According to the L.A. Times today - the domain name registrar Go Daddy (a/k/a godaddy.com) is going to launch a big push this Sunday during the SuperBowl to promote the .co domain name extension. We can’t tell yet whether Go Daddy has accurately figured out that there is a real demand for a new domain name extension or whether they’re making the kind of mistake Coca-Cola made a while back when they tried to introduce “New Coke”. But we do know that good .com domain names are getting harder and harder to register and – again according to the L.A. Times - Go Daddy will probably be paying something like $3 million for each 30 second commercial it runs during the SuperBowl. So….unless they are idiots they must be figuring there’s going to be a good return on that investment.
On the other hand, here’s a blog entry that claims the .co extension is just a waste of money.
So…is this a real opportunity or just a hype? We don’t know yet, but for the $30 being charged for a .co domain name ($28 if you buy six or more at the same time), it might be worth a small investment NOW (i.e., before Sunday) to:
(a) protect your company name and brands with a .co domain name if for no other reason than to block out your competitors and cybersquatters; and
(b) to think creatively about other .co domain names you might want to control as we move forward the next few years.
If you are interested in this but for some reason are not a Go Daddy fan, our local outside IT firm EBrothers Solutions, Inc. is an authorized Go Daddy re-seller that offers domain name registrations for the same price as Go Daddy - but with a local personal presence. You can visit them at www.ebsihosting.com.
We don’t exactly know where this is going to go, but we thought you would want to know sooner rather than later.
Please call (760/637-2400) or write (dbranfman@branfman.com) if you have any questions or thoughts about this.
Very interesting that godaddy would invest that amount of money into the potential of the .co extension. I'm not convinced as many other extensions have popped up but almost everyone still wants and utilizes the .com extension.
ReplyDeleteBuying all the extensions (.com, .biz, .net., .us, etc.) for your primary website and for the various "similar" names of your sites name (ex: surfriders.com, surf-riders.com, surf_riders.com, surfriderssucks.com, etc.) is pretty cheap but if you buy the .co extension for all of the sites @ $30.00 a pop that that could turn into a hefty bill and a big money maker for godaddy.
Take note, the NBA (National Basketball Association) now has www.nba.co as well as www.nba.com.
ReplyDeleteIt may have already started!