Kathy Nielsen worked at Sedo for nearly seven years in a variety of roles, most recently as VP Business Development in Sedo’s Registry Services group. I noticed a change on Kathy’s LinkedIn page, and she is now listed as Executive Director of Registry Operations and Channel Relations at Dot Green Community, Inc.
I reached out to Kathy to get more information
Are .Com domain names truly better than the new gTLDs? Well, I have had my suspicions, but there was no way I was going to base my opinions. I decided to put some newly acquired domain names to the test, and use Google AdWords to reveal the results. While there’s no really easy way to test the organic search results, using Google AdWords to drive traffic and test conversions was much faster and more reliable.
I set up two tests. One test used a .Com and a .Diamonds domain name. The other used a .Com and a .Menu domain name. In the first test, I was able to secure two keyword rich domain names: one with the keyword in the domain name, and the other with the keyword in the domain name and in the new gTLD.
I chose these domain names for the primary test:
www.3CaratDiamonds.com
www.3Carat.Diamonds
and I chose brand-related keywords for the second test. I chose these domain names for the second test:
www.MattitosMenu.com
www.Mattitos.menu
I set up two separate landing pages. One landing page for the “diamonds” test and another landing page for the “menu” test. In this case, it was important to make sure that everything was the same for each test. So, everything was exactly the same, including the ad copy used, the landing page, and even the conversions. The only change between each test was the domain name being used.
For each Google AdWords campaign, it was important to us to not only use the same ad copy in the ads, but also to make sure that we used the same keywords in each of the campaigns. We did some preliminary keyword research, and decided on a list of keywords that had enough searches per month to give us enough data to work with.
For the diamonds Google AdWords campaigns, we used 50 keywords total, all priced at $1.00 per click (that is what we bid, but not what we ended up paying for each click). We also bid $1.00 a click on the .Com versus .Menu domain name test.
The Results
This morning on Twitter, Uniregistry’s Frank Schilling commented on the successful .London domain name launch. As you can see below, Frank said, “35,000 .london names is a great start! It’s only day 1 and nobody knows what these things are! That’s all gonna change.”
35,000 .london names is a great start! It’s only day 1 and nobody knows what these things are! That’s all gonna change.
— Frank Schilling (@Frank_Schilling) September 10, 2014
I think Frank is right. Out of those 35,000 domain names, I think
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.
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
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
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