TLD Investors

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New Tlds, Domain Blogs and Advertising

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By: Raymond Hackney

I was having a conversation with a friend who is a domainer and he was going on about the new tlds. He was talking about the usual stuff that they are a waste of money, will only bring about confusion and no one wants them. That is a lot of the conversations that take place online as well with the new tlds.

I had mentioned that in talking with six or seven registrars that was where a lot of their focus was, on the new tlds. I had spoken to a few last year about some different ideas that were not related to new tlds, when I was checking in to see where they stood on those ideas earlier in the year, each answer was the same. They had to put those ideas on the back burner while ramping up for the new tlds.

My friend thought these registrars were in his word "despicable" because they know these extensions are going to fail and they will never run one of their own projects on one of them. He then turned the conversation to where I had the most interest, Blogs. He said I bet you and all these other bloggers can't wait for the advertising money that will come in from all these new extensions. He went on to say that bloggers that take advertising money from these new extensions are a fraud if they don't believe in the new extensions. He pointed out that as an example right now some blogs are taking money to advertise .pw on their website and they would never register one, so there is no truth in advertising on their website.

I said that I cannot and will not speak for other people and their advertising relationships, I would say something if someone was advertising malware or spam or something harmful. He replied that .pw was something harmful. I don't share that opinion, an extension is an extension and everyone is trying to make money with domains not just domainers. Registries will look to rebrand if they can make more money, we as domainers have to read between the lines and understand what they are doing.

I said to my friend that its natural a new tld wants to advertise and reach an audience, I think that just so long as a blog discloses its relationships its above board.

I know that because of this I am going to make sure that our disclosure page is updated with more specific info.

So please feel free to weigh in with your own comments here, should someone advertising a new tld have to be actively registering names in that tld ? If not do you feel that is false advertising ?

Comments

  1. It is similar to some big actors promoting a product/car they never use or drive.
    Lose credibility.

  2. Honestly, I think its fine just so long as its a real product. Not everyone will use or like a product. I don’t think the NFL is endorsing Doritos as a healthy snack because they take $3 million for a Super Bowl ad.

  3. New GTLDs may end up being very, very big and successful. Your friend should open his eyes and mind a bit.

  4. How many self proclaimed ‘online marketing gurus’ have been pumping crappy affiliate offers forever? How come they aren’t held to the same moral standards?
    This very same holier than thou attitude should also be applied to tech publications, most of who will promote only those projects that have been funded by friends or even owners of said publications.
    I take the moral high ground – as in I don’t recommend anything I wouldn’t use, but that doesn’t make me better than anyone else, it’s a business at the end of the day, whoever pays, plays.

  5. Thanks for the comments everyone.
    Samit, I agree if I went to MWZD.com and you had a banner ad for .web or .lol. I would not think, “Oh Samit is endorsing .LOL and thinks that is a good investment”
    But I am not naive enough to think there will not be people who do that. For people that eat, sleep and drink domains they know Michael Berkens is not recommending .pw, but will a new investor, or someone looking at domaining from a far who was recommended by a friend to read TheDomains.
    That is the question, I thought Elliot did a great job with his post.

  6. My more libertarian point of view is that if you have a domain related blog then I think almost any domain related ad is fair to have up, I am not opposed to having a .pw ad up even though I won’t be getting any, if .pw wants to try and spread their word or promote themselves and they’re spending money in my industry that is a good thing imo, and it makes sense to advertise these things on domain blogs.
    Just because I don’t like them much doesn’t mean others might not want to give them a shot, my readers are big kids that should decide for themselves if .pw is a good idea for them or not. The .pw folks might not want to advertise on my blog because I will definitely blog my opinion to my readers, and my opinion is I do not see much if any investment potential in .pw domains, but I have been wrong before, and I am no authority, just an opinion.
    So while I might not like the product or service much if it is a legitimate product/service and nobody is getting “ripped off” per se, I say it is a fair business practice. I realize there are many nuances to this but overall that is what I think.

  7. The reality is that the majority of “domain bloggers” are enthusiasts who do this after hours or on the weekend. They are not journalists and don’t have the same training found in traditional media.
    For them its about making $$$ via advertising to supplement their real 9-5 jobs. So that’s perfectly fine, if you can see it for what it really is.
    Here is a piece I wrote back in 2011 on this very issue. I’m sure it will resonate with your readers.
    http://www.domainerincome.com/news/isnt-it-time-bloggers-declared-conflicts-of-interest/

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