I don’t sugar-coat things, and I don’t plan to change the rules of engagement now.
If you haven’t started exploring the repercussions of the new Internet name space expansion for your business, better find a quiet place to flatline.
Don’t like that brutal image of your eventual business death? Then keep on reading.
Recently, I covered a few points regarding the strategic approach to gTLDs. If my article wasn’t clear enough, allow me to repeat an important point:
You won’t be able to register these domains ever again, if you wait until the general availability.
The plan by Donuts, Inc. worked: a tiered landrush allows those that have more ‘beef‘ in a particular acquisition, to get the domain earlier, by paying more.
While this does not sound ‘fair’, it is a smart business approach, both for the registry and the registrants: more money secures better assets, so those with less money to spend need to carefully plan their investments.
When the crowds awake, long after general availability, the most important keywords for a particular gTLD will be gone.
I’m not talking about registering everything in sight – just the key terms that along with the gTLD make the most sense for your business or investment.
To better research your options, follow some of these methods that I utilize to improve my odds of securing prospective gTLDs:
- Repeat after me: I will not wait until general availability. The premium fee is an one time investment, that can be recouped for any gTLD that’s worth registering.
- Research the “keyword gTLD” results in Google. If it’s in the upper hundreds of thousands, great. If it’s in the millions, awesome.
- Keep an eye at the USPTO for the “keyword gTLD” combo; it will be equally, or perhaps more important than any “keyword” trademark searches.
- Use ZFBot.com to research existing domains: Use the begin field for the keyword and the ending field for the gTLD. Hey presto, instant data.
- Is the KeywordgTLD.com parked? Is it developed? Is it a small or a big business? All these questions determine your investment potential and eventual ROI.
The most important thing to remember: define your budget and don’t exceed it by more than 10%.
As with every investment, the risk to reward quotient determines the overall potential for your business success.
Excellent advice! Thank you again! Acro, you are on another level!!!….
Thank you. Your detailed steps and directions are very helpful.
I agree that virtually all the best keywords that match a particular new gtld will be gone quickly. But if there are no quality keyword gtlds left to register once general availability is open, what does that say about the strength of each new extension? Businesses who don’t buy related new gtlds will not necessarily see their business flatline or die, most will continue on just fine with their legacy tld or cctld. Obviously there is already some money being made flipping the better keyword/gtld combos, and the new gtlds are here to stay, but its still unknown how quickly they will be adopted to the point of being in the public mindset.
What is a bit concerning is trademarks, I am looking up trademarks and generic terms, have many trademarks. If you have been following UDRP’s as of late, some very vague cases have come forward, and questionable.
The term Technology has a lot of marks, under generic terms, if one of these companies files action, how do you defend it considering everyone will have a 2014 registration date, and the lack of time to setup a new company? It is a real grey area, the registries got their money, so they are clear.
Aaron and Jagan, thanks.
Domains – My definition of business encompasses domain investors, as well as traditional business ventures. We have the advantage of being more aware and conscious of this ongoing change; availability is short and the window of opportunity is narrow. Effectively, businesses that aren’t already aware of this change, will find themselves at a disadvantage later on.
Tom – I agree, and up to a point it is safe to assume that generic terms not in a class that would raise issues when combined with the gTLD, would be ok to register. Despite all that, it’s a risk to register tm’s and/or ignore the TMCH warning that pops up with some domain registrations. Great points overall.
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Even though I have some doubts, I have regged a few .technology, .land, and .estate.
I’m in a private auction for three domains at Go Daddy (pre-regs).
I’m not investing heavily — these are expensive — and nothing is certain, and I’m not young.
But it’s nice to have a little skin in the game.
🙂
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I was following really close some keyword.today and you are right.Most of the best ones have sold between $179 and i think about $500.
I bought some .todays, like cancun.today and neworleans.today and a few more geo cities.
But it becomes addicting knowing that you can buy a one word US city.
I do like the .today term, I did not get any .today, most were reserved, and the geo’s were expensive. Say someone bought 10 of these at a premium renewal, it will take time to get noticed, or if that ever noticed. What is the situation next year, when you have premium renewals due, no sales, and little traffic, how does one evaluate on just 1 year? Do you shell out 4 figures on renewals again?
Tom@
My geo names were under $40 because i saw what was left couple hours before opening and i choose from 300 world cities.
I did not pay premium.
My renewals on .today will be under $25
My expectation on this new Gs are none.If i get traffic fine if not it’s fine.
I’m in it for the long run.That is why I’m not buying crazy.30 names tops.
Maybe .club i will go 100 depends on the price.
Ms Domainer – Good to diversify, best of luck with your auctions, and let us know what you got!
Rich – And that’s the beauty of the new system, one does not / cannot catch them all. I have no interest in .today but that doesn’t mean others aren’t interested; every single gTLD serves its own purpose and appeals to different audiences.
@Rich
You did well today, I think everytime I tried to lookup a geo.today they were reserved.
ie)
Maine.Today
Toronto.Today
etc.
Interesting note guys, Washington.Today is now registered by someone from China as of the 16th, so they paid a premium.
Acro@
i love to travel i’ve been in 34 countries and some how geo/traveling interests me.
There is money in travel industry and that’s why i bought this names.
Maybe some kids 20 years from now will look at my domain name Nashville.today the same way i look now at Nashville.com owned by Castello brothers.lol
Tom@
Not to brag about it, i also sold an LLL.CO for $5k that i bought 4 months ago .
Yes i had a good day. 🙂
Old-time domainers whose portfolios are .COM heavy with lots of type-in traffic can speculate in these new extensions. However, those who are newer to the industry and already have a significant weighting in alt TLDs or TLDs like .CO, .ME, .TV shouldn’t go too heavy on these new extensions. They are already have enough non-.COM exposure which is not as liquid. Interestingly recently I have been hand-regging brandable Spanish .COMs.
“You won’t be able to register these domains ever again, if you wait until the general availability.”
Old wine in a new bottle imho.
There is no ‘desperation’ except that generated by registries and their agents.
Interesting choice of word “flatline.” Makes me wonder where you draw the line between the word “investor” and “addict”. Are those “investors” lining the tables in Vegas? Or flatlining the tables and themselves?