Is Dominion Registries Having Trouble Selling Their New Alternative Dots?
NEW YORK – According to a press release by Dominion Registries, a division of Dominion Enterprises, the company is removing a long list of previously implemented registrant eligibility verification restrictions for its new gTLD industry-specific domain extensions which consist of .AUTOS, .BOATS, .HOMES, .MOTORCYCLES and .YACHTS.
The changes will be made this year, beginning first with .BOATS, which is now available to anyone at all, for just about any reason, defined as:
any use, “generally accepted as legitimate”, and “in good faith at the time of registration and throughout the duration of registration”.
This is a pretty big shift from what was previously included in these domain names’ requirements, such as the near three additional pages (.BOATS – 6 pages vs .YACHTS – 9 pages) of requirements from the still in place document for .YACHTS, soon to be removed.
According to an earlier December 2017 press release, you can expect all of these domain names to follow suit and soon be available to just about anyone for just about any reason, eliminating the need to pass verification processes, which according to OpenProvider.com (whatever that is), was due to the registry claiming that 40% of the registration requests lead to a rejection.
As of this writing numbers of these dots in the root zone file according to statistical site https://ntldstats.com, seem very low with .AUTOS (62), .BOATS (274), .HOMES (428), .MOTORCYCLES (66) and .YACHTS. (159). That’s five sets of ICANN nGTLD application and renewal fees being offset only by 989 total individual domain registration fees – plus, who knows how many of these registrations are being held as premiums by the registry; Yikes. Not sure how sustainable that is, but I would have to guess, not that sustainable long term.
Another thing I noticed is that all of the Twitter accounts for these ngTLD sites look pretty dead with some of them not being updated since 2016, which to me indicates the marketing of them may be somewhat burdensome and un-economical.
Great video explaining why new domain endings like .Autos were introduced https://t.co/CxgIE6Jwfw … … @DominionDealer #Automotive #Domains pic.twitter.com/VmmpCIIj2R
— Dot Autos (@dot_Autos) November 18, 2016
Thanks @baylinerboats for using a .boats domain name in your digital strategy! https://t.co/yvLwOOaOKk, validated marine industry website.
— Dot Boats (@dot_boats) August 12, 2016
Great video explaining why new domain endings like .homes were introduced https://t.co/ScZpaQvaOc #vtld @HomesPro @DD_Domains #Domains pic.twitter.com/buvqsgZort
— Dot Homes (@Dot_Homes) November 18, 2016
The new van we bought for The Veterans Garage being wrapped – great guys helping & supporting ex-service personnel. #bestrongmanchester pic.twitter.com/CjpBlhbZMT
— Revilo Automotive (@reviloam) June 22, 2017
.Yachts is a domain name ending exclusively for the marine industry. Learn how we keep the domain space safe. https://t.co/RkVHTmw2RZ pic.twitter.com/qJAbjZ4qvD
— Dot Yachts (@dot_Yachts) September 23, 2016
From the outside looking in, not looking good to me. Do you think Dominion Registries is over their head with these domain names? Would certainly be interesting as a fly on the wall at Dominion Enterprises…. What say you??
About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of SEARCHEN NETWORKS®. He specializes in Website Monetization, is a Google AdWords Certified Professional, authored a how-to book called ”Mastering Your Website‘, and is a key player in several online businesses.
Thank you for this important conversation about the future of Dominion Registries. As a NamePros user pointed out in response to this article, it is important to learn lessons from the past. Our recent removal of restrictions on .boats is our attempt to do just that, and we have seen some exciting progress since we embraced our new business model. We have revised our RRAs based on industry feedback, and we now have over 30 registrars onboarded. We have doubled our workforce since last summer, and we just hired our first full-time marketing team this year. Since we removed restrictions in February, we have seen a 64% increase in .boats domains under management. Our work to become a driver of success for the new domain industry is just beginning, and we look forward to sharing our continued progress.