In  Andrew’s opinion  (and I agree with the domain investor aspect), “if a new TLD operator wants to come anywhere close to the number of registrations that .mobi, .me, .xxx, and any other recently ‘launched’ TLD have, they’re going to need to count on both domainers and defensive registrations.”  I happen to disagree with Andrew regarding defensive registrations.

Before .XXX domain names were made available to consumers, many domain registrars sent “warning” emails to clients to recommend that they defensively reserve / register .XXX domain names so that others couldn’t use them maliciously. Because of the potential embarrassment associated with a brand .XXX domain name, many companies and people secured .XXX domain names to “protect” their brand. I don’t see the same

I am curious whether you’ve pre-registered, pre-reserved, or registered any new gTLD domain names. I agree with Andrew that new gTLD registries are going to rely upon domain investor (and even non-domain investor) speculation to pad their numbers. I shared that I have not done any pre-registering, and Mike Berkens announced his first new gTLD registrations.

If I was a betting person (which I am), I would guess that I will end up buying at least a few new gTLD domain names, although I will be sure that I am getting something saleable, something with a fixed and known renewal fee, and something that I feel is at a fair price. I don’t have any idea what I’d buy, but I am just being honest about not being opposed to speculating.

As of right now, have you pre-registered or purchased any new gTLD domain names? Please vote in the poll below. Also, feel free to let other people know how your opinion has changed (if it has) over time.

Judging by comments I’ve read on my blog and elsewhere, I believe there are many people who are hoping the new gTLD domain names will usher in another “gold rush” in the domain name space, and there will be many great new opportunities to hand register valuable domain names. Sadly, for the most part, I don’t think this is going to happen, despite the fact that I do think we will eventually see some new extensions take off quite successfully.

I believe there are many people who are excited about registering new gTLD domain names once they become available. They believe there will be hundreds of millions of keyword domain names  available to purchase, and this is a great opportunity considering the difficulty in registering a valuable .com domain name today.

Based on what I’ve been reading