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Will There Be Plural / Singular New gTLDs in Round 2

I think it’s pretty safe to assume that ICANN will eventually approve a second round of new gTLD applications. I don’t know when round 2 will happen, but if I was going to place a wager, I would bet there will be at least one subsequent round of applications. I was thinking about what types of new extensions might make up the applications since most of the “good” ones are probably already assigned or awaiting approval.

I had a thought that some new gTLD registries might apply for the plural or singular version of the registries they already manage. For example, perhaps Uniregistry could potentially apply for .Links or the .Club registry could apply for .Clubs. It certainly wouldn’t make sense in many cases, but I could see a few reasons for it.

Reach Out to a Registry

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I think fairness has always been an issue in the domain space. People and companies are often able to cut private deals with registries, registrars, parking companies, and other industry companies, and the results of their deals may be looked upon by others with some jealousy and perhaps disillusionment. Whether you agree with private deals or you don’t, they happen in the domain space as much or more than any other business.

One thing I like to remind people is that anyone can try and cut these private deals with other registries, and as long as they aren’t breaking ICANN rules or laws, it could be beneficial. I keep a relatively small portfolio of domain names, so I am not a big dealmaker with service providers, but I don’t see anything wrong with making deals as long as they are ethical and legal.

On DomainInvesting.com, you can see

.Sexy Domains Marketing and Usage

Sexy Bus

Frank Schilling posted the photograph of the bus above, which is promoting the .Sexy domain name extension. As you can see from the photo, the bus is on the streets in Hollywood, California. There are currently two buses with the .Sexy advertisement driving through Hollywood and West Los Angeles between Downtown LA and the beach in Santa Monica. The buses are promoting the url, AreYou.Sexy I am told Uniregistry will be doing additional mainstream marketing for its new TLDs in the near future.

This type of marketing is cool, and we’ve seen it before with .Club bus wraps in Canada. I think advertising .Sexy in the Los Angeles market is a smart move. Perhaps Miami would also be a good locale for this type of campaign.

In my opinion though, the best type of marketing is actual usage of these domain names. The more people that see these domain names being used, the more people will know they are available to purchase and use. Although they may seem like a bit of a novelty, more adoption will be beneficial to all who sell (and invest in) the new gTLD domain names.

A few days ago, I saw someone mention

See the .Realtor Launch Video

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Earlier today, I published my thoughts about .Realtor domain names and why I believe the .Realtor extension is going to be a money maker for the National Association of Realtors that will be managing the extension. I want to share the promotional video below that discusses .Realtor domain names, and you can get an idea of how the extension will be promoted within the real estate industry.

In my opinion, usage of .Realtor domain names may help propel other new gTLD extensions because it is something that will cause consumers to look to the right of the dot more than they do now when most assume .com. I will be looking out for .Realtor domain names, and you are welcome to share some examples of .Realtor domain names that you notice on marketing materials.

.Realtor May Prove to be Popular

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The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has around 1 million members who sell real estate. The NAR applied for and will be managing the .Realtor new gTLD extension. According to a press release, “NAR is offering a free one-year license to the first 500,000 members who register for a .REALTOR domain.”

In my opinion, this could become a pretty lucrative business for the NAR. I would imagine that some (or many) of these free domain names will be renewed by members once the first free year is up. This would be even more likely if the Realtors build a website on their free domain name in the first year. Assuming the price per domain name is reasonable, I would think their renewal rates will be pretty high.

For people in the domain space that think Realtors won’t want their .Realtor domain name for whatever reason (despite the fact that many will be given away for free for the first year),

City of Melbourne Promotes .Melbourne

I think geographic new gTLD extensions will be among the most successful new gTLD extensions. I believe local businesses will want their new gTLD (either to use or for defensive reasons), and there will be many others who speculate on them for investment purposes, both domain investors and city dwellers.

One of the reasons I believe  this is going to happen is because of  the support of the cities that must give approval and backing for their associated extension to exist. City governmental organizations  might not  necessarily need to help promote the new TLD, but I think they benefit if the TLD takes off.

Last week, the City of Melbourne, Australia