*** Here Is A List Of Some Of The Best Domain Name Resources Available ***
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – I recently wanted to see what was going on with the “. Cars” domain name, so I tried visiting a site I thought would probably be one of the best names; “used.cars”…. Not much is going on there; the page just fails to load. Same thing with “used.car”, “new.car” and “new.cars”.
A “.cars” domain name costs $2,499 per year to register, renew, or transfer at Dynadot, one of the largest domain name registrars in the world. Same thing with “.Car” which was released together with .Cars, and .Auto, first to trademark holders, between December 9th and January 12th, 2015. Other registrars have slightly different prices, but for the most part, they are all in the same general range.
You might think you would have to be absolutely crazy to register a domain name at the price.
At one time it was believed that “.cars” domain names were particularly valuable because they are relevant to the automotive industry, a large and very profitable industry.
This turns out to be far from reality.
According to ntldstats.com, a site I’m glad to see is still around since I last used it at least a year or so ago, shows that there has been stagnant growth for the ngTLD (New Generic Top-Level Domain) over the years and under three-hundred (300) “.cars” domains are registered – 300 in the world.
That’s not good to look at seven (7) years later.
Roughly seven years ago I registered “find.cars” for what I believe was $2,100 at the time (Name.com was running a special – regular price was $2,800 – so I got a deal [supposedly]). Giving new generic domains the benefit of the doubt, I registered three “. cars” domains at the same time. If you think that was crazy, I even paid to renew them at least once. Today they are all dead as can be.
I think the new emoji expression would be SMH.
Even “Cheap.cars” as of today doesn’t work. Not to mention “ABC.Auto” and “STL.Cars”, two flagship examples of strategic use in the registries original press release, are both out of commission (One fails to load, and one redirects to a .com). Certainly, no success story to talk about.
I think the registry operator would be wise to drop the price to $40 or $50/year and maybe there would be some hope in sight. Not doing so will likely just add more headstones to the “.Cars” graveyard.
About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Services Inc. 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 Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy brand Searchen Networks®
This is true of many other new gTLDs.
Not surprised. When .attorney came out, there was a profile of an attorney in Jacksonville who had registered Jacksonville.attorney. Your article reminded me of that so I typed it in. It no longer resolves and appears to be available for registration…if you want to drop $3299.99/year at GoDaddy. Most of these new gtlds confuse the public, many of whom just type the one they’ve heard of the most. In the US and certain other places it is the .com. The only one who make money -initially-are the registrars. Very few are successful as end-user sites.
I’m still using a .lawyer for one my lawyers. It has been less than a game changer. Just looks weird.