Turn Over in Your Grave. Rick on Board with gTLD’s!!

Morning Folks!!


I am very excited about an emerging niche. For the first time I am excited about gTLD domains. Very excited. I can see it clearly now. But not in the form of .whatever. I have yet to be convinced or won over yet. But I always keep an open mind.


What I am excited about is gTLDForum.com at no reserve and gTLD.org with a $1000 reserve. Both will be up for auction at TRAFFIC. What I think interesting is some folks don't think these domains have any value. Ok fine, we are all entitled to see what we see. The market will speak.


These are instant businesses. Pure and simple. A new multi-billion dollar business is coming whether it works or whether it collapses. They will still be investing and spending BILLIONS. You can make a fortune with gTLD without ever investing in a .whatever. The Last General Market before they hit the hills with their picks and shovels.


So far the ONLY thing that has excited me is the opportunity in gTLD is gtld domain names ending in .com. An emerging niche. Selling picks and shovels to the new miners. History repeats itself. Here are a couple of clear opportunities to duplicate what has already been done.


Most will disagree and they are all entitled to do that. Let's measure the degree of disagreement 5 years down the road. That is the difference in viewpoint and how far into the future we look.


Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz




25 thoughts on “Turn Over in Your Grave. Rick on Board with gTLD’s!!

  1. JamesD

    Current domain forums are pretty dead; cctlds.com never gained traction. I see gTLDs as being individual entities rather than a community. I stand by what I said in a previous thread – can see value in it – better ways to spend.

    Reply
  2. Danny Pryor

    You’re becoming a tease or getting really good at headlines! Either way, the forum domain could be a no-brainer for anyone willing to moderate and curate on a full-time basis. With the right investor, that one could explode.
    Has anyone thought to request the .gtld gTLD? I wonder …
    Now I’m just being silly.

    Reply
  3. Michael

    Where’s the love for gtldAttorney.com in this post Rick? (disclaimer- its my name- obviously) You don’t need to moderate a forum for this one, just sell attorneys leads or let a law firm build a business around the name or supplement what they are already doing. You know how much legal fuzz and what kind of legal shitstorm is going to come along with all these great .whatevers? Attorney leads could prove to be profitable for any law firm that will handle gtld TM cases or anything legal related to gtld’s. It will be BIG business as the price tag of even applying for a gtld is pretty high, this means that big corps will be in the game and they pay a lot for their attorneys to protext their brand/TM. Let’s get this one over the cusp and into the auction already! This comment wasn’t intended for self promotion, more so to say that I get the whole gtld thing too, except, I’ll buy a related .com rather than get involved with the whole extension mess until it’s proven. Excited for TRAFFIC, wish I was going…

    Reply
  4. Rick Schwartz

    Michael,
    My bad. But only because it is still being considered for the live. But at no reserve for a domain that actually means something and could be a worldwide shingle for somebody, IS a no brainer.
    I did want to give folks a little insight into my selection process as I stand by my goal of selling 100% of the domains listed. I think the commentary on the domains from commenters will be interesting.

    Reply
  5. Michael

    I’ll agree with you there Rick, at no reserve, it certainly is a NO brainer. I see the value in the name and at no reserve, I say people should keep their eye on it.
    The comments will be interesting and the names you are putting up with no reserve or 1k reserve certainly will sell imo. I like your process this year and think you will sell them all! Quality vs quanitity seems to be the motto this year for the traffic auction, with a little sprinkle of no reesrve and ultra low entry levels for investors coming to bid.

    Reply
  6. Wake Up

    The names offer no competitive advantage. A forum could be run on any name. They are not must have at all. Someone may buy them, but they offer no real value as stand alone names.
    And the attorney name that Michael mentioned is worth less than zero. Nobody needs it. How can you guys not see what is so obvious? These names listed in this post are not winners, and never will be. There is a reason they are listed at no reserve.

    Reply
  7. Sideliner

    @Wake Up-
    I don’t think you are right, but lets see what others comment and how the sale goes. For their purpose they are the BEST for their particular niche. An easy to remember domain name is half the battle, like a great real estate location. If I was going to run a gtld forum I would certainly want GTLDForum.com AND GTLDforums.com. Maybe even better would just be TLDForum(s).com
    Same reason for the naming of the existing DNForum.com and IDNForums.com etc. Then there is NamePros and a few others that have created their own successful niche with a descriptive names. That being noted, even the Russian domain forum is descriptively named: DomenForum.net.
    On same token, gtldAttorney.com is perhaps the best name to describe a legal specialty for an attorney that will specialize in gtld’s. Not to mention your site might even get a bit of extra love by google, bing etc for exact keyword matches.

    Reply
  8. sasha

    keywords within a .com is what matters! tumor.com is also at no reserve in this auction so don’t think reserve in this auction has anything to do with real value. ‘gtld’ is going to be a heavily searched term and anyone wanting information on them are going to automatically trust the .com channel. It’s rare to find values in .com!

    Reply
  9. Jeff Schneider

    Hello Rick,
    When you want definitive information you Intuitively go to a superior .COM Channel site. To argue with this is fruitless masturbation of the mind. Oh yes now there will be comments that I am Ranting when actually, I right now have a smile on my face. The smile comes from knowing that the only time I can remember going to a .net site was when I first went to Oversee.com to find Oversee.net.
    My first impression of oversee, was and remains, Where are their Marketing Guys? they have to be asleep at the switch. By the way I have never revisited their site since. Is this a rant, no just an observation.
    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

    Reply
  10. Anunt

    Only domainers know what a gTLD is…
    And domainers don’t like gTLDs…
    Go out and ask the general public what a gTLD is…not one average Joe will know…
    Domainers will bid it up…but it’s worthless!!!
    The popular domain forums such as dnforum will have a section for gTLDs…

    Reply
  11. sasha

    Keep in mind that domainers are a key market for new registrants who will be buying the new gtld’s.

    Reply
  12. Show us the money..

    Who goes looking for gtld? Why can’t they just discuss these on a current forum?
    Sure, the focus is there, but traffic of established forums will tend to lap up discussion because it gets indexed long before this forum gets going.
    You have to be a domainer to know gtld so I’d say all the newbies will appear on the established forums, the new forum won’t have the page rank to pull in the newbies and the old timers will just stay put.

    Reply
  13. idn goofs

    You idn goofs just don’t get it. Dotcom is synonymous with commerce/business. The biggest economy in world history is in the United States.
    I know you mentioned Japan, but you guys have been pumping garbage for years and 99 percent of your sales are to yourselves.
    Bankruptcy awaits most of you. Where is that Rubber Duck fool? My God, how wrong can one person be. He set the standard. Go to most domain forums and you won’t find an idn posts for months.
    I remember when those idiots would list a name and then there would be a big argument as to whether the name even meant what they said it did…lol.
    Scam and dumb. Dumb scam. Dumb idn.

    Reply
  14. JamesD

    Just noticed typo in my post (first one) I’d written ‘CAN see value in it’ – meant to put ‘CAN’T see value in it’ as per my post in a previous thread.
    Also to the guy who reg’d gtldboard.com yesterday…lol

    Reply
  15. Sideliner

    @idn goofs:
    Obviously you don’t get it:
    1) First of….IDNs are .com. Managed by Verisign just like ascii.com. The vast majority are held by Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic and Korean nationals, not Americans or Europeans.
    2) The USA economy may be big, but when compared with the TOTAL of Asia it is not even close.
    3) IDNs get traffic and that makes them valueable, especially if you can turn that traffic to SALES! Many IDN make nice PPC especially Russian and Japanese. The most popular by registration numbers are Chinese IDNs.
    4) IDN infrastructure has hundreds of millions being invested between ICANN, Verisign and the foreign registrars for the 2013- 2014 rollouts. Overall, they are a long term investment probably 3-10 years.
    5) IDNs are NOT intended for English speaking audiences, but for people that DON’T speak English. They are niche market domains, but some markets are 100,000,000+ internet users strong like China and India.
    6) IDNs trade on many foreign domain platforms and regularly at Snapnames. They are always among the top 1 or 2 top searched terms at Snapnames. There are rarely any”great” IDN names offered for sale on any of the US domain forums…DNForum, NamePros or IDNForums. Most are holding longterm for the idn.idn rollout.
    7) Some premium idns sell for xx,xxx and up, unfortunately most are under NDA’s. They guy above referenced the Video.com Japanese sale for $35k at Snapnames last week with 14 bidders. Some of the biggest international IDN sales have been handled by John Berryhill but not sure he can comment due to non-disclosures.
    8) IDNs are not a market for everyone. For those willing to read and learn where future opportunities might be, you just might find some parallels of growth between ascii domains in 1995 and idns domains in 2012.
    If IDNs are not for you so be it, but you comments obviously showing you know little about IDN development and where their rollout by Verisign is heading.
    If I was a betting man, I would **bet** that you another of the closet IDN investors!

    Reply
  16. LindaM

    I kinda like hack domains and the new gtld program will open up those possibilities hugely. With the closest matching .com forwarded I think the ‘best’ ones can make brands strong enough to be remembered. As for the new tld’s – I got tldwars.com for when it starts really kicking off :D

    Reply
  17. Sideliner

    @Linda
    The”tldwars” started long ago with .asia, .biz, .cat, .coop, .info, .jobs, .mobi, .name, .net,
    .org, .pro, .tel, .travel and .xxx.
    .com has taken on all comers and still nothing in its league. .net and idn.com have the best chance IMO to fill the needs of the global internet population of the future.
    Not to mention many of the new ones gtlds are going to be PRIVATE!!
    Google, Amazon etc have plans to”change” the way we search with their applications….
    The real”war” is going to be Google vs Amazon vs Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft and a few others.

    Reply
  18. Paul Omego

    Rick i think you are very correct that some folks don’t think these domains have any value.But i think the market and future will decide,just few years to come.
    I think the GTLDForum.com is going to be of good value because after ICANN releases the new gtlds in 2013-14,there may still be more need for another release of more new gtlds in the future as the internet and domain industry grow stronger and stronger.Folks for me I decided to get NewGTLDnames.com and NewGTLDprice.com . Though i dont have any particular thing in mind to do with this domains now…lol,but i hope to think of something positive in the nearest future for those names,am just having my fun now with domains and new gtld happenings.Cheers.

    Reply
  19. Jeff Schneider

    @ Sideliner,
    ” The real”war” is going to be Google vs Amazon vs Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft and a few others.”
    I have been impressed with most of your observations, this being one of them. Just as people will sidestep Google.com in their quest to buy at Amazon.com , so will they turn to pure play type ins as well, in bypassing Google.com.
    Google.com is afraid of Amazon.com , but even more terrified of pure play type ins.
    Look for keyword Type ins to be precious commodities as this Gtld Creative destruction process kicks in. MIT has got it right when they say the Gtld will create more search and more direct navigation as a byproduct of this latest Cluster…. , that jokingly will foster competition. Just an Observation.
    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

    Reply
  20. sasha

    What types of business focused on gtld’s will emerge over the next five years? I’m thinking advertising and litigation for sure.

    Reply
  21. Mark Talbot

    Problem is,.. Google,..Apple,..Amazon,.. are going to be consumed by their litigation efforts,.. while the world moves on without them.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Paul Omego Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *