Here’s how to maximize your chances of getting the .co domain names you want — without breaking the bank.
.Co domain name registration will be open to the public July 20. But if you want to get a good domain name, you’ll need to pre-register the domains prior to the general release. On July 20 the registrars will be pinging the .co registry servers like mad in a bid to get domains that were pre-registered. Going at it by hand will be difficult.
Each registrar has different policies for .co pre-registration, and how they will choose which domains to go after is somewhat nebulous. Here’s what we do know: most registrars charge you up front and refund your money if they fail to get the domain (Dotster is a notable exception). Here’s what we don’t know: how the registrars will choose which domains go at the top of its queue (possibly the most popular domains that will be harder to get) and if they’ll allow more than one pre-registration for a domain (and how they will allocate domains pre-registered by multiple parties).
Go Daddy confirmed to me that it will only accept one pre-registration per domain name. It might select an order to submit domains to the registry to maximize the number of domains it procures.
Your best best appears to be OpenSRS, which charges only $25. Your worst bet, unless it’s a domain that will attract a lot of attention anyway, is eNom/NameJet. Although they don’t charge up front, you’ll go to an auction if more than one person pre-registers the domain.
One thing’s for sure: a winning strategy is to pre-register at multiple registrars. That means more of them will be working for you on July 20.
Here are the ten officially accredited .co registrars and their prices for pre-registration:
GoDaddy – $29.99/year. If they don’t get the domain you get a refund. Only one pre-registration per name, so hurry to beat your competition.
NetSol – $29.99, will charge $39.99 after pre-registration.
MelborneIT – 80.00 AUD
OpenSRS – $25 (email mklein [at] tucows.com to get a free OpenSRS account).
Register.com – price not listed yet
eNom – will auction through NameJet. No cost to pre-order, but auction starts at $39. Only good for competitive names.
Dotster – $34.99, but only charged if successfully get the domain name. You should probably pre-register any competitive domains at Dotster too since you don’t have to pay anything out of pocket.
Mi.com.co – price not disclosed yet
Dominio Amigo – $59.90
InternetX – unsure, need to be a reseller to purchase.
Any indications of possible abuse of the trademark process for pre-registrations of .co domains, as there was with .eu?
Have registrations within Colombia been suspended until general registration opens?
All my attempts at eNom have failed for domains not currently showing up as registered on http://www.whois.co/
Anthony – they’ve taken a number of steps, including a qualified outside evaluator, for sunrise. Keep in mind landrush is still going on right now.
Take a look at the whois for paris.co, london.co, istanbul.co and I am sure there are many others. How come these are all already registered? Someone holding trademarks to all cities?
@ Dave – Looks like they were registered in the third before the cut-off in 2008, which gave them the right to register at second level this year.
One would also be wise to spend $6 and
register:
[YOURNAME]-CO.com
The new DNS will ask that owner first for the
NAMESERVERS (not A Records) for YOURNAME.CO
If [YOURNAME]-CO.com name does not exist, NBD.
If it does exist it may answer, Don’t Know.
If you control it, you can answer with your
NameServers.
“How to Maximize Chances of Getting .Co Domains, and at Lowest Prices”
Just wait a couple years, and people will be practically giving them away! 🙂
All of us have been receiving emails from the registrars about .co.
So last week I asked another domainer if he was going for any .co.
He made a comment that rang true.
Owning .co or .cm domains is like owning a fake rolex. You might fool a few people but the watch will always only worth a few dollars.
The typo visitor will quickly realize she landed on the wrong site. And, eventually the search engines will downgrade the domains.
My rebuttal was – what about generic words?
His response was – why build a brand for the .com owner?
He also added that all of the premium domains will be skimmed off. He also added that it will go the same route as .mobi.
That is why we both agreed that the only people who will make money on this tld is the registry and registrars.
Agree with morning coffee.
I agree with that domainer.
Beside we all know what happend .cm.
But people don’t want to miss the boat.. Imagine .CO will take off 😉
Agree with Morning Coffee. People who will make money on this tld is the registry and registrars and owners of very commonly searched keyword domains e.g. business.co etc…
The biggest early winners:
Internet Portfolio SA in Panama was busy in February and March.
MarIa Julia Buelvas was busy registering in February from an address in Colombia.
Codom Holdings, LLC in the U.S. was also busy in February.
In April, numerous holds were placed on prime .co domains by INJECTCSR in Colombia. What is this entity?
Other early winners include Stewart Kasner for Mortgage.co on March 28. On March 7, Skies Eighteen SA in Panama landed Casino.co.
Andrew, thanks for the mention. There’s some really great points made here about .CO, and good insight from @morningcoffee as well.
Things can change in a blink… just because they haven’t in the past doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. That’s been my position on it anyway.
Since search engine decide where the traffic will be directed, the search engines will probably also decide how popular .CO domains will be.
It will be very interesting to see what happens when/if .CO domains become popular and what would happen if the search engines, and individual Internet users give the same weight .CO domains the same as .COM.
You just never know…
I have to disagree with morning coffe. I have .com.co domains and they are making reg fee in less than 1 month. As Colombia has a relatily big internet community, the .CO domains will not only receive traffic from .COM but also local type in traffic. If you want to build a business for the local Market, I believe .CO is better than .COM. Local ccLTDs dominate in many countries over .COM.
I think their $10 application fee is BS. Also prepaying $280 for a domain you’re not quite sure you will be getting?
I tried reserving a 2 letter dot CO which is my company abbreviations, but doesn’t seem I can at the time being.
I don’t know guys, I got burned with all the hype surrounding dot CM. Look them now, they’re hardly worth the reg fee 🙁 I should of let “murdoch” win the 2 domains which amounted to around $20k+ worth…
Attila, you might just have bid on the wrong .CM domains. A landrush with an auction is there to maximize the revenue for the registry, which in my eyes is an okay business model. I hand register over 20 .CM domains last month and most of them will make the reg fee back within 2-3 month.
@ DC – what you doing to monetize it? Mini site with SEO and PPC ads? Parking page?
I got top generics (hosting, market, news, shop, trade, webhosting), though they only get a handful (50-100 and shop / news 250-500) typos a month.
I am going to have them developed out in the next month into “not so” mini sites (50 pages each).
Hi,
You might want to read the godaddy reg thing again.
http://www.godaddy.com/tlds/co-domain.aspx?ci=19152&isc=cjcdplink
______
BEFORE: July 20th ~ Open To All!
Priority
Landrush
Apply Now!
Applications submitted by July 13, 2010, 2 PM EST.
Choose if: You want a better chance of securing your popular domain before General Availability opens. Get in line first and beat the crowd!
___
1st year $299.99 ($10.00 application fee + $289.99 refundable registration fee) Additional years just $29.99
____
AFTER: July 20th ~
Open To All!
Standard Pre-Registration
General Availability
Apply Now!
Applications submitted by July 20, 2010, 2 PM EST.
Choose if: You want to get your name in at the top of the list. After July 20, all names will be first come, first served, so boost your chances now!
___
Just thought it would make clear the options…A lot of the best domains will already be gone by July 13…by the “Wales”
So, July 20th…might be tough for a real a good domain(s).
But their one-reg per domain is a VERY GOOD DEAL…Your Down if it is available
Best to all,
Dan
@ Dan – that’s Landrush. You’re right I suppose; high value domains will be auctioned off through this process.
Hi,
Sorry for the big post….I am the one that needed to re-read your Article…lol
My post was… “My bad”
Sorry.
Good luck to everyone…I hope all of us can pull down at least one great domain.
Peace!
Dan
__
BTW: Thanks for the great info you post everyday…
I could not understand that directi.com is charging 237 per domain why there is so difference in prices
@mike Mehegi hogi? Sab acha he, that’s the landrush price.
DomainersChoice is right, the others posted a very US centric attitude.
CO is a common use second level UK (.co.uk), Japan, So Korea, Israel, New Zealand, etc. and is already associated with business domains outside the US. The .co TLD can capitalize on this as well as the immediate association to “corporation” and “company”
I wouldn’t consider this just typo traffic. It’s probably bound to generate some lawsuits, but companies with common use words turned into domains will have a harder time suing over .co equivalents than typos. e.g. cars.com as a random example would have a hard time going after cars.co, since their trademark is on cars.com and not “cars”. The courts can’t allow common words to block development of other country codes. Whereas microsoft.co would be infringing owned by someone else, especially selling computer products.
I’d also expect spanish language domains under .co to do well for Columbian traffic.
Seems like the association to Colorado’s state code would be useful as well.
Does anyone have an idea why a name would not be available for pre-order with GoDaddy.com but is available with OpenSRS?
However, the name is available with GoDaddy when reserving under the Landrush period.
@ Maxta – more than one person should be able to apply for a domain under landrush, since they will be pushed to an auction at Pool.
If the domain isn’t available at GD but is at OpenSRS, that probably means someone already pre-registered it at GoDaddy.
@Andrew – Thanks Andrew. I feel like a bit of an idiot because the article did clearly state this above. Sorry 🙁
Wait until Colombia wants some of the typo rev. 🙂
They’ll either take it or tax it somehow.
FYI, directNIC.com will be selling .co at $25 on launch day.
Brunson
Do you have a direct link to that webpage ?
Here’s the landing page, registration on .CO isn’t live yet..
http://www.directnic.com/dot/co/
Agree with morning coffee
Alot of hype about nothing.
Worthless domain unless you are a business in Columbia.
hi guys i got cookery.co,submit.co,oceani.co & preg.co ( short form of pregnancy.in & pregnant.co are reserved names ) in pre-registration time. How much I can sell them for, give me your valuable comments subhash vadapally
Hi,
Will .co domain names lack anything? In other words, wiht .co will we be able to do everything that we do with .com (e-commerce and stuff?)
Thanks for your time and you can email me at [email protected]
Hi,
Total After thought… right after the public regs started. (a few hours only…wish my brain worked faster…lol)
.CO Is Perfect For ‘Geo Domains’ the state Of “Colorado”
____
As of yesterday…bidding on: ‘Boulder .CO’
Was over 10+K ( sounds cheap to me) If your going to really develop a nice site.
How much do you think: “Denver .CO ” is worth?
Peace!
Dan