Speculating on .CO Domain Names

I’ve covered the .CO launch pretty extensively, but I continue to field emails and some phone calls asking for advice, so I want to share a little bit of additional insight from a personal standpoint to answer any lingering questions.

As you’re aware, I was awarded a .CO domain name, which I hope to reveal this week. It didn’t cost me anything, but I have to build a website on it and market it, which will be expensive. It’s a geographic area I like to visit, so while the goal is to make money, I may also be able to write off some research. That will be up to the accountant to ultimately determine once the time comes.

In addition to this, I bought 5 domain names .CO domain names via NameJet. I wasn’t planning to back order many, but at the last moment I backordered 39 of them and they secured 5 I think.   None of them are significant nor were intended to play on trademarks. For example, I got Elliot.CO and Torah.CO.

You can look around and see that .CO has paid for advertising on my blog (small banner from the registry going back up tomorrow and a banner from Register.com below my posts), so keep in mind that I can’t be completely unbiased despite the fact that I feel like I am offering my unbiased opinion. I do make money from blogging, but I am first and foremost a domain investor/speculator and hope that this is conveyed below.

That said, I do think this is going to be a widely used extension because .CO makes sense to me and will resonate with others who could not afford a 6 figure .COM. Names that would cost 6 or 7 figures in .COM should be considerably less in .CO, unless speculators keep them off the development market, which could ultimately hamper its usage. However, with so many names bought by domain investors, I am sure there will be plenty who can’t afford to hold out too long.

In my opinion, the widespread usage by big brands is what will make it a valuable investment. Whether this happens is unknown for now though. Despite the fact that many brands did secure .CO domain names, it remains to be seen whether they will be used and promoted or simply used for defensive purposes. I don’t know. You don’t know. We don’t know.

Yes, I think the Founder’s Program was very smart because it guarantees that there will be many sites that use .CO and actively promote it. This is good for investors. The primary reason .CO domain names could become valuable is because regular people and companies want them as an alternative to .COM.   Will this happen? I don’t know. You don’t know. We don’t know. I think it might and others think it might not, but at the end of the day, it’s not us who will determine whether they will have significant aftermarket value.

This is pure speculation. Invest cautiously and invest smartly. Some people who invest heavily may be rewarded very handsomely if .CO becomes more popular than .NET and other extensions. If this doesn’t happen, some people may lose a lot of money.

As I’ve told the people who have emailed me, “I am holding off on a bigger investment until I see what companies do with their .co names and how the aftermarket shapes up.”   I am going to build my Founders Program .CO domain name soon and will do my best to earn my investment back.   It’s pure speculation at this point, but my business model was built on speculation.

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

98 COMMENTS

  1. OK, but for how long will the founders promote the .co? You got the name for free and the worst that could happen is to have that name go back to them. If you notice that $XX,XXXX is to much to spend you just stop it.

    Also after 2 years you may just decide that it’s a lost cause, cut the losses and run. Bottom line, you have 10 million companies promoting .com and 1000 promoting their .com addresses. At some point you realize that you are promoting the .com’s guy site.

    Good name: Insurance.co (insurance company) and the likes
    Good name: Denver.com (a city in Co, Colorado) and the likes.

    For the rest it’s hard to justify massive budgets.

    all IMHO

  2. I think this is an over-hyped, ridiculous waste. Someone who sees an URL with a .co is going to “see” .com and type in the .com site instead.

    Domainers will make up the largest market segment that frantically registered hundreds or thousands of these domains, but I don’t see end users being remotely interested in these whatsoever.

    I think many, many people will be throwing their money away on these. Only a few will be lucky or smart enough to land big sales. Thousands of others won’t sell any at all, and their speculation will have been for naught. But this is nothing new, as we all know. Registrars make the big bucks, and fools lose the big bucks.

  3. OK, but for how long will the founders promote the .co? You got the name for free and the worst that could happen is to have that name go back to them. If you notice that $XX,XXXX is to much to spend you just stop it.

    Also after 2 years you may just decide that it’s a lost cause, cut the losses and run. Bottom line, you have 10 million companies promoting .com and 1000 promoting their .com addresses. At some point you realize that you are promoting the .com’s guy site.

    Good name: Insurance.co (insurance company) and the likes
    Good name: Denver.com (a city in Co, Colorado)

  4. .CO is pure speculation triggered by good marketing where registry and registrars would make money.Ofcourse some domains will flip for high figures among domainers but not much of a use in long term.
    Unless someone reports traffic because of c.om and .co confusion, which I doubt its’ not of much value.I just backordered 1 name from networksolutions.com which they didn’t get it.
    I am quite happy with type-in traffic which I am getting in.in and .co.in.

  5. My view is that the general public which wants a domain for a personal blog might register a .info, .us, .ws or .CO as an alternative to paying what they refer to as a “domain squatter” for an overpriced .COM. However, I don’t believe the general public will start paying domainers any significant sum for generic .CO domains. They will just migrate to some longer or hyphenated brandable domain in another extension.

    While I have my share of .Net and .TV domains I did not acquire any .CO domains yesterday nor do I plan to do so. Are end users really going to buy 200 thousand .CO domains over the next few years (remember renewals are $28-$30/year)? How many .Net sales do SEDO, Afternic & TDNam report annually?

  6. my bad. I missed that note in your previous emails. Sorry.

    Looking forward to seeing the name. And the development of it.

  7. People should be careful and wait to see what happens here.

    In my case I reg’d 3 .Co’s: 1 LLL, 1 product and 1 spanish keyword.

    I’ll monitor the traffic and sales for a a little while before ramping up or getting out.

  8. In the worst case scenario, these domains will only have value among domainers in which they create their own market…as with many new extensions…this will last a couple years or so.

    So, you have to know which names to get and when to flip them.

    I picked up many one worders which I would guess are worthless except to domain flippers and newbie investors so it will most likely be them I flip these too.

    Worst case scenario I only triple my money.

  9. last three day i was very upset because designersdigest.com was already registered by someone else and i had to register designersdigest.us and designersdigest..in but now no worries.. I got the DOTCO 😀

  10. “last three day i was very upset because designersdigest.com was already registered by someone else and i had to register designersdigest.us and designersdigest..in but now no worries.. I got the DOTC”

    You can’t be serious? The .com is IT, not the .co. You have (or should have) the same worries as before. Frankly the .us is better, at least they know it’s not the .com when you tell someone, not they’ll assume you said .com instead of .co.

  11. “I screwed up the .com and .co in my previous post. Sorry”

    LOL, lots of people are already doing that in their posts. 🙂

  12. Another scam extention followed by idiotic thinking and stupid analysis.

    There is zero chance for significant end-user adoption. SO many people are so dumb…..it is hard to imagine.

    • @ Vinnie

      “Stupid analysis”

      Thanks for stopping by my blog today. You sound like a smart guy… what have been some of your success stories? Let us learn from your smarts and experience.

  13. “There is zero chance for significant end-user adoption.”

    As an alternative to the .com, maybe.

    But what about Spanish or Columbian sites? I see dev. opportunities there for sure

  14. Nobody knows for sure. When I started buying spanish .com in 1998 people told me it was a waste.
    When I started buying .tv in 2000, I heard the same thing again. I have extremely well in this business but it took massive risk and the rewards did not happen until years latter.

    Bottom line is this, if I listened to those idiots, I would of been working a “dead end” job. Instead I told the “naysayers” to “F-off”, and now I am basically retired, work 2 hours a day, and get to hang out with my 2 year old twins all day.

    Alot of those people are jeolous today, but they were the same ones who ripped me 10 + years ago. Even though I passed on .co, it’s not fair to rip people who did. I would love to see more people succeed. This is the best business in the world. Like anything time will tell.

    Thanks, Jim

  15. Yippee!!! I got the domain name – HYPERLINKS.CO

    I would assume it is a premium domain name. Of course, I will be selling it. Question is – Should I sell it now or wait a bit longer for the .CO market to mature and then sell it?

    Let me know your thoughts friends.

    Cheers.

  16. As stated at some point, if Google ranks there is no reason not to develop. It is more than proven that one can get the clicks with a keyword-match domain and quality content. When read in a search que, .CO will not be guessed by a searcher. Could be a good extension for arbitrage for those of us with real generics. I scored a couple mid-size cities geo.CO’s and we will see…

  17. I am reading reports that Google will automatically set the location of any site built on a .co domain name to “Columbia” (this is what people have found when testing Google Webmaster Tools) and that they’re blocked from changing that targeting to a different country. If that remains the case, then it’s going to be a real struggle getting the domains ranked on non-Columbian flavours of Google…

    Personally, I won’t be buying any – I see it going the same way as all the other cctlds-as-pseudo-tld launches over time.

    Having said that, I don’t have any animosity towards those who choose to invest of course – so good luck with it!

  18. Hi,

    Besides getting the .co…of some real good “generic .com type-in traffic domains”

    The only ‘natural’ thing to me would be “Geo” & Generic targeted domains having to do with Colorado.

    Example:

    skiing .co
    snowboarding .co
    fishing .co
    hunting .co
    denver .co

    Etc…

    Just my 2 cents….might be worth less than $0.02….LOL

    ——-

    Peace To ALL ~ “Generic Domain Name Asset Investors” !
    Dan

  19. you think a .org generates spill over traffic….wait till you start marketing a .co …..an extension 1 letter away from .com but without a bit of recognition…..

  20. I think a big mistake made is the allowing of cyber squatting and where registrants allow for 100’s of domains to be bought then just simply domain parked to be sold later at a profit. Most of the time these prices are to high and the guy who wants to develop a website will fall back to the .com etc where they know the extension is more acceptable. The .co will then never build up a good reputation as the quality websites built on these domains will be so thin and hard to find.

  21. @Edwin

    It took over a year for Google to let .me domains to be geo-targeted via the webmaster panel. How they decide? It is probably done in response to the webmaster behavior. As more people built sites that geo target other countries on a ccTLD, Google will let them target their original audiences to create a better user experience.

    I am sure it will be quicker .co. But, Colombia is a much bigger market than Montenegro and it will create a larger problem. How differentiate between people really targeting CO or targeting all english speaking countries or all spanish ones.

    It will be solved via the webmaster central IMO.

  22. I’ve just discovered that a .co domain name that i registered through 123-reg.co.uk (lse.co) did not actually get registered.

    They charged me £35 and it was ordered after the “pre-order” phase… i called them up to find out why the domain was not appearing on my account and they told me someone else had taken it. They referred me to the “pre-order” t&c’s. I explained to them that i bought it after 7pm on 20/07/10 so it was not a pre-order.

    I purchased a domain (yel.co) through godaddy after i’d ordered the one through 123-reg… that domain went through without any problems.

    The question i’ve got is: do i just have to accept that 123-reg failed to register the domain for me, or should i pursue the matter further?

    I cant help feeling that if i’d ordered through godaddy i might have actually obtained the lse.co domain name…

  23. Hi Rob,

    Go daddy was the best to use,,,for .co if you did not want to get into a bidding auction.

    They only allow one order per domain…

    example : if rob .com had not been ordered by someone else through Go Daddy…you could have ordered it for $27.00

    And if they beat all the other ‘Registrars’…name jet, snapnames etc….

    You would have the domain…no auctions or anything.

    That WAS THE BIG DIFFERENCE from most.

    Best,
    Dan

  24. I registered 6 of the same .CO’s across Godaddy, Domain.com, Enom and Network Solutions. Domain did not get any, the others each got 1 and I missed 2.

    Good news on Google. I am listing my geo.CO’s for $200 and some popular last names I bought yesterday.

    Again, we will see…

  25. I just registered mobi.co, I am really excited….. think of all the subdomains I could set up insurance.mobi.co, hotels.mobi.co etc…

  26. Elliot – A post about the events leading to release of 1st level .co domains could make an interesting read. Who had the initial idea, was it the gov that approached someone for marketing or vice versa, obtaining gov approval and support, hiring of Lori, etc..

  27. Wow…thanks for the heads up. This is so great…now I can own some premium domain names…I just bought an amazing premium domain home-for-sale.co Hope this is a good investment.

  28. well the .COM and .NET are going to cost me $13,000- USD for the 2 for my new Company is Australia.

    I have already the below for my Company, should I also get .org?

    .com.au
    .co
    .biz
    .info
    .asia

  29. If you are so “unbiased” how about starting a “complaints post” so there is a platform to explore how many dissatisfied customers there are, or any suspected dodgy dealings ?

    So the .co launch can be congratulated on a successful launch, it brought large nos of domainers on board, many who benefited financially who helped promote it. It was great marketing.

    I typed “.co launch complaints” into google and i got no decent results. tried “.co launch domain complaint”, same thing, strange for the scale of it , and that some were kept waiting for days for their results (I didnt get a rejection of preordered names till friday afternoon !!!) And i suspect two of those were available and then clawed back by the .co people when they realized they should have had them in the reserved bunch !!!

    But a platform to discuss it I have not yet found !!!!!

    With some reservations, I actually think .co will be a winner quite simply cos the way it is being marketed, they could make a three legged donkey into a racehorse. !!!!!

    • @ Dee

      “If you are so “unbiased” how about starting a “complaints post”’
      “But a platform to discuss it I have not yet found !!!!!”

      —-
      Get off your lazy ass and start one yourself. I have my hands full right now with enough websites and projects. Since you seem to think there’s a big market for it, why not take the bulls by the horns, get a WordPress template, and dedicate your time to building the biggest and best .CO complaint forum you can. Based on your assessment, it sounds like it would be in high demand and with all those exclamation points you’ve used, you seem to have the drive and excitement to do it.

      It’s amazing that people seem to think that others should build something for them to use. It’s like yelling at your neighbor to build a swimming pool so you can go swim laps… do it yourself!

  30. @Elliot

    No I wont be starting, a .co complaints forum, like you I value my time, and recognize the futility of it. It happens I rarely write anything on the internet, whereas you maintain a Domain Name Investing News and tips blog and I assumed that you were open to varying opinions. An unbiased opinion requires a consideration of variation in position.

    You said “I can’t be completely unbiased despite the fact that I feel like I am offering my unbiased opinion.”

    While you admit this. I mistakenly thought you would be more interested in opinions from different angles. It was not a complaints forum i was looking for but a a serious reflection on any negative experiences. !!! Sorry I’ll move on.

  31. @ Dee

    You can post what you’d like as long as you’re civil. There’s no reason to post an article for complaints because I have none and this is my blog. You said it yourself that you couldn’t find a complaint forum so maybe its just you.

    Perhaps you should start something on DNForum if you don’t want to start a blog or site.

  32. I used http://www.networksolutions.com to get these 3 below

    http://www.inventorspot.co
    http://www.edisonnation.co

    and my new Company one

    http://www.realinventions.co

    I was happy with the service and also made a keystroke mistake and canceled the order and was reimbursed through pay-pal

    also Jim Holleran, thank you for sharing your experience, nothing ventured, then nothing gained, life is full of risks and you can put your head in the sand or get out their and make things happen,

  33. Dear Elliot,

    I am trying to sell the following domains, can you offer some insight as to finding a buyer?

    GodHearsUs.com

    PowerofIllusion.com

    DomainSalesNow.com

    UnityConsciousness.com

    Kind Regards,
    Maya

    • @ Maya

      I am not a domain broker, and wouldn’t be able to help… sorry. I have written quite extensively about selling domain names, so hopefully that will help.

  34. In New Zealand our domains end in .co.nz so to be able to leave the .nz of the end of a domain address must be a plus I don’t mind blowing some money on a gamble it’s a bit of fun and if I lose the lot so what,I’ll have a story for the rest home when I’m 80 what I’ve done is brought 2nz.co & n-z.co + others and I’ll run sub domains of these for the accommodation industry eg:www.newzealand.n-z.co,Have fun with it regards Pete.

  35. I bough a few .CO domain names through GoDaddy and am really impressed by their service. I made a mistake on two of my orders and was refunded without ny drama.

    I cancelled googel.co to avoid any legal dealings with google, nut maybe should have kept in. Could have used it to promote some gelatine based porduct for kids…
    🙂

    I am mainly going to be using the following domains for my Adwords campaigns.

    3gphones.co
    creditcardapply.co
    buymobile.co
    cellphoneplans.co
    consumercredit.co
    creditsolutions.co
    equitylinecredit.co
    loanbadcredit.co

    I decided on these purchases based on the estimated global adwords spend amounts. If I need to sell these I am hoping to make at least a 200% profit.

  36. Also, the discount online shopping site Overstock.com announced last week that it purchased the registration rights to the domain name O.co from .CO Internet for $350,000. Not only will the single letter website domain be handy for the Internet company’s branding efforts, but it will also be a handy shortcut for users on desktops and mobile devices.

    http://www.pewnews.com/story.asp?sectioncode=35&storycode=1823277

    The above say’s it all, and the die hard .COM to the people

    I purchased the 6 .CO’s that I wanted happy with that, yes there are risks, but also consider this, you can sell your .CO cheaper than the .COM and make a some buck’s

    give it 2 years and the game will be very different!

  37. I don’t understand why somebody would buy english .co
    words on a country extension that speaks spanish.

    For example, Travel.co is not nearly as good as Viajar.co which is Travel in Spanish. I been buying spanish .com since 1998 so I have been around this game and this makes no sense.

  38. @ Jim

    “I don’t understand why somebody would buy english .co
    words on a country extension that speaks spanish.”

    Because Google is supposedly going to be treating .CO as an international domain name rather than just a ccTLD.

  39. @Elliot “Google is supposedly going to be treating .CO as an international domain name rather than just a ccTLD.”

    Does it means that the content of the domain could be in english, or could I register for example a French .co domain to be targeted to France (or at least French speakers around the globe)?

    • @ Ame

      I am not sure, but I am under the assumption that it means Dog.co (for example) will rank on Google.com and not just Google.co, which will presumably be used in Colombia as the default. Most cctlds rank well in Google in their country but not necessarily on the main Google search, so if you have a high ranking .CA domain name in Canada, an American may not see the site listed as high in Google.

  40. Very good article on the codomain. Personally I think its gonna be a success, but it needs time. People have to get used to it. I secured two co domains through linuxhostingplans.wordpress.com/co-domain
    These are love.co and dating.co
    It’s just an investment. Will keep them for a while and then sell for profit.

  41. @Pieter Hoogendyk
    I guess you will receive some good type-ins on both of those domains

    Why don’t you get a dating script and develop dating.co?
    If you could get, let’s say, 2,000 members it would be sold for much more than the domain name alone.

  42. This will all make you laugh, but what’s the best way to sell domains and to me this is a learning experience, I will make mistakes, I have 10 Domains pointed at my business and another 10 that are parked

    I will say that the 10 domains point at my business main site have generated business for me in strange ways with the search engines

    I am hoping I can sell http://www.inventorsblog.co

    the other are who knows

  43. I took a shot with several .co domains, As long as they are not ignored or given sub par weight by Google I think the extension is sure to catch on. Started work on one of them to see if I notice any difference in search results. I have to admit checking on my own site I have typed .com instead of .co a few times already.

  44. Hi,

    I got some .co domains but many of them refunded because my registrar was not very good to get them for me.

    Some of my domains :

    pokerguide.co
    mobilemarket.co
    compute.co
    ecurrency.co
    ——————

  45. I am reading comments here, and can’t believe what some people are saying. .CO is great extension, it will take some time for people to get to know about it, but I’m sure it will be success.
    @Pieter Hoogendyk
    love.co and dating.co – these are really great domains 🙂

  46. There is the blind follow the .COM attitude, many people prefer country specific domains, and .COM does not rate that well in Countries in Europe

    The .CO is great because many small business’s and companies do not need to now worry about paying the sitter on the .COM site.

    In the end of the day .COM means nothing unless you have the content and traffic to your site

    Consider this I received a nice email asking for a link from my .COM.AU site to a .COM why because my ranking was far superior, this site ranks very well and its nothing to do with the .COM or .NET

    WWW.http://vkontakte.ru/

  47. Hi Derek,

    I brought a few .co’s with the idea of picking one and developing it for a long term investment. I decided to sell the rest as a group auction with a $1 dollar reserve. It will be interesting to see what price it ends at. The domains I got where

    Epub.co
    Pier.co
    Idle.co
    Otz.co

    Also some Australian names of major business/tourism regions.
    You can follow the auction here:

    http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320588402098&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_896wt_1033

  48. I purchase both the .COM and .CO for a new website

    as insurance for the new brand for new layout tools

    http://www.quicklinetools.com

    the dutch importer I work with purchased the .COM and I got the .CO to support our business relationship, forwarding to .CO onto the .COM

    Also I am very interested in the value of .CO.UK

    combined with .CO and .COM

    Comments please on this!

    some people are making the .CO.UK the main site and forwarding the .COM onto it?

    regards
    Derek Pater

  49. Everything has a next logical step in its evolutionary process…

    What do the following domain endings have in common?
    .COm
    .CO.uk
    .CO.au
    .CO.nz

    .CO is the answer. The .CO will level the playing field with a more generic brand of domain. It is the only domain ever released that is contained within all of the above domains.
    Is .ME, .TV, .US, .BIZ etc. anywhere in .COm?
    I’ll give you 1 guess.

    The old thinking of Gen X is going to be retired before too long and the new fresh thinking of Gen Y is going to become the dominant work force of tomorrow. They will buy what is available and the most simple. WHY? you ask… Because they are in love with simplicity and shortness. It’s only a matter of time until newer thinking overthrows old ways and forces the “boxed thinkers” into unemployment.

    By 2013 the .CO market will have saturated with new content, new ideas and new web sites. This is mostly because you can’t find .COm’s anymore (unless you want some ridiculouslylongdomainwithtoomanyletters.com)

    I’ll finish up with a little anecdote.

    A reporter once asked Wayne Gretzky what the key to his success was.

    He responded
    “It’s simple really. I don’t play where the puck is. I play where the puck is going”

    .COm is where the web is. .CO is where the web is going.

    If you don’t want to fall behind…
    If you have your own website or blog…
    If you view yourself as a progressive thinker…

    Then perhaps you should at least think about “playing where the puck is going.”

    http://www.sharelinks.co/share

  50. Hi Sharelinks,
    you make some very good points, comments from a futurist in this industry (you have a better knowledge of domains than myself), I will be honest I am a little frustrated and impatient currently.

    my new .ASIA and .BIZ , NET.AU and .COM.AU are all doing very well with the Alexa traffic readings, but my .CO currently gets nothing?, it is up on some good sites so are the search engines still being adjusted for the .CO? do you know?

    I do place a very high value on say having both the .CO and .COM if possible for a new brand

    Also I did not know of the .co.au thats a new one to me

    Thanks
    Derek Pater

  51. I think .CO are a good thing. I’m new to buying domains, own less than 20 right now, but I think the .CO will help a lot of folks out that want that unique name that’s already held displayed with a search engine or ads.

    Good for newcomers who aren’t sure about buying the lesser value domains. Those that are saying it’s a waste of time are just trying to keep the value up on their .COM because the value of those will go down.

    For instance there’s a domain I was curious about so I sent off an email on the price and they wanted 3300.00 for it. I checked on the .CO and it was available. 30.00 is a lot cheaper than 3300 and a lot of people will flock to the .CO once it gets more exposure, that is if they don’t get saturated first.

    I’m not really into buying and reselling. I just want some good domains to hold onto that are unique and not jumbled with hyphens or whatever. .NET and the others never really took off like .COM. .CO is very close and has been pointed out is short for Company, Commerce, Corporate, at least in the western world.

    Don’t mind those naysayers, they just want their .COM’s to hold their value and keep their profit margins up like the one trying to sell me a domain for 3k. I would expect the market would fluxuate over the next year. It will be interesting. Over half a million .CO’s already, and it’s been less than a year. That’s a lot faster than .COM. Of course everyone knows about the internet now unlike twenty years ago.

  52. Tomtastic, I used to think like you do. I was optimistic about new TLDs and ccTLDs. I used to argue with the naysayers. But over 10 years in domaining has shown me that the naysayers were right all along. The only reason that .CO has so many registrations already is because new domain investors like yourself have huge pipe dreams. They spend hundreds or thousands of dollars registering .CO domains — just like they did with .MOBI and .PRO and others — thinking that it’s their ticket to big riches.

    Yes, it’s a ticket — a lottery ticket — but with very few winners.

    Sure, a handful of these names will changes hand for $xx,xxx and $x,xxx, and a bunch more will sell for $xxx but the vast majority of domains registered under the .CO extension will sit unused at virtual parking lots around the world, while annual renewal fees fatten the pockets of registrars.

    At this point, I’d rather spend the $3,300 for a decent .COM domain. I’ve learned not to jump at the newest domain fad. Over the years I’ve lost thousands on bad domain investments and I’ve learned some very important lessons. I’ve also earned thousands by reselling domains to others, so I’ve learned lessons there, too. One of the lessons I’ve learned is that it’s very unlikely that people will “flock” to .CO domains.

    I don’t believe people with a substantial .COM portfolio are naysaying other TLDs because they’re worried the value of their investments might decline. I think they’re naysaying other TLDs because they know .COM is simply the best, and least risky, investment. No matter how many new TLDs are introduced, the value of .COM is not negatively impacted. In fact, the opposite is probably true. The person with DOMAIN.CO is going to lose traffic to DOMAIN.COM. Period.

    Keep this in mind. Just because a domain name happens to be available doesn’t mean you should register it.

    You should try to negotiate the $3,300 price on that .COM domain you originally wanted. Chances are, if it’s a good domain, it’ll rise in value a lot faster than the corresponding .CO domain you just registered. And if you develop that .COM domain, the value is likely to increase even faster. Good luck to you.

  53. I am frustrated that my company .CO is not getting any Alexa Ranking and my

    .COM.AU Rank 650,000-
    .NET.AU Rank 22 million
    .BIZ Rank 2.9 million
    .ASIA Rank 3.1 million
    are doing very well

    all the others for my company name below are doing nothing also like the .CO why?

    .MOBI
    .INFO
    .ORG

  54. Well, as for rank it may take awhile for it to produce stats. I’m still trying to get my site to even show up and it’s a .com but it gets less than 20 hits/day so don’t know.

    But I’m still optimistic about .CO. I picked up thefinalfrontier.co, if you look at the .com, the owner has it listed for sale and to a target group which was my thinking too. He probably wants a lot for it. I also just picked up spacecamp.co which I’ll probably just park these at Sedo for now. I’m not looking to sell over the short term. I want a few good names for long term investments. But that aside, lets do the math.

    You can buy a .COM for 3300 that’s as good as say spacecamp if it were avail. in the .com, or buy the same domain in a .CO as well as a dozen others and still not come out anywhere near 3k for the single .COM. Keep in mind there has to be at least 10 percent of domainers out there that just want to have a unique name that they could never get in .com but now have the chance, the rest are probably businesses and of course people looking for an opportunity like us. I’m looking for good domains, but I don’t and can’t afford to spend 3300 for a decent one that I could just spend 30.00 for. I think a lot of folks are going to see it this way.

    If a company comes along and wants to use the thefinalfrontier name or at least point it to their site, they’ll get the .COM of course but chances are they’ll probably get the .CO too. It’s my understanding all the major companies have already got their .CO’s so it will become standard practice for businesses from now on.

    So I’ll be waiting. May or may not come to be but hey it only set me back 30.00. But if I were to pay say, 3k for it, it’s a much bigger risk up front. Of course I’ve just begun, I really have no experience and I’ve taken into account what folks are saying. I’ve stayed away from .NET or anything else but I really think .CO will be above those. .CO is the same as .COM for its commercial, company, commerce or corporate use. .CO is in all of those unlike .COM. The potential is higher for .CO than .NET, the slate is wiped clean, it’s like the internet is starting over. .CO will be every bit as important as .COM

    I realize ten years is a lot of experience and I can see the appeal of the .COM, but now is a lot different than then. It may take awhile, but I can see .CO becoming bigger than .NET, maybe even .COM, but it will be awhile for that to happen. At the very least it will level the playing field and we’ll have two major TLD’s at the top. .COM and .CO The rest are meaningless.

    I’ve noticed after doing some searches there are still some three character domains left, of course they’re really bad and I’m not interested in those, I found some decent 4 charter ones, but I’m not sure on those, I’ll probably wait awhile see how things play out.

    Time will tell. I think looking back, we had the .COM bubble ’95-’00, the big crash that followed, then a giant surge in ’02 till now and the market’s become saturated. So with the .CO, thing’s are stirred up a bit. It WILL be interesting to see.

    The only competitor with .COM before was .NET, right? Looking at the numbers .COM is about 90 million domains and .NET at 13M. Potentially I can see .CO overtaking .US (1.7M) in the next 6 months, it’s about a 1/4 the way there already. .BIZ (2.1M) within the next year.

    .CO has the backing of the infrastructure unlike some of the others and there’s other things going for it such as higher population now vs ten or fifteen years ago, more people with computers and access to internet, more businesses connected to the net and global community. Back in the early nineties a lot of companies didn’t even get a domain. Remember Nissan? Completely missed the boat and they don’t have Nissan.com, a business entrepreneur has it and rightly so. Now a company doesn’t even think about it, it’s the first thing they do is register their domain.

    I don’t think people can ignore .CO or they’ll get left in the dust. .CO is the best answer to the web right now, there might not be another change like this for another twenty years. There has to be a demand for it before it can happen again, and we might not be there for a good number of years. I say, it couldn’t hurt to go in and get a few good ones, you won’t be out much. How far you want to go is the big question. You could spend 3k on a good .COM and have it go bust or get the .CO and the same could happen, bottom line it’s 30.00 vs 3000.

    I remain optimistic. Its global, it’s smart, it’s moving forward at a rapid pace. By the end of the year, most of the good opportunities will be gone.

  55. Tomtastic,
    Thanks for your reply, due to your comments I will renew my company .CO next year

    The .COM is for sale and they want $6,500- for it and the .NET

    I really do see the value for Brand protection which I have done for this new brand for my new products in layout hand tools http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHT4XSw5Fro

    so my business partner in Holland has http://www.quicklinetools.com

    and I have the .CO from Australia forwarded to the .COM

    which is ideal for us

  56. Hi,

    For any website or web page:

    1. Right click your mouse
    2. scroll down a and click on: “View Page Source”
    3. Once that page comes up…..go to the top of your browser and click on “Edit”
    4. scroll down and click on “Find”

    A box should come up at the bottom of your browser…

    Type In: nofollow

    If nothing comes up…. your good.

    If it has any “no follow”code… It will show up.

    I hope that helps…

    Best,
    Dan

  57. @Elliot
    My SEO strategy has nothing to do with nofollow blog comments. Just because I put a URL in the website box when I commented doesn’t mean I’m trying to spam your blog for a damn nofollow link. I truly want to follow up here when I get my .co to rank in the SERPS so commenting allowed me to subscribe to this post. I know a lot of people abuse this type of linking but it was not my intention.

    Peace out!

  58. Hi,

    AGAME….Elliot is right, it use not to be that way a few years back,..

    But there is a lot of software programs out there now, that target blogs…they/you can scan the web looking for blogs with the same ‘subject matter’ of say your site…and then you can make almost an automatic post to thread in the blog….posting just ‘general’ statements like:

    “Great post, I really learned a lot from this post” etc..

    then your URL

    ___

    There is even software out their that will scan all the top blogging platforms….WP, Blogspot, Typepad…etc…

    They will scan, and check blogs for any “no follow code” and return results… only from blogs without any “no follow code” in them.

    ____

    A bit off the subject…

    This may be good or bad news depending how you look at it I guess…but it is being reported that this seasons “Super Bowl’ ad(s) from “Go daddy”…are going to feature: .CO… and not… .COM.

    ___

    I hope that helps a bit…

    Dan

  59. I know about the bots to do that stuff. I’ve never used one but a good SEO knows the options/choices, good or bad. I know the first comment was short, but was clearly not written by a bot. And this blog has nothing to do with any niche I’m pursuing.

    So I agree – spamming irrelevant blogs for nofollow links is just a waste of time, and is not what I’m doing.

    If anyone wants to know more about backlinks, I found
    backlinksforum dot com
    the other day. Seems decent.

  60. Hi AGame….

    Sound’s like your on the the right track.

    I did not think you were spamming Elliott’s blog at all…and I do not think Elliot thinks that at all.

    I was just trying to point out a problem many blogs have to deal with on almost a constant basis…that’s all…nothing personal towards you.

    Best to you,
    Dan

  61. Hi Agame…and everyone,

    This just came across to me today… I think it will be very helpful to you and others.

    (not promoting any product or service, no affiliate links of mine… just providing some sensible information on the subject of “backlinks”)

    From Wordtracker… (this has been a very trusted site for domain owners and website SEO’s for years.

    ___

    13 ways to evaluate link prospects and find quality

    http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/evaluate-link-prospects?utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=5fbee24ade-Newsletter_77_13_ways_12_8_2010&utm_medium=email

    ___

    I hope this article is helpful to many…

    Peace!
    Dan

  62. I now have the proof that .CO’s are a good Investment for the long Term!

    My Main Site COM.AU is ranking at about 660,000-

    .ASIA is around the 3,900,000 purchased 1 year ago
    .BIZ is around 3,200,000 purchased nearly 2 years ago

    and my .CO is at currently 6,200,000- about because as we know the Internet rankings are always moving for the smaller players.

    up until 2 weeks ago my .CO had nothing on Alexa but its just changed about half a year after purchasing it.

    Yes I have used the .CO a little on blog sites, but not much maybe 6 or so.

    Regards
    Derek Pater

  63. I’m on a research if it’s worth it buying .co domains. Last year it esdb’t accepted that much. But as I have read on recent posts, comments and testimonials, it’s clear that .co will be mainstream,in the next few years.

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