Is This One Of The Best New gTLD Domain Names?

newgtldIs this one of the best New gTLD domain names? It probably is even thought you may not see it immediately. It is no secret that one of the largest domain name investors, Innovation HQ, Inc., is buying New gTLD domain names for the past year and a half. According to ntldstats.com they own more than 4,900 New gTLDs. They are probably in the top 10 (or even in the top 5) owners of New gTLD domains if you take out registrants of free domains and a few registries that have registered their own domains. Innovation HQ, Inc. invests in and develops high quality generic domain names such as grants.com, unemployment.com, and mortgagecalculator.com. You can find a lot of their domain names, both .com and New gTLDs, at Afternic. Last month Innovation HQ, Inc. bought last month a domain name I was after too. They bought york.city while Donuts, the .city registry, is releasing this summer all the domains that were reserved because of domain name collisions. I bet that a lot of people read york.city and said “What?. “Who cares about the city of York?”. Well, a lot of people do because york.city can be used as the ultimate New gTLD hack. Of simply a sub-domain: new.york.city. Yesterday I wrote an article about 2 word New gTLD domain names and the risk of typos. What domain name do you think is better? NewYork.City, that is reserved by Donuts, or New.York.City? Which one would look better in an ad campaign? I personally like New.York.City better. It has a certain symmetry and “city” is actually part of the city name. I can’t think of a better New gTLD domain for New York City. I think that Innovation HQ, Inc also thinks this is a great domain and this is why they didn’t wait until general availability or even EAP day 5 to buy the domain. They bought it at EAP day 4 paying more than $600 to buy it. I don’t particularly like “citynames.city” domains but this domain is very good because it is not just that. I consider it to be a hybrid. Both a hack and a subdomain.

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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.

34 comments

  1. Interesting argument.

    From a marketing perspective as related to a possible campaign, New.York.City is great.

    From an SEO perspective, it’d require a lot of shifting to outrank NewYork.*** even with Google’s gTLD-friendly algorithms. Third level domains (subdomains) are generally stacked atop the second level domain in searches, so Random.York.City etc. would be piled up in results.

  2. The sub-domain certainly has more symmetry when viewed side by side.

    Early access for .city was a mess. Purchased one for brand protection (eventually) after being charged and refunded through several registrars including Network Solutions and Enom during EAP. Enom couldn’t find a way to add the EAP fee at checkout even though the domain was available but they had no problem charging the reg. fee twice.

    GTLD operators need to get on the same page with registrars. Prices shouldn’t vary wildly from one to the next and the purchase process should be clear and simple. Customer service reps at many registrars often know almost zero about the gTLDs let alone early access.

  3. I looked at that one too but settled for Atlantic.city

  4. I like the look of New.York.City.

    But I like much less the competition with NewYork.city + NewYorkCity.com + NYC.com + .NYC.

  5. I bought logistics.directory, thinking that subdomains are good possibilities include geo-specific like china.logistics.directory, india.logistics.directory and micro-niche such as automotive.logistics.directory, ecommerce.logistics.directory

  6. I bought Street.Sydney. Will be good for subdomains for all specific local Sydney streets. eg.

    Oxford.Street.Sydney
    George.Street.Sydney
    Pitt.Street.Sydney
    King.Street.Sydney
    etc

    • I do a lot of SEO, and each sub-domain, is a separate domain that needs to be developed and prove its worth to google…. This project you just described, is almost impossible to execute without giant bank roll.

  7. Domainers might “see it” but I don’t think a lot of buyers are really going to be chasing it, it isn’t obvious enough in my view. If the renewal is $600 per year I doubt this will be profitable to hold.

  8. I bought Street.Sydney. Will be good for subdomains for all specific local Sydney streets.
    /////////////////

    Who’s is the obvious buyer for this though? I don’t think anyone is going to to pay a premium to run a whole lots of sites about roads in sydney that end with “street”.

    • This one I don’t intent to sell…..My plan is to build a local business directory listing site with what’s on events on every high streets in Sydney, catered for local business community, local consumers and international visitors.

      The mobile friendly website will list all major retail fashion stores, food, cafe, restaurants, tattoo shops, art galleries, bars, clubs and community services etc.

      Let say the users visit Oxford.Street.Sydney, they can see all recommended retail shops and services provided. If generate big volume of traffic, I may be able to charge reasonable directory listings fees, advertising etc…. That’s why I bought this name for my next dream project.

      I have seen many similar websites such as TimeOut.com , but my project will be very different by using Street Concept to navigate the search with online shopping/browsing experience…..

      Does it make sense? Your opinion will be much appreciated.

      • Possibility is to create a webpage/subdomain for each business address and charge membership fees. eg Hilton Hotel

        488George.Street.Sydney or
        HiltonHotel488George.Street.Sydney

        ie Hilton owns a virtual street address!

        Well, I give my secrets away lol. You can duplicate in.NYC .London etc

      • street.nyc street.london street.paris street.vegas all taken……

      • Did you actually read that article you linked? because he only talks in about seo potential of subdomain vs subfolder, not about their properties and how they behave as sites. think of it this way, subdomain is its own domain.

        Look at co.com – its a subdomain, that sells domains. Here is Moz.com opinion, some of the biggest guys in seo https://moz.com/community/q/moz-s-official-stance-on-subdomain-vs-subfolder-does-it-need-updating

        Once again, the whole point of somening.site.domain is to give you more options, but with those options you lose ability to rank it as one site. Each one becomes it’s separate site.

      • You do realize that building up a website, that has any proper traction is not that easy. Sub domain is a separate website in googles eyes. Hence, there is no seo benefit for sub domains. Time out is a giant corporation, to build out your vision would require millions. Without any guarantee of return. Can you manage it? Street.nyc worth very little, i can say that as someone who specialize in .nyc domains. Streets.nyc would be stronger, but it still is brandable, since you need to develop each sub domain as separate website. Which is impossible undertaking for small operators. And umprofitable one for big ones.

      • It’s true what you say. It will require big team efforts and money…..I give up!

        Option 1
        May be I just lease out the sub-domain name address and let the tenants (with their own web designers, or I can recommend them web designers) build their own contents and creating their own unique/identity webpage. So, I don’t have to do anything, I just control the look and feel of the overall site.

        Option 2
        Hopefully someone will buy the name for cheap price…or sell to TimeOut or other similar business organisations that interested and use to redirect it to their main websites….most likely won’t happen.

        Option 3
        Just drop it at a loss

        Well, no gamble no gain!

      • Other option…..May sell to owner of sydneystreet.com.au or other similar names…..

      • I did some research about your comment ” Sub domain is a separate website in googles eyes. Hence, there is no seo benefit for sub domains”

        Found out that…Google don’t care if your content is placed in a subdomain or subfolder. There are no algorithmic differences to the search engines. You can read more from:

        http://www.seo-theory.com/2015/02/26/new-seo-myths-and-lies-in-2015/

      • Yeah, all my domains are bought for development as well, that’s what happens when you realise they are worth nothing!

      • Join the club!

        Time to buy WorthNothing.Club

  9. Raymond, you can always look up if there is company in Sydney with name street in it. And sell it to them. Or somebody who has longer name with a street in it. The name is one word, and probably has some value for end user, i just wanted to give reality check on development side. Since i just finished developing very big project on .nyc and it took us 7 month with team of 10. And we didnt do sub-domains, or anything, just one build out. hence , when ever i hear somebody tells me they will develop each subdoamin as site, it just sounds as they will be wasting their time. Since to build out even 5 semi decent names with good content , and then get links and engagement from related sites is fantasy for anyone but the big players. Then you need operation behind each site. And if your idea is small enough (aka to local, or doesnt have product that can give good margin, or too specific, etc) then you in addition you will be working on the name that has low life time potential from get go. To me street.sydney is one those names, where development potential from scratch is very low. But might have good value to existing companies.
    If you really want to develop, buy a better name and then put effort into it. Dont develop because you have a name ,unless you have a killer name with huge upside.

    • DK, Thanks for great advice.

      Yes, I don’t waste my time on developing… big risk factor.

      The easiest way is to look up company in Sydney with name street in it. And sell it to them. Or somebody who has longer name with a street in it as you suggested.

      Found one, SydneyStreet.com.au and saw other sites with street word on it.

  10. Anything can be built and sent off to Google – even if it’s a Blogger page. The real question is, what does one intend to do with that.

    From an SEO perspective, Google doesn’t care if it’s a subfolder or a subdomain, e.g. new.york.city is the same as york.city/new – so you have to ask yourself how will this work.

  11. Raymond, there is a difference. New.york.city and newyork.city is about same SEO value. York.city/new-york is much weaker seo combination, since it comes down to where words are in domain. It should follow the organic way of saying it, to get the biggest benefits. I can attest and done a number of projects, where missing a word in organic flow or the words were out of order( especially if its 3 words), makes a big difference not just for seo but also for link creation and branding (the last two not really part of discussion, but should be considered if project is being undertaken) .

  12. I got followings

    – ville.city
    – polis.city

    City names ending with ville – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ville
    City names ending with polis – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polis

    Today I got KL.city (Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is called KL by locals)

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