Are You Renewing Your New gTLD Domains?

poll-domain-namesIt has been about 9 months since the New gTLD program started. So now we are about 3 months away from the first New gTLD domain renewals. So what do you intent to do? Renew your domains or not? And if so then what percentage roughly?

My previous poll asking if people are buying New gTLD domains just ended with more than 500 votes. Results are quite interesting.

I have included 6 options in the poll: 100%, >50%, <50%, 0%, no domains to renew and one more I found important. That is what distinguishes New gTLDs from the legacy gTLDs: “I will only renew some non-premium domains”. Premium domains are sometimes pretty expensive, up to thousands of dollars per year. From my research premium domains account for about 10% of the total of New gTLD domains. At least that is for the Donuts domains.

So if you choose the “I will only renew some non-premium domains” answer I assume that you are renewing at least 50% of your domains. So the >50% and the non-premium options are quite similar in terms of quantity.

As a reference .com renewal rate is a little over 70%. So I think that anything above 50% would be good for New gTLDs.

I know that it might be a bit early for some people to talk about renewals but this poll will run for the next 3 months. But I know what I am going to do because I have a certain strategy that is the same for all my domains.

[cardoza_wp_poll id=7]

 

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

64 comments

  1. about 50% ..
    I will not renew domains with zero clicks in 1 year.
    And I decided not to renew premium Domains
    (btw, i will sell 2 premiums for cheap: Sport.tools & sports.tools. the fee is about 100$/y. write me a mail)

  2. The premium fees are going to stick, there are many guys like Phil Harris who I have noticed in whois lookups, who are going to be touching on high 5 figure renewals, with all parked pages, and most likely 0% return, that forumla is basically not going to change in the near future. The premiums have always been the nail in the coffin for gtld’s. People love grandafathered clauses, and equality across a industry. Pay for the keywords, not the extension. Many people will have to make some very tough choices, and it will be sad, they are going to say goodbye to their domains, as they cannot justify paying $250 renewals.

    The registries continue to pay millions for extensions, so all you people are carrying their risk, if the gtld’s happen to catch on, they will still own the best domains, and if not they will most likely recoup their cash with premiums. Hard to be a domain investor unless you got deep pockets, or large .com portfolio to live off.

    • Of course they are. But I guess the premium will have a different renewal rate from the non-premium domains. How much different? We’ll see.
      I don’t use parking for my new gtlds. Too many trademarks for too many dictionary words and even letters. Too little money that it is not worth the risk.

      You are absolutely right. I got some good deals when the first donuts domains came out. Then they adjusted their prices and it is mostly not worth it now.

      • yes bout on the premium dont forget the upfront payment was much less than if the names were sold on a one off basis. so if say a name would have been a $1000-$2000 premium in a one off sale, and it was a $200 a year premium, your ahead of the game in the early years as you pay into the name…… it onlys the present value of the future big renewals thats brutal, and a liability you hope to move on to a new buyer.

        so the annual premiums are like option payments in the early years

      • And yet if as is, the market is flooded with such options, does it make sense economically to pay such an upfront cost on a purely speculative bate? I see premiums being the privy of end users as the economics for such works great but I doubt wether its good math for a domain investor. Hey Page, I followed you on the .LA bate and I wonder how you did with renewals as I shade my portfolio to a quarter.

      • I understand what you are implying, but when you purchase a .com in a premium term, you are buying into a market that has liquidity, traders willing to buy you out.

        When purchasing a gtld with no proven track record liquidity is not as certain. This is why many guys where buying $250 premiums, then placing them up for sale for $750 a week later, waiting on the Phil Harris’s of the world to come buy them. They are few, and far between, and their pockets do not reach as deep as they once did.

        IF I am investing $2000 into a .com, I know I will be no more than $10 into it after year 5. As well there is some structure in regards to price increases, and the % by which this can happen.

        With GTLD”s today there is no framework in place that puts a cap of 1-5% on price increases, if they want they can increase the price by 1000%. The last few rounds the renewals are starting to become laughable, first few rounds they weren’t there, and somewhere in the middle they were thinkable. I remember looking at some .websites, with .web, and .site coming, why would I pay $3000 per year for some so so term. End users are not that in love with domains, as domainers.

      • I’m not sure what you mean by waiting for the phil Harris’s of the world ?

        I have bought maybe 15 gtlds from other domainer of the several hundred I own..

    • Robbie , if you have any questions about my speculation or strategy , I will be happy to share.

  3. Exactly. Parking being dead kills the incentive to be a domainer.

  4. I can say, i will not be renewing any new gTLDS,i guess that because i never bought any.
    I figured the only way to stay and play this game in the years to come was to wait and see how all of this would play out in the next few years.
    I wanted to see how many would still be around and how it would be advertised and how the business community would accept them.
    As of now i think i made a good choice for a change….lol

  5. I will be renewing mine. I bought in .london, .berlin, .tokyo and .vegas all not exceeding 10 domains each (single world generic) and non of them are premium priced. I am hoping to hold on to those for whatever my little brain can do with them.

  6. wow, 26% have replied , I dont have any. lol

  7. I got just one premium name arab.company out of my ngtlds portfolio and will renew the best I have (>50%)

  8. We’ll renew most and as an early investment it paid off that only a few have a premium renewal fee.

    • You fail to add in the fact the better extensions are still yet to be released, and once they are they will dilute your gtld investments. I am sure you had a few good offers early on, based on your previous responses you are overly ambitious on the gtld outlook, causing you to probably ask for even higher counters, which would most likely be balked at.

      Most end users are not willing to throw more than $500 at these things today, and the kicker is most are unaware of premium renewals.

      As for 2016 when the gtld market might start showing signs of maturity there will be news of more creations, and as we have seen from the first round, the contention auctions have been very successful in terms of being a loser pays. So many will throw their hat into the ring, and hope for a loss, something tells me this system will not work second time around.

      Other than .nyc which was highly touted, and considered geo locked, I have not seen any impressive gtld registration stats in a while. Many TM’s such as nascar.club which are currently sitting with some guy in Switzerland are going to get dropped, or litigated.

      We have all seen some ugly registrations that will most likely be dropped, when the $30 renewals come.

      • I know your reply was not to me but I will reply anyway. 🙂
        Robbie my main focus so far has been left.right combinations that work together.
        Creditcard.website might have competition from creditcard.web but credit.card will not.
        I don’t just buy “left” keywords just because they are nice.

        The ugly registrations (3-4 words with hyphens etc.) are maybe 100 to 1 compared with TM domains.
        So TM domains are insignificant.
        And the ugly registrations mostly come from non-domainers.

      • Robbie, “most end users aren’t willing to pay 500 a year renewals ” are you kidding me?? I’m not sure what your considering an end user but the majority of the names that I would like to sell to end users would think 500 a year is not significant in the big picture of their advertising /marketing budget..

  9. Of about eleven i plan to keep 6-7 basically because of the cost to keep for period required (until the rest of world knows about them) I do think development will be the key for these extensions

  10. The problem is it is not easy to sell new gTLDs in just 1 or 2 years,Yes some are already sold very expensive, but how many? I have Florists.me that is created at 2008, and I have it for years. And it is not sold yet until now. The only thing I renewed it because I have a plan if it is not sold, I’ll make a small florists. If the new owners gTLD has bought it just trying to flip it fast, it will be a big problem for them…The other thing, not all TLDs will be success. I have paintings.asia that according to Estibot selling history, it was sold at 2008 for 1200 $..I got it from a drop catching…And now I have found that it is not easy to sell it even at 200 $. So I guess more than 50% of new gTLDs will be dropped at the first or the second years…

  11. Good luck performing an “Outgoing Transfer” with your new GTLD’s when you sell them…….The registries, registrars, and everything in between is making a nightmare of a simple domain transfer process. Everybody is blaming each other, which is typical in the “technology” sector…Regardless, it is much, much harder to Transfer a New Gtld than it is a .com………….Has anyone else had difficulties transferring a New Gtld?…..

    • I have had issues renewing at ENOM it states ERROR, I was just testing as I didn’t remember what the renewals on some were. Hopefully they can get this fixed before the renewals hit.

      • My particular problem is that I am unable to transfer a “premium” GTLD to my clients account….Godaddy and Enom are done with this attempt to transfer!… They both blame Donuts….I am awaiting a reply from Donuts.(In the event that a Donuts rep. reads this, PLEASE REPLY, I want answers…..Apparently, there is an issue with all or many of the “premium” names at Donuts when a transfer is requested…….. This has created a serious issue if someone intends to sell their “premium” domain, as it may be stuck at it’s birthing place….. The good news is we were told that we can “push” the domain, but a transfer is just not able to be done on “Premium” new GTLD’s…..

  12. New gtlds are here to stay, they are the future of web browsing and search engines BUT it is not that fast. you got to be patient because the world is changing. Look, if i want to buy a domain for my future company let us say Jack, how much Jack.com is going to cost me ?!!!! i would prefer to buy Jack.company or any other suitable gtld that suits my future company. there are plenty out there and many more coming…..

    By the way, that is one of the reasons why .com sales are getting low at least in price that is due to the variety of choice. even if the renewal cost is few hundreds, it will not be a major concern because the domain itself has a great keyword and sounds easy to remember. long or short won’t be a major concern too. JackCompany.com or Jack.Company ?!! yes KFC.com is fantastic, but what do you think of KFC.restaurant ? HotPizza.com or Hot.Pizza ?? have you got my 2 points ?

    Another thing is i am not willing to pay 5 or 6 figures for a domain at once, i would prefer to be $1000 a year. if my business do well, i can cover the cost, if not, i did not lose 6 figures !!

    The new gtlds are going to take over no matter how hard .com guys are trying to fight, it is just a matter of time. it is just moving at a slow motion, if new gtlds are to be successful from day one or year one or even year 5th, it would be a disaster to .com valuable domains. things must be reasonable to be accepted therefore it has to take time, the whole new gtlds program is not offered at once, but at stages and many gtlds are not live yet. why ? it must take time and .com guys must have a chance to sell their valuable ones. look how many valuable .com domain is offered for sale now ? there were not in the market earlier but they were reserved to be sold few years later on. but sorry .com you got to sell yourself as quick as possible because you have got competitors. MANY…

    Another point here is: why .com guys are buying the matching domains in new gtlds ? they know they will need them someday, not because they will bring more traffic at this stage.

    I got many more points to list, but i would like to hear from others as well, my points are only my own understanding and they can be wrong, however they make sense of you are someone who thinks further. so it is up to you to analyse things in order to make a good choice. just do not be too optimistic nor pessimistic, be reasonable..

    Before leaving, i will give you an example about myself. Few years ago i did not like touchscreen phones when they came to the market i preferred the old nokia for easy use. a few years later, i am using an expensive smart phone. your child or grandchild will not be using what we are using today.

    • .Com prices are going up not down.
      Of course you can find deals as you could always.
      Today’s deals are much more expensive than what they used to be.

      New gTLDs are not slowing down because people need to sell their .com.
      A lot are into contention.
      And ICANN couldn’t handle them all at once anyway.

  13. I have heard this argument before, but with so many different companies, and personalities operating different registries with random premiums across the board it makes it difficult for end users to trust these extensions. You have condo.ooo running at $7500 per year, how can a business take such extensions seriously, it is a joke.

    What startups have done is go with a brand like GetFixed.com, if the company grows, and get’s funding they move onto something like Fixed.com, now what GTLD is better than this extension? Fix.Repair? which is for sale at $10K… GTLD’s can only fill niches, they cannot fill an entire space as you can’t have extensions for every type of keyword, and such.

    I think the two biggest hurdles GTLD’s have are the different companies running them with all sorts of different rules, and insane premiums on better quality keywords, and the best being locked away from development.

    Honestly GTLD’s started off strong, but have really taken a giant step backwards in the past month.

    Some of the brightest minds in the industry are still on the fence, the cheerleaders have money to make from GTLD’s so they are all for them. Many .com owners have bought a few here, and there as they can afford to as a hedge against strong .com portfolios, and a forward thinking bet.

    I think most can tell you here, .com is bringing in more money than it ever has, and it has actually gotten stronger, and more offers are hitting the fan.

  14. Konsta, how about “Did anyone sell New gTLD Domain Name ?” in most commented posts so that we can analyse New gTLD sales in the market

  15. A theory could be that the TLD is the Catalog classification on the Internet and that there are two main kind of domain owners:
    A) End Users and Investors. End Users have beary thoughts about the total business exploitation + the domain. The domain has here a rather recognition/address function.
    B) Investors have beary thoughts about the domain name + extension combination, with priority given to domains that are exploited as in (A) or not exploited at all. Investors believe in sales trends about domain SLD and TLD/ccTLD/gTLD combinations. Those trends are subjective raw statistics that could mean anything. Opinions can be based upon a given sale price or sale prices from a given period up to another date in the past or in the future. Because each researcher – appraiser or potential seller or potential buyer – uses chosen parameters, and the way these parameters are used in the research itself and any and all conclusions only reflect the study of the particular researcher.

    Investors (B) use rather pure speculation since they have little to no influence about trends. They can implement strategies that modify parameters such as name, fame, SEO, Mouth-to-Mouth Advertising, Classifieds, etc, on a Domain Parking Page or so. that are rather difficult to manage efficiently.

    End Users (A) may have some some speculation intentions. Main thing about End Users is that they often have plenty influence about trends. They can implement strategies that modify parameters such as name, fame, SEO, Mouth-to-Mouth Advertising, Classifieds, etc, on a custom Domain Parking Page or a one-page website or an advanced responsive website such as a web shop or so. Title, description, keywords, and further page content such as well-filled product or services catalog. Additional information such as links Terms, Privacy Policy, Owner and Operation Address, etc. All effectively included in a Site Map usually contribute much in a very good SERP (Search Engine Result Position).

    So what is best? Just Invest in kind of a Parking Page account (B) and to believe in extrapolation ? Or to Invest in kind of a Developed Web Account (A) including a website with content that can be better adapted to the Domain Name trends or/and the evolution of the business ran under the domain?

    I prefer (A) – like circumstances because I can quickly follow-up changing situations.

    And now, to the point about renewing gTLD domains:
    Myself, I have NO such domains for the moment and I see no reason to begin with.
    In my opinion this type of domains has been launched to expand income for regulators and registrars first, and for other industries (appraisers, auction houses, investors, etc.) later.

    Success, everybody!
    Johnny.

  16. i will renew them all except one : archive.photos
    it’s a premium one who costs $300 a year.
    if someone is interested leave a message i will transfer it for $300.
    support@spirea.net

  17. By including votes from domainers that do not own any gtld’s, it distorts the results of the gtld’s that will be renewed.

    Total votes: 418
    100%: (91 votes, 22%)
    renew some non-premium (16 votes, 4%)
    renew the best (>50%) (89 votes, 21%)
    renew the best (50%) (89 votes, 31%)
    renew the best (<50%) (52 votes, 18%)
    drop all (42 votes, 15%)
    don't have any! (128 votes, )

    • It is easy to get the results you want by removing the “don’t have any!” votes.
      If I hadn’t put that all the new gtld haters would have voted for “drop all” and the results would have been skewed.

      • K, you are 100% correct. The haters would have distorted the numbers.

        1/2 of what I posted only appears above. (I guess the server eat the rest.)
        I showed the original numbers and the numbers/percentages after subtracting the “don’t have any”.

        I assume you will adjust the numbers after everyone votes.

        Great article.

  18. Hi K
    Do you have any news about guru ?

  19. Hi,

    We will be renewing some but not all.

    We will not be renewing most of these:

    https://flippa.com/domain-catalogs/10153?q=.technology

    https://flippa.com/domain-catalogs/10153?q=.gallery

    https://flippa.com/domain-catalogs/10153?q=.clothing

    https://flippa.com/domain-catalogs/10153?q=.bike

    https://flippa.com/domain-catalogs/10153?q=today

    So if you want to snap up a few bargains, then you need to be quick. A number of the domain names have Very High Exact Match Search Volumes, and good CPC, and are keyword variation friendly for setting up subdomain names..

    There is a slight markup on prices that we paid for all domain names, so there is no need to fear huge renewal prices for our domain names listed under the aforementioned TLDs.

    We will definitely renew Registration.Domains if it does not sell on auction (see following url):

    https://flippa.com/3841227-high-cost-per-click-high-search-volume-top-industry-name-superb-investment

    I can tell you now that we will not be renewing most of the following domain names:

    https://flippa.com/domain-catalogs/10153?id=10153&sort_col=buyitnow&sort_dir=asc

    If any of our domain names have already expired by the time that you want to acquire them from us (before they enter the redemption period), then please check with us to ensure that we have included a 1 year renewal cost into those low prices. So far only our .clothing and .bike domains have expired. We have included 1 year renewal costs with those. All of the aforementioned TLDs are registered with Godaddy, so we can push them to you.

  20. I’m Sure i will renew …..
    Like This list
    internet.Business
    Men.Business
    ElectricVehicle.company
    ElectricVehicles.company
    EVinsurance.company
    DriverlessCar.company
    Onlineinsurance.company
    Vehicleinsurance.company
    Automotiveinsurance.company
    NewCars.company
    NewTrucks.company
    Voitures.company (French) “Car”
    Camions.company (French) “Truck”
    petrole.Company (French) “oil”
    Rockoil.company
    Rents.company (English)
    Renta.company (Spanish)
    Louer.company (French)
    Aluguel.company (Portugese)
    Concrete.company
    Coffees.company
    BlackCoffee.company
    Poultry.company
    Sheep.company
    Alfalfa.company
    Caviar.company
    Truffe.company (French)
    Truffles.company

    And More……

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