Hopeful New gTLD Investors May Miss The Boat

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 and what I have seen with other TLD rollouts, most of the valuable assets will not be available to purchase at the hand registration cost. Many domain registries will hold back their most valuable domain assets, some of which will be available for private acquisition directly from the registry. Other domain names will be available in an auction format, sold to the highest bidder. While some of these names may not sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars, many won’t be available at the lower hand registration cost.

I believe there will be some decent hand registrations available to buy, but for the most part, the best of the best domain names (those that actually have aftermarket value) will not be available at whatever registration fee is established. Despite the fact that there are people eager to hand register names in the hopes of striking it rich, this probably won’t be possible.

People who are banking on excellent and valuable new gTLD domain names to become available at a cost that is close to the cost of a new .com domain name will probably be in for a big surprise. Although they are excitedly waiting for the opportunity new gTLDs will certainly bring, many may miss the boat.

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

17 COMMENTS

  1. The energy and frustration it is going to take to register, and wait with these new gtlds, you can focus on the .com market. There sit many names where you can make thousands of percent return, unlike any business known to man. Or you can go out and reserve johnwayne.horse €599.95/reserve, you do the math.

  2. I have pre-reg on some very nice geo.singles with name.com out of everything available so far I think these will hold some good value!

    • What happens if others have pre-registered the same names at Name.com or other domain registrars? Is it first come first served, or will those go to auction and cost more than the registration fee?

    • Name does not have exclusive rights to .singles, so your pregister is a hoop dream, the expected reg fee fr unreserved names is supposed to be $31.99.

      From what we are seeing with .horse, .casa, .ceo geo.singles will price in the thousands.

  3. What most people do not realize from the pre-register reservations, the registries are using this data to block, and price multiple reserved names at higher multiples, or hold for future auctions, if they deem the demand is there. Obviously this is false demand, as no funds are required to reserve in the early rounds, whereas things are changing now, and becoming almost comedic.

    • Name.com charged me 79.20 a piece up front for .singles pre-reg

      “We will attempt to reserve a specific domain name for you before it reaches General Availability, similar to a backorder.

      Pre-Registrations are accepted on a first-come, first serve basis. You will receive a full refund if we are unable to secure the domain name for you.

      Pre-Registration is available to everyone”

      I’m likely SOL on these beauty names I agree but I did have hope with first come first serve basis

  4. Anyone who thinks the companies that have invested millions into setting up a new gTLD are going to let the really, and in most cases only, valuable keywords sell for reg fee is living in LaLaLand.

    There will be lots of solid acquisition opportunities with the highest quality keywords, but you’re going to need a big stack of chips to play and win on that trade.

  5. Most of us like a challenge and the opportunity to put our mind to work, using our own creativity, And what better opportunity to do that with a new TLD? searching out names of our favorite niches as opposed to searching through a daily drop list that hundreds of other domainers are looking through.

    Mix that in with “Gold Rush” fever where domainers feel compelled to beat other domainers to the punch, thinking they can out smart everyone, registering domains that have proven successful in the dot com TLD while overlooking the fact it was the extension itself that sold those names.

    It’s a “Gold Rush” alright, but it’s Fools Gold with plenty of fools to go around.

    • I’d rather spend $5,000 on a .com name I can flip for $8,000 – $15,000 in 30 days than buy $5,000 worth of domain names that might be worth nothing… and that doesn’t consider what happens if the rates go up the next year.

  6. I’m like you are Elliot, I spent between $1000-$4000 many many times on drops and sold them to end users for nearly 10 times what I paid, sometimes more.

    Sure it’s nice to get one for reg fee or under $100, but for dot com those days are longer over IMO.

    • Here are a handful of my pickups under $100 this year (not hand registrations) that I haven’t sold yet:

      CrossCountryTraining.com
      MethAddict.com
      BostonDogWalker.com
      457Plans.com
      StealthPayment.com
      WebsiteGames.com
      Avoids.com
      Terminates.com
      TacticalMasks.com
      FengShuiConsultants.com

      I’d rather have these names than say a chance to get a third tier city.Singles domain name for $80/year. These coms will cost me $8 to renew annually, so all together, the renewal cost will be the same as 1 .Singles name.

  7. You can hold onto names like that forever though, Domains that pay for itself with PPC I always hold onto, the ones that don’t and receive zero interest and traffic, those I weigh whether to keep or drop.

    I grabbed many dot com’s for $60 as well, some are really good that I would hold onto even though they have zero traffic… But I’m in total agreement with what your saying with reference to TLD choice, I dabbled in other TLD’s and GTLD’s and it was a loser every time, Luckily I didn’t go overboard on them like others did.

    • I don’t buy names for expected PPC value. I buy names that I can see a company wanting to buy to enhance or support its presence online.

      Also, in a similar vein, I don’t think many new gTLD domain names will have any traffic or PPC value.

  8. Elliot,

    Apart from .com which other existing extensions can become more valuable, after all these new extensions flood the market place?

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