OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
In the past few weeks I have read some straight up bullshit statements from people in the domain name industry that I really enjoy their writing and are certainly knowledgeable in regards to domain names among other things.
Yes, there statements are bullshit and I think that they know it too. There are statements that you read and immediately say: WTF was that? Where did this come from?
Why do they do it? I believe that they think that by supporting New gTLDs they will get more consulting assignments from the New gTLD registries.
I certainly understand that the New gTLD registries have been spending a lot more than what the older (legacy) TLD registries are spending. Verisign, Neustar, Afilias and PIR spend very little in marketing and consulting and most of the latter is done in house.
New gTLDs have created some opportunities that haven’t gone unnoticed. I understand this but please people, cut the bullshit.
I have read comments or tweets that are simply ridiculous. One thing I read yesterday was an attempt to compare a one-word .com domain with a New gTLD. And that is after a company had moved from a 2-word .com to the one-word .com. And the New gTLD had the same 2 words as the .com that the company rebranded from.
I have read that New gTLDs are converting better in google ads than .com using only circumstantial evidence.
I read a paid study that claimed something obvious like that “a New gTLD can rank as well as a .com in Google” while insinuating something entirely different.
I read something completely not true like that a certain geo extension has 70% developed websites. A statement that can be disproved in 2 minutes.
And the list goes on and on. In the past 3 years ridiculous statements and marketing disasters have hurt both legacy TLDs (like .com that every New gTLD seems to be attacking) and New gTLDs. .Com is not the enemy. New gTLDs must learn to coexist with it.
New gTLD registries are pushing this agenda. But undermining a product that is directly comparable with yours will not make you seem better. It is like a car company saying: “Cars are so dead in 2017. Buy our cars!”. What do you think consumers would think reading that?
I really don’t understand how these registries don’t understand that by trying to hurt .com that are actually hurting themselves.
And yes, I think that these statements and paid studies that are made by people with good reputation are really hurting the domain name industry and of course are hurting the people themselves in the long run. It simply a shame wasting their expertise like this.
I have written before about the reputation that a few people are sacrificing in the name of New gTLDs. I will not mention any names here because I still respect these people but I am sure that you have probably read some of these comments or articles.
New gTLDs need to be priced competitively, have a reliable registry and be simple to register/renew/resell. This is what people are looking for when their dream .com is gone. Anything other that this and failure for an extension is imminent.
But this article is not only about New gTLDs. It is about the domain name industry and things that are said without any proof and without any thought of the consequences and without realizing that people outside the industry might actually believe these statements. They might believe them at the beginning but when they realize these are not true then they will think the complete industry is pure bullshit and hype.
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As I said many times, all websites are totally BS
Go read “BullS”
All websites are just a propaganda tool and selling junks!!
You’re right. Is getting annoying already.
I, personally, have my portfolio with. Com, Net and Org. and won’t include any other TLD in the near future.
They can wait till hell freezes over permanently expecting my way of thinking right now.
Thanks Konstantinos for sharing your valuable thoughts. It seems to be true how such all things are being discussed and criticizing each other over TLD vs nTLD.
I like and respect all domain’s extensions whether its .com .net .org or ntld ….
Although I’m not familiar with some of the examples you’ve cited, for the most part I agree with your take, Konstantinos.
However, numbers do matter: And for any investor, ROI is the number that matters most.
As you might have seen today on the StrategicRevenue.com blog, John Colascione listed the highest sales of 2017 for gTLDs:
https://www.strategicrevenue.com/list-of-newer-keyword-rich-gtlds-domain-sales-so-far-this-year/#comments
Compare that with the highest TLD sales of the year on Sedo, and, frankly, I’m not sure you could make a compelling case (as of end-of-June 2017) that you’ll get a better ROI from dot-com, dot-net, or dot-org:
http://domainnamewire.com/2017/06/27/sedos-top-10-mls-sales-year/
@gene: The DomainNameWire list you’re linking to lists the highest SedoMLS sales, not the highest Sedo TLD sales. SedoMLS is a sales network that mostly sells fixed priced domains through channel partners, such as registrars.
Konstantinos Zournas I have so much respect for you. You tell the truth. Other blogs like Morgan Linton, DomainShane, Arco.net, they delete all comments if it goes against there advertisers which pitch there BULLSHIT!!! Those blogs are a complete joke!
Thanks again for everything you done Konstantinos Zournas, your one of the good guys! We need more people like you my friend!
The whole GTLD is getting old, the best one maybe .WEB has ZERO chance, too much damage has been done in the past for any future GTLD releases are DOA.
I appreciate you candor but why not name them? You are making a point and then leaving it to your readers to somehow figure out who, what, when and where. Connect the dots. Sometimes you have to make it obvious otherwise people will speculate on exactly what motivated you to write this article. This industry keeps pitter-pattying around with its future. People do not remember the mundane. Make it memorable. Then we can start to have the kind of discussion that will help make this space more accountable to those that are supporting it and care about its future.
People get upset and then they may wish to retaliate. Relationships are involved, and sometimes you don’t want to ruin them.
Just the other day I posted this about one of the benefits of posting more anonymously:
“posting this way lends itself to feeling more willing to say a lot of things I believe often need to be said for which the absence of anonymity usually makes people reticent even if they wanted to.” (https : // www . thedomains . com/2017/06/26/domainers-dont-agree-much/#comment-221934)
I’ve also got a comment here below “awaiting moderation.”
Lol, already out of moderation now.
Damn mobiles! They don’t let me enjoy my sunset! 🙂
lol
I have to agree with Michael. This article is intriguing, but without examples of the “bullshit” you’re referring to, it’s hard to follow.
Well, bullshit is everywhere. I have called out some on my tweets.
Aha, it’s you again Kevin Murphy. So you see how valuable my kind of posting is now then, ay? 😉 And I do hope you have edited your controversial and harmful post.
Konstantinos, your post here addressing how such things cause so much harm could hardly be more timely. I hope you saw this thread, and please add your influence 🙂 to persuade Mr. Murphy here to change his controversial post which can only predominately tend to cause harm for us all and the industry in the mind of any normal person who sees it, regardless of alleged intent: https://www.thedomains.com/2017/06/26/domainers-dont-agree-much/#comments
John you give too much credit to a tweet that could mean many things. That is old news by now.
Methinks not, Konstantinos, and it remains current in cyberspace for anyone potentially affected by it as long it remains as originally published. That’s also why Rick’s new blog post says the same regarding his proclamation.
When you are AWARE, examples are EVERYWHERE. It is like “Opportunity”. It is invisible but some folks see it and some folks are blind to it. But you can’t say it does not exist just because you can’t see or illustrate it.
In this case, it is obvious to those that see things others do not. This blog post may not be what some want to hear but the truth seldom is.
Well one of them made a comment here, and the other said that maybe pillow.homes would be better than pillow.com or pillowhomes.com.
That wouldn’t too hard to find.
But the point is that this is just what I can remember from the past 2-3 weeks. There are several “opinions” passed around as facts when everyone knows the truth.
You sound a lot like me now, Konstantinos. In fact you sound exactly like me now.
In the same way, I have been regularly addressing in the blogs the same things regarding the continual brainwashing “bullspit” designed to make people both inside and especially outside the industry think that only short domains have value and the best quality long domains do not: http://www.domaininvesting.com/how-i-would-start-over-with-10000/#comments.
http://www.domaininvesting.com/domain-industry-featured-bbc-one-show/#comments
Needlessly and selfishly treating the industry as a zero sum game at everyone’s expense, as “either/or” instead of “both/and.”
And just as you point out, I have also continually pointed out how this needlessly harms and costs the very people who shortsightedly push this “false doctrine” themselves as well as everyone else. Making the pie much smaller than it really is needlessly, selfishly and fearfully thinking that you can’t affirm that shorter domain “x” is worth the fortune it really is if you dare to acknowledge that a few long domains “y” and “z” are also valuable, some extremely valuable, and some even more than many short.
Sometimes a “schizophrenic” recognition of the truth bubbles up from the depths of this delusion, however, even if those involved still refuse to explicitly acknowledge it: http://www.domaininvesting.com/mike-berkens-ready/
With some people in life as well, their pride and vanity prevents them from admitting the truth for reasons such as it was not their idea. Vanity, ego, etc. In trying to have their cake and eat it too, they only reduce the size of the cake for everyone including themselves.
Exactly.
If a .com is worth $1m then a New gTLD might be worth $10k.
If they make the .com seem worthless, guess how much the New gTLD will be worth.
Precisely, Konstantinos. And if you have a nice short .com worth $5 million, it’s not “this great short domain is worth $5 million but long domains are worth $0.” It’s “this great short domain is worth $5 million and it’s still going to be worth no less than $5 million with plenty of people willing, able and even eager to pay for it if they want it, plus a number of these other long domains are also worth $10k, $50k, $100k, $1m, and even $5m and more.”
I agree that longer exact match dotcom’s are still valuable but do you think domainers blogging to domainers pushing for shorter domains does anything for enduser interest in long tails? I don’t see how and they would only affect domainer investments if at all.
Tony, it’s about the bigger picture. As I have written elsewhere, it’s about how the domainers indeed influence and to some degree even “make” the market, especially those at the top who push this misguided dogma with the consequences I described here and elsewhere. They don’t just push it on the industry, they push it on the very public at large with whom we do business, and it has consequences. Just like the consequences Konstantinos is concerned about here. What I’m doing is exactly the same as what Konstantinos is doing with this very blog post. This negatively consequential dogma trickles up, down, out and sideways. It not only trickles, but is also deliberately shot from a hose with laser like focus. Correction and recovery of the truth can only start within.
I called out the “not com Revolution” slogan years ago on a blog not sure if it ever posted because some blogs seem to filter comments they don’t like or don’t agree with.
Huge marketing mistake from get go trying to replace .com instead of promoting coexist with .com. Big companies don’t want to spend tens of millions to rebrand through both marketing and IT costs. If new Gs would’ve been promoted as an add on for more concise marketing than most likely would’ve resonated better amongst corporate clientele.
I saw this same thing happen with RealNames circa 1999-2000.
No big corps adopted new Gs for their primary, transactional website. And new G operators can change renewal pricing at anytime by as much as they desire. That’s all one needs to really know at this point imo. Obviously things could change in future.
I have telling Paul Stahura that this is a bs slogan. Yet new registries never listen.
You didn’t mention any names in the post, so I’ll put my .02 cents in here. I feel totally confident in the New gTLD research that I’ve personally done and put out there over the years. Some were paid studies and others were not. Yes, it’s my reputation on the line, and I have no problem presenting all the data and being unbiased.
I’m first a marketer and then a domainer. I wanted to know which domains convert better (.com vs new gTLD), so I went and tested it. I presented (some of the) results publicly. My clients thank me time and time again for saving them money on their AdWords spend and getting better conversions. I consider that a win.
We’ll see changes in new gTLD adoption rates by end-users (non-domainers) as we see more brands move over their Dot Brand.
And yes, all domains (all TLDs) are treated the same by Google at the beginning. But there are biases with using an EMD or keyword rich TLD: people tend to link to you with your preferred keywords. Google can’t change the way people link to websites.
I am sorry but paid studies are always a bit suspicious.
The conversion you are talking about is the CTR. It is not a sale conversion. That is something totally different.
And a “diamonds” CTR can be seasonal for all I know.
I would like to see real life results from your clients and not some test data.
“We’ll see changes in new gTLD adoption rates by end-users (non-domainers) as we see more brands move over their Dot Brand.”
If I had a dime for every time I have heard this I would be rich by now. Yet we are 3.5 years into the program and nothing.
Who says that if Google advertises .google then all people will know the other 1000 new gtlds or that they will ever want to use them?
That is a myth that new gtld registries like to pass around and repeat.
No, conversions aren’t CTR. Conversions have nothing to do with CTR.
I never implied that conversions are CTR.
So what are they?
I have been watching the domain Industry for almost two decades now and I have viewed it from outside the domain bubble and inside the domain bubble.
Since no one else will mention names, I will and it’s not the first time I have mentioned these names.
Once .com lobyists, who made millions off of .com domains, that did or now dividing and ruining the reputation of the domain Industry, with new gTLD’s and throwing .com under the bus at the same time and trying to ruin .com’s reputation: Frank.S Paul.S Daniel.N.
Other domainers that individually hurt the reputation of the domain Industry: Adam.D Shane.C.
Some new domain brokers also hurt and contunue to hurt, the domain Industry’s reputation.
Now, that obviously does not include Media Options, Igloo, Sedo etc, who have been brokering domains for years.
Some domain bloggers also cannot make up their mind if they support legacy TLD’s, new gTLDs or both. Too worried about their revenue stream on their blog from domain ad’s etc.
Some bloggers will also not talk about some of the bad stuff happening in the domain Industry, too scared to rub someone the wrong way, hurt feelings or lose money.
Some domain websites also took/take advantage of new domainers as well.
There is also a buddy system with some domainers and domain businesses too. Special perks, incentives, inside info, private emails etc.
ICANN diluting the domain market with all those new gTLDs didn’t help the Industry either, they devalued domains as a whole.
On a positive note, in regards to new gTLDs, .Club and Colin Campbell are doing things the right way. They are not trying to make legacy TLD’s look bad, divide or hurt the domain Industry; they are playing nice. IMO
Also, I think that TLD Investors, TheDomains, DNW, DNJ and DI try to help the domain Industry. Keep up the good work.
Frank.S Paul.S Daniel.N. have a stake in a new gtld registry. I am mostly worried about people that try to appear impartial. The consultants are difficult to spot…
I have written about Frank and Daniel and I have told Paul to stop the not-com bs since 2014.
And I have written about the other 2 as well and we are not in speaking terms as of today.
You can search my blog since 2012 and find out.
I don’t think the problem is choosing sides. I support new gs for what they are. Not for something they are not or want to be in 100 years from now.
It is important to accept who you are and what market share is.
.Club is doing it right from the beginning. Some other registries are trying to turn things around by doing what they should have done from the get go.
Mark, you nailed this 100%, and your right about Shane Cultra as well! What a moron that guy is!
Thanks.
LOL I have said it before, SpinDoctor.Domains is available for only $7.99 (dynadot)
Konstantinos thanks for all your doing in the industry. Your the best blogger out there. When I challenge BS on DomainShane and Morgan Linton blog, they delete the comments because there only concerned about please there GTLD advertisers. Your straight up Konstantinos, much respect mate!
Lots of domain blogs don’t publish comments that don’t support their agenda.
Or they call you a “Troll” when you make a strong and coherent argument.
Or they pressure other blogs to REMOVE non-flattering comments.
NO QUESTION ABOUT IT! PERIOD!
Bill Hartzer compared the following StlMotorcars.com to Stl.CARS.
Hellooo! What happened to the word motors? You have it in the .com but you omitted it from the new gtld.
Shouldn’t it be stlmotorcars.com vs stlmotors.cars?
Looks like somebody is cheating, pulling a fast one, tryin to be slick, .Sorry got carried away. For the record I only know that you made an unfair comparison and I think it was on purpose.
At the root of all evil is…..?
Sincerely, your friend
I only reviewed sites that I was asked to review. Stl.cars is a better shorter domain.
I don’t think I looked at keyword with motor in them, but I did look at all the keyword the site was ranking for before and after.
If you don’t like any studies or research that I have done, I recommmend you do your own testing and present the results.
I’d like to see someone present unbiased research that shows .com beats out a new gtld in real world marketing. Actual use.
Overstock.com and O.co is the ONLY real world MASS MARKETING of a non .com we have EVER seen and they lost 61% of all customers according to their own CEO. Until we get another MASS MARKETING EXAMPLE, ALL ELSE IS TOTALLY MOOT NONSENSE!
Sorry, but in MY WORLD it’s about mass use and mass numbers not 500, 5000 or even 50,000 visitors a DAY, WEEK or MONTH. I need Millions and MILLIONS to make a true judgment!
Finally a domain blogger that cares about reporting the truth! That allows others to have a say and not worried about domain old boys click. Keep up the good work!
New GTLD’s are for fools, and SC and ML and tools.
*are tools, dammit
Keep up the good work and keep shining a light on these outrageous and false claims by 3/4 of the industry. It’s an uphill battle because they are SO invested in it and it ain’t working! Keep up the pressure Konstantinos!
Rick, just to be clear, I have no vested interest in any specific tld. I could care less whether one tld beats out another Tld in actual use.
What I do care about is actually developing a domain and putting content on it to make money. I care about which domains convert traffic into sales and provide a better overall user experience for the customer and for the website owner.
If you dont care about website development and actual sales then don’t look at any of my research or case studies.
Have you done any research with sales? And how about repeat sales?
I don’t care much about conversions that are a pdf download or anything free.
I’ve come to like and appreciate K’s blog too. I was just mentioning you here in fact. K still needs to hear how it’s not old news if it’s up on the web every day for people to see. I think you know a thing or two about that. 🙂
https://onlinedomain.com/2017/06/28/opinions/please-cut-bullshit/#comment-190071
If nobody had made it a big deal then it would be just another lost tweet.
Now the only thing that will live on is the article about the tweet.
Thank you Rick!
Thank god for people like Rick Schwartz, giving back with solid advice. People should listen to Rick, and ignore those bozos like Shane Cultra!
>> So what are they?
There’s a difference between CTR and Conversions. CTR is (click-thru ratio), meaning that an ad is displayed, and someone clicks on that ad. How many times did they have to see that ad before they clicked on it?
As marketers, we measure conversions. Someone saw an ad, they clicked on it, and they performed an action. That action could be downloading a PDF file, filling out a form, or buying something. They “convert” by performing your desired action.
All I concluded in my (multiple) studies and research was that if you use a New gTLD in ad copy and as a landing page, you get more conversions for less ad spend.
Have you done any research where conversions are real sales?
I think that what matters is that new gTLDs are being discussed.
It is unclear to me what percentage of users domainers represent and in term of use, I’d say it is low. Real users are not domainers so, whatever is said about new gTLDs, positive or negative just helps.
In the end (don’t ask me when), when we see more new URLs advertised (in the real world and not in the online domain name industry), use will have been demonstrated.
What I see is that people still like and trust the old .com domain. Part of the situation is that there is an overwhelming amount of new domain types and it feels diluted. I personally think they should have been released more bit by bit, so that first people can get used to the idea. It is a new situation and people need to figure out how they behave, what the opportunities are.