With the new TLDs coming soon(ish), domain registrars like 101 Domain, 1&1, Name.com, and others have been taking pre-reservations. While these are non-binding, it gives the registrars and TLD applicants some decent data about what the demand will be like when these TLDs come on the market. I wonder if this data would be helpful to domain investors today who want to find domain names that will be in demand in the future.
Rick Schwartz posted an article today that got me thinking about something related to these pre-registrations. He mentioned that he was surprised that .Online appears to be popular because of the little traffic his various -Online.com domain names receive. I am sure that will change once .Online domain names are available and used.
That said, I wonder if there’s an opportunity today for people to purchase various nTLD keyword .com domain names. I am sure this type of mining has been done and is being done, but perhaps there are still opportunities available. For example, I assume that Shop.Online will be a domain name that is in demand. Assuming someone buys it and builds it, ShopOnline.com will probably see some of the traffic leakage and be worth more than it’s worth today. That domain name is for sale, and perhaps there is more of an opportunity with that name as a result of the new TLDs.
There are going to be thousands of these types of domain names coming online as active websites in the near future. In the short and probably mid-term, people will likely navigate to the keyword TLD .com domain name that matches the new TLD website. Perhaps this is a good buying and registering opportunity today.
I am interested to hear your thoughts about this opportunity (I am not interested in seeing your portfolio of -web.com or -ninja.com domain names that you are hoping to sell).
.online getting popular because I think it’s a very generic extension which can be put to use for everything. Companies may plan to get this extension to close the competition gap and a .Online registrant may wish to have a .com too. In any case .com may get added value. Brainy post.
I suspect that traffic leakages will significantly spike during the first period after any new gtld is launched. It’s also likely that the now mostly defunct parking industry will see a surge, and the moment some of these new extensions are advertised on the radio, any current “dotkeyword.com” will see a surge, as well. IMO, ironically, the more the gtld’s are marketed, there more there will be a huge cluster**** of lawsuits, disgruntled business owners, disappointed newbie domain speculators and confused consumers. Gtld’s, in theory, could indeed completely change the way we surf the web as Frank and others have been suggesting. However, I think that by the time gtld’s finally gain enough “traction” to accomplish this feat, that there will probably be some other new paradigm shift in technology that will completely disrupt the internet entirely, making any domain obsolete and a moot point. I just don’t consider the gtld’s to be the disruptive force that others claim them to be.