Here’s a guide to getting .co at the lowest price.
I have a feeling .co is going to be hot. It will have one of the best country code “relaunches” we’ve ever seen. .CO Internet has undertaken one of the most impressive “new TLD” pre-marketing campaigns that I can think of, and the buzz is mounting. I’ve had several non-domainer friends email me inquiring about the domain.
The global sunrise period for trademark holders is going on until June 10, followed by a landrush June 21-July 13. The sunrise includes unprecedented checks to keep people from “gaming” the system as we’ve seen in other launches. There will be an auction if more than one sunrise applicant qualifies.
Even though it officially doesn’t start until June, the landrush phase has sort of started already as many registrars are offering landrush applications for the domains now. If more than one application is received for a domain, it will be auctioned off.
Here’s a look at how 8 of the 10 the accredited .co registrars are pricing the domains prior to general availability*. Based on these numbers, it seems that eNom and OpenSRS (Tucows) are your best bet for pricing during sunrise and landrush.
OpenSRS
-Global Sunrise: $205 non-refundable application fee (covers trademark application) + $25 Registration Fee (if name is awarded, includes 1-year registration)
-Landrush: $5 application fee and $220 registration fee if domain awarded.
GoDaddy
-Global Sunrise: $299.99. Refundable except for $270.00 application fee if you don’t get the domain.
-Landrush: $299.99. Refundable except for $10.00 application fee if you don’t get the domain.
-General availaiblity: Go Daddy is already accepting applications for the general availability period for $29.99 per domain.
Register.com
-Global Sunrise: Unknown
-Landrush: $275 with Promo Code LR25. If they don’t get the domain you’ll get a refund less $9.00. They have a price match guarantee for the total price but “applies only to fees equal to or above $225 per domain and is only applicable for up to 10 domains per account”. So if you’d prefer to use Register.com but get lower pricing, you can quote them one of the lower competitor prices.
Dotster
Global Sunrise: $299 non-refundable application fee plus $34.99 per year for registration.
Landrush: $10 application fee. If you get the domain it’s $325 plus $34.99 for each additional year of registration.
InternetX
Unknown, must have a reseller account to apply.
MelbourneIT
-Global Sunrise: $340 for the first year.
-Landrush: $310 for first year, includes $15 application fee and $290 registration fee. Presumably the $290 would be refunded if you don’t get the domain.
eNom
-Global Sunrise: non-refundable application fee is $200 and there’s a $25 additional fee if you get the domain name.
-Landrush: $5.00 application fee and $220 if you get the domain.
Network Solutions
-Global Sunrise: $240 non-refundable application fee, plus $39.99 if you get the domain.
-Landrush: pricing not yet released
mi.com.co
-Global Sunrise: 279.99 non refundable. Includes first year registration fee.
-Landrush: To be published 1st of June
-GA: To be Published 1st of July
*Prices based on posted prices on each registrar’s web site as of 5/10/10. Domains will also be available through other registrars who have resale agreements with the above registrars.
Yeah I think .co will be doing very well as a strong TLD.
I Wonder how long it will take before sex.co will sell for millions – lol
You forget mi.com.co. They are an official registrar.
@ Alfredo – I went to mi.com.co’s web site and couldn’t find the pricing information. Granted, I had to do a Google translation so I could understand it. If you can find the info I’ll gladly add it.
The website is in English too. 😉 http://intl.mi.com.co
Sunrise: USD 279.99. It includes, in case of completing the process successfully, the registration of the Domain for 1 year. It’s not refundable.
Landrush and General availaiblity: pricing not yet released
On the Enom site it looks like for Landrush it will be…
Application fee per domain: $5.00
Registration fee per domain: $220.00
When logged in click on the “Landrush” tab.
@ ADR – thanks, I see that now. Looks like they’re matching Tucows’ price. I updated it in the story.
Looks like eNom just announced pricing last night.
Maybe they not worth it ?
Nameaction is also an accredited .co registrar
Andrew
Can you post the link to .co, where people are awarded names if they have ideas to develop it?
I did a search and couldn’t find it.
Thanks
@ .co Fan – here it is.
If anyone wants an OpenSRS reseller account so they can register their .co domains. please contact me [email protected]
Can you clear up the date that domains are available for general registration….it appears to be July 14th…is this correct? So on the 14th we can start registering leftovers if we find a few..?
@ don – actually July 20. Here’s a schedule. Go Daddy is already accepting pre-orders on general availability. The link in the story will take you directly to GD’s .co page.
I’ll have to respectfully disagree w/your belief .co’s going to be hot, Andrew.
It’s just another junk extension among (far to) many; in this case subject to the whims of a country who’s largest dollar export is a drug.
Other than for companies operating w/in Columbia, it will do nothing but push extra, free traffic to those who hold the .com version.
Steve – I don’t know that it will be a good “investor” opportunity, I just think they’re going to sell a heck of a lot of domains.
Andrew
Who are the people behind .co ?
Thanks
@ .Co Fan – Co Internet S.A.S. and the gov. of Colombia
I feel like the main opportunity is the typo-traffic with .co domains. I don’t see them catching on otherwise
Same old story. They did it with .mobi, .biz etc…I remember people talking about .mobi and how huge it was going to be. Look at it now. This new .co domain is just a way for the rich people to make money out of big companies (by using the “mistype .com with .co thing and trademark thieves). Walmart has not even cared about it. That obviously says a lot. Not even medium size companies, or compromised ones are registering. Furthermore, this .co birth strategy targets regular people and new domainers, taking their money for a bad investment.
Can someone clear up a bit of confusion I have with this. I gathered that columbians had first choice on these domains then also Companies with aregistered trademark the I was under the belief that the rest of the world could register but may not get the name as others may be registering at the sametime. So at the beginning of May I registered 4 names which at the time 5 different registrars said were not registered. So I registered them and immeadietly after registering all these names were said to be no longer available on all 5 sites. (By the way these names are not trademarks just words). Now if I go to who.is it tells me each one is already taken in mid april by different columbians and another by someone in toronto also who registered in april. Have I missed something here?
Hi Tim, who was your registrar?
Actually what may have happened is if you “pre-registered” those domains, that means that people that applied for the same domain (or at least that’s what the different registrar are saying) will go into an auction style thing. Perhaps someone else can clarify this.
Tim forget about I said on my previous message, I have no freaking idea. After reading your message again, I am confused now. If someone else has the domains you registered, did you get a partial refund?
There is absolutely no clarity as to why most generic terms are not available even for Ladnrush registration – just try city names paris moscow etc country names etc
let alone a lot of generic names have been registered before February 2010 ! (people.co, sex.co, and others) according to whois
Can somebody explain this
Seems like the rules are not fair from the start
@ Fesco – this article should answer your questions.
I doubt these .co domains will be of any real value for ranking unless your company is in Coloombia which is where the .co belongs
Oh, how these landrush days are a distant memory 🙂 Does anyone actually want a .co now. Really?
.co should be given a chance, sure it may not be successful but at least they can say they’ve tried. Lets just see how this pans out.