Since I’m now working really hard on my YouTube.com/OneMinuteEconomics channel, I tend to pay more attention to the let’s call it business side of YouTube and recently, I’ve noticed that two HUGE YouTubers (Rhett and Link, 12 million subscribers!) are using the domain Mythical.Store to sell merchandise.
I consider it an ok choice for them and that made me think about the domaining dimension, of course.
With Dot Mobi, with Dot TV and nowadays with new gTLDs, there’s this obsession of looking for developed sites and celebrating each one you found as if it’s the best thing since sliced bread for domaining in general and your investments in particular.
It isn’t.
Seriously, it’s not.
I’ve mentioned this obsessively as of 2015: personally, I’m sure there will be end users/developers for whom new g’s will represent a decent choice but since DomainingTips is a domaining blog, that’s not what I care about.
Ultimately, one question and one question only matters: are they worth INVESTING IN?
And unfortunately, I see little proof of them being investment grade.
At the end of the day, one case study involving a domainer who actually made money by investing in new g’s is worth more than a thousand examples of developed new gTLDs.
I mean just think about how ridiculous is sounds to get excited when seeing a developed new gTLD:
- If you get excited about one developed new G, should dot com owners feel the same way about the millions upon millions of developed dot coms? Including the top sites visited by just about everyone, including of course domainers? Even with Rhett and Link being huge, I doubt Mythical.Store gets more than 100k monthly uniques… compare that to, well, YouTube (dot com, wink wink)
- Registries have reasons to care about these things (since they make money off developers or end users, just like they make money off domainers) but why should YOU as an investor care all that much?
- Most developed new gTLDs are simply bought as sloppy seconds or if you will, because the end users in question either couldn’t afford the dot com or weren’t willing to pay enough for it
- How many people do you know who generated PROFITS with new gTLD business models? For example, someone who invested $20,000 in 2015 and made $30,000 thus far. I mean new g’s have been available since 2014 and we’re now getting close to the end of 2017… I for one don’t know anyone who has generated worthwhile profits with new gTLDs
- Ok, leave booked profits aside for a moment. How many people do you know who are at least on their way to generating profits? As in ok, they haven’t recouped their initial investment yet but are at least on their way due to making more each year than they pay in renewal fees? For example, if you’ve invested $10,000 in 2015 and currently make $2,000 yearly in sales, with renewal fees being just $1,000. I’d take that. Again, I for one don’t know anyone who fits this description
… in light of all this, just to scratch the surface, doesn’t it seem pointless to invest energy looking for new gTLDs in the wild?
Let registries do that, your energy as a domainer is better spent elsewhere.
September 6th, 2017 at 11:02 am
Another way of looking at it would be to say that every developed “sloppy seconds” web site in a new gTLD spotted in the wild is an example of a domainer failing to sell the .com equivalent because the potential buyer simply didn’t agree with the supposed valuation.
September 6th, 2017 at 11:22 am
@Kevin Murphy
Good point.
While I normally agree with Andrei, articles like this ignore the fact that the dot-com market hasn’t been healthy for a while, including (and especially) the normally ‘safe’ bets, like numerics.
So, frankly, any interesting uses of gTLDs – ARE – worth watching, IMO.
September 6th, 2017 at 12:31 pm
You don’t need to exert effort to find developed ccTLDs or .com/.net/.org domains.
September 7th, 2017 at 3:29 am
I am not into domaining so my advice is useless here but I read that few people seem to generate profit from new gTLDs…why would a new domain name require to generate profit from it?
September 7th, 2017 at 9:08 am
“New gtld spotting is pointless” …
Not as pointless as continuing to bash them. You bought some , didn’t do well.. The end . A good journalist will always be open minded to the facts .
Your like cnn is to the gop.
If you want to tirelessly bash gtlds to validate your thoughts , it’s your blog and your right. But I think you would probably get more readers if you you put as much effort in talking about the positives of any successes that any extension has .
Imho
September 7th, 2017 at 9:29 am
@Phil: if you’ve generated profits with new gTLDs personally (so as mentioned in this article, if you’ve either already made your money back or at the very least on your way to doing that) and would like to share your story, I’d gladly publish it on DomainingTips.
Or if you know someone who has done that, my door (inbox) is always open to him or her.
Open invitation, not just to Phil.
These things have been available since 2014 and we’re in September 2017, anything other than verifiable results is at this point nothing but noise in my opinion.