I’ve talked about marketing and selling new domains several times in the past. It’s one of my “pet” topics.
Why?
Because I know that it’s going to be hard work.
Sure, if you’re pushing .nyc or .ninja it’s relatively easy. They’re domain extensions that will practically sell themselves.
But what about all the others?
A lot of the other domain extensions are either “non-obvious” or need a bit more of an explanation.
Of the current crop of “live” domain extensions the most obvious example is .tel. It’s a very cool concept, but it’s not an easy sell. It’s hard to sum it up quickly and easily. (Not impossible, just not easy)
When you look at the large number of new domain extensions that will be launching in the coming months and years an interesting problem emerges.
Choice becomes an issue.
If, you’re a registrar, you have to choose which domain extensions you’re going to market actively and how you’re going to do it.
For example, in the case of Blacknight, we’re not going to sell a lot of Chinese IDN domains. Sure, if someone came to us and wanted to register a lot of them we’re not going to turn away the business, but we’re an Irish company based in Europe with a primarily European customer base. It’d make a LOT more sense for us to focus on domain extensions that our customers are interested in.
I’ll be talking about all these issues and challenges at the end of next week at Domain Forum in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Oh, and here’s the official press release:
Blacknight CEO To Speak on New TLD Issues at Domain Forum
October XX, 2013 – Carlow, Ireland – Ireland’s foremost domain registrar and hosting company Blacknight is heading to Sofia, Bulgaria to speak about new TLD marketing for registrars at Domain Forum.
The one-day event, which takes place November 1, 2013 in Sofia Bulgaria, will be held at the National Palace of Culture. The annual event is dedicated to the domain industry and focuses on a range of topics from IPv6 to New gTLDs.
The conference aims to update attendees on the domain industry, intellectual property protection online, the IPv6 protocol and DNSSEC technology, the Internet governance forum and the Bulgarian IDN domain.
The conference is open to anyone who would like to attend but is geared specifically toward domain registrars, Internet providers, domain registrants, Internet users, the academic community, IP lawyers and business representatives.
Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon will be speaking on the key challenges facing registrars in offering new TLDs and marketing them successfully. Neylon states: “It is an honour to be invited to speak at Domain Forum. As a domain registrar that is highly engaged with our customer base and marketing efforts I understand the issues facing the registrar community when it comes to New TLDs. Many registrars engage in very little marketing and rely on customer awareness of existing TLDs to drive their business. However, with so many new TLDs releasing the landscape for registrars will change significantly.”Neylon continues: “There will also be significant changes to the way we present domains to the customer and with 550 open TLDs releasing, registrars will have to re-think the way we offer our products. We have a lot of work ahead of us but it is an exciting time to be in the domain business.”
Speakers at Domain Forum also include Ulrich Retzlaff of Public Interest Registry, Werner Staub of CORE, Nigel Hickson, Vice President Europe of ICANN and Justine Toms of ABC Design and Communication. Follow Domain forum on twitter through @domainforumbg
For more information on Domain Forum, please visit http://domainforum.talkb2b.net/
For more information on Blacknight please visit http://www.blacknight.com
