Domain Descriptions: Pro and Con

Imagine for a moment that you wander into a new car dealership.  You look around and see several cars that appeal to you.  Do you want to know more than simply the price of these cars?  For example, are specifications, fuel efficiency, resale value, warranty, etc. of any interest?  Most of the time car dealers are only too happy to place glossy brochures in your hands that will both help associate the model with positive emotional feelings and also answer questions that might arise when comparing the vehicle to those offered by competitors.  In the domain world, the majority of sellers do not do a corresponding thing, rather taking the view that good domains sell themselves.  I look at arguments on both sides of the question of whether you should include a description with your domain listing.

Pro Arguments

First, let's make an argument in favour of including descriptive information.

1. You have obviously thought and researched the domain name, and it is good to share some of this background to help inform and persuade the prospective buyer.
2. You may provide ideas regarding use of the domain name that the potential purchaser would not have considered. This may help turn those browsers into purchasers.
3. As a convenience to the potential buyer you provide key information (such as registration period and renewal cost) in one place.
4. It may be an opportunity to counter potential negatives with respect to your domain name (e.g. it is a plural, but in this case the plural is the more frequently used form).
5. An attractive presentation may engage and encourage people to spend more time browsing your domain names, and some will become purchasers.
6. It shows that you see value in the domain name, since it is worth the time to provide a detailed presentation.

Con Arguments

I believe the majority of domain investors generally are not in favour of including descriptive material.  The thinking might be summarized as follow.

1. A good domain name speaks for itself. If you explain the virtues of the name, it is saying you don't really have confidence that it is truly a great name.
2. Any serious potential buyer will do her/his own background on the domain name, so there is no need for you to provide the information.
3. If you outline how the name might be used, and that is not consistent with the ideas that the prospective buyer has, that may limit how they view the name.
4. If you include a balanced view of the domain, it might bring up negative aspects that the purchaser had not considered, and their view of the domain name will go down.
5. By including  some items (like automated appraisal values or advertiser data) it may turn off some potential purchasers that place no importance on such measures.
6. I have a huge portfolio.  I don't have the time to put into a detailed description for each domain name. 
7. I prefer the standard description provided, for example by Efty, since that has been researched and is better than anything I would write. 

One More Advantage

There is one more advantage in providing a description. I show below a screen capture (click on image to see higher resolution view) of a domain search from my Efty Marketplace.  I searched on the word CRISPR (a gene editing acronym important in health and agriculture fields).  If I did not have any descriptive content, then it would only have yielded my domains that included the acronym CRISPR.  However, with descriptions Efty the search engine includes all domains with the term in the title or the description.  Therefore domain names like editDNA.co and medit.life appear.

This is an important advantage of descriptions, and you should write them accordingly, making sure that any keywords are included somehow in your descriptions. 

What to Include

I think there are strong arguments against descriptions, as well as a convincing case for including them.  If you do decide to include descriptions, what might you include. Note that not all of these are applicable to all domain names, and depending on your potential audience some of them are perhaps unwise to include.  Nevertheless, here is a list of ideas you might consider.

• Possible uses for the domain name.
• If an acronym, some of the possible meanings.
• Advantages (e.g. short, memorable, trending term, etc.).
• Prior sales of similar words.
• Period of current registration (particularly if already registered for extended period).
• Automated estimates of worth, including commentary if necessary
• Multiple language suitability if relevant.
• Search and advertiser statistics for the domain name.
• Commentary on the TLD extension.
• Renewal cost.
• Age of domain.
• History in actual website use, if any, including backlinks information.
• Possibly other related domain names (in case the potential purchaser does not quite like this one, but would be interested in one of those).

Discussion

There is no single correct answer regarding this question.  Personally. I usually do include descriptions, but at the same time I understand why many others choose not to do so.  As with most aspects of domaining, you should decide for yourself what works for you and you feel comfortable with. However,  I would urge you to be informed on both sides of the argument, prior to making the choice.

I also would stress that this is not necessarily an all or nothing issue.  It may make sense to include descriptions with some domain names or venues, and not others, and if you do include descriptions what to include in them depends on the domain name.

If you do decide on the description route, there are some practical points to make the task easier.  The main one is to keep all of your descriptions in a text file in some organized (e.g., alphabetical) form so you can easily copy and paste when you list the name on a new marketplace.  While I see advantages to the Efty approach of using a very short description along with additional bullet points, it is certainly easier to deal with the single text field of Undeveloped  and other sites that allows a longer description.

One final point: always be honest and fair in your description.  It is probably unwise to list a single high NameBio database comparator if multiple closer comparators are much lower in value. One difficulty of including automated appraisal information from GoValue is that these may change fairly dramatically from month to month in some cases.  Therefore, you might want to include a disclaimer alerting the reader to that.  Fortunately, it is easy for them to check this information without cost to them. Most of the time we only deal with any particular client in a single sale, but treat each as though you were building a long term relationship based on openness and honesty.

Even if you do decide on a comprehensive description, also be alert to the value of concise writing.  Try to keep it informative and engaging, while also short!  I look forward to reading your domain descriptions, or not!

Original post Aug 28, 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 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 my 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.

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.

Take A Look At ICU

Introduction

For some time I have planned to do a series with each post taking a deep dive into a single domain extension. I decided to start that with a recent extension that is still unfamiliar to many, ICU. When I first heard about the new global top level domain (ngTLD) ICU ("I see you"), I thought the extension was too gimmicky. However, upon a closer look, I changed my mind on the prospects for the extension. Let me share with you why I might see an ICU domain name in your future, whether you are a domain name investor or an end user.

What Does It Mean?

Officially the name stands for "I See You", although as many in the domain investing community have pointed out, ICU is the standard acronym for Intensive Care Unit, and I think the domain will see use with both meanings, and perhaps others. The domain name is meant to be location agnostic, use in any region, and while it is better suited to some potential applications than others, the extension is intended for a broad set of applications for businesses, organizations and individuals.

Some Stats

The ICU extension came into general availability on May 29, 2018. As I update this (Sept 11, 2018), the number of registrations is just over 75,000 (you can get up to date statistics from the nTLDStats site. Although the initial growth of ICU registrations has been slower than the runaway success of the APP extension, ICU has nevertheless grown at an impressive rate over the first two months and ICU is already into the top 50 of all ngTLDs. Registrations are an important, but alone not sufficient, requirement for familiarity with the domain name to grow.

Whether you are a domain investor or an end user, it is important to have registrar choices. This is convenient in consolidating your domain portfolio to just a few registrars. Also, registrar competition helps keep registration and renewal costs competitive. Registrars are still being added, but as I write this 42 registrars handle the ICU extension. This includes a number of the most commonly used registrars such as Alpnames, Dynadot, Gandi, Namecheap, Namesilo, Porkbun, Uniregistry, Webnames, and many others.

While there are ICU extension domain owners from 87 countries, the global distribution is far from uniform. The largest number of registrations come from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Seychelles, Spain, China and Russia.  Familiarity with the new extension will probably grow fastest in these regions, although it also means that more terms related to these regions will already be registered and therefore not available. The graph below (from NameStat) shows the global distribution and numbers.

Image courtesy of NameStat.org. Check website for most recent data. 

Pricing

The majority of ngTLDs (there are exceptions, of course) have not handled pricing well in my opinion. Generally initial bargain basement prices (often around $1.00 or less) followed by renewal costs of $30.00 or more per year. However, the registry reserved many of the best names as premium offerings at much higher prices, often thousands of dollars. Confusion reigned as some of these premium offerings renew at standard rates, while others renew also at premium rates. This resulted in many of the best names never getting used, and domain name investors were shut out of the most desirable part of the market in the extension. Fortunately, ICU seems to have learned from these errors in previous ngTLD introductions, providing more transparent and reasonable premium pricing and clarity with renewal pricing.

In my opinion the ICU extension has done the right thing with respect to pricing, and I will call their system smart graduated premium initial pricing. Initial pricing in the majority of domain names in ICU is modest - with promotions sometimes as little as $1.50 or even less. For more desired premium domain names, ICU uses a graduated system of pricing with four different levels, but 85% of the premium domains are at the first level that is not much different than the cost to register many standard domains in other extensions (it is about $16 at Namecheap). A small number of premium domain names are at the three higher levels. The exact values vary with registrar, but currently at Namecheap they are $78, $780 and $7800. To give a sense of the names in each category, words like chemistry, HDTV and trend were all available at the $16 level when I checked. Especially HDTV strikes me as a great bargain and I suspect one of my readers may pick it up soon. At the $78 level were colours such as blue and high traffic keywords like trips. When one goes to $780 some highly desired words that have sold for high amounts in other extensions are available such as cruise and matrix. At the highest level I could only find a few words, including some of the world's great cities such as the word Toronto.

ICU on their website makes it absolutely clear that renewals even of premium names will be at standard rates. I wish this simple approach applied throughout the ngTLD space! The announced renewal rates for ICU are also modest - for example at NameCheap, one of my favourite registrars, the renewal price is $7.88, less than regular prices for .com, .net or .org.

You can find who has the least expensive current prices to register, transfer or renew any domain extension at sites such as TLD LIST. The data are updated every few hours, so check just before you make a registration or transfer.

Promotion

The co-founder of ICU, Kevin Kopas, is well known in the domain name industry. Read Ron Jackson's excellent story on Kevin and the ICU extension on DNJournal. Early indications are that the management of ICU will be proactive and smart in promotion and supervision of the extension, and Kevin's expertise will no doubt play a large part of that. While their Twitter feed does not yet have many followers, ICU are doing a good job highlighting both available domain names and newly registered names and websites, and milestones reached by the extension.

The ICU management are not alone among ngTLDs in highlighting some of the sites using the extension, but I think their pioneer program where you can apply to have your ICU website promoted is a good idea. Visit https://nic.icu/ to learn about the program and apply to have your site featured. In Kevin Kopas' words (from the interview with Ron Jackson) the  pioneer program "provides media expertise to new and evolving businesses who are looking to create, expand, or improve their online marketing strategies. The program includes exclusive access to a digital co-working space with help from others and learning resources like a  21-module online media program aimed at bringing businesses closer to their customers by driving strategic and consistent message delivery across online platforms."

Resale Market

It is too early to have much in the way statistics on after market sales at this time. My expectation is that we will see resales, perhaps many, in the extension, but that the prices will be moderate. I think the initial pricing structure from the registry will tend to, at least for the first few years, keep prices in the range from $100 to $300 for most domain names. That is not to say that a few prime names will not go for much more, or that prices for a longer time frame may well be significantly more if the extension comes into widespread respected use. One positive sign for those investing in the extension is that it is already possible to list ICU domain names at Sedo, the world's largest domain market. I notice that a number of premium ICU domain names are listed on Undeveloped as well. Added note: there are as of now (Sept 2, 2018) three NameBio recorded resales of ICU, the first being SwimmingPool at $199.

Abuse

In this series I plan to briefly look at abuse statistics for each domain name. I find that some legacy domain name investors repeat claims that new extensions are disproportionately associated with malware. These claims are not supported by evidence. Among the new extensions some are better and some are worse than extensions such as .com and .net for spam. The vast majority of phishing attempts come from .com and a handful of country code extensions (this is not surprising since in phishing they are trying to emulate an established country, most of which use .com). In terms of spam, the professionals at Spamhaus are the world experts, protecting billions of individual email accounts from spam. They define a badness index which is based on a ratio of the number of sites associated with spam to the total number of active sites in that domain extension. It is scaled by a logarithmic measure of the total number of domains, since the same percentage in a heavily used domain name poses more of a problem.

You can use a form at this link to look up the badness index for any domain extension. Use the pull down box at the top left to select the extension (or type it in) and it will give you the badness index. These values change continuously with new data. As a new extension the long term abuse characteristics are difficult to know for ICU. On the day I updated this (Aug 27, 2018), the badness index for ICU was 1.4. This made it slight worse (lower is better) than com (0.62), xyz (0.71) and online (0.47), similar to net (0.90) and info (0.98), and much better than club (2.83),  biz (3.43) and top (5.56), and hugely better than the worst extensions that are the 'free' country code extensions. Note that these values change somewhat daily, so check at link for the most up to date values if important. Over the month or so I have been tracking the ICU value has been pretty consistent, slightly going down (i.e. better).

Actual Use

We are not quite two months into general availability of ICU, and normally it takes many months of a new domain extension before we see much in the way of actual use. The early signs are extremely encouraging for the extension, however. For a domain not yet four months in general availability, the number of actually operating websites is more than decent for a ngTLD. It is first in growth trend as I update this (Sept. 11, 2018). As of today ICU has 259 sites in the Alexa 1M, or one per about 300 registrations which is excellent. By comparison the APP extension is 1 in about 2675, TOP is 1 in 2500, the much older XYZ is about 1 in 940, and ONLINE, that promotes being highly used and is much older, is only slightly better at 1 in 580.

While there are critics of how well Alexa 1M (the one million most used websites according to their methodology) represents actual use, the fact that such a new extension already has any sites at all in the top million is impressive. For reference, there are about 1.9 billion websites in the world currently, so getting in the top million is something only 1 website in about 1900 achieves.

I highlight a few websites that are already operational on the ICU extension below. These are chosen not because they necessarily reflect the highest traffic sites, or the most elegant, but as different areas of application. There are also some adult sites making use of the extension which I did not include. I have no association with any of the sites listed below, and listing here should not be considered an endorsement of their products and services.

Rajkumar Agro Engineers

An agro-engineering firm based in India, Rajkumar Agro Engineers Pvt Ltd. uses the extension for their product line, sales and customer service. is a leading manufacturer, exporter and supplier of specialized equipment such as cutters, oil expellers, wood splitters, brick making equipment, small mill equipment, pulverisers, post hole diggers, etc. Their website is fully functional with lots of equipment views, allowing their potential customers to "see" the equipment. If the use of "see you" in the sense of catalog offerings takes off, we could see a lot of demand for the ICU extension.

Hairstyle Gallery

There is already a fair amount of use of ICU in sites promoting fashion, jewelry, etc. Some of these are information aggregator sites seeking ad revenue, while others offer original content. Some use the information to indirectly promote a business. One example is hairstyle.icu site that shows images from a huge array of hairstyles, for both women and men. Literally everything from wedding hairstyles to styles well suited to frizzy hair. It appears that the site was operational for a couple of years, but have now adopted the ICU extension that fits their function perfectly.

UltimateCrypto

Not surprisingly, there are already ICU sites operational in the crypto currencies field. One that I briefly examined is CryptoMarketCap.icu, that provides up to the second valuations on a large number of different cryptocurrencies. On the date I checked there were 2024 different currencies being tracked by the online site. As well as the value, change, volume, etc. for each currency, at the top of the page it provides the total amount of funds in cryptocurrencies.

Travel

A site using the premium name travel.icu offers an easy way to find flight and hotel options in cities around the world. You enter a city, for example I tried Toronto, and it lists both the major and minor airports for the city. Then select one from the list, and,at least for the cities I tried, it goes to another ICU website but this time with the code for that airpor - e.g. Pearson airport in Toronto the site was YYZ.icu. From there you can find flight, or airport, options.

ICU

Of course the ICU people themselves have a great website operating with the extension. On it you can see what is new with respect to the extension, learn about (or apply to) their pioneer program, see some options for available ICU domain names, or find a registrar that handles the extension. Go check them out at nic.icu!

Want to promote some other operational ICU sites? Why not leave a comment on this blog with a link to the site?

Additional Ideas

The sites listed above are all actual in-use websites built on the ICU extension. To complement these I wanted to highlight some other ways I see the extension being used effectively. This is done through some of the domain names I hold personally. All are available for sale currently. Simply enter the domain name in a browser, or click on the link provided, to go to a sales lander with additional information and a purchase option.

ultrasound.icu

Ultrasound is best known as a safe medical imaging technique, but it also finds use in certain therapies, structural testing, quality control, etc. This domain name, with the new ICU extension is a perfect match to an imaging technology, and could be used with a company, distributor, clinic, reference site, etc. This application also works if we regard ICU as an abbreviation for intensive care unit. Get registration dates, price, automated worth estimates and purchase option(s) at the link.  

SeeMe.icu

This domain name would be a great fit for an app, website, club, career coach, therapist, or a plethora of other potential uses that encompass the idea of "seeing me". Use the link or enter the name in a browser to get more information or to see purchase options.

happiness.icu

While not as direct, perhaps, as the other examples in this section, I think one really powerful use of the ICU extension is in senses such as "I see you" happiness. The highly desired word happiness is taken in most popular extensions. Coupled with the new ICU extension, various uses are possible for this memorable domain name. The domain name would be ideal for a therapist, psychologist, researcher, business, or organization that worked in the field of positive psychology. It also is a perfect fir for sites that more generally promote a happy life, for children or adults. The name happiness is high searched on Google (more than 600 million searches!). Why not be one of the first to put this new extension to work in promoting a healthy, happy lifestyle?

patterns.icu

Whether it is quilt or craft patterns, or patterns in big data, this domain name is short and memorable. It couples really well with the ICU (I see you) domain extension. Get registration dates, price, automated worth estimates and purchase option(s) at the domain name link.

macro.icu

The short, memorable, high value versatile word macro coupled with the ICU extension makes a great domain name. The word macro can refer to macro photography, macro economics, macro management, as well as other technical terms. The 'I see you' works especially well with macro photography. The name macro is high searched on Google (more than 16 million SERP SLD). We are offering great value in this valuable (domains including 'macro' have sold37 times) keyword - why not pick it up today? Enter the domain name in a browser, or use the link, to obtain additional information, price and purchase links.

Closing Thoughts

Whether an end user looking for an innovative domain name for a new website, a company looking to rebrand, or a domain name investor, you should consider ICU as an option. It is cost efficient both to register and to renew, and early indications are that the domain extension will be effectively promoted and based on early trends may well find wide adoption. Costs are very reasonable to pick up a highly desired single word domain in the extension. An extension worth considering? I see you!

Original post July 28, 2018

Minor format changes Aug 3, 2018

Registration data, Alexa, abuse data, resales info updated Aug 27, 2018

Data and associated text updated, one example removed as now sold. Last update Sept. 11, 2018

Some Links:

• Home of ICU
• nTLD-Stats for ICUNameStat Statistics for ICU
• Permanent Link to this Blog Post
• TLD-LIST (best prices)
• Explore domain registrations at Namecheap
• Link to NamesThat.win

This is the first in a series of posts each taking a deep dive into a single domain extensions. Stay tuned to the blog for others in the series (you can sign up to receive all new posts by email if you prefer - see box in the right hand column). I will also announce them on my Twitter account. The next in the series will be on the SPACE domain extension.

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.

In a few cases there will be affiliate links will 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 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 coverage of any particular service or product.

In the case of ICU I have no formal affiliation with the owners, registry or anyone else associated with the extension, and obviously do not speak for them. I do own a modest number of ICU extension domains, some of which were covered in this article. I have sold one of the three publicly reported .icu resales.

The text of this posting is ©R.L. Hawkes, 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, 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, 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.

Free Expression Offer for Nonprofits (NOW OVER)

Note that the time period for this promotion has now ended so we have deleted the links in the article for application.  Follow us on Twitter or this blog to be informed if we offer the promotion again in the future.  Thank you.

The Contest

Earlier today we announced a contest in which up to two nonprofit organizations can win an absolutely free 3 month domain expression rental from us.  The procedure to apply is simple: just fill out this form (link deleted since contest over) telling us a bit about your nonprofit organization, what phrase you would select, and how you would use it in a campaign.

Imagine an expression such as young.innovators.win, we.redefine.fun or help.diversify.science pointed to any web page you choose (it can be on your own website or a Facebook page, your Twitter profile, a book on Amazon, etc.). Just to show you how they work, we have made the above links live, but at the moment they point to our own Rent an Expression page.

Technical Requirements

The beauty of Rent an Expression (RaE) is that there are essentially no technical requirements for you - no domain to register, no new website to develop and host.  You simply tell us the URL, and we direct it to your designated page.

Rent an Expression in a Campaign

What you do, is for the period of the expression rental promote the phrase through means such as Twitter, Facebook, word of mouth, publications, etc. This can be useful for time specific marketing, such as for a contest or event, or as a way to highlight a feature of your business or organization. Anyone who clicks on the expression in your campaign materials, or who enters it as the URL in a web browser, will go to your designated page.  Since the expressions are simple to remember, and don't involve any domain hacks, they are effective in promotional campaigns.

Yes, Virginia, This Contest Really is Free

The contest offer for non-profit organizations is really free.  You are not signed up for something you need to later unsubscribe from, and there are no hidden charges. You don't provide us with any payment information.  Our privacy policy says we only use your email address for information related to your entry (and administration of the expression).

Why are we giving this away? 

Partly, after having assisted various non-profit organizations we know that funds are often tight, and any assistance can make a difference in you meeting your goals. Non-profits make real differences in lives, and they deserve our help.  Of course we also hope that the promotion of the contest will help make our Rent an Expression service better known, and will lead to us getting some paying rentals.

How to Win?

We plan to select up to two organizations to win a free expression. Each organization can only submit one entry, even if their are multiple people involved, so coordinate so only one entry is made.  Our selection of winner(s) will not be entirely random.  We will consider the nature of your organization and your proposed use of an expression.  So make best use of that line or two describing your organization and how you would use the expression! If we rate several entries as approximately equal in worthiness, we will do a random selection between them.

How to Apply

How do we apply again?  OK it could not be much easier! Head over to the form here (link deleted since contest over), fill in all required fields (make sure you select your desired expression using the pull-down menu). Perhaps browse our expressions and ideas before filling out the form.  The contest deadline is Aug. 2, 2017.  We will notify winners by Aug. 4, 2017 and the link should be live shortly after that.  The free link is available for a 90 day period and will automatically cease after that time (if you want to extend it beyond that you of course can do so with a paid rental, and we even will give you 20% off the current prices for that).

What Does The Question About You Promoting Link Mean?

This is totally optional, but if you click yes we will list your link on our namesthat.win website, on our Twitter stream, here on this blog and possibly in other ways.  This will help your phrase get known in search engines, and probably help with your campaign. Your chances of winning the contest do not change if you select yes or no with respect to us mentioning your campaign.

What is a Non-Profit?

We do not require that you be a registered charity, simply that your primary purpose is not to make a profit. So most NGOs would qualify. Maybe you are a youth organization, science or children's centre, environmental group, etc. You can be large or tiny. If in doubt about if you qualify, just tell us about your organization in a query.

Is This Contest Only Open to Certain Regions?

No, you can be based anywhere, or everywhere!

How Long Has Rent an Expression Been Around?

We have been in the planning and domain acquisition stage for more than a year, including technical testing, but only went public with the program and website in June 2017.

But We Are Not a Non-Profit!

While the free offer is only available to non-profit organizations, our overall Rent An Expression program is certainly open to businesses! You can see the prices here, most of your questions about how it works should be answered on this page, see the available expressions here, and when ready sign up for the service with this simple form.  Up until 7 days after an expression is up and running you can cancel it without obligation and owe us nothing. Please don't confuse the two forms - the links in this paragraph are for a paid rental, while the links in the previous section are for non-profits entering the free contest.

Do You Give Away Other Things?

Occasionally.  Check this page where any new discounted and free offers will be listed. Some day we plan to give away kindness, really.