If More Domainers Were Selling New gTLDs, Would More Be Sold?

I don't know.

New Extension Sales Sept 23 - Oct 22, 2018

This was one of the quieter months of new domain extension sales since I began this series (see links to previous reports at bottom).  The average number of sales per month in the previous seven reports was 120 compared to just 68 this month. The number of sales was down substantially from last month (313), although the sales dollar volume was only slightly lower. The average sales price of $2955 was about quadruple last month's figure, however and the median was also substantially higher this month.

Summary

During the monthly period ending Oct 22, 2018 there were

• 67 NameBio recorded ngTLD sales in the 30 day period, with $180,800 total sale volume.
• The average sales price was $2955. The median price was $801.
• In terms of major sales, 1 was > $50,000, 8 were > $5000 and 29 > $1000.
• Sales in 22 different extensions, with .top, .global and .link most common.
• The highest sale price was design.online $57,500, dispatch.app at $15,000 in second, while four different .global names (switch, scoop, cyber and leap) tied for third place.
• There were ngTLD domain sales during the month at 11 different venues. Dynadot had the largest number of sales (25) followed by Alibaba Cloud (15).
• The types of domain names that sold: 69% were single word,  14% were short (<=3 letters), and 9% were geographical.
• Registries accounted for almost 64% of dollar volume, but less than 19% by number.
• In 2018 YTD there have been 1196 ngTLD sales listed on NameBio, with an average price of $3675. Sales volume is just over $4.4 million YTD. 

Extension Breakdown

I list in the table on the right  (click on table for a higher resolution version) those extensions that had either multiple sales in an extension, or a total monthly sales volume of  $500 or more. They are arranged by decreasing total sales volume, but the number of  sales for each are also listed.

The following extensions had a single sale: agency, city, gmbh, life, pics, run, site, and vip.  In total, there were sales during this period in 22 different extensions,

The Highest Value Sales

Below is a list of the major sales for the reporting period. Only 2 (or possibly 3) of the top sales were not registry.

• design.online $57.500  Sedo
• dispatch.app $15,000  UserScape
• switch.global  $8,000  DotGlobal
• scoop.global  $8,000  DotGlobal
• cyber.global  $8,000  DotGlobal
• leap.global  $8,000  DotGlobal
• edge.network $7515 Sedo
• DMV.online $5101  Dynadot

Venues

The month saw a steady increase in new extension sales at Dynadot and a drop at Flippa.  As pointed out last month, new domain extensions essentially never sell at GoDaddy (at least not above $100). Here are the venues with multiple new extension sales during the month.

• Dynadot 25
• Alibaba Cloud 15
• Dot Global (registry) 9
• Sedo 8
• BizCN 2
• Jiangsu Bangning (registry) 2

Names That Span Dot Effectively

Some of the domain names from this reporting period that I personally feel make excellent use of the extension as congruent with the domain name are the following:

• design.online
• citizen.group
• simple.solutions
• auto.finance
• rock.city
• click.link
• chain.global
• read.life
• sun.group
• switch.global
• edge.network

Great Value

Interestingly a few of the great names went for value prices.  For example click.link was just $123 and rock.city only $130.  In my mind the greatest value this month though was simple.solutions that sold for only $122. The word winter sold in the .xyz extension for merely $101,  a  true bargain price. These show that, at least sometimes, you can get memorable names in the new extensions at excellent value.

Types of Domains

We also performed an analysis of the type of domain name.  The majority (69%) were single word domain names (+ extension of course), although short (defined as 3  characters or less) were also popular (14%).  About 9% were geographical terms.  Numbers remain unpopular in the ngTLDs with only 2 in this  dataset.  Multiple word domains were rare this month, with just a couple off 2 word names and  one 3 word. Three of the names were adult in nature.

Year to Date 

So far in 2018 there have been 1196 ngTLD sales with an average sales price of $3675. The total value of 2018 reported ngTLD sales up to the day of writing is just over $4.4 million. For reference last year saw $5.2 million in total new extension sales.

Discussion

This report has mixed news for new domain name investors. While the number of sales and number of extensions, are both down from last month, they are in line with the year overall.  On average, this month just over 2 ngTLD sales are reported per day in the NameBio database.  The sales volume  has remained almost constant and the average price is up this month (at least compared to the previous two reporting periods).

One reason I produce these reports is to provide guidance to ngTLD investors to help them optimize their chances for success. The fact that ngTLD sales seem to be trending up on Dynadot may be actionable information.  Outside the registry sales, Sedo continues to be the venue that obtains the highest prices for quality new extension names.  Also, this month confirms a general trend  that single word domains with a good match on the two sides of the dot are most likely to sell, although short acronym names and geo names also find traction in the new extension space.  Surprisingly few number domains sell in new extensions, only 2 during this reporting period.

While I show sales by extension, I would caution those investing in new domain extensions that, unlike the com/net/org/info space, it is not primarily the extension that matters, but rather the match between the name and the extension.  As such, high value sales are possible, even if not probable, in almost any extension even those without a sales history.

It is still prudent to be cautious when investing in these extensions, and still true that overall the return on investment seems better in .com. The difference is possibly narrowing, however, and if the comparison is with other legacy extensions, or country code extensions, the case for new extensions could be made (although is still arguable). For those new to this field, my post on 12 reasons why end users (and domain investors) might want to consider new domain extensions may be worthwhile. The health of new extensions, ultimately, depends on the adoption of these extensions in significant websites.

Notes

The NameBio database (or at least the portion publicly reported) does not include sales with value less than $100, nor sales from a number of venues such as Afternic, Undeveloped or Efty (unless buyers or sellers report them individually), nor from most of the ngTLD registries, so it is difficult to estimate how complete a record this is of all ngTLD domain name sales. Sometimes sales are posted on NameBio after their recorded sales date and therefore never appear on the daily report although they do appear in the NameBio database.

Previous Reports

Here are links to the three previous reports in case you want to do monthly comparisons:

• Period ending Sept 22, 2018
• Period ending Aug 22, 2018
• Period ending July 22, 2018
• Period ending June 22, 2018
• Period ending May 22, 2018
• Period ending Apr 22, 2018
• Period ending Mar 22, 2018

Next Report and Other News

We will issue our next report in late November, and it will cover ngTLD sales for the period from Oct 23 through Nov 22. This monthly update on publicly reported ngTLD sales is offered as a service to the domain community.  While I strive to be accurate, no implied guarantee or warranty is associated with this report, and readers should independently verify information before using it in any domain investment decisions.  As always, we welcome comments and corrections. We report regularly on domain name news, with a special emphasis on the new extensions, on our Twitter feed.  Why not join the almost 1600 domain investors, venture capitalists, tech experts, startup owners and other great people that already follow us @AGreatName?  If we can be of assistance in helping you find a domain name at a value price, or using a domain name phrase in a marketing campaign, don't hesitate to contact us through our website (or via direct message at Twitter).

Original post Oct 25 2018.

Disclosure:  I currently hold a number of  ngTLD domain names. I am  not associated with NameBio, but would like to acknowledge their incredible database and their generosity to make it available to the domain community. This, and all other postings at this site, are offered for educational purposes and should not be interpreted as domain investment advice. You are responsible for your own domain investment decisions. 

End User for Recent Major .Online Sales

As I pointed out recently, there has been momentum in .online extension domain name sales this year.  In today's post I look at who made two of the recent major purchases in the extension and why the acquisitions are a good fit for the company.

The Sales

On Sept 20, 2018 the domain name king.online sold for $17,250 on Sedo. A few days later the domain name design.online sold for $57,500, also on Sedo. The design sale makes the top 10 list of new global top level domain (ngTLD) sales in 2018 YTD at time of writing. I am not completely sure, but using https://web.archive.org it appears that the names were sold through Sedo by the  Radix registry as premium names.

The End User

I see that both domains are now redirecting to the website of King Living, an Australian headquartered furniture business that started in 1977. The company currently operates from a com.au domain name. The company started with the name King Furniture.  They have over the years been early adopters of a number of innovations including steel frames, use of foam in cushions, removable covers, and modular designs.  They have won a number of awards for their designs. They currently operate showrooms in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore. Their expansion plans include a Vancouver, BC, Canada showroom that will open in the coming year.  You can read more about the company here or directly on the history section of the company's website.

Discussion

Now that the company operates well beyond Australia, and has further expansion plans, I think rebranding to a truly global top level domain makes sense.  Undoubtedly they would have liked king.com, but that is the website for King, a major UK based video game maker - you quite probably have used their products, as they make the Candy Crush line!

The fact that King Living selected the .online extension tells me that they see expansion through online shopping. The .online extension has a number of things going for it.  It is one of the top 10 new extensions, both in terms of registrations and  actual use in Alexa 1M websites. About 1 in every 500 registrations make the Alexa 1M, almost as high as .com. The extension has excellent lack of abuse statistics - on day of writing with a score of 0.56 it is tied with .com.  It will be interesting to see if King Living plan to use these names always for redirection or if eventually their main web presence will migrate to them.

There are a number of other extensions that would have made sense for the company, such as king.life or king.design.  The first is available for sale currently by a Chinese domain name investor.  I suspect they selected .online either because acquisition was easier, or because it is more well known by the general public. I do not know if the company has other ngTLD acquisition plans.

I congratulate the company on these digital asset acquisitions.  For Radix, it is good news to have another major company with a long and distinguished history choosing to brand using one of their extensions.

Original post Oct 4, 2018.

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make. I have no association with the folks who maintain NameBio or NameStat databases. I acknowledge the makers of these for the valuable products that they make freely available to the domain name community. I have no association with the company mentioned in this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis.  If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.  I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually. 

New Extension Sales Analysis Aug 23 - Sept 22, 2018

This was an unusual month for new extension domain sales with dramatically more sales at the low value end but relatively few high value sales (just 3 above $10,000 and 30 above $1,000). As a result the average sales price was significantly lower ($634).  While the number of sales is almost double the previous month, the dollar volume of sales is down by about a factor of two (although last month was the highest volume of sales since I began these monthly reports.) A very active month at Flippa accounted for much of this change (but see Note 1). The .top extension, mainly registry sales of premium names, dominated sales dollar volume again this month. Many extensions had a significant number of sales, however, with 46 extensions having at least a single sale, and 10 extensions having ten or more sales during the month. Both of these are new records since I began these reports.

Summary

During the monthly period ending Sept 22, 2018 there were

• 313 NameBio recorded ngTLD domain name sales in the 30 day period, with $198,500 total sale volume (Although see Note 1).
• The average sales price was $634. The median price was roughly $198.
• In terms of major sales, 3 were for $10,000 or more 30 were for $1000 or more.
• There were sales during the month in 46 different extensions, the most since I started these reports. Ten different extensions had 10 or more sales in the month.
• The highest sale during the month was AD.top which sold for $32,232. AR.studio at $15,495 and transparency.online at $10,000 took second and third places.
• There were ngTLD domain sales during the month at 10 different venues.  Flippa had the highest number of sales, but Jiangsu Bangning had the highest sales volume. Sedo took third place in sales volume.
• For the 100 highest value sales in the month: 12% were 3 letter (or less), 32% were single word, 36% were two word, 3% were three word,  and 17% were other.
• Registries accounted for just over 40% of the dollar volume of these sales, but less than 10% of the number of sales this month  (Note 3).
• So far in 2018 there have been 1120 ngTLD sales in total listed on NameBio, with an average sales price of $3743, accounting for a total of $4.2 million sales volume. 

Extension Breakdown

I list in the table on the right  (click on table for a higher resolution version) those extensions that had either multiple sales in an extension, or a total monthly sales volume of  $350 or more. They are arranged by decreasing total sales volume, but the number of  sales for each are also listed. The popular extensions  .top, .online, .club, and .site all had a good number of sales in the month.

A  few extensions that are only rarely traded had major sales, including the great domain names smile.direct and Mr.glass.  The .fun extension  had a good month with 20 sales. The first aftermarket sales of the newly released .icu extension came this month.

If you are wondering which other extensions had a single sale, they are accountant, city, download, group, loan, network, pictures, rocks, science and tax.  In total, there were sales during this period in 46 different extensions, a record since I started doing doing monthly analyses of new extension domain name sales. That being said, it still means that about 400 new extensions that are in general availability did not record a single sale during the month (at least on  sites that report to NameBio).

If instead of sales volume you look at the number of sales, we have the results pictured on the left, with 10 different extensions having 10 or more sales during the month. For several of these extensions the sales this month represent a significant portion of their total NameBio sales record. However, see also Note 1 about possible issues in some of the data.

The Highest Value Sales

Below is a list of the major sales for the reporting period. Since there were only 3 sales over $10,000 this month, I decided to list all sales that were $3000 or more.  Unlike  other months, there were no reported sales from the Global registry.  Also, some other registries like Radix only report a couple of times a year. These reports often miss a portion of the .top registry sales that are reported to NameBio for dates within the reporting period but after we publish the analysis. For these reasons, and possibly others, there are fewer large registry sales in this  report than the last few monthly reports.

• AD.top $32,252  Jiangsu Bangning
• AR,studio $15,495  Sedo
• transparency.online  $10,000  Afternic
• wonder.top $7853  Jiangsu Bangning
• mobile.top  $7633  Jiangsu Bangning
• smile.direct  $7018  Sedo
• sanya.top $6585  Jiangsu Bangning
• handan.top $5865  Jiangsu Bangning
• a.company $4000  Sedo
• trt.top  $3907  Alibaba Cloud
• bdd.top $3657 Alibaba Cloud
• Mr.glass $3000  Sedo

I am not absolutely sure whether two of the sales are registry or not (the two at Alibaba Cloud), but I believe that 5 of the sales are directly registry, and the rest are probably not direct sales of premium domain names by a registry.   I only count a sale as a premium registry sale if it is being sold for the first time. For example, if I purchase a premium name from a registry, hold it for some period, and then sell it on Sedo to another user, I would not count it as a registry sale. See Note 3 regarding registry sales classification.

Venues

The graph at the right shows the top 5 venues for the sales when rated according to total dollar volume. The .top registry, Jiangsu Bangning, had the largest volume of sales again this month, although two venues that mainly handle sales from domain investors, took second and third place. It should be noted that although Afternic had a major reported sale, normally sales at that venue doe not report to NameBio and therefore the sales volume indicated does not represent the total sales there.  Also, marketplaces like Undeveloped, and registrar marketplaces at Namecheap and Namesilo are not reported to NameBio.  Venues with a single ngTLD sale during the reporting period include GoDaddy, Key Systems, West, 101 Domains, and NamesThat.win. Sedo is established as a venue for high value ngTLD sales, while Flippa has more sales but predominantly at prices of $500 and less, with some exceptions. While I feel it likely that the registrar marketplaces (probably especially Namecheap who handle so many ngTLD  initial  registrations), Efty sites, Undeveloped and other/private venues are probably handling a good volume of ngTLD sales, but those  are not routinely reported in the NameBio database. 

Names That Span Dot Effectively

Some of the domain names from this reporting period that I personally feel make excellent use of the extension as congruent with the domain name are the following:

• ticket.city
• games.business
• smile.direct
• AR.studio
• a.company
• Mr.glass
• biomedicine.online
• Chelsea.fun
• wonder.top
• Plato.top

Great Value

Interestingly a few of the great names went for value prices.  For example Chelsea.fun was just $199 and ticket.city is in my mind one of the best ngTLD deals ever at just $100. The domain name CA.tax (CA could mean Canada, California or chartered accountant) went for only $120, while e-sports.icu sold for only $128.  These show that, at least sometimes, you can get memorable names in the new extensions at excellent value.

Types of Domains

This month we did an analysis of the type of domain name for the 100 highest value domain names.  The results are shown on the left (click on the chart for a higher resolution view). Very short acronym names remain popular, with 12% of the sales from 1 to 3 letter in length. Most of the more valuable domain names were either short or single word, with 32% of the top 100 sales  single word.  However, there appears to be a trend toward more multiple word new extension domain names, with 36% of the sales two word and 3% were three word. Three word names included LiveWorldCup.online and CaresAndShares.online.  In some cases the domain names were difficult to classify and 17% were placed in an undetermined or other category.

Year to Date 

So far in 2018 there have been 1120 ngTLD sales with an average sales price of $3743. The total value of 2018 reported ngTLD sales up to the day of writing is $4.2 million. For reference last year saw $5.2 million in total new extension sales.

Discussion

This report has mixed news for new domain name investors. While the number of sales, and number of extensions, are both up from previous months, the number of high value sales and the total sales volume are both down.

As indicated in Note 1, there is scepticism among some regarding a portion of the recent sales at one venue.  If we accept that they are all legitimate sales, however, it is encouraging to see that finally a healthy exchange on domain names in the $100 to $400 range is taking place.  The majority of domain name sales (at least on NameBio) in legacy extensions such as .com are in the $250 to $500 range, and in my opinion there is a market for value priced domain names in new extensions. There are indicators in this report that there are beginnings of a market for two word domain names in the new extension domain market.

It is surprising that only a single sale took place on GoDaddy.  This is a major site for sale of legacy extension domain names between domain investors, and it seems surprising that so few sales, at least over $100, are happening there in the new extensions.

Various China based venues continue to sell a healthy number and volume of .top extension domain names, often at significant prices.

While the total number of reported new extension domain sales is fairly limited at Sedo, they sell for very good prices in multiple extensions.  They have done this since the beginning, although the prices seem to be creeping upward.  For ngTLD sales at Sedo the average price 2018 YTD is $4124, vs $3939 last year and $2473 in 2016.  It is likely that next month will take the total volume of ngTLD sales for the year (currently at $544k) to the highest single year ever at that venue (in 2017 $551k were sold at Sedo, the current record for a year).

While tracking past sales in an extension can be valuable domain intelligence, it is important to realize that not infrequently one encounters major sales in an extension  that has not previously had a major sale.  I wrote an earlier post on this topic.

While I show sales by extension, I would caution those investing in new domain extensions that, unlike the com/net/org/info space, it is not primarily the extension that matters, but rather the match between the name and the extension.  As such, high value sales are possible, even if not probable, in almost any extension even those without a sales history.

It is still prudent to be cautious when investing in these extensions, and still true that overall the return on investment seems better in .com. The difference is possibly narrowing, however, and if the comparison is with other legacy extensions, or country code extensions, the case for new extensions could be made (although is still arguable). For those new to this field, my post on 12 reasons why end users (and domain investors) might want to consider new domain extensions may be worthwhile. The health of new extensions, ultimately, depends on the adoption of these extensions in significant websites.

Notes

The NameBio database (or at least the portion publicly reported) does not include sales with value less than $100, nor sales from a number of venues such as Afternic, Undeveloped or Efty (unless buyers or sellers report them individually), nor from most of the ngTLD registries, so it is difficult to estimate how complete a record this is of all ngTLD domain name sales. Sometimes sales are posted on NameBio after their recorded sales date and therefore never appear on the daily report although they do appear in the NameBio database.

Previous Reports

Here are links to the three previous reports in case you want to do monthly comparisons:

• Period ending Aug 22, 2018
• Period ending July 22, 2018
• Period ending June 22, 2018
• Period ending May 22, 2018
• Period ending April 22, 2018
• Period ending March 22, 2018

Next Report and Other News

We will issue our next report in late October, and it will cover ngTLD sales for the period from Sept 23 through Oct 22. This monthly update on publicly reported ngTLD sales is offered as a service to the domain community.  While I strive to be accurate, no implied guarantee or warranty is associated with this report, and readers should independently verify information before using it in any domain investment decisions. This, and all other postings at this site, are offered for educational purposes and should not be interpreted as domain investment advice. You are responsible for your own domain investment decisions.  As always we welcome comments and corrections. We report regularly on domain name news, with a special emphasis on the new extensions, on our Twitter feed.  Why not join the more than 1500 domain investors, venture capitalists, tech experts, startup owners and other great people that already follow us @AGreatName?  If we can be of assistance in helping you find a domain name at a value price, or using a domain name phrase in a marketing campaign, don't hesitate to contact us through our website (or via direct message at Twitter).

Notes and Caveats:

1. As the reader of previous monthly sales analyses will note, there was a significant increase in the number of low value sales at one venue (Flippa) in this report. These had started in the final few days in the previous report, and continued through the first three-quarters of this report. The unexpected number of sales attracted attention and discussion within the domain community, and some are sceptical of at least some of these sales as, to western observers, a number of the names seem of  questionable quality. Most, but not all, share a price in the range $160 to $200, and were from sellers in the same geographical region.  Many of the cases involved similar or identical words being sold in different extensions.  I have spent many hours looking into these, examining sellers, registration dates, names, extensions, prices and more.  While I don't claim to understand a number of the sales.  While the narrow price range seems surprising, I discovered that a significant part of all Flippa sales are in that range and have been for some time.  It should also be stated that the same terms, or very similar ones, sold in a number of other extensions on Flippa, including .pro, .us, .asia and likely .info and.com. Also, in several cases a much higher price similar name also sold.  A number of the domain names (by no means all) are in use already in sites.  I have kept all NameBio listed sales in this report. I felt that there was not compelling evidence that they should not be included. Should I have excluded many of these Flippa sales the total sales dollar volume would not be significantly changed, but the number of extensions and sales would go down significantly (and the average price would go up). 
2. For the first time since I have been  analyzing ngTLD sales there were zero dot Global sales in this reporting period.  I am not sure if that is because they have stopped reporting to NameBio or for some other reason.  That has reduced the number of high value sales, and the number of registry sales.
3. For purposes of estimating registry sales I assume that all sales from Alibaba, Jiangsu Bangning, Global, Uniregistry and registry venues are assumed registry.  I assume that all sales at Affternic, Alibaba Cloud, Flippa, GoDaddy, Namesilo, Sedo, Undeveloped and West are normally not registry.  I realize that occasionally some of the venues in this list do sell registry premium domain names,  and occasionally I count individual names as registry.  In this month the sales at 101 and Key Systems appear non-registry and were classified in that way.  No easy classification system is perfect, and I suspect a few have been misidentified. 
4. The NameBio statistical summary for the month seems slightly higher (~2%) in sales volume than I obtain by adding all of the individual extension data.  I have checked my work several times and can't resolve the difference.  It is possible this analysis is missing about 2% of the sales somehow, and therefore under represents the true sales.
5. As I have noted previously, the TOP sales in particular are periodically reported. It is quite possible, even probable, that some TOP sales will be added to the database for dates covered in this report, but that were not available to be included in this analysis.  Therefore TOP sales are likely under-represented. 
6. Most registries do not report to NameBio.  Also NameBio do not generally include data from major sales venues such as Afternic and Undeveloped (occasionally individual sales are reported, as the case for the $10,000 transparency.online sale reported here.  Nor are sales made from Efty sites and private sales normally reported. 

Original post Sept 23 2018.

Disclosure:  I currently hold a number of  ngTLD domain names. I am  not associated with NameBio, but would like to acknowledge their incredible database and their generosity to make it available to the domain community. 

New Extensions at Tech Giants

This week Apple used their corporate .apple new domain extension in promotion of their new iPhone models. This got a lot of attention in both the technology and domain communities. I think the real excitement should focus on the fact that they used a domain name phrase, and not simply on the use of a branded new extension.  I will expand on that idea in a future post.

It is sometimes overlooked that the biggest technology companies, not surprisingly, have been using new domain extensions in a variety of ways for some time. In this post I look at new domain extension use by Apple, Amazon,  Google, Facebook and Netflix. I think there are some lessons for both marketing professionals and domain investors in these examples.

Apple

Apple of course has its own  branded .apple new extension.  While Experience.Apple is only the second meaningful use of the branded extension yet, clearly it has great potential for all manner of catchy domain name phrases. There are endless two or three word phrases such as create.with.apple to simply.apple that are possible.

But Apple has also for some time used many other new domain extensions.  A number of these were for simple redirection,  for example Apple.site, Apple.website and Apple.xyz all redirect to the main site.  A few other new extensions are used by Apple  in a more targeted way such as Apple.news (that not surprisingly goes to their corporate news site) and Apple.technology that takes you to their developer resources.

Amazon

Amazon use a huge number of different new extensions, and I just touch on a few of them in this section.  It is actually a lot of fun trying different  ngTLDs with the word Amazon! A number of new extensions including .fit, .forsale, .guide, .life, .online,  .rocks, .site, .space, .world, .xyz and many more just direct you to the main Amazon website.  Amazon also use redirects to their main website for extensions such as .date, .fund, .loan, .loans and .science where the fit is arguably more contrived. They are missing some obvious ones, since .fun, .life and .icu don't resolve so supposedly are not at time of writing controlled by Amazon.

However, Amazon also makes more specific, and interesting, use of some of the other new extensions. Amazon.dog takes you to a page with everything from dog treats to dog beds to books about dogs. Amazon.Christmas, as you guessed, highlights Christmas crafts and decorations. They naturally use the .boats extension for all your boating needs. Amazon do make use of the .lgbt extension, but not in an apparent way to highlight resources for the LGBT community. Amazon.today takes you to today's deals. You might wonder what Amazon.horse takes you to - try it! Wonder where they would take you at the .wtf extension? Try it to find out!

Unlike Apple, Google and Netflix, Amazon does not yet have their own branded .amazon ngTLD, although they have been battling for years to secure it.  They are currently trying to placate objections from those  associated with the Amazon region of the world. You can read about some of the twists and turns in that here.

Google

It is well known that Alphabet,  the parent company of Google, use the new extension domain name abc.xyz for their corporate website.

Google also own the rights to a number of different extensions, and of course had the very successful .app extension release earlier this year.  The other active extensions in general availability that they operate are much less well known, extensions such as .soy.  They have also for some time operated an internationalized character domain extension that in the Japanese language means 'everyone'.  Several of the extensions they have that will soon come into general availability such as .dev and .page are likely to have a significant impact on the domain world. You can keep track of the extensions they operate at https://www.registry.google/.

Unlike Amazon, or even Apple, Google seem not to have put in use many ngTLDs for redirection purposes.

Google do have their own brand as an extension .google. As noted  earlier, they use that for information on the extensions they offer.  They also make use of it for a corporate blog, as a launch site for finding and registering domain names,  and for their artificial intelligence site.

Facebook

I like what Facebook does using the .design ngTLD.  At Facebook.design you find a set of articles and videos by members of the Facebook design team. They have also have a set of resources for technology designers who are writing code to interact with Facebook.  They even have a link for those who want to apply for a position in design at Facebook. Amazon also uses a .design extension, in a similar mode, but it is a pretty sparse site compared to the Facebook one.

Netflix

As far as I could tell, Netflix make limited use of new domain extensions.  However they do use the .film extension, although it simply redirects to their main Netflix site for your country.  They could have very effectively used different extensions to point to collated resources in different topics, as Amazon does.  Of course Netflix have their own branded ngTLD, although so far the use is limited.

Discussion

I don't see any of these companies ever abandoning their .com (and multiple country redirects) and  going to only a new domain extension.  I do expect they, and other companies, will increasingly use the new domain extensions in catchy domain name phrase marketing.  I hope that more will adopt creative use of multiple extensions along the Amazon line, or do something effective in highlighting a branch of their operation as Facebook do with the .design extension.

Sometimes casual domain observers look only at the main site, and assume that the business is not using new domain extensions.  As this has demonstrated, most large companies own and  use hundreds or thousands of domains.  The use of new extensions in certain niches of their operation is very common among the biggest technology companies.  Com may well be king, but the royal court has a lot of minor players making things varied and interesting!

Please add to comments interesting new extension use by the technology giants that I left out!

Links:

• Experience.Apple link
• 9to5 Mac Article
• DomainInvesting Article on Apple Promotion
• Apple.news
• Apple.technology
• Amazon.dog
• Amazon.Christmas
• Amazon.today
• abc.xyz
• Get.app
• registry.google
• blog.google
• AI.google
• Facebook.design
• Amazon.design
• Netflix.film
• Our site NamesThat.win - thanks for visiting
• Permanent link to this blog post

Original post Sept 22, 2018.
Slight revision Oct 3, 2018 to give information re Netflix brand ngTLD, and the dispute with respect to .amazon.

Disclosure:  I currently hold a number of  ngTLD domain names. I am  not associated  (except as a customer) with any of the technology companies named in this report.  The icons of those companies are registered trademarks by them.

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis.  If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me. 

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes 2018, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually. 

New Domain Extension Sales July 23 – Aug 22, 2018

Each month I take a look at "new" global top level domain (ngTLD) sales reported in the NameBio database over the previous 30 days. The reporting period started slow, but picked up momentum in the past couple of weeks.  While the average price ($2549) is down from the previous report ($3372), as is the median price, by every other metric this reporting period was substantially stronger than all previous reporting periods since I began this monthly series just over half a year ago. The number of sales (167) is substantially up from the previous period (102), as is the number of different extensions seeing at least one sale (37 vs 19 in previous report), and the total dollar value of sales ($425,600).  There are also more high value ($10,000 or more) sales this month, with 12 versus 7 in the previous reporting period.

Summary

During the monthly period ending Aug 22, 2018 there were

• 167 NameBio recorded ngTLD domain name sales with $425,600 total value.
• The average sales price was $2549, while the median price was $649.
• In terms of major sales, 12 were for $10,000 or more (69 were for $1000 or more).
• There were sales during the month in 37 different extensions, Although .top dominated again with 65 of the sales, the extensions .bid, .club, .global, .online and .webcam all saw 5 or more sales during the month.
• The highest sale during the month was bg.top which sold for $51,187.
• There were new extension sales during the month at 16 different venues, plus one private sale.  Flippa was the location for 72 of the sales while 13 were at Sedo.
• While the registries dominated high value sales (at least 6 of the top 12 sales), in total numbers there was a strong majority of non-registry sales.
• So far in 2018 there have been 793 ngTLD sales in total listed on NameBio, with an average sales price of $5007, accounting for a total of $4.0 million. 

Extension Breakdown

Here is the breakdown by number of domain sales reported in each extension during this monthly reporting period.

• app 2
• bid 6
• bio 1
• cash 1
• center 1
• club 9
• cricket 1
• dance 1
• date 2
• download 1
• fun 4
• fund 1
• fit 1
• global 5
• gold 1
• life 3
• loan 3
• media 1
• men 3
• news 1
• one 1
• online 10
• party 2
• place 2
• review 4
• science 2
• site 2
• space 3
• style 1
• stream 2
• tech 4
• top 65
• trade 3
• webcam 5
• website 3
• win 3
• xyz 3

The Highest Sales

Here is a list of the major sales for the reporting period. 

• bg.top $51,187
• bl.top $46,847
• coin.store $26,705
• Mr.global $20,000
• AirConditioning.online $19,500
• token.xyz $14,999
• xyz.top $10,910
• caijing.top $10,183
• win.tech $10,000
• origin.tech $10,000
• ado.tech $10,000
• bot.app $9,999

We included the $9,999 .app sale even though it was $1 under our formal barrier for inclusion.  If we look at the top sales for 2018 YTD only bg.top would make the top 10 (in 10th place).  The package deal of .news domain names would have placed in this list, actually dominating the numbers if listed individually.  Although they were announced in this period, the actual sales date was 2017 (or possibly earlier as I discuss). 

Names That Span Dot Effectively

Some of the domain names from this reporting period that I personally feel make excellent use of the extension as congruent with the domain name include win.tech, pure.gold, live.fit, link.global, Mr.global, coin.store, food.style, mail.place, reset.top, shares.place, growth.online and counselling.online, among many others this month. While I understand why some shorter names, and those with high value keywords,  sold for higher prices, I think these names do a great job of 'spanning the dot'  to effectively take advantage of the new extensions.  It will be interesting to see the websites that develop on these names. Why not look through the entire list and pick your own favourites?   I wrote a previous report on one of these domain names, A Domain Name That Is Pure Gold, speculating on who might find value in the domain name.

Year to Date 

So far in 2018 there have been 793 NameBio reported ngTLD sales with an average sales price of $5007.  Note that this is as NameBio report sales dates  with both home.loans for $500,000 and The.club for $300,000 listed as 2018 sales, since they were reported in 2018, even though the sales agreements were completed in 2017. On the other hand, vacation.rentals that sold for $500,300 is not reported in 2018 in their database.

The total value of 2018 reported ngTLD sales up to the day of writing (Aug 23, 2018) is $4.0 million. In terms of number of ngTLD sales, the rate is slightly up from that recorded in 2017, although the total value of ngTLD sales, if it continues at current rate through the rest of the year, will be somewhat higher than last year that saw $5.2 million in total new extension sales.

I have stressed the importance of scaling in any domain name analysis.  Yes, .com dominates, but the vast majority of domains for sale are also .com.  If you take the sum of .net plus .org, together their registration numbers (about 14.1 and 10.3 million) are just under 25 million, just slightly more than all ngTLDs combined.  I therefore thought it would be interesting to compare the dollar value (as of Aug 23, 2018) of 2018 YTD (on NameBio).  For .net it is $1.6 million and for .org $2.0 million, for a total of $3.6 million, very comparable to the $4.0 million in ngTLD sales YTD.  In number of sales, however, .net and .org are much higher (1617 and 2560 respectively vs only 793 YTD ngTLD sales).

Discussion

I find it a really encouraging trend that so many new extensions now have recorded sales on the major after market venues, and that the value end (typically hundreds of dollars) is well represented in this report.  I am not sure why, but Flippa has only recently emerged as a major venue for sales in that price range for the new extensions. These do not appear to be registry sales, and I am not clear why the sudden change.  If you have information please share it with me.

Generally we who concentrate on the new extensions have urged domain investors to mainly consider only single word names which match well with the extension.  While I still think that is good advice, it must be said that multiple word domains have sold in the new extensions in this report, sometimes for good amounts (e.g., AirConditioning.online for $19,500, MyWorld.online for $2699, SoftwareDestiny.download for $650). A number of the value end sales this month were multiple words as well.

Many extensions saw their first NameBio recorded domain name sale in this report. For example the relatively new .fun extension had never had a NameBio recorded sale, and now they have four! There was other good news for that extension lately as Ron Jackson has reported.   There are still many new extensions without a single NameBio recorded sale, of course. I discuss the extensions seeing new sales at value end, and why I regard it as so positive, in this post. The drop of the average sales price is simply an indication that the high premium sales are being balanced by a large number of sales at the low end.

This was a solid month for .club, and in addition as their CEO reports there are many sales happening that are not reported here. That extension just released a promising financial report showing strong company growth.

The former Famous Four extensions, now under new management, seem already to be gaining respect, as a number of their extensions saw their first or early NameBio recorded resales in this report.  The sales appear, for the most part, to be regular domain names and not premium ones, with the majority of sales prices less than $250 and words with local meaning or multiple word domains. I have discussed this in more detail here.

Some may be surprised that the median price ($649) is not higher.  Many overlook the fact that median prices in almost any extension are routinely much less than the average price.  For example, on the day I am writing this (Aug 23, 2018) the median sales price in .com for the day is $249 and in .org it is $172, even though the average prices for the same day are $953 (.com) and $242 (.org).  If you excluded the registry sales, the new extensions in this report would probably have a median in the $400 range, which is a a reasonable value. Some experts in the field point out that NameBio sales figures are biased down, since many of the end user sales are not included, while many domainer to domainer sales, especially from GoDaddy, play a big role in the database. I think this is a logical argument, probably influencing all extensions.

The .top extension continues to lead, in registrations, sales and high value reported sales. Because of when they report, frequently .top sales miss the NameBio daily domain report, even though they get in the NameBio database and most make this monthly report. Just examining the NameBio Daily Report can bias your perceptions of sales in some extensions.

There are other encouraging signs for the new extension domain world which I have commented on previously.  One  of them is that while it used to be the case that some days had zero ngTLD sales, there has not been such a day for the last 31 days (July 24 through Aug 23, 2018).

It is still prudent to be cautious with investing in these extensions, and still true that overall the return on investment seems better in .com. The difference is narrowing, however, and if the comparison is with other legacy extensions, or country code extensions, the case for new extensions could be made (although is still arguable).

Notes

The NameBio database (or at least the portion publicly reported) does not include sales with value less than $100, nor sales from a number of venues such as Afternic, Undeveloped or Efty (unless buyers or sellers report them individually), nor from most of the ngTLD registries, so it is difficult to estimate how complete a record this is of all ngTLD domain name sales. Sometimes sales are posted on NameBio after their recorded sales date and therefore never appear on the daily report although they do appear in the NameBio database.

Previous Reports

Here are links to the three previous reports in case you want to do monthly comparisons:

• Period ending July 22, 2018
• Period ending June 22, 2018
• Period ending May 22, 2018
• Period ending April 22, 2018
• Period ending March 22, 2018

Next Report and Other News

We will issue our next report in late September, and it will cover ngTLD sales for the period from Aug 23 through Sept 22. This monthly update on publicly reported ngTLD sales is offered as a service to the domain community.  While we strive to be accurate, no implied guarantee or warranty is associated with this report, and readers should independently verify information before using it in any domain investment decisions. As always we welcome comments and corrections. We report regularly on domain name news, with a special emphasis on the new extensions, on our Twitter feed.  Why not join the more than 1400 domain investors, venture capitalists, tech experts, startup owners and other great people that already follow us @AGreatName?  If we can be of assistance in helping you find a domain name at a value price, or using a domain name phrase in a marketing campaign, don't hesitate to contact us through our website (or via direct message at Twitter).

Links:

• NameBio database
• Previous monthly ngTLD sales report (July 2018)
• Hopeful Week for New Extensions
• New management at former Famous Four extensions (Domain Incite)
• Colin Campbell of CLUB (Domain Name Wire)
• DNJournal look at the Radix .fun extension
• Scaling Data for Different Extensions
• News Package Sales Prices
• Website use and trends for different extensions
• Are You Missing the Top?
• Why would anyone want a new domain extension?
• Our site NamesThat.win - thanks for visiting
• Permanent link to this blog post

Original post Aug 23, 2018.

Disclosure:  I am  not associated with NameBio, but would like to acknowledge their incredible database and their generosity to make it available to the domain community. My portfolio of domain names is mainly ngTLDs, as well as a number of .co, .com and .ca (and a few other country codes).

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis.  If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.  

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually. 

The images used are either those associated with a product or service, my own images, or Pixabay images believed to be available for use without attribution. If you see any image that you believe is problematic, please let us know and we will immediately correct the situation.

Hopeful Week for New Extensions

Proponents of new domain extensions have waited a long time for much good news.  Yes, occasionally there were big sales announcements such as The.club and Home.loans sales, and some of the registries have reported a string of good value premium sales. However, the domain after market in new extensions has been slow throughout and almost non-existent for some extensions. While one should never place too much emphasis on any single day or even one week or month, I wonder if August  2018 might be viewed as when things changed for the new extensions.

The August 21 Daily Report

The August 21 NameBio daily report includes 16 new extension domain sales, with sales in 12 different extensions.  There were two sales in each of the .bid, .club, .date and .space extensions, and a single sale each in 8 other extensions.  I can't remember a day during the past year when so many different new extensions sold in a single day. To put it in perspective, on this day there were more new extension sales than .net, .info, .co and .io combined! Yes, critics will point out that most of these sales were at modest prices (average price was $254) and that it is just one day. For me, however, the more significant point is that this does not seem to be one isolated day, but rather an upturn in new extension sales during the past few weeks as I explain below.

The Last Week

NameBio allows you to easily search for data from a certain time period and extension class, so I searched for sales in new domain extensions (ngTLDs) for the past week (ending Aug 21, 2018).  It shows  that there were 44 sales in 23 different extensions, with an average price of $1809.  That is more different new extensions than sell in most months.

Here is the breakdown by extension for the week long period ending Aug 21, 2018.

• app 1
• bid 2
• club 3
• cricket 1
• date 2
• fun 2
• life 1
• loan 1
• men 2
• online 3
• party 1
• place 2
• review 2
• science 2
• space 3
• stream 1
• top 8
• trade 2
• webcam 1
• win 1
• world 1
• xyz 2

While some of these, such as .club, .online and .xyz have sales regularly, for a number of the extensions the sales reported this week are among the first.  For example, these are the first two .fun sales ever (at least in the NameBio database), while for .space these 3 sales represent almost 40% of all sales in the database (there are of course many others not in that database, either because of venue or dollar value). The only two NameBio recorded sales ever of .webcam have been in August, and this is the first recorded .stream sale in the database. This week saw the second and third highest  sales of all time in the .place extension. The sales in .review, .trade, .loan and .men, while not the first in those extensions, are among only a handful of prior sales.

It would appear that the new managers of the former Famous Four extensions are already having a positive impact on acceptance of the extensions. Many of their extensions, including .bid, .date, .loan, .men, .party, .review, .science, .stream, trade and .win, saw sales in this week. Spamhaus measured abuse is already way down in some (not all, for example .men and .date still have high levels of abuse) of the former Famous Four extensions - e.g. .science went from being among the worst just over a year ago to being broadly comparable in abuse to major extensions now (its score of 1.45 is a bit worse than .net and .com but much better than .us and .biz, for example).

It is important to realize that the average price was influenced by some high end registry .top sales, and any week, no matter how encouraging, could just be a statistical outlier. Nevertheless the news is encouraging (see also the section Other Promising Signs below).

Why Does The Value End Of Market Matter?

While high end sales (along with actual use) play a significant role in giving respect to new domain name extensions,  I think healthy new extensions also depend on a substantial number of aftermarket sales at the value end (which I interpret in the low to mid hundreds of dollars per sale).  Even in legacy extensions, many of the sales are at modest amounts, typical median prices of a few hundred dollars. Critics argue that end user sales are typically higher than this, claiming that NameBio data is biased by sales between domainers at venues such as GoDaddy Auctions. They argue that end user sales at venues not reporting to NameBio, or private sales, are usually at higher prices. I see logic in this argument, although without evidence it is difficult to be sure. No matter whether biased with respect to average price data, NameBio data clearly indicates that many sales do take place in the few hundred dollar range.

I don't think that it is healthy to have the only sales in an extension at the high premium end. The sales noted here, of many different extensions, sales that are for the most part not registry premium names, and across multiple venues, gives hope that the sputtering new extension aftermarket may finally be finding traction. The natural pattern is that if extensions become accepted through a multitude of sales in the $100 to $400 range that later values will go up for the better names.

A big part of the potential domain market is currently not purchasing, in any extensions, domain names.  If new extensions play an important role in serving these end users it would be positive for the entire domain market.  I am encouraged that there are other recent promising signs for the new extensions as outlined below.

Other Promising Signs

There were other recent promising signals for new extension proponents. I list a few below.

1. There has been at least one ngTLD sale each day for the last 30 days (starting July 24), with an average of 4.1 NameBio reported new extension sales per day.
2. The .club extension reported generally promising financial numbers.  This interview with  Colin Campbell of CLUB and DomainNameWire has insights on the overall picture as well as insights on the strength of premium domain sales in the Asian market and the success of selling premium domains with extended payment plans on Namecheap in particular.
3. A major investor and personality in the domain name field announced a major sale of a new extension when Andrew Rosener announced on Twitter the $15,000 sale of token.xyz on Sedo.  Andrew is a well known and  highly respected individual who usually deals  in legacy extensions, so I think this sale will influence others.
4. The .fun extension announced strength in real world use, which coupled with the first after market sales seen here is encouraging news of the health of the extension which recently reached 100,000 registrations as well.
5. The .app extension seems off to a reasonable start in terms of aftermarket sales. with 6 sales in the first few months since general availability and an average sales price of $4426.
6. With 24 major sales of new extensions (on NameBio) of $25,000 or more so far in 2018, the high end seems very strong currently.
7. Both the introductions of .app and .icu seem to have been successful when compared with previous new extension introductions.
8. As I pointed out, while the new extensions still represent a tiny amount  of major website use, they are growing in use faster than legacy extensions. 
9. While the difference will not be large, 2018 seems on track to have the highest total dollar value in new extension sales ever. 

Conclusions

I realize that this  could be a statistical blip, and we may return next month to a small number of new extension sales per week dominated by a few extensions. I am hopeful, however,  that this is an early sign of a brighter future.  I see inherent worth in the new domain extensions when a high value word is combined with an extension that meaningfully matches that word.  Some of the extensions that saw movement this week have good potential in my opinion. For example, .fun and .win are both ideal keywords to use as part of a domain name phrase. Extensions like .club, .online, .space and .xyz have already achieved reasonable actual use, and it is good to see them also being traded in the after market. App has a clearly defined role, emphasizes the importance of a secure environment, and will no doubt continue to grow in sales. Most of the new extensions are intended not as broad extensions, but for uses in specific niches.  As such it is important that we see sales at a range of prices in a variety of different extensions.  How bright is the future for new domain extensions? Only time will tell, but this has indeed been a good week!

Links:

• NameBio Daily Report Aug 21, 2018.
• NameBio database
• Previous monthly ngTLD sales report (July 2018)
• New management at former Famous Four extensions (Domain Incite)
• Colin Campbell of CLUB (Domain Name Wire)
• My look at the global domain market and needs
• DNJournal look at the Radix .fun extension
• Spamhaus TLD scores
• Website use and trends for different extensions
• Domain name phrases
• Our site NamesThat.win - thanks for visiting
• Permanent link to this blog post

Original post Aug 22, 2018.

Disclosure:  I am  not associated with NameBio, but would like to acknowledge their incredible database and their generosity to make it available to the domain community. My portfolio of domain names is mainly ngTLDs, as well as a number of .co, .com and .ca (and a few other country codes).

Fine Print

This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

I try to be fair, balanced and objective in my analysis.  If you feel this post does not meet that standard, please express your concerns to me.  

In a very few cases there may be affiliate links on this blog. This means I receive a small amount if users visit or make purchases via the link. You do not pay any additional charge due to using an affiliate link, and in some cases your cost will be below the normal price. I receive no identifying information about who clicks, or does not click, any link. I never accept compensation to provide favourable review of any particular service or product.

The text of this posting is ©R Hawkes, all rights reserved. However, you may, without permission, use reasonable length portions of the post as long as a link to this post is also provided. If you wish to use the complete contents of a post, please request permission. I am normally open to reprinting, but will consider each request individually. 

The images used are either those associated with a product or service, my own images, or Pixabay images believed to be available for use without attribution. If you see any image that you believe is problematic, please let us know and we will immediately correct the situation.

The Long Term View

Over the past week I spent some time evaluating my domain portfolio, and deciding which names I wanted to invest in for a longer time horizon. My main reason for doing that is I expected a significant and irreversible price increase in a few of the extensions in my portfolio based on this information from Kevin Murphy. I had alerted others through NamePros to the anticipated price increase in case they wanted to register new names or extend registrations.  My main registrar (Namecheap) had for some time offered great 5 year renewal rates on a number of extensions, although as of Aug 20, 2018 they are gone due to changes in the management of the former Famous Four registries.

Why Register for Multiple Years

I think it is accurate to say that many domain investors generally only register domains one year at a time.  Naturally, being optimistic, most hope to sell their names quickly, and registering a domain name for multiple years could be seen as either negative thinking (It won't sell in year one) or wasteful (I sold it so those extra years were of no value for me).  I don't agree.  Let us consider some of the reasons you should consider multiple-year renewals on domain names in your portfolio.

1. You lock in future costs at known rates.  
2. You take advantage of promotions and savings. 
3. With the luxury of future years registrations prepaid, you will be more confident in asking good prices.
4. The additional years will make your domain names more valuable to potential end users, and give them more confidence about long term costs.
5. Deciding which names warrant renewal for multiple years will force you to critically evaluate your portfolio and emphasize quality over quantity. 
6. The long term approach saves you time that can be put into other domain portfolio priorities.

While reasons (1) and (2) were the dominant ones for my recent renewals (and a couple of new multi-year registrations), really all of these factors played a role. My pricing is always value oriented,  but I now feel more confident asking reasonable prices for quality domains (3). I think uncertainty in future renewal prices has made some end users leery of new domain extensions, and purchasing a domain name with multiple future years of registration prepaid does add value for the new owner (4). It is a good feeling that I have a longer term window to set up attractive sales pages for the domains, and to facilitate getting offers.

It was also a good exercise for me over the past week to literally look at almost every domain name I hold and rank them in categories of definitely hold for multiple years, possibly hold for an extended period, or definitely keep only a single year if no interest. For a few domain names I am currently undecided, and that prioritizes where future research is needed. As I limit my entire domain liability, I had specified a total amount I had available to spend, and the exercise of forced me to prioritize which domain names to focus on.

Concluding Remarks

I offer the following points in conclusion.

• Following authoritative news from the domain field will be financially beneficial at times.  Had I not read Kevin's posts, I would not have known about the impending price increases, as my registrar did not inform me. This is one reason to be on social media and  to read NamePros regularly.
• Your domain portfolio business plan should have at least a several year time horizon both for both costs and projected revenue. Renewal costs are a major part of the overall plan.
• It is better to focus on fewer names of higher quality, and over extended periods, rather than a lot of domains you only plan to hold one year. 
• Note I am not saying you should always register for multiple years. It is often a good move to test drive a domain name for a year, see if you get any inquiries, and then review whether you want to keep it. 
• I wish that registrars and registries more frequently offered multi-year discounts. I think the stability would be good both for the industry and for domain name investors.  I was encouraged to see this week that Namecheap now has a 3 years of the .online extension promotion (see  if it is still on should it be of interest to you). 
• Always shop around for the best renewal prices using a tool like TLD-list.  Remember that it may not show all multiple year discounts though, so also do your research and  be alert to time limited promotions.  If your main registrars have blogs read them, and use social media and online domain communities to stay up to date.
• Your business plan and personal branding statement should make it clear which domain names are congruent with your operation and you should make  sure that  your long term acquisitions in particular are a good fit.

Many of the points mentioned here are congruent with the overall advice to domain investors I offered in an earlier post.  One good place to learn about promotions is NamePros - if not already a member, you should be!

By having some of your domains registered for five years in the future, it will help you keep going during down times, knowing that you are in this for the long run.  I guess that is me!

PS

In case you are wondering what I decided to renew for 5 additional years, most were science extension single words and acronyms that I think will be more important in a few years compared to now.  I also have  registered for 5 to 10 years a few that I have development plans, including my main domain website NamesThat.win. I forget who told  me this, but it is good advice to focus on those domain names that you would develop if you had  time.  This tells  you two things: it is a topic with current interest (so development is worthwhile) and that you have expertise in that niche (we sell best what we know best).

Links:

• Famous Four Restructuring (updated column from Kevin Murphy)
• TLD-list (find the best registration, transfer and renewal prices)
• Namecheap
• Advice to domain name investors
• Namecheap Online Promotion (limited time)
• NamePros
• Our site NamesThat.win - thanks for visiting
• Permanent link to this blog post

Original post Aug 21, 2018.

Disclosure: I have no association with any of the companies or individuals mentioned in this post, except that I have a number (somewhat over 50% currently) of my portfolio of domain names registered at Namecheap, and I am a member of their affiliate program.  I also have domain names registered at Alpnames, NameSilo, CanReg, GoDaddy and Web Hosting Canada.

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This post is offered for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be considered domain name investment advice. While an attempt has been made to be accurate, there is no implied or explicit warranty, and you are responsible for verifying any information of importance to you. You also accept full responsibility for any domain investing decisions you may make that use data from this post.

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