Why I Purchased a New .Digital gTLD Domain

NEW YORK – Earlier this year I created a new company called Cars Digital Inc., a marketing company which specializes in advertising for used car dealers. As soon as I had realized that a new gTLD “.digital” domain name was available, I checked to see if “Cars.Digital” was already taken – and saw that it indeed was, so there was really nothing I could do about that and moved on with my daily routine. I had already registered the corporation and secured the .com domain name www.carsdigital.com so I was all set.

I gave it little more thought.

However, not long thereafter, I was solicited by the owner of the domain www.Cars.Digital and I declined an offer of $7,000.00 to purchase the domain name. I simply told the seller that it was not worth that much to me and I did not feel that it was that important to have. Not worth $7,000.00 for sure.

After several attempts to convince me of the need to have it, I continued to explain that I did not feel that the Domain was important to the businesses overall success and he was very likely to be sitting on the name for years; that it was more of a vanity play on the name and I countered with a couple of hundred dollars to relieve him of the reg fee – three times reg fee.

The owner replied with the usual explanations of how sure he was of the value and that it was critically important to my business and that I should purchase it at all costs, however, he was willing to substantially lower the price several thousand dollars so that I could purchase it.

This back and forth actually went on sporadically for months until I eventually purchased the domain for just $250.00 regardless of the sellers near guarantee that each counter was his final counter.

Common sense began to sink in.

He must have realized that if I were not willing to pay more, being that I was the owner of Cars Digital Inc, and www.carsdigital.com, that he was very unlikely to sell it to anyone else and would be continually paying its reg fee year after year; an unintended consequence of registering it to begin with.

So now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for; the reason I even purchased the domain name from him…..

Why did I decide to pay anything at all for this domain if it were not that important to me?

Here is your answer…

I just didn’t want anyone else to have it.

• Did I think I would gain considerable traffic from owning the domain name? No, I did not.
• Did I think it was important to my businesses overall success? No, I did not, and do not believe so.
• Did I think it would be important to not confuse consumers regarding which, if any alternative exists, to the authentic Cars Digital Inc source and brand? No, I did not, and do not believe so….

So why again did I purchase it?

Because it existed – and it seemed stupid to not have it. I didn’t want someone else to wind up using it for something and if t a reasonable price, I might as well own it and proactively rule out any potential nonsense. A classic defensive registration.

And there you have it…

The most realistic reason that most new gTLD domains are purchased.

Thanks a lot ICANN for giving me more nonsense to waste money on. Great idea.

John Colascione

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®