Like most domainers, I’ve been watching and reading about the new gTLDs, also known as general top-level domain names or new domain extensions, for over a year now, following TheDomains.com, Rick Schwartz, Morgan Linton, and other domainers.

I’ve also followed GoDaddy’s new extensions promotion as well as 1And1.com’s new gTLD promotional commercial.

1And1.com created a great commercial that was well positioned, but what a waste of time and money in my opinion.

To think that 1And1.com wasted nearly 50 million dollars in one-time new gTLD advertising just baffles me to no end.

And for the record, I’ve not seen that same 1And1.com commercial advertising for new gTLDS since my post.

But I digress.

Personally, I’ve taken the stance that domain names, especially premium and super-premium keyword domain names, using new gTLDs are not going to be as successful as .com domain names.

My belief is that .com domain names will rise in value just due to the sheer volume of new gTLDs being introduced to the general public.

Too, most premium and super-premium keyword domains using new gTLDs are not available to the general public for open registration, and will more than likely be auctioned off and starting at very premium pricing.

There is also search engines, SEO, devices and new gTLDs. With the introduction of new gTLDs, search engines, devices and browsers will have to adjust to ranking and resolving new gTLD domain names.

Devices will now have to include more than just the .com button with over 1,400 new gTLDs coming to general public.

Another reason for my stance is that I don’t think small business or end-user customers are even aware of the availability of various gTLDs other than the common .com, .net, .org, .co and others.

In addition, the registration and renewal pricing for new gTLDs is all over the place and is only going to go up in pricing.

With previous thoughts spelled out and reasoned, imagine my surprise sitting in a meeting a few days ago brainstorming and “ideating” upcoming events, and to have two people out of the group to suggest using a new gTLD for a website for one of the upcoming events.

Their reasoning for using the new gTLD was based on the fact that the two-word .com domain they wanted had been registered since 1998 and is currently being auctioned for a little over $8K.

Seeing the desired two-word .com domain name had be registered, both individuals suggested the new gTLD without hesitation.

This is where our conversation took an interesting turn. A few people questioned whether it was possible to have a .word domain name other than .com.

Now the interesting thing to note about all questions asked is that no one ever mentioned the fact of registering the .com of the new gTLD domain.

For example, let’s say the two-word .com domain was SayThings.com.

Instead of registering SayThingsToday.com, the two people within the group were advocating registering SayThings.Today.

I don’t have a problem with SayThings.Today as a domain name.

However, I believe that it’s in the best interest of those looking to register new gTLDs to also register the .com version of their new gTLD domain name.

Now most of the people in this meeting had no clue that I own thousands of .com domain names and make decent money on selling, leasing and parking domain names.

Nor do they understand how close I follow domaining news and industry in general on a daily basis.

That said, I thought I would throw the group a lifeline before they found themselves losing traffic to the exact .com domain name match.

Knowing how much non .com domains lose traffic to their exact .com match in general, I suggested that the group register SayThingsToday.com in the event that someone got confused and mistakenly typed .com on the end of the new gTLD, forgetting to type the dot between Things and Today.

When I made the suggestion that they purchase the .com domain name for their new gTLD domain name, that’s when things got confusing.

Certain people in the group thought I was suggesting to register SayThings.Today.com although it is a sub domain of NBC’s Today Show.

Others in the group questioned why anyone would register the .com match of a new gTLD domain.

And before we knew it, we had dots flying in places, both before and after, that they should not have been.

As a side note, I’m surprised that .today made it as a new gTLD seeing the Today Show is a brand of its own.

But again, I digress and new gTLD trademarks is another post for another day.

Long story short, this group of individuals ended the conversation saying to do what we experts thought was best as the new gTLD conversation was too confusing.

Hearing many in the group come to this conclusion and adamantly stating the new gTLDs were confusing, I couldn’t help but to chuckle to myself and think that these confusing gTLD conversations are only the beginning.

Although this is one isolated gTLD conversation, this conversation confirmed that new gTLDs are going to add complexity and confusion to an already somewhat cloudy situation for the general public, who is not tech savvy as it relates to domain names and domain extensions.

For now, we’ll have to wait for the jury’s verdict on whether or not small businesses should be wary of new gTLDs.

That’s all for now.  Stay tuned as I’ll definitely have another post about the conclusion of this new gTLD adventure and what the results were once the data is in.

 

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Written by Alvin Brown
He's an experienced and passionate serial entrepreneur, founder and publisher of Kickstart Commerce. Alvin possesses a great love for startups dominating their market using profitable digital strategies for greater commerce.