Comments

1. Dayne says

   April 10, 2015 at 11:27 am

   Killer recap! Thank you.

2. cmac says

   April 10, 2015 at 11:46 am

   seems like club is real winner here so far.

3. Domain Observer says

   April 10, 2015 at 12:45 pm

   Registration for USD 8.29 or above is the REAL registration, according to my definition of paid registration. Statistics should show this type of category by gTLDS.

4. Ian Ingram says

   April 10, 2015 at 12:45 pm

   Really appreciate the extremely thorough analysis. 🙂

   Although it’s still somewhat early, the awareness level seems pretty low for those not in the industry. You’d think that Ad spending would be really high right now given the sheer number of new GTLD’s and the lack of traction that some of them have.

   I’m sure some of the more successful extensions are spending a good amount but it is surprising to see the number of GTLD advertisers on the scrolling header at Domaining .com is down to 5.

5. Joe says

   April 10, 2015 at 12:52 pm

   Fine! post, Michael Berkens
   .
   The important thing is to believe in them as an important investment, there is always a beginning and an end when selling through auction gTLD domain name either Buy Now, broker and brokerage also make negotiations with interested buyers.

   I for one have purchased a total 5 club, 5 co.com, 1 website, 1 estate, 1 trade, 1 domains, 1 singles, 1 office, 1 xzy, and now I will put up for auction the single word and two others have an article and a word much in demand by users and online business.

   Start buying when see what expect to pay at auction http://www.wine.club.

   lawyer, attorney, legal, estate club, website, world, between a few more premium extensions. example: sold, Luxury.Estate for $ 50,000 USD.

6. frank.schilling says

   April 10, 2015 at 1:04 pm

   I have always liked .LINK. I would like it if Uniregistry didn’t run it and I would have taken names it personally if it was run by another registry in the same way that Uniregistry runs it. I expect to see this string sail through 1mm and 2mm, then 5mm registrations as time goes by. It will be the most viable generic aside from .SHOP and .WEB for several reasons:
   — it’s short
   — it’s generic (has a better generic footprint than .INFO imo)
   — it works across all languages
   — it has low prices and no variable pricing
   — it is run in an open fashion with no restrictions or special rules
   … the formula for success is working and absent special promotions and with limited support from the traditional big registrars who see Uniregistry as a special competitor for some reason, we are still bringing in 250-300 fully paid registrations per day. With limited promotions we are seeing that pop to as much as 10,000 paid registrations per day. We will soon have our license to sell .LINK through chinese registrars and then the number will increase again.

   The formula to a successful TLD launch is really quite simple but it’s hard to take the leap of faith, to meet all the criteria above because the payback is longer and less certain to the registry than variable pricing and holding retail prices higher (all of which stymie the namespace IMO). In my opinion .LINK is the best generic launched by any registry so far and I fully expect to see the day in 10 years time when .LINK takes its rightful place in the top 5 namespaces.

   • John says

     April 11, 2015 at 1:33 am

     This seems a lot like what I would describe as “positive speak” to me, similar to what is known as “positive confession” only without the religious component.

     .Link may eventually reach a sustained seven figures by sheer perseverance and I suspect likely many steep discounts, just as .info reached seven figures, and .biz. Simple global population increase and the increase in those who come online may also have something to do with it regardless of the TLD itself. But then again, maybe not.

     .Link may be “generic,” but you and perhaps quite a few others appear to be under a misconception that being “generic” is such an asset with regard to the TLD vs. the SLD. There is a sense in which “.Link” is actually too “generic”; generic in a completely cold, dry, sterile, plain, dull, clinical way. And that is also precisely why TLD’s like “.info” and “.biz” have never taken off or almost never get a second look, and why we have all been invited to get our matching .info for .99 so often when we have been registering .com’s.

     If the TLD being generic were what mattered so much, then .Net would have been the one as far above .com as .com has been over .net until now.

     If people think that “.com,” for example, is the *overall* king merely because it is generic in addition to being among the first ones out of the gate, they are under a huge misconception, and have become so familiar with it all these years that they have become desensitized to the reality that “.com” is anything but merely generic and was anything but merely that from the start.

     .Com is the triple threat of being something beyond merely generic. .Com has it all. .Com is “sexy.” The very sounds and letters combine to compel as much and convey strength. .Com is meaningful, connotative and suggestive, on numerous appealing levels (“commerce,” “commercial,” “computer,” “commanding,” etc.) As I have expressed over at DI, .com is the very quintessence of the “cool factor,” the element that captures the hearts and minds and far transcends the merely generic.

     .Link is actually “unsexy,” ironically enough. .Link is even a bit awkward. “Link” also contains baggage of negative connotations in addition to its positive attributes. “Links” in spam and phishing ventures wreak havoc in our lives and afflict us with malware and steal our money and identities. Bad “links” on websites do the same. “Links” unabashedly try to capture our behavior to make money off of us for someone else, especially “PPC” links, and we, the general public, know this full well. With the knowledge of these less than favorable realities in mind, somewhere in our minds we, the general public, are inclined to perceive “.Link” as being too obvious, as trying too hard, and motivated by the too clearly recognizable desire for someone else’s gain. Perhaps all of us are familiar with the phenomenon when someone we may have had a romantic interest in but who was unattainable suddenly finds herself single after an unpleasant break-up, and then suddenly appears to notice us in a new way as if clearly merely on the rebound; then our whole attitude and perception may change as well, and any move in our direction in that particular kind of context causes us to lose interest, even to our own surprise. .Link is a bit like that, despite being a decent and relatively useful TLD overall per se.
     I most often approach domains mainly as an end user, and not mainly as a domain investor or “domainer” as perhaps almost all of the people who frequent these blogs do. As I’ve expressed elsewhere, however, I certainly do like a nice sale every now and then, and Elliot’s blog has aroused a greater interest and desire for that in me. But as someone who primarily looks at domains more as an end user customer, these sentiments are certainly how I have felt about .link. I have even found that both my first name and my last name were available in .link; I have even read Elliot’s thread related to that, and still I decided not to register either one in .link because .link simply does not appeal to me enough, and the thoughts and feelings about .link above apply.
     As I have also expressed elsewhere, however, it’s certainly not a bad TLD, but I would put it a full gTLD tier below .com, .net, .org, .club, and .web in terms of overall quality and real appeal, maybe even two.

     • yyzlinyul says

       April 12, 2015 at 1:21 pm

       @John, allow me to strongly disagree on your “Compellance” and “Generic-Worthyness” assessment on .link,
       or at least partially, and for a very simple reason [ as stated above ], –it works across many languages–
       the word link, is heavily used in Portuguese, Italian, French and Spanish.. and it does -not- have a spam connotation on those languages. furthermore: .Link got their IDN right from day zero ( unlike many others, .club included which still have their idn chart char map rfc wrong at icann’s public domain application docs website ) ) and that makes a huge difference on overseas adoption, on the long run, since those ´`~^¨ç registrations have a very high, if not perfect, renewal rate. you do not need to convince someone, able to register their name of choice using the -proper- accent *for the first time ever and with meaning*, that it will be a good idea to renew -he-she will be renewing it early, very likely.
       i cant speak for other languages but im pretty sure it works well in many languages beyond the above latin set.
       regardless of promotions or give aways, this silly .com Vs. new gtlds is a very silly tangent/angle imho, those gtlds are not going anywhere, they have meaning ( and yes i believe .com is here to stay, 30years strong .. but heavier coexistence is unavoidable ) … one should be more worried on dns and apps and all blooming things that makes urls obsolete …..

   • John says

     April 11, 2015 at 1:38 am

     P.S. And when I get a chance, perhaps this weekend, I will address the item about .club below as well.

   • John says

     April 11, 2015 at 1:44 am

     P.P.S. I would also put .Link well below .US despite the still unrealized potential and despite the latter being technically a ccTLD as well.

   • Joseph Peterson says

     April 17, 2015 at 6:40 pm

     I’ve registered scarcely any .LINK domains. But it does have some potential. Hell, I even pitched a tagline for Uniregistry to use in promoting .LINK. Got no reply on Linkedin. Rather enjoy that irony, actually.

     Frank, you still haven’t accepted my connection request. Am I a leper?

7. frank.schilling says

   April 10, 2015 at 1:10 pm

   oh quickly on .CLUB .. I really like Colin and his team but I do not like .CLUB as a name ending, frankly because it doesn’t make sense outside of the English language and it’s too “clubby”.. We could have applied for this string like any other and my decade of experience told me not to do it because it wasn’t good enough as a generic and it was too specific.. It also doesn’t work as well outside of the English language. I respect that Colin and his team. They have this one name ending and have done a masterful job marketing and promoting this sole object of their attention to prosperity, but a bunch of marketing does not a better string make. At some point it will top out and I expect that will happen soon unless they go to free names or $1 a name.

   • John says

     April 11, 2015 at 5:23 pm

     The problem here is that you are not thinking outside the box if that is what you truly believe about .club. I was doing the same thing early on when I was still mostly a new gTLD naysayer. I even specifically wrote the same kind of statement about .club itself early on over at Elliot’s blog and was trying to find it last night. My turnaround and conversion to .club supporter who really likes this TLD is certainly well documented in the blogs by now, however.

     I have a modest number of .club’s I regged that I only forward to something else. I have one .club that I actually made into an active website. The topic of the SLD and the site itself has absolutely nothing to do with anything at all related to a “club,” to any kind of membership, or even loosely to any kind of subscription or regular and recurring activity or benefit. Initially I jump-started traffic with some no-cost advertising and I also regged some .com’s that I forward to it. From visitor behavior it is clear that they like the site. They do exactly what I want them to do. They contact me when I don’t ask for contact. Just this week an industry competitor under a .com wrote asking for a partnership to make money from any of my visitors that can’t be serviced. Every time I see or contemplate the site name it makes me smile because of the positive connotations and associations of the “.club” extension and how it obviously resonates with those who visit.

     Which brings us to thinking outside the box, and why .club is perfect not only for the obvious surface literal understanding of the term, but also as a generic like .com, .net, and so forth. For the normal surface sense of the term “club” alone, there are perhaps already millions upon millions of potential customers worldwide not only in the primarily English speaking world but also where English holds a significant degree of recognition. But then there is the more abstract, figurative, not merely literal and not bounded by “the box” sense of the term that captures the heart, mind and imagination, appeals to the positive and happy connotations and associations of the term “club” that reside in people’s hearts and motivates them to want to visit and check it out because there’s probably something there worth checking out and participating in. This is only speculation since I don’t know you personally, but I have a hunch that you may have lost this sense of things yourself that can draw people in, since .com made you very rich long ago now, and by now you personally may be so jaded by the concept of “club” after perhaps having seen and “consumed” so many of the world’s finest and most sought after “clubs” that perhaps it doesn’t resonate with you like that.

     I think I captured the idea well enough over here at http://www.domaininvesting.com/sunday-thoughts-updates-31/#comments if I can say so myself, typos or editorial revision missteps notwithstanding, though I don’t mind restating it here now as well.

     So in addition to the most immediately literal and surface sense of “club,” it is that higher and more abstract sense that also captures the heart and draws one in. As I mentioned over at DI, one becomes a participant in the figurative “club” of the generic topic and subject matter of the site and domain itself even if there is no literal club at all, no membership, and no subscription. This concept and way of thinking is also already rooted and established in peoples minds, which is why it is therefore also not for nothing that we often make remarks like “welcome to the club” and “welcome to [INSERT GENERIC SUBJECT HERE] club” and “join the club.” And with this concept already established in people’s minds, it need only be appealed to slightly in order to attract them to look beyond any strictly one-dimensional impression of a TLD like club and motivate them to jump right in with positive thoughts, positive expectations, and happy connotations already in their hearts before they even arrive.

     So .club is not only perfect for the obvious surface usage, for literal clubs, memberships, subscriptions, and so forth, but also perfect for generic usage. And what else makes .club so much more appealing than the plainly, dryly and clinically “generic”? The same thing I wrote about regarding “.com” above which some people appear to have forgotten through familiarity – that same “cool” factor that attracts the soul. Like .com, .club is also the new generic TLD that is “sexy,” hip, exciting, appealing, intriguing, commanding. Add to all of that the celebrity factor that only fans the flames of recognition, acceptance and desire, which perhaps no other TLD except .com can lay claim to in any significant degree. .Club draws you in with a smile on your face, and when you get there tells you “welcome to the club!”

8. Jeff Schneider says

   April 10, 2015 at 1:37 pm

   Hello MHB,

   Why gamble on the new gTLD extensions when you don’t have to ???

   ” It is not always necessary to register a new domain name when the one you already own will work perfectly fine. Rather than registering a new domain name, you can always create a subdomain using a domain you already own.

   A subdomain is a second website, with its own unique content, but there is no new domain name. Instead, you use an existing domain name and change the www to another name. The subdomain name looks like forums.domain.com, help.domain.com, help2.domain.com (assuming you already host domain.com). ”

   Why would any prudent Online Marketer buy a new gTLD, whose operabilty is questionable ?
   When they can use a more trusted .COM or .net or .org subdomain strategy ,whose operability is already well established compared to a highly suspect new gTLD???

   Oh and by the way the .COM extension used in this way is the TOP TRANCHE EXTENSION OR PREFERRED CHOICE GLOBALLY

   OCCAMS RAZOR

   Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

   • Jeff Schneider says

     April 10, 2015 at 1:46 pm

     Hello Rick,
     Everybody is concerned about the ALGO treatment GOOGLE will give all New gTLDS . There is a huge conflict of interest here, that a lot of watchdog agencies are concerned about when it comes to Googles behind the scenes Algorithms being manipulated, to maintain its Monopoly grip on the Domain Name System.

     Also the New gTLDS have Questionable Operability Issues ? Everybody can avoid this gTLD gamble by using Sub-Domains that have the same Generic Attributes without spending a fortune in fees.

     Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

9. M. Menius says

   April 10, 2015 at 2:31 pm

   Excellent information, MB. Important pieces of the whole tld picture. An accurate representation of new TLD adoption is obviously helpful for numerous reasons. The data below reveals critical information about .xyz and .science:

   .xyz – “So about 85% of all these registrations were for free or a very low price …”

   .science – “Alpnames.com offered free .Science domains for the first days after the extension launched ans has over 82% of the market.”

   If TLD registrations get hyped beyond their real numbers (i.e. legit reg’s vs. freebies and cheapies), it sours the overall market a bit and introduces unwanted noise. Ideally, freebies and .49 cent domain registration numbers would get subtracted out of the total number – as they don’t represent anything meaningful.

10. Jeff Schneider says

    April 10, 2015 at 3:52 pm

    Hello MHB,

    Unsuspecting amatuers enamored with the Quasi-Derivative gTLD extensions, blindly ignore the fundamental and Structural operability problems that will totally obsolesce the New gTLDs. ( If its broke, don’t Buy it )

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

11. John says

    April 10, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    I have to go out now, but sometime later today or this weekend I will set the record straight on the “stuff” about .club that has been written here, as well as .link. Gotta like “freedom of the press” and I would also echo everyone else on really appreciating what MB has done here.

    🙂

12. Michael Berkens says

    April 10, 2015 at 7:30 pm

    Frank

    “” I would like it if Uniregistry didn’t run it and I would have taken names it personally if it was run by another registry”

    That is assuming any of the domain names you would want to register were avaliable and were not premium priced at $100 $500, $1K or more per year.

    You’re assuming that all good .link domains would all be available for $10 a year with another registry.

    Pretty big stretch

    • frank.schilling says

      April 10, 2015 at 10:06 pm

      No Mike, i am saying that if some other registry operator had put .link out, at the same price, with the same rules and taken exactly the same number of registry reserved names, in exactly the same way, as an investor, i would buy them. Serious. It’s the best generic new string since .net .. 350 more fully paid registrations today. I expect the hockey stick to pick up and it to become a million name string. I will refrain from saying “i told you so” when it happens. ; )

      • Domain Shame says

        April 11, 2015 at 12:06 am

        Frank I can understand you liking the generic component of the name but where’s the money for the domainer ? I don’t see anybody out there buying and selling link names I don’t hear Andrew Rosener saying he just flipped a dot link for 50 grand I don’t see any sales on DN Journal.

      • John McCormac says

        April 11, 2015 at 1:20 pm

        I’m not so sure about that hockey stick curve, Frank,
        It takes a lot of momentum to get to a million registrations and the TLDs that do it tend to have a mix of specific and generic domain names or they discount heavily in an attempt to build registration volume. Many of the new gTLDs do not have that kind of appeal and are more specific than generic. The TLD string acts as a limiting factor in a similar fashion the to string of a ccTLD. There is a strong possibility that .LINK could develop as a kind of highly utilitarian TLD with advertising and promotional registrations. However the renewal figures on these registrations may be strongly linked to the period for which a particular advertising campaign is active. To get to the million registrations, it will need a very strong adoption of the gTLD and perhaps a number of brand champions. At the moment it is on that slow growth curve that’s typical of early market ccTLDs.

13. Jeff Schneider says

    April 11, 2015 at 12:37 am

    Hello Frank.Schilling,

    The best since .Net ??? Are you really serious ???? or are you bluffing ?????
    The Smart Money does not see what you see at all.

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

14. frank.schilling says

    April 11, 2015 at 12:55 am

    Well my money has shown itself to be pretty smart Jeff and I’m buying. I’m telling you what I honestly think, based on what I’m seeing. Time will tell I suppose. We are selling .link we have seen a .click names sell for over 10k .. sales are still sparse but uptake and interest is “strong”. It’s early in the game and the names look right in the browser and feel right in generic use. That, and time, are all you need. I’ve been saying from the outset that this is a marathon not a sprint, and the people in this room today will not decide the success or failure of new GTLDs but I am comforted by the fact that tomorrow hundreds of new people will get online, try to buy a name and find their choice gone in the old extensions. They will buy a new TLD and move on. That and time are all you need. The domainers who buy good meaningful search-term domains for $4 and $8 and sell them for $500 or $5000.. Those are the winners.. It is easier to do that in new G’s than in .coms righ now and IMO .LINK is one of the best. Ok I’ll stop now ; )

    • Jake says

      April 11, 2015 at 5:00 am

      Hi Frank,

      If you would like worldwide uniform appeal in .click like you have said before. Would you (and Uniregistry) consider selling .click for $1 or $2 just like .work did? I view .work as a major success story out of all the nGTLDs, and partially because .work is charging reasonable prices from the beginning and indefinitely.

      I strongly believe that if .click can get the price just a bit lower to $1 – $2 then you will have very long-lasting success with it. Keep renewals around $3 – $4 and you will have a real winner.

      Right now the .click prices are relatively low. But I feel like $6 – $7 a year is still too high for .click to reach it’s full potential.

      I own a few .click names and I would like to see .click become used more widely. But the only way that will happen is if you can get the price a bit lower. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.

15. Jeff Schneider says

    April 11, 2015 at 1:36 am

    Hello Frank.Schilling

    The really Smart money was in the game such as myself and many many others, long before you showed up and leveraged the house. Short of getting nasty, this is the truth. The smart money is buying any .COM and making it a Sub-Domain with all Generic choices. Come on Frank REALLY !

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

16. frank.schilling says

    April 11, 2015 at 1:41 am

    .lol

17. Jeff Schneider says

    April 11, 2015 at 1:48 am

    Hello Frank. Schilling

    R. E. = ” That, and time, are all you need. I’ve been saying from the outset that this is a marathon not a sprint, and the people in this room today will not decide the success or failure of new GTLDs but I am comforted by the fact that tomorrow hundreds of new people will get online, try to buy a name and find their choice gone in the old extensions ”

    Time is running out. The first to market principles are firmly in place for all other PREVIOUS time honored extensions. OCCAM’S RAZOR JAS 4/10/15

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

18. Pat says

    April 11, 2015 at 4:55 am

    We flipped a .link. Purchased for around $8.00 and sold for $200. We’ve also flipped .blue and several .clubs.

    We’re pretty happy with our turnover this early in the game. And I agree with Frank, that .link definitely has legs to go the distance. We did invest quite a bit in .link domains and have some great ones, but we put most of our investment in .club.

    We plan on renewing all of our .link domains. But we will not be renewing hundreds of our .club domains. Simply because we have a year’s worth of traffic data, and some of our earlier assumptions regarding .club appeard to be too aggressive.

    As soon as the .Brands start marketing their new extensions, the demand for these new gTLDs will explode. Especially ones that are great for branding, like .sexy.

19. M. Menius says

    April 11, 2015 at 7:25 am

    Buying or selling new tld’s based on traffic really makes no sense at this point. Seems in the comments here that a few folks don’t fully grasp that new tld adoption will happen incrementally over years. A snapshot in time right now tells an investor little about the future of new TLD’s. The previous paradigm with .com and the other legacy tld’s doesn’t really parallel new TLD’s.

    How the larger market reacts to new extensions will take years. 2014 registration data is heavily weighted on domain speculation. The value of premium new TLD’s (and the prices they will eventually command) has little to do with their current sales prices.

20. Maybe says

    April 11, 2015 at 12:04 pm

    Gtld = Good To Lose Dollars

21. Jeff Schneider says

    April 11, 2015 at 12:48 pm

    Hello MHB,

    Frank knows much less than he thinks, its the original .COM Legacy Owners that will have the (Last LOL ) Bet on it. JAS 4/11/15

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

22. frank.schilling says

    April 11, 2015 at 12:57 pm

    We will definitely be lowering prices on volume strings in future but that will likely happen via discounting rather than official price decreases. The reason is, registries can’t raise prices without going through a process with ICANN, but we can lower costs arbitrarily or run a marketing promotion for a limited time. I think the registry cost on .click is $3 and our registry cost on .link is $5, .. so those are the lowest pegs in GTLD’s arena now. No other registry has set a lower official cost to registrars. .TK and others that are free are CC tlds and can afford to give names away because they have no special rules or delivery requirements that drive costs up and they have no ICANN fees. Consider that if we wanted to give away .CLICK or .LINK domain names it would cost the registry 0.25cents in ICANN fees and the the registrar 0.18cents in ICANN fees for 0.43cents total. That plus the registry backend charge is the hard cost before recouping the investment cost of the string. Launching these things is like raising children. I love putting a good-looking healthy kid into the World and helping he/she grow with low prices and good governance, but giving them the freedom to reach their potential.

    I’m glad to hear that Pat has had success out there. I can tell you new G names are selling everywhere, for real money. A lot of folks do NOT want to publish these sales because they are selling a name and then heading back to the mines to get more names! It’s just like in the early .com era when nobody published their sales numbers because why would you try to convince all the doubters that they can make money too? Suddenly you have a bunch of unwanted competitors. I agree that there is a lot of speculation going on right now but that is changing. Each day more names go out.. The most interesting thing I can share is that the daily uptake of our strings is growing and starting to compound. So if the din-level uptake of a bucket of active strings (with no marketing or registrar support) was 100 registrations a day, now it’s 600 (and then you do some marketing and it pops to 12,000). That tells me it’s working. There are now 5million of these things registered with the best ones still not launched. In ten years that’s 50 million. The existing namespaces are having to work harder to maintain what they have. All those old tasting names and typos will start dropping. In 7 years there will be no question. .COM will still be the biggest single string, but it will have shrunk when compared against the growth and opportunity in the new stuff. Kind of like ie against chrome, firefox, and safari. That’s sort of how i think it will play out.

23. Jeff Schneider says

    April 11, 2015 at 1:23 pm

    Hello MHB,

    The New gTLDS have Questionable Operability Issues ? Everybody can avoid this New gTLD gamble by using Sub-Domains that have the same Generic Attributes without spending a fortune in fees. JAS 4/11/15

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

24. Jeff Schneider says

    April 11, 2015 at 1:39 pm

    Hello MHB,Jamie,Ray

    My My My , There is some awfully SLICK Marketing going on. Most defensive support statements resemble long drawn out Circular Psycho Babble that ultimately assume GUILT. The Red Flags are Flying. There is a Perfect Storm Heading towards the New gTLDS , the white water is rising,and the levee is going to blow. JAS 4/11/15

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

25. Jeff Schneider says

    April 11, 2015 at 3:57 pm

    Hello MHB,

    Why would Really Smart Online Marketers think Google will give preference to New gTLDs ? When they have .COM Sub-Domains in the mix ?

    .COM Sub-Domain usage with Genrics is where the really smart money is heading. JAS 4/11/15

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

26. Eric Lyon says

    April 11, 2015 at 5:05 pm

    I simply love the way the new gTLD market is spreading out and picking up momentum. I foresee lot’s more development and less parking in the future as things push forward. 😉

27. John says

    April 11, 2015 at 5:28 pm

    Okay, it’s done. Response re .link already added above last night, and reply regarding .club added just now but “awaiting moderation,” I suppose because I included a link to DI. Will just wait for it to pass rather than just repost with the url edited. Check back later.

28. Rubens Kuhl says

    April 11, 2015 at 6:09 pm

    Subdomains are good for the owner of the domain, but terrible if you do not have it. So, if you own ford.com, mustang.ford.com is a great URL (better than ford.com/mustang IMHO), but paying someone to license mustang.cars.com is a terrible idea, due to having no protections from the industry regulator and to being at the mercy of what the domain owner wants to do. Or being subject to problem from other users; if Ford wins an UDRP against cars.com due to mustang.cars.com, every other *.cars.com will be toast.

    Subdomains are a well known pain source for the users (which can’t even be called registrants).

29. John says

    April 11, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    >”frank.schilling says…oh quickly on .CLUB […]”

    On second thought, no point waiting for my link-laden reply to pass moderation since Mr. Berkens could be out for some time enjoying the weather today, and .club deserves its own parent post here in light of what was said about it. So this is what I wrote in reply that’s still “awaiting moderation”:

    The problem here is that you [Mr. Schilling] are not thinking outside the box if that is what you truly believe about .club. I was doing the same thing early on when I was still mostly a new gTLD naysayer. I even specifically wrote the same kind of statement about .club itself early on over at Elliot’s blog and was trying to find it last night. My turnaround and conversion to .club supporter who really likes this TLD is certainly well documented in the blogs by now, however.

    I have a modest number of .club’s I regged that I only forward to something else. I have one .club that I actually made into an active website. The topic of the SLD and the site itself has absolutely nothing to do with anything at all related to a “club,” to any kind of membership, or even loosely to any kind of subscription or regular and recurring activity or benefit. Initially I jump-started traffic with some no-cost advertising and I also regged some .com’s that I forward to it. From visitor behavior it is clear that they like the site. They do exactly what I want them to do. They contact me when I don’t ask for contact. Just this week an industry competitor under a .com wrote asking for a partnership to make money from any of my visitors that can’t be serviced. Every time I see or contemplate the site name it makes me smile because of the positive connotations and associations of the “.club” extension and how it obviously resonates with those who visit.

    Which brings us to thinking outside the box, and why .club is perfect not only for the obvious surface literal understanding of the term, but also as a generic like .com, .net, and so forth. For the normal surface sense of the term “club” alone, there are perhaps already millions upon millions of potential customers worldwide not only in the primarily English speaking world but also where English holds a significant degree of recognition. But then there is the more abstract, figurative, not merely literal and not bounded by “the box” sense of the term that captures the heart, mind and imagination, appeals to the positive and happy connotations and associations of the term “club” that reside in people’s hearts and motivates them to want to visit and check it out because there’s probably something there worth checking out and participating in. This is only speculation since I don’t know you personally, but I have a hunch that you may have lost this sense of things yourself that can draw people in, since .com made you very rich long ago now, and by now you personally may be so jaded by the concept of “club” after perhaps having seen and “consumed” so many of the world’s finest and most sought after “clubs” that perhaps it doesn’t resonate with you like that.

    I think I captured the idea well enough over here at [www (dot) domaininvesting.com/sunday-thoughts-updates-31/#comments] if I can say so myself, typos or editorial revision missteps notwithstanding, though I don’t mind restating it here now as well.

    So in addition to the most immediately literal and surface sense of “club,” it is that higher and more abstract sense that also captures the heart and draws one in. As I mentioned over at DI, one becomes a participant in the figurative “club” of the generic topic and subject matter of the site and domain itself even if there is no literal club at all, no membership, and no subscription. This concept and way of thinking is also already rooted and established in peoples minds, which is why it is therefore also not for nothing that we often make remarks like “welcome to the club” and “welcome to [INSERT GENERIC SUBJECT HERE] club” and “join the club.” And with this concept already established in people’s minds, it need only be appealed to slightly in order to attract them to look beyond any strictly one-dimensional impression of a TLD like club and motivate them to jump right in with positive thoughts, positive expectations, and happy connotations already in their hearts before they even arrive.

    So .club is not only perfect for the obvious surface usage, for literal clubs, memberships, subscriptions, and so forth, but also perfect for generic usage. And what else makes .club so much more appealing than the plainly, dryly and clinically “generic”? The same thing I wrote about regarding “.com” above which some people appear to have forgotten through familiarity – that same “cool” factor that attracts the soul. Like .com, .club is also the new generic TLD that is “sexy,” hip, exciting, appealing, intriguing, commanding. Add to all of that the celebrity factor that only fans the flames of recognition, acceptance and desire, which perhaps no other TLD except .com can lay claim to in any significant degree. .Club draws you in with a smile on your face, and when you get there tells you “welcome to the club!”

30. frank.schilling says

    April 11, 2015 at 7:09 pm

    yep.. not feeling it.. I could have applied! No regrets for skipping it.

31. frank.schilling says

    April 11, 2015 at 7:13 pm

    I do think think .club has been *very* well marketed and I would expect no less from the team behind it.

    On the truly generic, investable, “works for everything”, and coming soon front I also like:
    .World
    .Web
    .Shop
    … highly doubtful any of those will come out at $5 wholesale tho

    • Jeff Sass says

      April 11, 2015 at 9:05 pm

      John, thanks for your thoughtful take on .club (really, on the word “club.”) We agree that one of the reasons it works well as a domain extension is how deeply ingrained the word is in language on a global basis. We encounter the word all the time, without realizing it… The wide range of happy registrants, from existing clubs to bloggers, to celebrities and sports figures, to entrepreneurs and startups, shows us firsthand the wide appeal of the name.

      Frank, we love and respect you and your team as well, and appreciate the kind remarks on the marketing side. However, I must respectfully disagree with your notion that “club” is too English language centric. Actually, Club is spelled the same and means the same thing all over the world, from Germany to China to Japan to Turkey to India and dozens of other countries where .CLUB is performing very well. Take a walk through Beijing and you will see many signs with Chinese Characters followed by the word “CLUB” in English. The fact that club is so widely recognized and understood around the world was a key factor in our interest in pursuing the name. 🙂

      In any event, there are many different strategies and measures of success in the domain name industry (our collective club), and every time someone registers a name they are happy with and excited about, we all win.

      -Jeff Sass, .CLUB

      • yyzlinyul says

        April 12, 2015 at 9:14 pm

        @Jeff,

        respectfully I ask: Any chance .club will fix the IDN missing characters this year ? what is the point of having an English generic word, that transcends language barriers, if the actual tld .club doesnt fully accept scripts
        from languages that may otherwise use it .. such as Ç (.pt .fr ), ¨ (.de ) and many others … how is it that .club is doing well in Turkey if it doesnt accept “funny scripts” ?? meaning, you are reading stats on English registrations in foreign countries, it would be even better business to sell registrations on foreign languages in foreign countries .. i really fail to understand why the language factor is not a highlight. i have over 200 .clubs and like it, but I also have over 400 of .link because I can stick more languages to it. ive been flipping idn .links for over 4 months now. i wish to flip more .clubs but you gotta fix the character thing. people want it.

        • Jeff Sass says

          April 14, 2015 at 10:22 am

          @yyzlinyul

          Thanks for your comment (and your support!) We will be releasing IDN’s in a number of languages in the coming months, so please be patient. Soon you’ll be able to register IDN.club as well as English.club. Thanks again.

          Jeff Sass, .CLUB

32. Jeff Schneider says

    April 11, 2015 at 9:51 pm

    Hello Frank.Schilling

    Did you ever consider the overall image you are presenring here?? You obviously support your behind the scenes GREED FACTOR, by with holding .links for questionable reasons. Frank take a deep breath here. You think you have reasonable cover here but behind the curtain people are crying FOUL. Is it really worth your long term best interests to support your greedy actions. Whats up ? you must be under tremendous pressue ?? Relent and turn back to the base that got you where you are. With ICANN its always been about GREED and the MONEY, thats the overall image. The image of the New gTLDS is a damaging Marketing Liability that savvy Online Marketers will run from. JAS 4/11/15

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

33. Jeff Schneider says

    April 12, 2015 at 11:36 am

    Hello Jeff Sass says

    Hello Jeff, we appreciate good skillful marketing but sadly your .Club is going to be viewed with a jaundiced eye. As you have talked about China being a good outlet for .club we don’t see .club gaining traction there. The chinese better than anyone click on .COM Platform extensions more readily than a johnny come lately extension like yours.

    More and more as the new gTLD fiasco is realized your demand will certainly go down not up. This is just FUNDAMENTAL MARKETING STRATEGY TRUTHS. A good Buzz Promo can only lat so long under these conditions and even you cannot change this REALITY. Good luck you will need it. JAS 4/12/15

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

34. Michael Berkens says

    April 12, 2015 at 1:06 pm

    Frank

    .World has been out for a while now

    Over 12K registrations

    https://ntldstats.com/tld/world

35. Michael Berkens says

    April 12, 2015 at 1:13 pm

    Frank

    As I have been saying for 5 or more years the business of running a registry is a completely different animal from investing in them as a domainer

    I think .link and .click are good generic’s but not sure they are any inherently better or distinguishable from .xyz, .top, .wang, .red, .buzz, .blue, .guru , .info, .biz, .website, and the forthcoming .web

    Which is why its hard to make a case that they will be rare unique and therefore value assets down the road for domainers to invest in.

    The number of registrations you may hit down the road by it 1M 5M or 10M may not have much impact on individual domain values in the aftermarket

    • yyzlinyul says

      April 12, 2015 at 2:53 pm

      Michael, imho they [ .click, .link ] are very distinguishable from the others cited, simply because its eu language [full] compatibility, Montreal is very different from Montréal. Québec is not equal to Quebec.

      That is the subtle, but huge difference, imo.
      best,

36. Jeff Schneider says

    April 12, 2015 at 4:57 pm

    Hello Robert Kuhl,

    R. E. = ” Subdomains are a well known pain source for the users (which can’t even be called registrants). ”

    Where do you get all this rubbish from ? You are obviously not a Marketing Analyst/Strategist like we are ?? 100 years cummulative experience at analyzing Marketing and Strategys tells us you are an amatuer, whose paychecks maybe coming from ?????

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

37. Jeff says

    April 16, 2015 at 5:17 pm

    Notice how Frank won’t address Berkens last post.

    Stop the pumbing Frank. Your too busy for us dumbass domainers buying your shit so we go broke and then bidding on .com a month.

    At one time I thought who would I want to have lunch with at a conference. It was you. You made sense. Before all this non sense started by you.

    Oh how great he has it. Fuck his customers in auctions. Criticize his customers. This is the new Frank.