Most of us are familiar with the concept of registering a domain name for around $10.00 USD and then renewing said name for around $10.00 per year. Some of us are attuned to the concept of buying a domain name in the aftermarket for a greater sum and then renewing that domain name for around $10.00 per year.
A smaller percentage of us are aware of the fact that some domain name registrations carry a high, annualized, premium registration and renewal fees. In other words, instead of paying around $10.00 to register the name, you pay $500 to $2,000 or more. In addition, instead a renewal fee in the $10.00 range, your renewal fee is equal or close to your premium registration fee.
Some premium .TV domain name registrations were subject to high, annualized, premium renewal fees, prior to March of 2010. Some .TV domain names were priced, by the registry at $10,000 or more with an unsettling renewal fee equal to the $10,000+ registration fee. This pricing model was a distinct failure.
In the spring of 2010, the .TV registry adjusted their pricing model, maintaining premium registration fees, on some names, but eliminating the premium annualized renewal fees. This revision gave the .TV extension a big boost and helped it to gain in popularity.
Over the last couple of years, we have seen a number of new gTLDs burst upon the scene. Many hundreds have arrived, in rapid succession including: .club, .xyz, .guru, .bingo, .ninja, .gives, .lawyer, .law, and on, and on, and on. Some call them the not-coms… I like to refer to them as the the dot-whatevers.
I expect that, over the next twenty years, we will see a huge percentage of the developed world’s population, having a number of personal websites which they operate. We are begining to see it already within the walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.
People are starting to realize that creating a freestanding website, with a unique website address (domain name), using WordPress, Wix or the site building tools, offered at the registrars, is not that much more difficult than creating a Facebook page. Eventually, I expect most will have websites for their family, pets, hobbies, reviews, lifestyles and just about anything else you can think of. In my opinion, the new gTLDs can serve well as unique identifiers for these personal websites.
In counterpoint, I believe that far too many dot-whatevers were released, too quickly, making them confusing and counter-intuitive. There is only so much we can remember, having a short, intuitive extension to the right of the dot (eg. .Com, .Net or .TV) makes it much easier to recall what’s on the left-side of the dot. For mission critical business applications, it seems less than desirable to invest in building a brand in the untested and highly diluted marketplace of new gTLDs, if you can afford not to. When these untested new extensions carry high annualized renewal fees it makes the decision even easier, imho.
I know, I can talk for hours, so I’ll get to the point. Some of these new gTLDs arrived on the scene with high, annualized, premium renewal fees. I didn’t expect that this would work well, in the highly diluted marketplace of new and untested extensions. It appears that perhaps it hasn’t.
I was doing some research and noticed the following promotion at Name.com:
Special Offer on Premium Renewals
From May 16 to June 30, 2016, register a Rightside Premium Domain name and you’ll be able to renew it at $12.50.*
Is this just a test, or will the new gTLD registries take a step back from the high, annualized, premium renewal fee model? If some of the registries do change course and eliminate the high, annualized, premium renewal fee model, how will they deal with the legacy purchases which carry high, annualized renewal fees?
Most importantly, how do you feel about high, annualized, premium renewal fees? Have you, would you or should you register a domain name which carries a renewal fee in the four or even five-figures USD? Please sound off and let your opinion be heard.
I’d value your thoughts. I’d be grateful for your likes and shares 🙂
Claude Dauman
Facts:
1. As of now after launch Many Premium names have still not been sold.
Including .mom, .poker, .casino,.cars/car/auto etc…
2. There is lots of Choice.
3. The different industries which those extensions target are not running after them!
4. The market is basically dead at this stage. No real End user is buying those premium names at any high price. We all know the marketing fluff and buzz and “constructive” deals etc…
We had spoken to major players in the different industries and they prefer their .com. The smaller players in the forums within those fields also dont want to move away, and definitely not spend the money the Registries want.
The price is way to high and doesnt make sense.
There should be a CAP and as of now its seems like a Cartel!
We have seen strange things – the Registry price is secret but each Registrar contacts the Registry to figure out the price, and then up it by whatever they want!
5. Beyond that, as a domainer I would like to buy some Premium names from other owners or just buy from the Registries directly.
However they are charging for renewal and transfers a very high price.
This is done across the board for all Premium names within most Registries.
6. If you want people to continue buying some of your names for a high fee, you need to allow for a Secondary/after market to exist (!!), as that would give more value and more awareness, which would enable you to to sell for a one time high price. You need to allow there to become a secondary market.
7. Otherwise there is to much choice out-there and you will end up like .tv did for a long time.
8. You need a healthy aftermarket for your names.
However no domainer and most End users dont want to be stuck with high renewals or transfers.
They dont care about your ROI plans.
They compare you to .com and for a good name would be willing to pay a bit more for a renewal or a transfer. As in $100 but not $1000.
As is they will be dishing a one time high fee for the Premium domain. They cant get the budget for renewals too. You dont realize how it works. Wake up people. They can excuse a one time high expense but to get approval from their finance Dept. for a constant high renewal wont work!
9. As of now End users arent buying into this and domainers wont if they cant sell them due to high renewal/transfer prices.
10. Bottom line- there wont really be an after/secondary market which is what you need unless you drop renewal/transfer rates. Dropping prices on registrations would be great, but you still need to make an impressive ROI.. so you might as well keep those..:-)
However make sure that all past registrations of Premium domains and future ones wont require a high renewal/transfer price!
Rightside, Uniregistry, Donuts – you need to rethink this ASAP!
Otherwise I believe that boycotting should be the way to go!
Good luck to all!
Hello Claude,
Considering that 90% plus of all new GTLDs will never be sold on the active secondary markets,one has to look realistically at the New GTLDs with great doubt.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger) Former (Rockefeller I.B.E.C. Marketing Analyst/Strategist) (Licensed C.B.O.E. Commodity Hedge Strategist)
As percentage of registered .COM names I would guess that 90% of those names are also never sold on the secondary market.
The fact is that most domain names in general, and gTLD’s specifically, are not worth buying as an investment to resell, but the ones that intuitively make sense (Phoenix.Pizza, Dentist.Directory, Lexington.City, etc.) are turning out to be very sound investments to either resell or develop.
Nobody is going to make money with $50+ renewal fees. This would be hard to do even with good quality .com’s. I think it is a good model for the registry, particularly at the start when domainer interest is at its highest, domainers are on the other end of the equation.
When thing go pear shaped a few years later (and lots of names get dropped) the registry have got the option to mix things up again (i.e. drop the fees) and bring more buyers in, that is what .tv did. Many people who lost money the first time came back for names that appeared to be now “bargain priced”.
The greed factor will be their downfall, they want domainers to prop up their market until the rest of the world catches up. Sorry but I am not going to play
check out the post on namepros
https://www.namepros.com/threads/lets-boycott-new-gtlds.948318/
Extesions with high renewal fees will (and are) missing out on investment from domainers and developers alike.
For example the .NEWS domain will NEVER gain widespread acceptance because many of the obvious geo .NEWS domains cost $55K to purchase and $55K to renew. (Try registering BLANK CITY.news and see what comes up).
If .NEWS domains were reasonably priced like say .CITY domains are, then .NEWS would generate consistent renewal fees for the registrars and have a chance to actually being adopted by the market.
I can’t wait until the otherwise good domain extensions fail because of unrealistic pricing so Donuts can acquired them and bring stability/sanity to renewal pricing.
P.S. There is no domain name aftermarket without reasonable renewal prices either (i.e. well under $100 on most and no more than $250 for the very best names).
When I see high renewal. I simply walk away, not a good place to invest.