-reservations.
Unofficially I tracked some 70,000 pre-registrations today alone.
To their credit and unlike other pre-registration services, 1and1.com is only accepting one pre-registration per new gTLD domain name.
If someone’s selected new gTLD domain name is the person trying to pre-register the domain is so informed and allowed to be put on a waiting list.
This week I got an email from someone who said he represented some clients and their domain properties with the subject line “gtld pre-reservations panic” the same topic was opened up for discussion on Linked in:
“I noticed that 1&1 is offering “pre-reservation” for many of the new GTld’s”
“I tried to grab some geo+professional domains for clients, but many were already “taken”.
“Should I be worried or are there alternatives, as I would think that 1&1 isn’t the only place we can do this, no?”
I’m sure there are lot of people that have gone to 1and1.com only to find that 1st choice for a new gTLD domain is already pre-reserved by someone else adding to the “i missed it” fear.
So back to the email we have a guy who is in the domain trade who is confused and concerned that he is not protecting his clients in the new gTLD space due to the 1and1 commercials.
So what does someone who isn’t in the domain name space think about all these new gTLD’s and what they maybe getting by “pre-reserving a New gTLD domain.
While 1and1.com is dong a great job with an excellent commercial to bring awareness to the new gTLD program, you can see that their site would be confusing to anyone but a very experienced domain industry insiders as to what people maybe getting and will not getting by pre-reserving a domain.
If you just look at the top 20 most pre-registered new gTLD domain extensions on 1and1.com they are:
.APP
.BLOG
.BUY
.CAR
.CARS
.CHURCH
.EAT
.HOTEL
.INC
.MAIL
.MOBILE
.MUSIC
.NEWS
.ONLINE
.RESTAURANT
.SCHOOL
.SHOP
.SITE
.TECH
.WEB
Of course each one of the top 20 extension has more than one applicant so no one knows at this point what company will be running any of these registries.
Amazon for example who has an application for .APP, which is the 4th largest pre-registered new gTLD, is going to operate it on a closed or highly restricted basis so none of the pre-regisrations could wind up ever being available.
Amazon also has application for other top 20 new gTLD’s including .Buy, .Music, .News; .Mail; .Shop and .Mobile all of which they would offer on a closed or highly restricted basis.
So 7 of the top 20 new gTLD pre-registered by 1and1.com may never be available if Amazon gets them.
One of the two new gTLD applicants for .Church for example will restrict .Church registrations to
• The .church registry registration policies will seek to create a registrant base of churches, congregations, denominations, and ministries, as well as the organizations and entities who provide products or services to them. Registrations will not be restricted on the basis of beliefs; however, all registrants shall agree that they are (a) an organization composed of people with similar religious beliefs (“Churches”), or that they (b) provide products and⁄or services to groups of people with religious beliefs (“Service Providers”). ”
• Registrants may not register geographic names that are reserved as described in Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement or reserved on the .church registry’s Geographic Names Protection List.”
.Inc is one of those extensions that are under GAC advice and heavy pressure from the Secretaries of State of all 50 states not to issue a .Inc domain name to anyone unless they have an actual corporation filed in a state for that exact name.
So you can put all the back orders in you want for Internet.inc but unless you have a corporation in some state with that exact name, there is a high likelihood you will not be able to own that domain.
.Music has a community application in which domains would be allocated in a much different fashion than other applicants to .Music would allocate domains.
Also depending on which applicant wins the rights to a particular registry the cost for each domain registration will vary.
Of course those pre-registering the domains have no idea of how much the domains they are pre-registering will cost, whether its will be close to the $10 price for a .com registration or close to the $100 cost of a .XXX registration.
Also not discussed on 1and1.com site, is the fact that the best domains for most registries will be reserved by the registries and will not be available for registration whether you have a pre-registration on a domain or not.
All pre-registrations are subject to being taken earlier in the process in the Sunrise period or Landrush period or even earlier in a founders or pioneer program.
If you have a pre-registration on a domain claimed and awarded in Founders/Pioneer Program or during Sunrise or Landrush than you’re not going to get the domain no matter how many pre-registrations you have on it.
At the end of the day there are lots of domain registrars, so even if you have a pre-reservation on a domain name at 1and1 that is not operated by a registry on a closed or restricted basis, and is not reserved by the registry, not taken in Sunrise, not taken in Landrush you still will be certainly competing with hundreds if not thousands of other registrars that will be putting in all their pre-registrations at the opening of general availability of each registry which will be filled on a first come first serve basis.
2,000,000 “free” pre-registrations, right?
Free = Zero Credibility We all know they’ve had a TV campaign about these, the play here is building an email list.
Figure 1,000,000 of them are probably for the same 1,000 names that all those people sincerely believe they had a novel idea in thinking to ‘free pre-register’. Otherwise, there was never any doubt that this was going to be sheep-shearing operation on a large scale.
Once upon a time, not too long ago, a precious metals refiner in South Florida had a hunch; if he advertised that people could cash in their gold with him and he sent them prepaid postage, they would indeed send him their gold without even bothering to establish what price he was offering to pay. On this basis, he would just pay whatever he wanted. Eventually, the jig was up and people figured it out- information spreads just too fast in the information age- but not before GOBS of money was made.
The profit-potential in large groups of stupid people is immense.
From the article:
> “I tried to grab some geo+professional domains for
> clients, but many were already “taken”.
Oh my gosh, we need more gTLDs! There aren’t enough names available! 😉
In other (real) news, the video game, ‘Grand Theft Auto V’, did over $1 Billion in sales after its first 3 days in stores. How boring in comparison. (sarc)
Sigh.
…except this is a domain blog.
i mean, we can talk about video games instead i guess but it has nothing to do with anything.
terrific summary Mr Berkens, hopefully it should strick readers to really have to think.. do i want a new gtld domain name given the effort to learn the process, and reserve the dough to buy. i think we all know:
if we could get insurance.web for registration fee we would do it.
if it was a $1 million a year premium name, with the $1 million due each year everyone would pass.
the truth will be in the middle, with the registry and registrars trying to extract the most money for each registration thru:
founders program, sunrise, communty preference, goldrush, landrush- which itself will involve competitive auctions from the registry level, third party landrush auctions, then the 1and 1 “if we get it and you had the first pre-registration” you will get it program…at the price set at that point. quick thought… can you cancel a preregistration? what if .insurance is $1000 a name?
AND NONE OF THIS matter if your trying to run your business today. i liken it more to the guy selling seats on future space flights…yeah ill reserve a spot in case its really cool.
thanks for the update on their numbers.
page howe
@ontheinterweb
Just a comparison. Overblown claims (“I tried to grab some geo+professional domains for clients, but many were already taken!!!”) combined with pre-registration numbers that mean absolutely nothing, all designed to set off a “panic” in an attempt to get people to buy when the real time comes… compared with another industries’ actual sales numbers, where lack of product and the ensuing panic that could occur as a result of that, isn’t needed as a motivator to buy.
This is really basic silly “marketing” stuff a 7-year old could come up with. (Let’s make it seem like a lot of names are already taken, and people will rush to try and get theirs before anyone else can!) That’s why I sarcastically said, we need more gTLDs! There’s not enough of them! But if people really believe this kind of thing, there’s not enough brain cells, either.
Gordo
In response to your statement:
“”Figure 1,000,000 of them are probably for the same 1,000 names that all those people sincerely believe they had a novel idea in thinking to ‘free pre-register’””
As I said the 1and1.com system is not allowing multiple pre-registrations for the same domain so this is not true there are over 2,000,000 unique domain names pre-registered
hmm not enough brain cells for just wanting a domain name… i mean, thats kind of harsh because i doubt the people “pre-regging” at 1and1 are domainers.
seriously, what domainers would use 1and1 ? or be “pre-registering” domains at this point.
the answer is: no current domainers, but maybe future ones. but also regular people ill bet.
get ready for “the new good” in domains. yes longtail .com’s will still be viable BUT the “new good” will be domains like:
great.deals
quick.travel
car.pro
etc, etc.. yes some hype will happen in the process with with this many angles and different registrars/registries and surrounding businesses that will spring up – they will find a way to sell them and make them hip.
Quote: “car.pro”
This exciting, hip “new good” domain offers free credit scores to any and all comers, blazing the trail of free enterprise on the net.
BTW, Moniker whois does not cover .pro, which has been around for years. If it is not in whois then it is difficult for buyers to find the owner, undoubtedly why this gem is still on the vine.
…and lots of super generic 1 word .com’s dont even resolve. people would be using existing TLD’s like .pro already if they wernt seen as 2nd tier..
new gTLD’s will break down those barriers – cause this aint a trickle, its a flood coming from all angles.
in the future nobody will think less of you for using a “.deal” TLD or whatever TLD… because theyre all just addresses. 2 words separated by a dot will win out and become the preferred method.
airplane.deals will be seen as better and more intuitive than airplanedeals.com
the .com is extra and not needed, but nobody is thinking like that today.
so for example, you could spend thousands buying airplanedeals.com or just go register airplane.deals for like $100 or whatever the reg fee is.
somethings gonna give eventually… even if some registries “hold back” the best domains that doesnt mean all or even most of them will. with hundreds of options there will probably be enough good keyword combinations sitting available.
ontheinterweb wrote:
> airplane.deals will be seen as better and more
> intuitive than airplanedeals.com
Hotwire.com, Expedia.com, and Orbitz.com, all of which don’t even have the word “airplane” in them, will continue to beat both your examples.
Next you’ll be saying something like, “Book.deals will be seen as more intuitive than Amazon.com.”
Marketing, execution and customer loyalty > “Hip”.
Whoops, forgot Travelocity.com as well. There’s too many big-name competitors out there already. Some even have gnomes as spokesman. Gnomes > “Hip”, too.
too many – compared to what?
i see new “hotel comparison” commercials every couple months and i wonder why any sane person would go into that business – but that isnt my concern.
they all use domain names whether they fail or succeed.
@interweb, You probably think a name like car.insurance is “hip” and would compete with the lizard too.
About the GTA 5 comment. I know Grim was throwing in humor/sarcasm in his post but 1.5+ billion in 3 days is a BIG deal. Its business. You call yourself a domainer ontheinterweb ? How do you think the owners of GTAV.net..Gtaforums…etc did during the hype/build up of release of this game? What do you think their traffic looked like? Do you not see how it all ties in together? Its all about business…sales.
Yes, a flood is coming. A flood of confusion. 2 million pre regs ? What are we supposed to come away with? You don’t really think that it means = 2+million interested people do you? Probably not even close to that.
It’s a big country, and television is influential.
After all, its 2005 Superbowl ad – purchased on the cheap when a scheduled sponsor dropped out – made godaddy as big as it is today! Talk about finding a quarter on the floor, dropping it in a slot machine, and winning big . . .
But I would never do that – don’t gamble.
car.insurance is hip. rolls off the tongue pretty good…
sorry if that doesnt fit together with the old-timey run-together carinsurance.com. i dont care whether it CAN complete what i know is that other addresses are used daily and people TRY to complete that cannot. so what.. they still need an address.
again, im being overzealous but you people stuck in your ways will see that these things are simply addresses and intuitive ones will be a BIG HUGE part of the equation in the future. people are already workin with what they got using bastardized country codes. it works in some cases like .TV and .ME and .CO
im not a domainer.. im a person who has used the internet for a while, thats it.
you idiots sit here and analyze how much money a certain registry will lose or “trick” people into registering a certain TLD like it matters. instead you should be looking at the big chaotic picture. go ahead and discount the fact that EVEN BEFORE gTLD’s ARE OUT there are commercials on television and regular people are interested.
anyway, ill talk to you guys in like 2 years when the crowd isnt so much “OHHH ITS JUST GONNA INCREASE THE VALUE OF .COM”
or… the just as extreme “every .com will be replaced with a gTLD”
being OLD is a mindset and many of you have taken that role on very nicely. think back to the nostalgic days when you KNEW things change.. they’re over and you’re comfortable with the way things are. thats fine. i still wear jogging pants in public sometimes.
now, instead of observing you shake your fist at the internet YOU G-DAMN KIDS IT WILL ALWAYS BE THE SAME BECAUSE IM DYING AND I SAID SO!
@ontheinterweb Less is more (think on that). Us “old” “idiots” are trying to educate you. By the way, some of us are in our 20’s & 30’s here.
@Louise, Yes it’s a big country and even bigger world. Still, 2 million people only pre reged 1 domain? Is that what you think? Lets say it’s 1 million…those people only reged 2 domains each? This is a few thousand pre regging gtlds like they’re going out of style… IMHO.
1and1.com is running the same basic commercials in the UK and started this past week in Germany
@Ramahn
i told you OLD is a mindset.. not an age in this situation. im in my 30’s… im aware of what has happened on the internet up until now…
its really simple though – over time its unlikely the “look” of web addresses are going to remain the same. its already gotten slightly diversified with people using bastardized country codes out like .TV, .ME, .CO
its being silly thinking with hundreds of new ones nobody will try them. or referring to the fact the majority of people who try them will fail. DUH!
whats ridiculous are domainers claiming that they’ll fail BECAUSE they used a different TLD. thats hilarious and stubborn. this is the internet.. lots more people fail than succeed.
if someone fails because they used a .deal TLD then they were probably doing 10 other things wrong too. it wasnt just going against the grain with a website address.
@ontheinterweb wrote:
> this is the internet.. lots more people fail than succeed.
That’s because they spend way too much time debating in forums like this one instead of working. Oh, and going with anything other than .COM. 😉
That was mean.
Yes, you’re absolutely right, I should have added that in addition to .COM, it’s perfectly fine to go with .ORG if you’re a charity or other type of non-profit.
My apologies for any tears I may have caused anyone.
You can not win if you are looking to make money on domains. If you failed to buy in the 1990s. You are pretty much out of luck. the only exceptions are really great brandable ones and if you have a head for future innovations. A crazy example is like antigravitycars.com Hell it might be registered. Then if anti gravity cars are developed you stand to win.
Read up on the subject. The big players such as Google, Amazon as well as established trademarks are all huge winners as they are protected. After all we would hate for a person making 15,000.00 a year the opportunity to cash in. Huge business must be protected. I say more tax breaks, no minimum wages, no employee rights. Come on people this is a democracy. The land of opportunity. the opportunity to buy your government and manipulate markets and if caught have the citizenship bail them out.
God Bless,
Happy Holidays.Gooooo Walmart