New gTLD registries have undertaken various efforts to educate consumers about “not com” domain names. I think domain registrars have a major role to play in educating their clients about the new domain name extensions, as their clients are the companies and people who are buying domain names.
People have a relationship with their registrar, and I think this makes the registrar’s role all the more critical in educating consumers about the new domain name extensions they may have heard about.
I want to share a video that 101Domain just shared on its YouTube channel with a goal of busting what they believe are some common myths about non-.com domain names (“not coms”):
I can definitely agree that registrars should take a more active roll in educating consumers about the “Not .com’s”.
However I also think that it would be safe to say that the majority of “Not .com” buyers are domain investors looking to resell for a profit. With that in mind, it would potentially put the majority of the educational benefit weight on the shoulders of each investor. Thus making it a joint responsibility for a reseller to educate consumers so that they can get the best ROI.
I don’t know there is much point in telling customers new tlds are not confusing. They’ll make that decisions themselves.
They have an issue in that the “myths” are mostly true, the only one that probably is a genuine one is myth 3 about SEO. The video may well have the opposite effect to what was intended, i.e. they are alerting people to the issues.
NOT-coms are NOT-smart!
If we use the real estate analogy of domains being virtual real estate, then why were new TLDs launched? OK certain early investors grabbed all the great .COM domains which are now priced for six or seven figures (Miami Beach waterfront properties). Small businesses and web developers could not afford to pay that much so they ended up having to register lesser-quality domains. However, what is often overlooked is that the decision of developers and small businesses to register “reg-fee quality” domains was not because they could not afford a decent domain. Most small businesses can afford a $1500 to $5000 purchase because they will regularly pay invoices of that amount for other normal expenditures. They end up selecting lesser choices (three or four words, hyphenated, abbreviated, etc) because they do not value domains as brands useful for generating sales and mindshare with potential customers.
Prior to the launch of new TLDs there were millions of aftermarket domains many available for $XXX to low $XXXX prices – well within the reach of a small business. Yet typical industry turnover was only 1-2% annually – a sign of very little demand for domain names at more than reg fee prices.
So then someone decides let’s launch a thousand new TLDs in two years and mislead newbies into thinking these new extensions are like .COMs in the late 90s. So two years later the number of aftermarket domain names has mushroomed but has end user demand grown at the same pace? Of course not. Essentially we have built a huge condo complex in the middle of the Everglades surrounded by alligators, anacondoas and pythons and are charging prices (premiums or renewals) which are comparable to properties in Brickell or Aventura. What will the vacancy rate be for such a property when basically many end users budget-wise are just looking for a campground to pitch a tent and sleeping bag?
If end user domain budgets continue to be $25 then aftermarket new TLDs will be a massive fail for investors. If end users eventually wake up to the branding potential of short, memorable domain names useful for promoting products and services and begin to pay for that right, then investors in many TLDs will benefit. As it stands currently, there just are not enough end users buying aftermarket domains to justify investing in new TLDs.
DOT COM is always the king and NOT COM is totally confusable 🙁
like: Online.Training OR Training.Online
Almost everyone wants DOT COM and pay much and much so thats the power of DOT COM 😀
GoodBye NOT COM :p
SO, if people can’t access Booking.Yeah because it’s not a TLD, they won’t get confused when they will see another .Word?
Tel someone that your favorite coffee shop is CoolCoffee and their website is CoolDOTCoffee, They will remember the brand name which is Cool Coffee (catchy) but two weeks later they will try to access the website. They have never heard of .Word and if they have, how would they know which words are tlds and which ones are not?
This is DOT confusing DOT WTF
So sad that so many people are going to lose their shirts over these new tlds. Sob, sob.
If someone offered you $100,000 for a domain name you thought was worth $10, would you accept their offer or decline because they were overpaying and “going to lose their shirts?”
When it comes to the new domain names, people seem overly concerned about other people’s money.
This is an old video from name.kitchen.
It was not created by 101domain.
Thanks. 101Domain posted it on their YouTube page and I don’t see a watermark from Name.Kitchen.