Marketing wrong, smart or both? — Is .xyz’s

Inflated numbers will result in more mainstream press mentions.

A lot has been written over the past couple weeks regarding .xyz and its so-called “sham” registrations.

Network Solutions is giving away free .xyz domain names and is not even requiring account holders to affirm that they want the domain names. This is drastically inflating the number of registered .xyz domain names.

As a result, .xyz is at the top of the fresh TLD charts. It has over 100,000 registrations.

.XYZ founder Daniel Negari is definitely taking heat within the domain name industry for his approach. Isn’t it disingenuous to claim you’re the top TLD when most of the “registrations” have been given away in this manner?

Yeah, probably. It rubs me the wrong way.

But how many times in the coming weeks or months will .xyz be mentioned in the mainstream press since it’s #1? Do you think the mainstream press and its readers will know the difference between a paid registration and a free one? Will they even care?

Michael Berkens linked to this post on ITProPortal.com a few days back. It states:

“[.uk] registrations have outpaced the likes of .london, .guru and .xyz in the current batch of gTLDs…”

.XYZ was mentioned in this article since it’s showing up at the top of lists. Even if it’s only there since of the free registrations.

What regarding this Gizmodo story? Yes, it’s regarding cybersquatting – something .xyz probably doesn’t want to be associated with. But this article was written since World Trademark Review wrote another article regarding .xyz. That article starts by saying “Based on the numbers recorded over the past week, the pitch is working,” referring to .xyz’s sales pitch.

That article mentioned the free domains, but only later in the article. The free domains issue didn’t make it into the Gizmodo article.

Anyone reading the Gizmodo article might say “Hey, I need to check out this popular .xyz domain”.

So I ask you to consider: is what .xyz is doing wrong, smart or both?