Domains are cheap, but your time probably isn’t.
I registered a handful of .xyz domain names early on. Daniel Negari has built buzz around the domain, and I think some of the domains I bought have value. Enough value that I pay $10 a year to renew domains like Wrestling.xyz, Prescriptions.xyz and Degrees.xyz.
Those were registered well before .xyz slashed pricing and grew its registration base into the millions.
This week registrars dropped registration prices to a penny or two — including ICANN fees! — to celebrate .xyz’s birthday. Uniregistry and NameCheap also offer a number of TLDs for less than a buck.
Should you run out and register a bunch of these cheap domains?
I registered 99 .xyz domain names at Uniregistry. The pickings are slim now, but why not?
Do I think it’s likely that domains like Subdivision.xyz, Headstrong.xyz and Hopped.xyz will sell? No, but it was literally the cost of a lotto ticket to register these domain names. If any of them sell over the next year, I’ll make a profit. Who knows…maybe some will even generate parking revenue.
But…
I spent a couple of hours digging through lists and looking for available domains at Uniregistry. The best domains I found had premiums, so it took quite a lot of time to find something possibly worth registering.
How much is your time worth? Say $100 an hour, and all of a sudden my cost to register 99 domains was $200.99, not 99 cents.
The same goes for some of the sub-dollar domains offered by registrars right now. The best domains have premiums, so you’re picking among the leftovers. Do you think you’ll be able to sell any of the domains before the price goes up in a year?
We’ll see.
Adam says
If you are buying a domain to develop or use as a forwarder, sure it’s worth it. If you are buying .XYZ domains in hopes to resell… slim pickings. Definitely right Andrew there isn’t much left.
I had a hard time selling my premium geo .XYZ domains. I made waaay less than I was anticipating on them. Don’t believe some of the reported sales honestly.
Ryan says
You have to figure that xyz is hurting it’s reputation, and going to get alot of scams, and spams with 1 cent disposable domains.
Your names have taken a haircut with this new pricing model.
364 days from now, they will have to give free renewals.
JZ says
time is one of the reasons i gave up on the new gtlds early on. spending hours wading through the premium, reserved and pre ordered domains seemed like a waste of time in the end.
Leonard Britt says
Keep in mind the time you will spend a year from now deciding which ones to renew – looking at search volume and other factors.
Andrew Allemann says
I’ll certainly have to deal with renewal notices.
scrivener3 says
It is beginning to look like everyone involved in this debacle has covered themselves in crap.
ICANN who approved new gTLD’s seemingly for the application fees that filled its coffers well beyond anything needed to do its job. Approving an extortion gTLD like .sucks, or the singular and plural of the same word. Does that help enterprises trying to have a presence on the Inet or users looking for a business, or the registry’s requiring two registrations when one should do (plus ICANN who gets two registry application fees)? Shame.
Registries who tried to charge premium fees for registration of good names. Registries exist to keep records about who owns a domain and to prevent double ownership of the same name. The content of the domain name has nothing to do with their job. It is as if the toll collector at the George Washington Bridge looked at the value of your car before setting a toll to transverse the bridge. The service is registration of a name you select, not adding anything to the value in the name. It is near stealing in my book. Same for auctioning expired domains. The fact that they can do it does not make it ethical. Imagine if motor vehicles auctioned off your car if you forgot to renew your registration. Or if the title recording company auctioned off your home if your recording fee check bounced.
Reinstatement fees for expired domain that would be illegal if they were contract damages. Fine I agree to pay you $7 a year for registering my domain. Oops I forgot to renew and it expired. You take it out of the root nameservers and demand $80 to put it back in days or weeks later. Your actual damages (costs) are loss of use of my $7 for a few weeks and the actual cost of adding the name back in the root file, plus record keeping expenses. To charge $80 for that is an illegal penalty clause.