Quick Summary of Contents

Welcome back! It’s been a bit since I last graced you with an interview about a personal or company brand using a unique domain name to promote their digital presence.

Today’s interview is that and more! Not only does this founder use a new domain extension to promote an educational book and website geared towards basic computer science, software quality and programming in general, but he’s branded an emoji name to boot.

Grab a beverage and snack, and read about why and how an energetic, 30 year-old programmer and former researcher launched a coding website using .energy and emoji domain names. 

Allow me introduce everyone to Wladston “Wlad” Filho, a writer of a fast-growing website aimed simplifying the complexities of learning basic computer science, software quality and programming in general. Welcome to Kickstart Commerce Wald.

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KC: What is your passion, and why and how did it lead to launching Code.Energy?

WF: Having a strong desire to reach, simplify, and change the world through code and education, my passion is creating software. One of the reasons I wrote and launched Code.Energy as a book and website was to educate persons starting their journey in hobby and professional programming, regardless of their educational background and experience.

KC: How does Code Energy simplify the complexities of programming in comparison to the competition?

WF: Usually, computer science textbooks are very comprehensive, and designed to fit the needs of people who want to become scientific researchers. However, most people simply want to learn and apply computer science that’s most beneficial to their day-to-day coding efforts. And this is what my book and website, Code.Energy, aims to achieve.

KC: How did you discover the .energy TLD extension, and why did you decide to use a .energy domain versus .com?

WF: I was curious to see if any domains in the form code-dot-something were still free, and I was thrilled to find that code.energy was still available. I instantly fell in love with the name and built my branding after it. If code.com were available and affordable, I’d have tried to hand register or purchase it!

KC: Do you think it’s necessary, and have you thought about purchasing the .com for brand protection and traffic redirection?

WF: I secured a .com domain for brand protection (not CodeEnergy.com), but so far I could find no use for it. The .energy domain is perfect for our needs.

KC: Have you noticed favorable or less than favorable search rankings using a non .com domain, or no impact at all?

WF: I don’t monitor search rankings at all, so I can’t really say one way or the other that using Code.Energy has produced positive or negative search ranking results. However, from what I read, using a non-dot-com domain doesn’t impact search results negatively.

KC: Do you own other domains using the new TLD extensions? If so, please do share which ones and why you purchased each.

WF: Nope, I only have the .energy one.

Living on the edge using Code.Energy, what made you want to register 🖥⚡️.ws for your book and website?

WF: I honestly don’t recall when I exactly learned about emoji domains, but I instantly became a fan of using emoji as a form of communication. So much so that I even use emoji in my book. And when I found that emoji domains were a real thing, I check the nic.ws website directly. and had to register and stake claim to one! I’ve had 🖥⚡️.ws for about a year or so.

KC: Why is 🖥⚡️.ws so special to you, and do you have further plans to develop it?

WF: For now there is zero plans for developing 🖥⚡️.ws, so it’ll remain a redirect domain to Code.Energy. Because emoji domain names are not mainstream today, I intended for 🖥⚡️.ws to be a fun, geeky shortcut for code (a computer screen) and energy (a lightning).

KC: What are your thoughts as it pertains to 🖥⚡️.ws’ annual renewal cost?

WF: I really wish renewal costs for this domain were lower. At the current rates, it’s a very expensive “toy” domain to keep around.

KC: Have you purchased 🖥⚡️ in other extensions, or considered other extensions when registering emoji domains?

WF: When I got this domain, .ws was the only NIC that was allowing emoji punycode. Since we are a small company, we don’t currently have plans to play with or investing other extensions.

KC: Do you have other emoji domains that are developed, redirected, parked or simply held as a short/long term investment?

WF: No, I don’t do and never did any form of domain name investing. I only just keep the domains I’m intending to use. In fact, I never sold any domain name, ever.

KC: Have you used or are you using emoji domains in offline/online advertising? If so, what types of ads and what were the results?

WF: No, in my opinion, emoji domains and emoji in urls are too new of a concept. Still a bit mind blowing and confusing to the common internet user, most don’t know emoji domains are valid.

In addition, I believe it’s been somewhat a struggle for users to understand and accept the validity of using a new domain like code.energy.

But with time, I believe in the near future people will come to understand and use both new domain extensions and emoji domains where applicable. When this happens, then I’ll probably start using and promoting 🖥⚡️.ws more.

KC: Would you recommend emoji domains to personal and business brands to represent their primary website? If so or if not, then why?

WF: Not at this very moment today. As previously stated, I believe most people don’t identify with emoji domains as truly “valid” domains.

But again, this could all change a few years down the road. Once the general internet population embrace emoji domains as second nature behavior, then my belief is most companies will strongly desire one and emoji domains will be a hot commodity.

For now, it’s still just too early to know if emoji domains will break beyond a cutesy fad of curiosity.

KC: Anything else you would like to share?

WF: Nope.

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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.