Three user-submitted ways to make money from new top level domain names.
Yesterday I provided twelve examples of ways you can make money from the launch of new top level domain names. I received some comments with additional ideas and want to share them.
1. Michael Berkens noted that you can invest in some of the publicly traded companies that will profit from new TLDs. He mentioned Neustar and VeriSign (both are registries), Demand Media (owns domain registrar eNom), Tucows (domain registrar), and Web.com (owns Register.com).
2. Steve M recommended starting a blog that covers new top level domains and selling ads on it along with consulting services. I have to admit that there’s very little ad inventory out there to reach domain investors; if you have traffic you are set to get an onslaught of advertiser requests in the coming year.
3. Jon brought up something that I’m a bit confused about what exactly he’s suggesting, although it reminded me of one key way to profit that I left off my list: buying the .com equivalent of new TLDs. Think xxx.com will get a lot more traffic when .xxx launches? You bet. Confused web surfers will type domain.xxx.com at first. Many of them will also type domainxxx.com.
Antony Van Couvering says
With all respect to Michael Berkens, you can’t really invest in these companies to take advantage of new TLDs, because none of them are pure play. VeriSign’s all about .com, which might be affected by new TLDs. NeuStar is a massive company with many other divisions. Demand Media is busy building a media empire and won’t even mention their domain name business except under duress. Tucows is a registrar and hasn’t announced any new TLD plans. Web.com hasn’t announced its intention to go after .web, although it won’t surprise anyone when they do, and that’s just one TLD.
Actually, if you want to invest in a broad basket of news TLDs as a pure play, there’s really only one public company to invest in — Top Level Domain Holdings (TLDH.L) on the London AIM market.
I’m just saying…
Antony
Andrew Allemann says
@ Antony Van Couvering –
Yeah, I suppose you guys should have been on the list π
I think the point with Tucows and Register.co is that they’ll sell the new TLDs through their registrars.
Kevin M. says
Andrew, please say it isn’t so. As all I got was a non-resolving page when I looked, you didn’t just mistype ‘.com’ above, did you?? :-O
John says
TLD Holdings I have looked at trades a little thin. And at least make full disclosure when you are recommending your own stock.
Just saying
I agree none of the others are pure play deals.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Kevin M – wow, you’re right. That was a typo or Register.com.
Greg says
.co domains are great typos…
Avtal says
One more idea, based on the expected conversion of IDN.com domains into true IDNs.
Verisign has said they plan to apply for the IDN equivalents of the .com TLD: .ΠΊΠΎΠΌ, .ΞΊΞΏΞΌ, etc. They have also hinted that the owner of IDN.com will have first rights to IDN.com-in-IDN: for instance, the owner of ΠΌΠΎΡΠΊΠ²Π°.com would be allowed to apply for ΠΌΠΎΡΠΊΠ²Π°.ΠΊΠΎΠΌ.
Although the best IDN.com domains are long gone, there are still quite a few left. And the potential ROI is promising, if the above suppositions all turn out to be correct.
Avtal
name says
not convinced that benefit to xxx.com from extra traffic outweighs reduced branding power / extra competition.
personally I would not want to pour millions into buying and developing eg. paris.com if .paris is attracting strong support. The opportunity to build an unrivalled brand at the .com is blown out of the water.
Though extra traffic may benefit some .coms more than others.
page howe says
number 19. buy the generic .com
page howe
NewTlds.com