.Flowers Inquiry Pages + Frank Schilling Comments About North Sound Names

I read Mike Berkens’ article about how over 24k .Flowers domain names were registered after the extension went into general availability. In the article, he wrote that “it appears that North Sound Names, owned by the principal of Uniregistry, registered over 98% of the domain names.”

In my opinion, the most obvious .Flowers domain names are geographic (city, town, state, region…etc) domain names, and I wanted to see if I could find any decent unregistered names of that variety in light of Mike’s aforementioned article. I searched for quite a few city .Flowers domain names, and all were registered.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be all that interesting, except for the landing page that appeared on all of the domain names I searched, which I took a screenshot of and shared:

newyork.flowers

I found it interesting that North Sound Names  isn’t using the standard DomainNameSales.com parked page or for sale inquiry page that others use. It’s probably safe to say there isn’t very much type-in traffic looking for various websites at this point, so not parking them makes sense.

I was curious about this unique landing page, and I asked Frank why it was different. “This is all part of the beginning of our DNS migration,” he told me. “All our landing pages will be refreshed in future with more imagery, vibrancy and life.”

Personally, I like the NewYork.Flowers sales inquiry page more than the standard DNS inquiry page (see N.Ventures for an example). I am a bit surprised there aren’t the social log in options like on the standard DNS page, but the green background seems more welcoming and cheery than the black background of the current inquiry pages.  Ultimately, the most important thing is the percentage of people who land on the inquiry page and proceed with an offer. As I have said in the past, I think it is good when Frank is testing various landers, especially when he uses his own inventory first.

I also asked Frank to comment on the North Sound Names registrations of Uniregistry domain extensions. Here is what he had to say:

“Most North Sound Names are available to anyone (at any registrar) on a “request to develop” basis provided they are not just flipping them. At some future point those names may get deleted and made available at reg-price. Unfortunately there is no instruction-guide or manual as to how to run a perfect TLD launch. : ) I do not support variable pricing in Uniregistry names so we are faced with a choice of either making everything available (like we did in .click and .hiphop) or holding premiums for future developers and dolling them out over time. In the case of .flowers we’ve chosen that path. .LOL is coming next and that one will have more limited premiums but it will “still” have some premiums.”

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
  1. Elliot

    For me its not that Frank chose to reserve domains or register domains.

    Its his extension and he can reserve every domain in any extension he owns, its his right, its his extension.

    My issue comes from the fact that with every new Uniregistry launch I go to different registrars the day before launch and certain domain are showing as not reserved, available for pre-order (although many are showing as reserved) and I place the pre-orders and pay for them, then go to many different registrars to place the same pre-orders all of which are accepted and then the day of launch most if not all of them wind up registered by North Sound Names.

    I keep getting told the domains list of unavailable domains is set 60 days in advance but there are now too many times and too many registrars that show the domains as not reserved that wind up registered at north sound.

    Of course for me to tie up a few bucks is not a big deal but I’m sure for a lot of smaller domainers it is a big deal and i do not like spending 4 hours of my day completely wasted on domains that are not going to be available.

    I’m sure a lot of other domainers are wasting their time as well and the combined amount of time by everyone chasing domains that are going to be N/A is not acceptable in my opinion

  2. Totally agree with Mike’s comment and assessment. Complete waste of my (our) time and energy, looking for and making lists, pre-ordering, sitting and waiting at the pc for launch, seeing names available at first then not at check out. Not one name I was going for available! Not even my worst choices. Very disappointed in how this was presented and handled.

  3. A registry is only allowed to reserve a limited amount of domains. What Frank is doing is skirting the spirit of the rules on a technicality. He doesn’t want people to “flip” the domains but flipping is exactly what he has done to get where he is today, and North Sound is essentially attempting to flip these domains. So according to Frank nobody can flip domains in his extensions besides him. And if he fails to flip these domains he’ll let them drop in the future and then all the lucky domainers can pick them up, like scraps thrown to a dog.

  4. To be clear, and I have already shared this with Michael previously, on February 3rd, we sent a list of the registry reserved names to all of our registrars. We advised them that if they were planning to sell preregistrations, they should run their availability checks against the reserved names list: “For registrars offering pre-registrations, we strongly urge you to check availability against the lists above in order to provide the best customer experience to registrants.”

    We make it clear to the registrars that EPP availability checks prior to the GA launch would not provide correct information. We need to keep the EPP query stream clear to enable the registration of sunrise names. Sunrise names take precedence over the registry-reserved premiums. So the EPP availability check pre-launch is for sunrise only, and the local list of reserved names can be used for pre-sales. I know of some registrars that do this correctly.

    We have provided an advisory on this at our registry website: http://uniregistry.link/about-pre-registrations.

    Of course, we always are looking at ways to improve the launch experiences of the end-users, and we will continue to work with the registrar channel to make sure they have the tools and information they need to provide a good customer experience with accurate availability information.

  5. The colorful lander and the for sale wording on the page are quite good. I noticed that GoDaddy had some visually pleasing fonts & backgrounds too during new tld pre-registration.

  6. Hello Elliot,

    My My My , There is some awfully SLICK Marketing going on. Most defensive support statements resemble long drawn out Circular Psycho Babble. The Red Flags are Flying.

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  7. What a bullshit bingo haha.. Nice work from the PR department! Bottomline: Look guys we all know we made a fortune by flipping domain names, but that doesn’t mean that we’re gonna allow you to do that in our ggTLD!

    “Unfortunately there is no instruction-guide or manual as to how to run a perfect TLD launch. : ) ”

    Really? Haha you can’t make this shit up..

  8. ** REMINDER ***

    Please remember that the first international DPS, Domain Parking Strike, called ” Enjoy the CPC EXPLOSION inside google!!!” is in progress!!!

    It will last at least until April 20th, 2015.

    Did you changed the nameservers of your domains? Manage to do it please.

    If you want, you can manage also to offer leasing/renting options on your landing pages (of course do not ask for that to parking platforms, you know it will be only a waste of time…).

    ENJOY THE PPC EXPLOSION!!!!

    P.S. Can someone please write something in reply to this post (sorry Elliot, I’d like just to be “sure” you are not using the plugin about which you wrote in the past… I am sure you can understand – Can you also tell what’s the name of that plugin?).

  9. Henry who is smitten with Sally wants to win her over by sending her a dozen red roses, Henry is your average new yorker and carries a smart phone where he is about to place his online order, Question; What is the most likely address Henry will enter in the address bar?

    A- flowers.nyc
    B- flowers.mobi
    C- flowers.com
    D- newyork.flowers

    And why?

    • It depends.

      If Henry’s neighborhood florist uses NYC.Flowers, Florist.NYC, or ElliotsBeautifulFlowers.com he might go there.

      If Henry knows 1800-flowers and/or Flowers.com he might go there (my usual choice).

      If he doesn’t know any florist he would probably use Google.

    • Hello Elliot,

      What makes you think Google will give preference to New gTLDs ? When they have .COM Sub-Domains in the mix ? REALLY

      Gratefully, Jeff Schneider(Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

    • I never said anything about Google in the article. The only thing I wrote about were the .Flowers landing pages I noticed and Frank’s comments when we exchanged emails about it.

      Raiders’ comment and my reply were about type in traffic and have nothing to do with Google (unless someone simply uses Google for search).

      Regarding Google giving preference to new gTLDs? No, I don’t believe that and I have no idea where you got that impression. Google’s Matt Cutts already addressed that myth: https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts/posts/4VaWg4TMM5F

    • Naturally many internet users search Google, but if you have a generic word like “flowers” I think most will enter that words into the address bar followed by the dot come, at least thats what my traffic stats show for the few single generic domains I have.

      And even if “.flowers” or “flowers.nyc” appear in a google search, there is the issue of trust, look at the millions of phishing scams that use gtlds like .info.. IMO, it will take years and even decades to build trust of these gtlds, and by that time a new breed of gtlds would have rolled out.

      Anytime someone like Frank Schilling who PROFITS from gtlds tells us 24K domains have rolled out already, it’s NOT the first time he’s done this, he does it for a reason, it’s bait, he throws out his line and sucker fish domainers bite into it with Franks hook on there credit cards.

  10. Hello Elliot,

    My My My , There is some awfully SLICK Marketing going on. Most defensive support statements resemble long drawn out Circular Psycho Babble that ultimately assume GUILT. The Red Flags are Flying. There is a Perfect Storm Heading towards the New gTLDS , the white water is rising, and the levee is going to blow. JAS 4/11/15

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  11. I don’t usally comment very often , but I have to ask why do the metal tigers aka Robert klines of the world that take over a thoughtful post like you started allowed to do so? His/her comments never add any value it’s always mudslinging ..

    Differing opinions bring good conversation , but the constant babble talking in third person. Yikes

    • I don’t really censor comments unless I absolutely feel the need to do so.

      I don’t want people with opposing viewpoints to not post their comments under the belief that I will delete those comments.

      As long as people are respectful and unthreatening, their comments will most likely be published.

  12. Hello Phil,

    If the truth is mudslinging, where are your questionable priorities? Domainers are always looking for Truths and Elliot And Michael Berkens and Rick Schwartz are paving the way to truths that will uncover the Cybersqwatter label as the real UNTRUTH, spread by the Ad Industry. You obviously cannot handle the truth Phil.

    Kudos Elliot

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

  13. I love to hear everyone’s opinion Jeff, the truth as you call it is very subjective when it comes to opinions … It just seems to me that you continue to talk about sub domains over and over , but that’s not even what I find mud slinging.. Making comments like “most defensive support statements resemble long drawn out circular psycho babble that ultimatly assume guilt”

    Tell me the value in that comment ?!? To. Offend Frank? To hear yourself talk ? Nothing relevant being said imho.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Adds Escrow.com as a Payment Option

1
Squadhelp has added Escrow.com as a payment option for buyers. The addition of the Escrow.com option was shared by ARIYAS on X this morning: 👍...

Some Thoughts on .AI Domain Names

15
There is no question that .AI domain names have become a hot topic of late. With considerable amounts of venture funding flowing into AI...

Handoff to Dan on Imported Leads Can be Confusing

0
I've been using the lead import option at Dan.com more regularly. Although the 5% commission is not ideal, transactions tend to move more quickly...

ArtificialIntelligence.com Goes Up for Sale

11
I tried to buy the ArtificialIntelligence.com domain name multiple times over the last 10 years. The emails I sent to the registrant went unanswered,...

EU Gives More IP Protection to Food & Drink Producers

0
Did you know that some well-known food and drink varieties are protected intellectual property regulations? Popular types of drinks and foods that are protected...