4 reasons why .Brand will NOT Replace Brand.com in the Foreseeable Future

Morning Folks!!

Here are 4 reasons why .brand will not replace brand.com in the foreseeable future. This was an email sent to me today by 

Guoliang "George" Hong and I think it is very insightful.

1. Setup time.

It takes a few minutes to register a .com domain. It takes years/months to get

.brand application  approved by ICANN. In the future the approval time period

will be shortened, but it would be still easier to use the brand.com they already

owned or register a new .com


2. Cost and efforts

It costs 6 figure and lots of efforts to apply for .brand; it costs money to

maintain and operate .brand every year. The costs and efforts will be less in the future,

but they will never match the $10 yearly fee for .com


3. Usability

To use .brand, people need to remember two strings. Leftofthedot and brand

To use brand.com, people just need to remember one string: brand; .com is

already embedded in people’s mind.

2 VS 1, human beings are lazy, Simple is better. Less is more.


4. Confusion caused by Left of the DOT

.brand owners are creative mind owners, which means that their left of dot's will have

tons of varieties.  Tv.CBS, news.espn, drink.coke, enjoy.pepsi. The endless left of dot's will confuse users.

Also assuming that CBS is running tv.cbs and abc didn’t even apply for .abc.

When people type in tv.abc, they got an error. The next time they will think twice about typing in tv.cbs.

Users will go back the brand.com urls that always work (in this case cbs.com and abc.com)



Thank you George! See you tomorrow!
Rick Schwartz

.Web, .Free, and Geos Lead Domain Investors Choices on new gTLD’s

Morning Folks!!

I will  state for the record once again that ANY and nearly all new gTLD's will need domainers at their core if they really want to have a chance. That is why I believe most of the new extensions will simply die on the vine and have no meaning or importance whatsoever. That takes care of "Most". But as INVESTORS, it is our job to pick out the one or ones that will lead the pack.

NONE will ever approach .com in OUR lifetimes. Not even a close 2nd will appear.

We will have 2 major groups initially. Investors and flippers. So you will have 1000 flippers flapping away. Don't get pissed. It is just a reality that is coming and you can see from the MOON!! Rubber Duck x 1000. Edward Cline x 10,000. :-) Get ready!

On the other hand "Domain Investors" move more quietly and look at it as accumulating an appreciating asset.

That brings me to my poll from Thursday and this post. As you read the comments a picture appears. And once again DOMAINERS get it RIGHT while many will and ARE getting it wrong.

.Com works because it was the first and is synonymous with the Internet. Over 95% of every major business in the world has their .com and collectively spend billions of dollars druming .com into our consiousness. And it worked!!

Add up all the other advertising dollars for all the other extensions and in ONE DAY .com will outspend what others did collectively in over a YEAR.

Besides that you can put .com at the end of anything and it SOUNDS good. You can not say that with MOST of the new extensions. They are limited in meaning and gluing a keyword to something with NO meaning is a tough road to hoe. I look at most extensions as limited and the last thing you want to do is limit yourself.

So when I asked the question on Thursday, "What are the Top 10 New gTLD’s?" I got a very good amount of opinions and many were common.

Without doubt, the ONE extension that lead the way was .Web.

Only a few others were even mentioned more than once. But ones that were, .Free and .music for example.

.NYC lead the .geo's, only one comment for .LA. I see that mainly because it has already been out for so many years without having much impact. I would say .LA is more dependent on .NYC than any other factor. That said Geo gTLD's seem to have the most support and perhaps the best hope.

The one thing most folks FAIL to ask is WHY does .com rule? Why did .com take off like a rocket and leave .net in the dust? What elements are missing with the new gtld's? Will .net have a second look over .crap?

Some of the answers:

.com was adopted universally by large and small businesses throughout the world. It is synonymous with the Internet like the 800 number is to the telephone.

.com has TRAFFIC that is very valuable and when measured against all other current extensions, has more type ins than all other extensions combined and multiplied. An extension with no traffic is like an oil well with no oil. It is still a well but it ain't worth shit.

So the question for .web is it another .com or another .net?

Then of course you have a VERY BIG problem. Holding back of "Premium" domains in each extension. While registrars and registry's will make money, it won't translate well down the food chain. They are likely the ONLY ones that will see a profit. This takes out the NATURAL DEMAND. Another element that will be missing from the .com formula.

Missing elements? Yes, many. Some are the foundation of .com and KEY to the success of .com and completely MISSING in 99% of the .whatevers. Good luck with that formula. Good luck with IGNORING those KEY elements.

Those missing key elements is why .web lead the way for domain investors when asked which gtld's have a CHANCE to succeed.

So a different recipe GUARANTEES a different outcome.

I DO believe there could be some every powerful phrases that come out. But one or even several of those are not enough to support an entire extension. And while folks throw around big numbers before this all comes into being, those numbers will be a MOUNTAIN to climb for most. Most will be stranded on that mountain like .travel and some will die on the mountain like .mobi. But even those like ME who have jumped on .xxx for example would gladly take those $$$$ back and return those "Premium" domains.

That is why I believe that the gtlds will not only make .com MUCH more valuable but EXPONENTIALLY more valuable. It also has a chance to rescue some of the extensions that have been around for a long time and get a second look.

.Travel may get a second look and probably find the same result as the first look. However, others may do better. .TV, .ME, .Info. Net, .Org. I know many think I will be saying .biz. Sorry, ain't on my list. "B" stringers in my book. Sorry.

The main difference I see is the way domain INVESTORS will look at things and the way domain FLIPPERS will look at things. So I just look at today. Folks email me all day long to flip .co. I am sure there is a market for those names. But it is a very soft and hollow market and getting more than a few hundred dollars is a very hard task if it can be sold at all. Same with .xxx. Demand is just not there. That means prices are soft and likely won't be climbing much if at all. Investor asset or a liability?

So as this all comes closer into focus, we will follow this and the ANTICS that follow. The domain INVESTOR will be the ones picking most of the winners and by not buying, picking the losers as well. And NEVER forget that type-in traffic is still the core of value that DROVE the entire .com train.

I have invested in almost every new extension over the past decade++ and not a single one of them have put me in the black including .me. On the other hand, during those same years, .com has changed my life. I can only hope it happens again!! But I can not ignore evidence that cost me over $1 Million to obtain. That money buys me a STRONG opinion.

Rick Schwartz

It May be 2013 for Some, but it is 2014, 2015, 2016 for Me.

Morning Folks!!

I know some people who walk and always look down at their toes and seem to always have bruises on their foreheads. Should I suggest they raise their level of their eyes to avoid that pain and the chances are the anger will be directed at the person telling them that. However a simple adjustment can change your destiny.

But let's be honest, we all have our heads looking at a different point in the future. Whether it just be for the hour, the day, the week, the weekend, the first of the month when the bills are due. April 15th when taxes are due. Sales this year vs last year and planning for next year.

My focus is probably all of the above. However I spend time each day planning for 12, 18 even 36 months into the future. I tend to "vault over" those canyons of bad business. That is the time I just sit back a bit and relax. Make hay when the sun shines and realize when it is raining you need to do something else or just go play.

Every TLD other than .com sells for less than .com. The counterpart of ANY domain name has more value with a .com on the end than .anything else. Guess what, it likely will not change in the lifetime of anyone reading this. So those that plan for 100 years from now, well you will be dead. The second coming seldom comes and when it does, it could be way past your life expectancy.

So in the late 90's and early 2000's when there was still PLENTY of .com domains around to build an empire, some focused on .biz, .info, etc and they are still waiting for their ship to come in. The POINT I always tried to make over the 15++ years is don't settle for the cheap seats when the box seats were there for the taking. Gold and diamonds were in the mine but some focused on the next big thing. TIN!

Tin has value. But when tin and gold sit right next to each other it is very hard to convince me that tin is better.

So here we are. .Whatever sells for 1%-10% of a .com IF you can even sell it. When and IF .whatever is EVER on PAR with .com, most reading this will be dead.    Here's to your health and wealth!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Distinguish or Isolate? That it the gTLD Question to Answer!

Morning Folks!!

I really think the BIG gamble comes down to whether the new gTLD's will Distinguish a BRAND or isolate that BRAND. And that question MOSTLY applies to .BRANDS. Now that gamble for them is not huge and companies will always find inventive ways to use a  .Apple or a  .Dell. But many of the brands will keep their .BRAND on a shelf for potential future use or even internal use.

So they can distinguish themselves as .Apple but there could be a downside as well as it could isolate them. But I don't think so. I like .BRAND. I just have very mixed reservations about .WHATEVER as this is the real .CRAP shoot. Plus we already have some substantial evidence as far as success and values when compared to .com. The confusion factor. They are FORCED to switch back to .com as you can read here!

This is NOT opinion. This is EVIDENCE and as business people we MUST know the difference between opinion, sales and propaganda or it is costly if not dire.

When ANY company loses 35%-61% of their marketing efforts on CONFUSION, they can either change course QUICKLY or go out of business. BOTH of these companies did just that. They had to read the numbers and watch their eyes bleed!

Personally I think the biggest winners will be .TV, .ME, and one or two other extensions that had MANY years to take off with much less competition. That is an opinion. But there is also growing evidence. .TV is a natural but after some 15 years it is just now gaining some traction. But .TV means something. ME means something as we live in a world of Me's.

So from an investing standpoint it is quite different and I HOPE you have YOUR 20 year plan.

But whether we see great successes or great failures this is the point where things move in a very big way. These new gTLD's will provide the fuel I see to go where I believe this ship is going. That is an opinion. But it is based in FACTS and EVIDENCE. It is based on watching things very closely for a very long time. It is based on history. And our job is to just keep score and see what picture it paints. It won't paint that picture in 2013. But by the end of next year we will have a BOATLOAD of new information. Be skeptical. Most will be hype and deals done with friends and family or ones where no money exchanges hands.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz