What if Domain Investors Buy the Good gTLD Domain Names?

Domain investor (and ‎Founder & Director of the Intellectual Property Division at Heritage Auctions) Aron Meystedt shared something interesting this week: “With all of the gTLD rollouts, it’s obvious that domainers are buying all of the word combinations that actually make sense.” He further added, “The gTLD program was supposed to ensure that EVERYONE could receive the domain they wanted. In reality, domainers are going to buy all the good word combinations and end users are back to square one.”

After doing quite a few searches, it seems like he might be on to something. It’s not surprising that domain investors have purchased so many of the new gTLD domain names. Despite the fact that domain investor losses were considerable following previous TLD launches, domain investors seem to be buying new domain names en masse. Some see the potential in these new TLDs and others don’t want to miss a buying opportunity they regret in the future.  Whatever the case may be, there seem to be more new domain names ending up in the portfolios of domain investors rather than being registered by end users.

In my opinion, this does not bode well for the domain registries, at least in the short term.

If domain investors own the best keyword gTLD domain names, they will likely become less affordable to end user buyers. Faced with the choice of paying a premium price for a .com domain name or a premium price for a new .keyword domain name, there is less of an advantage to buying the new gTLD domain name.

Without development on the new keyword domain names, there will be less consumer awareness. If consumers don’t know about these new extensions, they will remain confusing when they do see them being used. I would fathom a guess that the average Joe doesn’t have a clue about the new TLDs now, and without adoption and marketing of them, it’s going to take quite a bit of time for that to happen.

Domain investors provide much needed liquidity to registrars and registries. Some of us are spending thousands of dollars to buy various keyword domain names in the hopes of selling them profitably. This initial cash influx may be harmful to the registries in the long run though. If that happens to be the case, this would also be harmful to the very domain investors who are speculating now because their investments may not appreciate as much as they would if there was greater awareness.

Perhaps this will prove advantageous to registries who begin selling their domain names later on when domain investors have already spent their wad of cash on the first rounds.

I don’t know how to solve this issue, but it’s something to observe as more new TLDs come out.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

112 COMMENTS

  1. The regestries need money today, having those registrations will enable them to raise more dollars. Without the numbers, their investors will get nervous. The total end users are out there, but they are busy trying to keep their businesses afloat, and purchasing domain names, comes on a direct need basis at set times. They are not sitting, and waiting idly by their computers for GA to open up. I have seen some new gtld’s have higher set asking prices than the .com’s. So you are essentially right, as an uneducated end user if I can purchase the much recognized .com for $1,500, and pay $8 per year in renewals, than a $2,500 GTLD, with a $40 renewal, do I have a choice?

  2. Key point…

    Faced with the choice of paying a premium price for a .com domain name or a premium price for a new .keyword domain name, there is less of an advantage to buying the new gTLD domain name…

    I believe in many cases they resort back to regging long .COM domains or using abbreviations and misspelled words like Z instead of S or 4 instad of for etc.

    While I have a considerable portion of my portfolio in .Net and .TV, I am yet to reg one of the new TLDs.

  3. Let’s see, given the choice between spending $5K and $200/yr for keyword.tld or $5K and $10/yr for keywordtld.com, it’s a no brainer unless the renewal fees are completely hidden from the end user. IMO, that is the fatal flaw of these TLDs – the renewal fees.

  4. “With all of the gTLD rollouts, it’s obvious that domainers are buying all of the word combinations that actually make sense.”…….

    “The gTLD program was supposed to ensure that EVERYONE could receive the domain they wanted. In reality, domainers are going to buy all the good word combinations and end users are back to square one.”……..

    Interesting quotes from a re-seller’s perspective….I feel better knowing I am an entrepreneur and not a “domainer” as I write this…….

    • I am keeping some and reselling some….. I just don’t want to be labeled as a “domainer” who sent business’s “back to square one”. I have no problem being a “domainer” but when high profile domain investor’s say “domainers” are interfering with business by sending them to “square one”, I see a slight issue…

  5. When making a statement that domain investors are buying “all” of the combinations that actually make sense, I will ask for the supporting data.

    Surely, some important or valuable domains are researched and acquired by domain investors. But to say that every single meaningful combination is being snapped by domainers, is absurd. Primarily, because to be honest, smart domain investors don’t invest in everything in sight, they specialize, and less savvy domainers don’t have the money to spend on everything in sight.

    So, the fear of all the best strings in every gTLD having gone already, is unsubstantiated. Smart domainers focus on strategic acquisitions and for crying out loud, we aren’t even 1/25th of the way yet for 2014.

    • To clarify,
      I think that once the general public becomes fully aware of gTLDs, and understands what they can do for their business, the possibility of pairing a great keyword with a gTLD, or a first name with a gTLD or a location with a gTLD will be nearly impossible.
      It will be a year or two before the public really understands the change. It took a lot of us a while to fully grasp it and get on board.

      I think, by the time the public is ready, there really won’t be anything “eyepopping” that they could register. They will likely be left with TWOWORDS.GTLD at the very best.

      I am NOT opposed to the new gTLDs at all. I think they could potentially offer people/businesses a lot of unique branding and marketing options.
      I am also NOT opposed to registries making money, making back their investments and pleasing investors either. Money has to be made. I get it.

      I just can just envision all of the solid combinations being snapped up, and then the real target audience is frustrated all over again.
      It’s not the fault of the domainers or the registries. We operate in a free market, and everyone has the rights to obtain any domain they like.

      All I am saying is it will be interesting to see what happens once the public becomes fully aware of this new opportunity.

      Aron

    • Aron – Thanks for the comment, I agree with your last statement…….I would like to see the word “domainer” used in a more positive light. We don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot by labeling most of us as “domainers” who are sending end user’s back to square one…Maybe, it’s not how you intended to say it, but that is how I read it. You are high profile domain industry veteran and represent a large mass of domainers…Regardless of how I read it, I respect you and wish you the best…..

    • I’ve been running checks against wordlists; the rate of such registrations for e.g. .Photography is about 100-150 a day, from a dictionary of 90k entries. So the rate isn’t substantial, although I would disclaim that not every word suits a gTLD, unlike say, .com.

      While I agree that in 2 years folks that ‘wake up’ might have a hard time getting what they needed, isn’t that already the case with most traditional TLDs? In fact, it’s much worse, considering 115+ million .com registrations, which took 20 years to amass that many.

      Think about it: there is a limited number of ‘speculators’ and a much larger number of users. In my opinion, the rate of awareness by the latter will outlast the rate of registrations by the former, because investors will simply run out of initial capital. And that’s why I recommend that investors should define a budget for their strategic acquisitions, before they even register any gTLDs.

    • There are plenty of speculators (just look at .pw reg numbers) with a limited amount of great keywords. You actually help that speculation with the constant pumping/cheerleading of these new gtlds, even tho it doesn’t seem you actually participate in buying? How many have you bought so far?

    • Aaron,
      Thanks for the feedback.
      I probably could have worded it differently, yes.
      I’m not a fan of “domainer” or “domain investor” either.

      Why don’t we just call ourselves “investors”.
      Alot of us invest in other things besides domains
      (stocks, precious metals, real estate).

      I see NOTHING wrong with what you or any other investor is doing.
      By all means, grab the good names now while you can.

      I just see an interesting future ahead for gTLDs and their target users.

      Again, I have ZERO issues with you, or Elliot, or Page Howe or anyone else registering the gTLDs that you feel will be worthwhile.

      Aron

    • Johnnie boy – Your ‘kind’ was covered on DomainGang today, regarding the traits of ‘gTLD haters’. To discount what I do or don’t do, all while you opt to remain anonymous, automatically removes you from the pool of serious investors. I am not obligated to disclose any part of my strategy, and that which I choose to disclose obviously does not apply to you.

    • Unless domain investors take a portion of their profits from new gtls and immediate and along the way add to their new gtld portfolio. Granted they have to have end users willing to pay a premium like any other successful extension.

    • “It will be a year or two before the public really understands the change. It took a lot of us a while to fully grasp it and get on board”

      A year or two? That is incredibly optimistic.

      The outrageous reg fees are going to kill most domain investors before the public gets it and is willing to fork over their inflated prices.

    • For someone who does nothing but post about investing in new gtlds, I figured by now you would have shared some of your great buys. So far I’ve seen zero. So it’s a legit point. In general, I’m not sure what kind of advertising deals blogs have set up, if they’re getting paid to post or if it’s something they really believe in. But if I constantly posted how great this new pizza joint was, I would have had a slice by now.

    • RE: Advertising deals… what you see is what you get. I don’t offer paid posts. The only ad you can’t see here is the RSS ad from Sedo (which gets delivered to newsletter subscribers). None are affiliate banners either nor pay for performance.

      I currently have a 4 company waiting list for banner spots… I should probably charge more, but I am content.

    • Johnnie – I told you before that the road is long from where you are standing. Apparently, I did not realize how long that road really is…..

    • “Elliot Silver

      RE: Advertising deals… what you see is what you get.”

      That wasn’t directed at you btw, but some of the other blogs waving the pom poms, parroting the marketing the registries/registrars are pumping out. It’s a little too obvious. If they’re not getting paid, I’m sure they enjoy all the free marketing the blogs are doing for them. Nothing like having people work for you for free.

    • You don’t realize a lot of stuff, this is what you said:

      “I feel that .com will be antiquated one day.”

      Really? Maybe in the future, when you get a little more experience, you’ll look back at some of the stuff you’ve posted and realize how silly it was. Good luck with your future novelty purchases.

    • Johnnie – I almost let this go but I want to apologize to you too. I understand you may not see things as I see. I am not suggesting you follow my tracks. A person of my passion and desire for life is often considered “crazy” and I do tend to go farther and faster than most would. Starting business’s is always “crazy” to some people. Failing is “crazy” to some people too. I have done both and that is really crazy to some people. So upon you calling me crazy or delusional, I understand, and I apologize to you…….. In spirit of Olympics and skiing I want to mention Shane McConkey. He was considered by some as “crazy” and “delusional”, but he reshaped skiing as we know it. He did it by screwing snow bindings to water skis as he charged down a mountain face to prove that wider skis can be better. Skis have never been made the same since he did that. Lot’s of people think he was “crazy” for doing things he loved so passionately. I do not think he was crazy. Don’t follow our(Shane McConkey)type. It’s not for everyone, we accept the risk. Life is short and I live that way….I wish you the best….

    • Aaron, nice story but what in the world does that have to do with stuff like:

      “I feel that .com will be antiquated one day.”

      That is crazy, not a good crazy. If you want to find somebody else’s success story to somehow make yourself ok with it, so be it. But in the end, it’s still crazy. Whenever you guys (new gtlds fans) go into comparing it to .com territory, you lose all credibility and you just end up looking silly.

    • X.Ventures status. I am awaiting payment as we speak. However, this won’t be the first time the potential buyer has failed to do as promised. So there is a very good chance it won’t close as my patience is about done…. I understand doubter’s will think this never really happened. Or why else ask?………Well if you doubt the liquidity of New G’s check a reliable news source like DNjournal..If you doubt me, that’s understandable too…..

    • Aaron, if you don’t get paid, then a sale didn’t happen, simple as that. The sale completes upon receipt of payment. It’s something everybody goes thru but maybe in the future with the blog posts, I would wait for the sale to complete before making a post. And who knows, you might still sell it.

    • Agree with Johnnie,

      I hope nobody took any notice of this when it was reported as sold for $1000 last week in terms of making purchasing decisions.

    • Johnnie – I was just trying to be fair to other potential buyers that they need not inquire because I considered it “sold”. That was based on what was told to me. I felt by doing this it is fair for everyone while escrow progresses. I did not intend to collect potential sales data or sell it to someone else. I simply was going to exchange a domain, a very inexpensive domain as well..I got an honest approach and if you don’t like it or you question it, so be it……..

    • “Why flip it so quick and for such a low amount?”

      Thought it was a really high price myself. There is going to be 10k similar 1 character domains coming onto the market, the novelty/rarity is going to wear of pretty fast.

    • I agree with Snoopy.

      As I said when in the article, “Despite this quick flip, I think we should all realize that one sale does not make a market.”

      I also updated the article to reflect the status.

    • Andrew – Thank you. I really appreciate the offer, it’s very kind of you…It has been a wild several weeks as I started the “New G” era off with a particular investment strategy. This strategy has become somewhat of a “controversy” as I have received congratulatory and unsatisfactory emails regarding. I have taken it all to heart and appreciate other’s thoughts.. As we continue forward, I have decided to adjust my domain investment strategy. Selling X.Ventures is no longer in my strategy at this time. I apologize and sincerely appreciate your offer. Again, Thank you Andrew!…..

      • Actually I liked your original reply “Are you shitting me” better.

        Business 101- when one of the more well known brokers who sells domains for a substantial profit offers you the same amount for a name that most people think is high than you don’t sell. If Andrew Rosener sees value it’s worth a roll of the dice to keep it and hold out for more. This one offer by him raised the value of that name at least a couple thousand dollars because now people will see more value than they did before.

        In my opinion X.Ventures is worth 10 grand to the right buyer all day long.

      • I accidentally replied to the wrong comment, and I thought better of cursing.

        Just because I or Andrew or someone else make a speculative purchase, it doesn’t mean the domain name is worth that much.

      • So you go around making offers on names that you may not think are worth as much as the offer you made?

        If I make a speculative purchase than that purchase is worth at least bare minimum ,in my own mind, at least the amount of the offer and not a penny less.

      • No, but because I *think* it may be worth more than I am offering does not mean that it *is* worth more than I am offering.

        If Aaron was willing to sell it for $1,000 last week and publicly stated that he sold it, then he should sell it for that amount. Otherwise, people might think the initial sale was BS PR.

      • Elliot is spot on. You want to tote around that you sold a name for “x”, then you damn well better be prepared to close that sale!

        I personally don’t think that x.ventures is worth more than registration fee. However, I have the luxury of tremendous cash flow and I would purchase it for $1,000 for the following 2 reasons:

        1. I look at it like a lottery ticket
        2. I am trying to make a point and weed out the wankers who waste people’s time and spread false information

      • ELLIOT – “Otherwise, people might think the initial sale was BS PR.”….I believe the readers are figuring that many blogs are BS PR. We can start with this one…………I have been nothing but brutally honest, open and transparent on your blog, if you wish to rally your readers to think other things that is your prerogative . Apparently, you and some readers can’t handle the truth…….

        ANDREW – “Be a man, be decisive, follow through and make the deal and then you can rest on your laurels.”…….Is that really how you conduct business? Are you asking me to change my position and again be indecisive?….Please don’t answer that as I care not to hear the reply….

      • Perhaps people do think they are BS PR, but I do my best to dispel that with my blog by being as transparent as I can without harming my business by sharing too much. Things like this tend to reinforce what people think.

        All I know is you said the domain name was sold (to an unknown party), then a deal wasn’t closed, and now that a public person made the same cash offer, you are passing. How do you think that looks?

      • Andrew,
        Turning you down seems to have put you in a frenzy…When you want to talk like a man and not a child, let’s talk!…..

      • @Aaron – no frenzy. I actually don’t care whether you sell it to me or not. I just personally have a serious issue with people who don’t follow through. If this were all done in private, I would take no issue with you changing your mind about selling x.ventures.com. However, it wasn’t, you posted all over the place and bragged all over the place that you sold x.ventures and you were the king of new gTLD’s and so on and so on. That’s all good too. But when that deal doesn’t happen and I step up to make you the same deal that you were previously so proud of – and then you “change your mind” – it doesn’t look good for you and it is a perfect example of the type of behavior that drags this industry down; ie. – fake sales, fake biddders, false offers, false information, fear mongering & on & on & on…

        Keep your name and I wish you nothing but success in your business and investments. Do like Elliot and don’t be so quick to air your dirty laundry in public otherwise you open yourself up to this type of scrutiny.

      • “you posted all over the place and bragged all over the place that you sold x.ventures and you were the king of new gTLD’s and so on and so on.”…….I don’t feel I did this, it is not in my nature to call myself a “king” or to “brag”…If I spoke with words that appeared that way, I apologize………

        “Do like Elliot and don’t be so quick to air your dirty laundry in public otherwise you open yourself up to this type of scrutiny.”……………..I believe the only time I have done dirty laundry in public is when I have engaged in conversations such as this……………..To the readers I apologize…
        You have offered advice to me. I will do the same to you. You are an industry veteran. You should be professional and act accordingly if you truly want to portray this as a legitimate professional industry. It starts with you, not me as a small investor. If you feel it your desire to attack an honest and open commentator, it is the whole industry that suffers and not just my feelings……….

      • Aaron thats just it, the fact that your deal did not complete brings your “honesty” into question. That has been the point from the beginning. You alone created a trend and frenzy for the one character new gTLDs. It was based upon your supposed quick flip. People assumed that was the going market price based on your sale. People made purchase and sales decisions based on this bad information. You stood to benefit greatly from this misinformation and proceeding frenzy that followed because you owned many more one characters and other new gTlds.

        So the fact that your sale which started it all seems to have been fake, certainly opens the window for scrutiny. You opened that window, not me.

        You want to talk about your sales publicly then be prepared to back them up and explain who, what, why, where and how if they fall through.

        Again, small invetsors who cant afford to lose money make bad decisions based on the information you are sharing.

      • “You alone created a trend and frenzy for the one character new gTLDs.”

        I don’t agree with that completely. Once people found out they could buy them, they started to buy them. Most of the one letter domain names were registered after Aaron announced that he bought x.Ventures rather than after he announced that he sold it.

        I bought my 3 one letter names before Aaron put his up for sale. Prior to his post, I didn’t realize that one letter new TLD names were available at the registration fee. I didn’t buy them because of his sale, I bought them because I see potential in them. I assume that is a reason you offered him $1k for his.

      • To be fair, this blog and any blog that posted this “sale” takes a bit of the responsibility for not verifying. There was a post here dedicated to that sale. Also, it wasn’t only small investors who went after these 1 character domains. And these investors are adults. I’m a big believer in personal responsibility and people shouldn’t base their investment strategies off 1 unverified sale on the internet.

        And Aaron should probably take the $1,000 offer. These 1 character domains aren’t going to be that special once all the other ones come down the line. 1 characters are nice, but it’s followed by 8 after the dot. And it’s pretty meaningless and easily confused. What is x ventures? If I heard that, I would think xventures.com or exventures or adventures etc.

      • I (and others) report sales from NameJet, Sedo, and other venues before they close, too. When someone reports something as “sold” I take their word for it, especially when it’s someone who posts regularly under his real name and isn’t a random passer by.

        When I am posting on DNForum, DomainBoardroom, or elsewhere, I will post “pending sale” until the deal is in escrow and things have moved along. That is to avoid confusion and also so I don’t lose interest in the event it falls through. To me, “sold” means the deal is done.

        There is no 100% way of verifying any deal besides getting copies of escrow paperwork from both parties and verifying they aren’t involved with each other in some way.

        As I mentioned to Andrew before, after Aaron posted that he bought the name, others went out and bought more 1 letter names. From what I saw, all the .Ventures and .Holdings 1 letter names were gone shortly after that, rather than after the reported sale. I did not buy my single letter names because of a sale.

      • Andrew – “You stood to benefit greatly from this misinformation and proceeding frenzy that followed because you owned many more one characters and other new gTlds.” ….Andrew this may be hard for you and others to believe, but there are some of us with no ulterior motives, as you may have. I am simply on these blog’s to learn…That’s it….I have never bragged or called myself “king” as you have mentioned. I am left to feel that you are either jealous or you just feel better pouncing on mistakes of other’s…Either way, industry veterans should conduct themselves more professional on and off the court.. As an industry veteran the spotlight is on you, not me…………I would like to give an update on the sale as things progressed earlier, but I owe nothing to you or anyone else after these disturbing conversations………….

    • @Aaron – don’t take this the wrong way, but you give domainers a bad name. You are a flip-flopper my friend, and that is not a good thing. You go around touting yourself as the Messiah of new gTLD’s. You put your expertise on the basis of you being the first one to flip one of these things (i.e. x.ventures) for $1,000. You tout this sale on every domain blog.

      The sale turns out to be fake or falls through or whatever it is you want to call it. And then when someone shows up with REAL MONEY, cash, cold hard and green, and wants to buy your domain FOR REAL – you shy away.

      Be a man, be decisive, follow through and make the deal and then you can rest on your laurels.

    • When your a blogger trying to gain a name for yourself, brown nosing industry players, agreeing with everything they say is part of the job, Do you ever see them disagreeing with one another?

      Even if they believe GTLD’s have little chance of success, don’t expect then to tell you that, they’d rather be wrong with all the other “experts” rather than being right with the rest of the industry, the unknowns who have repeatedly been right on every TLD that has come along since .name.

      And they enjoy playing both sides, the “Strategy” If their right on GTLD’s, they ride on the winning bandwagon, and if their wrong and GTLD’s take a nose dive, what you’ll see in the Blogosphere is; “It’s a good thing I didn’t register any” followed by all kinds of excuses of why they failed.

    • There are many people whose opinions I disagree with, and it’s a matter of keeping things private rather than brown nosing. I don’t air out my grievances with anyone publicly. That goes for individuals and companies. I won’t ever use my blog as a weapon to harm someone unless it’s absolutely necessary to protect others.

      Regarding the new TLDs, I think I have been very clear about where I stand. I’ve even shared the 4 I purchased:

      n.Holdings
      n.Ventures
      g.Holdings
      Silver.Ventures

      I bought them at GoDaddy, and they are Donuts domain names. I don’t have any type of advertising or affiliate relationship with either of those companies right now.

      I think the new domain names are highly speculative. I may buy a few more, but I am not shifting my strategy. I bought several .CO domain names when they were introduced. Most of them were dropped or sold at auction. I bought a couple .mobi names, too.

    • Kind of sounds like you`re bullying the guy to sell. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, just because the first deal fell through doesn’t mean he has to accept the next $1K offer that is made. Can’ta person change their strategy without being publicly chastised by industry veterans?

    • It could be much faster than a year or two – case in point, it just takes 1 viral video to raise awareness with millions, and these new gTLDs will be on their way to public receptivity.

    • It would be helpful if you share the name of the person that agreed to buy x.ventures and backed out (or hasn’t completed the deal yet)? You mentioned that “this won’t be the first time the potential buyer has failed to do as promised” and perhaps this information will help other domain investors stay away from people who don’t follow through with their commitments.

    • I see no reason to publicly chastise the person who backed out. I almost sent you an email with the communications, but I would not want to harm someone for their choices. I just saw what happened to me, why would I allow the same for someone else?….Do you want a public “roast”?…Again, I have only been honest, open and transparent on all my comments here. Your choice to attack my character over a business deal that did not work out is very disturbing to me….. I will just leave it at that……

    • Because I would hate to agree to sell a name to someone who is known to back out of deals. I don’t see any reason for you to protect this person who apparently backed out of your deal especially when “this won’t be the first time the potential buyer has failed to do as promised.” Why are you protecting the identity of a liar who may do the same harm to other domain investors that are counting on a deal to go through?

    • Elliot – “Why are you protecting the identity of a liar who may do the same harm to other domain investors that are counting on a deal to go through?”………..This is the first time that I dealt with this person. I did not intend to make it sound like he has done this to me before. My intention was to say that I have had other deals go stray over the fifteen years of doing this part time………….There would be no reason to publicly “roast” someone because of their decisions to back out of a small domain sale. I conduct business with genuine honesty, I treat others with respect and integrity. I hope Andrew and you can do the same as you are damaging your integrity by engaging or “rallying” in personal attacks………

    • Wasn’t so much referring to you but bloggers in general.. I don’t understand why you would restrict yourself from publishing your own comments when a notable domainer does something wrong that hurts our industry, for example Mike Mann offering domains for sale that infringe on company trademarks, instead we put blinders on and forget its happening, or we pump them up as some kind of hero.

      As for Aaron disclosing the name of this person, why not respect his right privacy? he’s under no obligation to disclose anything to anyone, this was was a private sale gone bad, I myself would have NEVER disclosed it in the first place, that was his mistake.

      I’ll never understand why so many domainers think it’s their given right to know every sale, the price of what it sold for, who bought it, who sold it, what it will be used for, the list is endless, And they do it without any consideration to the buyers privacy.

    • ” I don’t understand why you would restrict yourself from publishing your own comments when a notable domainer does something wrong”

      >> I am not going to burn a bridge with someone who did nothing to me personally. This is especially the case when I have nothing to gain from it.

      “I’ll never understand why so many domainers think it’s their given right to know every sale, ”

      >> I don’t disagree with you, but in this case, Aaron publicized the sale, and I wrote a post about it based on the information he shared with me.

      I don’t see how these two thoughts of yours jive together. On one hand, you question why I am not calling out one domain investor for doing something, yet when I am asking Aaron to call out someone who is apparently backing out of a deal, you don’t appear to be in favor of that.

  6. Kinda funny if that’s true because quite a few domain investors were bitching and moaning about the new gTLD’s and they were all claiming .com will be king forever.

    I guess they realized .com ain’t all that after all (in terms of future branding).

    • More likely buying so they don’t miss out on an opportunity.

      Main reason I bought some (4) was because I don’t want to look back in 10 years and realize I f-ed up by not buying any when they came out. The cost to me was negligible, and I’ll probably buy a few more for the same reason.

    • Good for ya, Elliott. I don’t think you would’ve f-ed up either way 🙂

      I think for gTLD’s “to work” they have to be developed into brands. Buying new gTLD’s just to speculate is going to be a costly marathon. Sure, you can flip them for a few grand, but I wouldn’t expect anyone to sell them for massive amounts anytime soon. Unless the investors get amazing keyword.gTLD combos, they’ll probably end up losing money in the long run.

      The reason .com has been doing so well over the years is because “publicly accepted” alternatives have been VERY limited. In the future (I would say 5-10+ years from now) new gTLD’s will be where .com is today because the new gTLD’s take online branding to a whole new level. I think ccTLD’s like .ME, .INFO and .TV could also benefit from the new gTLD’s.

      What about .com in the future? It will still be around, but less popular than today. Got to love the evolution of the internet 🙂

      Good luck with your investments, Elliot 🙂

    • When you buy domain name, you don’t become a domain investor. Only when you buy a name that you can sell for profit. And such condition makes only 1% of those buyers investors. Rest are blind dreamers. But for registries it does not matter. They want their money, and a lot of stupid buyers help them to make new gTLD enough successful. I am out…

    • Within 2 years, .com is going to be a branding disaster- the giant 80’s mobile cell phone of domains. As I look at some of these new extensions, I see new marketing opportunities, new ways to sell stuff. Looking for a new dress, or faucet, or collectible car and want to browse catalogue style? Go to dress.gallery or faucet.gallery or musclecar.gallery, etc. Need today’s futures or options quotes? Futures.today. Options.today. Shopping insurance? Insurance.directory. I don’t think many people are grasping the impact this is going to have on the economy. I feel like I’m reading EQ buoy data in the pacific that’s jumping off the charts while watching thousands of beachgoers frolic in the sand. From a keyword perspective or a branding perspective, these domain extensions are the next level. However, instead of being able to just buy one and be done with it, you have to buy a handful to make an impact in any one area of use. You have to buy the brand and the brand extensions to get real value. Buy the brand (design.kitchen) and all the keyword domains that extend the brand (countertops.kitchen, cabinets.kitchen, tile.kitchen, etc.).

    • While I can see the value in using extensions with meaning (well, even .com has meaning — but not perceived by the general public)such as what you suggested to brand products and services, which extension would you use to brand a company such as Amazon, Facebook, or Apple?

  7. I do not understand the fact, why domain names are not part of free market. When there are big investments made, obviously people with money are going to invest. How is this any different from investing in stocks, I do not get it.

    Looking to buy shares of a successful public company for the same price as on the day of IPO. It is not only naive but stupid. Dual mentality is dangerous, I will be a socialist or a capitalist not both, it just won’t work.

    PS: Thank you for the nice article.

    • The difference DN is you and I and million other people can own shares in Google, we all benefit the same. We all own shares that if they are up 5 % for you, they are up 5 % for everyone else.

      Only one person can own Sex.com, LCD.tv, Meet.Me. The secondary alternatives might not appeal to someone who wants what they want, and only one can have it at a time.

  8. Registries/registrars didn’t make it exactly simple to register these new gtlds considering all the different phases and other moving parts. While there are for sure companies that are determined to get their desired domain name and act accordingly, I can imagine that many companies just give up when they realize all the possible effort involved and live happily ever after with their dot coms.

  9. Another thing is you can have an end user have someone tell them, oh you can go register your .equipment today, they go over to godaddy, punch in the domain they want on day 1 of pre-registration, it comes back with a $12,500 registration price. They press the X on their browser, and ignore GTLD’s for the next year.

  10. 1. Agreed that all the sensible/desirable combinations will be snapped up now (mostly by investors). Good luck to the people paying thousands now and then the renewals in future years and needing to convince an end user to pay five figures for a non .com. It can be more then challenging enough trying to explain to a lot of them today why paying for a solid .com is a good investment, wonder how easy it will be when people try to explain to end users why they should pay five figures for a .guru.

    2. The pricing and renewal fees are confusing. One registrar is charging different amounts then another registrar. One day prices on Enom are one thing, next day they change. I never sat down to understand what renewal amounts are yet, but just the fact that I need to is a problem.

    3. I’ve purchased a few as of now, but only at base prices. I am in an auction for one I was willing to pay for Day 4 or Day 5 (forget which). Pretty ridiculous… you pay extra already for the priority day placement, then you get thrown into an auction to squeeze more $ out of you. People might accept this for now, but once more gTLDs release I think patience will wear thin.

    4. Do you think if all the gTLDs released at the same moment people that the prices they’d be selling at today would be the same? Yes, .guru did respectable, but it was the only game in town for a little bit, and it was at the beginning. If you had 599 other choices at that point in time would it have done as well? My personal opinion is these that are releasing first are getting a tremendous benefit, but those who are paying the premium prices are shooting themselves in the foot. Would you rather have a solid .guru or a solid .app or .web? Actually, more importantly, which one would an end user rather have?

    • it will take time for people to realize and get use to it. dont expect magic over night. when time comes , everyone will forget about .com business

    • Nope, that day will never come. The gtlds suck so bad they are painful to my delicate ears. Very few consumers want them, few see potential in them and few think they have any intrinsic value. Waste of cyberspace if you ask me.

  11. “What if Domain Investors Buy the Good gTLD Domain Names?”

    That was just one of the long list of hurdles for these new gtlds. Since these are niche/novelty extensions, there really is a small number of good keywords that actually make sense and they’re usually going to get snapped up by domainers, just like every other extension release. So endusers will have the same issues as they do with trying to get a .com, if they’re looking for premium keywords. Any decent keyword will get snapped up first day of widespread general availability, anything after that is usually second rate. And you see that from domainers posting their domains on the forums.

  12. @Anti-Career

    You are dead on the money, if you register one premium $150 renewal domain at godaddy for say 700 out of the 1400 extensions to be released that is $105,500 in renewals per year for those 700 names. So if you look for a top keyword in every other extension, expect to pay over $100K per year just in renewals. The way some guys are going at this, is they are taking multiple premiums with each weeks release, by the end of the year it will surely add up, unless end users start paying up for them, they will be forced to drop them.

    I liken this to a government that can continue to print currency at any rate they wish, and you will not see the full results of devaluation for at least 24 months out, so have at it.

  13. According to Sedo’s latest report on its 2013 sales, the average price of .com was $2,200 and median price $650. Renewal cost of .com is about $10. So it’ll be interesting to see if the general public decide to pay more to register a non-com domain name.

  14. I think your post says what a lot of people in domaining are starting to realize. The majority of the best keyword matching new gtld domains are gobbled up quickly and held by investors, like we saw with .mobi .me .co and others. so the same thing is happening all over again, and end users will be forced into the aftermarket if they want a killer keyword matching new gtld. Or will they spend that money instead on a good .com, .net or cctld?

    What is left to hand reg for someone in .photography or .technology in a few months or later might also be available to hand reg in .com, if it’s a specific business name and not a common keyword or keyword combo.

    Some people seem to think that just because 100’s of new gtlds are being rolled out that the public has to accept this is the future and will work. it’s not necessarily so, and it will take time to find out how well this all works. Look what happended in the 80’s when New Coke got rolled out.

    • The gTLD Program was created and implemented for one reason and one reason only…and it is absolutely delivering the desired results for those who pushed for this.

      For those who think this whole thing is really about giving folks a more affordable way to obtain solid domain names, then hey, I have some swampland to sell you…real cheap

  15. if you register new gTLDs in bulk you are doing it wrong imo.

    You register strong domain names and now it will depend on how well your sale skills are.

    We’ve only seen a few a gTLDs being released, lots more to come.
    Focus on what worked for you in the past , get the good domain names and sell the idea.

    With so many TLDs you need a strong pitch. no pitch no sale.

  16. Couple of things here,

    -The target market for the majority of new tlds is domainers.

    Most of these extensions wouldn’t have been applied for if registries weren’t banking on domainers doing most of the registering. *The endusers for new tld names are domainers*.

    -Domainers have smothered all prior new tlds with over speculation. I don’t think Aron is onto anything new with this.

    .com and popular country codes did well because they had a chance to to get adopted when speculation levels were a lot lower.

    I’d say this scenario will never change.

  17. Looking at the numbers below I wouldn’t consider the gTLDs to be a runaway success. Throw out the .GURU numbers and the list isn’t that impressive. .GURU would of course have a massive amount of registrations compared to the others because it’s the only universal gTLD on this whole list and it had the advantage of being one of the first ones released. Everyone is hyped right now but will this hype continue when gTLD number 350 and 351 are released and 750 and 751? Doubtful. If .GURU was released 6 months from now how many registrations would it have? .BIZ and .US have more registrations today alone than some of these new gTLDs have in total and everyone hates BIZ and US.

    There is going to be a lot of money lost by antsy domain investors wanting to pull the trigger on every domain they think can be sold for a profit. The reality is going to kick in when most of these names can’t be flipped in the next 6 months because there won’t be a domainer to domainer market and the end user will still be trying to understand what the hell they are.

    Total registered
    ——————-
    .BIKE 7,356
    .CLOTHING 7,085
    .GURU 35,378
    .HOLDINGS 2,755
    .PLUMBING 2,784
    .SINGLES 4,961
    .VENTURES 3,880
    .CAMERA 2,184
    .EQUIPMENT 4,127
    .ESTATE 4,554
    .GALLERY 5,526
    .GRAPHICS 2,762
    .LIGHTING 2,708
    .PHOTOGRAPHY 18,210
    .CONSTRUCTION 1,538
    .CONTRACTORS 1,336
    .DIRECTORY 3,682
    .KITCHEN 1,247
    .LAND 3,932
    .TECHNOLOGY 4,729
    .DIAMONDS 91
    .ENTERPRISES 116
    .TIPS 126
    .VOYAGE 121
    ———————–
    domains below registered today

    .COM 127,434
    .NET 15,849
    .ORG 9,885
    .INFO 6,552
    .BIZ 3,807
    .US 2,532

  18. Wow, who in the world spends $185K and more on some of those extensions? I’m not even a new gTLD naysayer by any means, but it’s just sad. Definitely in the “what were they thinking” category for me.

  19. I agree with snoopy that it seems the target market for the majority of new tlds is domainers.

    And I’m happy with that as the more money that domainers spend on newG’s, the less money left in the general domaining kitty to spend at namejet and snapnames on expiring .coms, which is making their prices more realistic.

  20. Just consider many of the one and two word dot com wonders are still 15-20 years later sitting in the inventories of the top domain investors carrying costs that at least can be offset from traffic. And most of those names were obtained at a cheap price following someone else’s lost dream (Frank attributes his collection to the “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”) and if there was publicity on foreclosures from Domain Capital versus the small percentages of domain success from the universe of hundred of millions sitting on the shelves of brokers unsold domainers would make informed decisions. Very few people understand how to spot a GREAT domain. That’s why guys like Rick and Mike succeed with speculations like Meet.Me and then they even hedge their bets in partnership.

    Unfortunately the 1% of the worthy spoils from this buying frenzy will end up the smarter guy’s feast. By then the guys behind the new registries will have used your money to inflate the balance sheet and exit at 10X. Just ask Parsons, Cahn, Fabulous etc.

  21. Meanwhile here is spin from BBC which includes case studies seen elsewhere so ICANN must be behind spoon feeding these articles to the media:
    “Icann believs the new generic top-level domain names will encourage innovation
    The process was not cheap by anyone’s standards. The price of an application for a top-level domain is $185,000 (£111,000) and those who have been through the process claim that associated legal and consulting fees take the real cost far closer to $1m.

    But Mr Larsen believes the cost is worth it, arguing: “It’s like buying a piece of land that I can forever lease out.”

    Buying up top-level domains is likely to be big business, with investment companies such as Domain Venture Partners announcing it aims to raise a $400m fund simply to invest in them.

    On a smaller scale, new domains offer businesses greater choice and differentiation in a very crowded marketplace, with secondary domains becoming available for next to nothing.”

  22. I have seen plenty of the new gTLDs for sale at SEDO for less than EAP pricing. If the domainers are buying them all up, at least good ones are available there at reasonable flip prices for some of them.

  23. You know,I have read all these posts here,twice,because like most I have a vested interest in the out comes.I keep a low profile,probably sometimes to my own detriment.But I have several thousand domains and am looking closely,will the values fall?Will they rise?Stay stable etc…do I seel everything now at rock bottom and get out?These questions have to be going though a lot of brains now.One thing I do KNOW as fact,is the public STILL hasn’t understood even ccTLD”s yet,except maybe a couple,so how many years to understand,or even learn anything about all the new extensions?

  24. Registries have failed to define and enforce decent AUPs (Acceptable Use Policies) to prevent domainers and speculators from taking over new gTLDs and keeping legitimate businesses out of the market.

    Most registries don’t care who buys a domain. But when awareness fails to take hold, maybe at that time they will prevent parked domains from being so dominant.

    When domains are not used by businesses and left parked, new gTLDs will fail and the registries can only blame themselves.

  25. “The gTLD program was supposed to ensure that EVERYONE could receive the domain they wanted.”

    no the purpose of the new tld was for the ICANN affiliate infra-structure people and coompanies, and past board members and attendees to make money.

  26. That is what the big domainers want you to buy. Each time there is a new gTld to the market they say buy, Then, after 6 months they go back and say that Dot Com’s is king!. It is a money game for thos eBig Wig’s. You know who I am talking about. It is BS.

  27. if you do have little understanding of internet, you would never say new gtld are bad idea. people who complain about these gtld they just to protect their own investment and talk crap about it.
    open your eyes and welcome to new world of gtld

  28. With the new tld’s I suspect all will go well until the flippers try an resell then find no one wants to pay much. The domain players are the only ones that know about all the new tlds. The general public doesn’t know about these tlds so currently this market is ALL profit seeking flippers. Once they can’t sell they’ll stop buying more tlds then it all stops. Then next year no one will be renewing.

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