Even at a webhosting conference…
Leaders from five domain name companies took the stage at yesterday’s WorldHostingDays conference in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania.
The most interesting moment was during Q&A. Someone in the back of the room said he’d never heard of .Club before, and registered a few domains during the session. He had a question about an error message he got from a registrar about not being able to register a domain name — it sounded a lot like this 1&1 “illegal” message.
What’s interesting about this is that the audience was made up of webhosting and domain name companies. Yet, even here, not everyone is familiar with the new top level domain name options available. .Club is one of the most heavily marketed and successful of the new domains, but even it still has a lot to do to boost awareness.
I can only imagine how low awareness is in other circles.
On the one hand, this gives a lot of upside for registries as word gets out. The challenge, of course, is getting that word out. It won’t be easy.
Monte Cahn says
This was one of the main reasons why we were all there. To build awareness of not only new but existing TLDS and the value they play in the Internet and hosting echo system. Reminds me again of the early 2000’s when I bouncing around 14 internet industry conferences talking about domains on various panels and starting to hold domain auctions, to help the domain industry play a vital role in the search engine, website, advertising, affiliate network. Communities.
It’s a work in progress
Jeff Sass says
Thanks Andrew. Yes, we all have a lot yet to do on the awareness front, but things are moving forward. Each week there are new, notable uses of new domain extensions. The good news is that once the gentleman in the back learned about it and he immediately had ideas for names to register (and he couldn’t wait!) 😉
Snoopy says
This will never change. The general public has only a basic understanding of domains. They are familiar with .com and their local country code if they live in an area with a strong country code. Even using a .net is a stretch so for the average person.
As far as .club goes, it has been publicised a lot in the domain community, but nobody else knows about it. No registry can afford to promote a new tld to the level where the average person on the street would understand it, there is no business case for it. The best thing registries/registrars can do is continue to market these extensions towards domainers and the legal department of large corporations, because they are the most obvious buyers.
Sam says
As key players shift their attention from releasing new domains to marketing them, expect to see a significant increase in awareness. A couple campaigns have already launched, and it seems like every week a new major company transitions away from its .com website.
Domainer Extraordinaire says
It’s all .mobi Déjà vu.