My first fresh TLD sale

More to come? I hope so.

It’s been over two years since I registered my first domain name in a “fresh” top level domain name. I finally have a sale.

At $1,000, it’s nothing to write home regarding. But to be fair, I haven’t invested a disproportionate amount of money in fresh domain names.

I thought I had my first deal a few months ago when someone agreed at Sedo to pay $500 for one of my .xyz domains. The guy never paid. I also had an offer on a .miami domain just a week following registering it. I would have taken it except that the brokerage fee was something like $250, leaving very little left.

The domain name I sold was a .cloud domain that I purchased for $18.17. 55x sales are nice, but keep in mind this doesn’t come close to covering the amount I’ve invested in fresh extensions.

I’m not getting rich here. I don’t think many domain investors are getting rich with fresh TLDs yet. But it’s a baby step.

Ought to we look at registering a fresh TLD for $10-$20 like we do hand registering a .com? When I hand register a .com, I don’t expect it to sell right away. I expect to hold onto it for a while. At the same time, I think that spending time on research to nab fresh TLDs the second they come on the market is different from hand registering an existing .com.

My current thinking on fresh TLDs as an investment is as follows:

• Be very selective regarding investing in generic extensions. There are so many of them and they are easy substitutes for each other. If you’re holding out for top dollar on your .website name, the buyer’s BATNA is pretty good: they can just grab the .site, .online, or something similar. Of all the generics, I actually feel best with .XYZ. I know a lot of people hate it, but it has created a bit of a brand for itself with its intense marketing efforts. Something like .site is never going to be a brand.
• Avoid most domains with annual premiums. The annual premiums will eat you up, and most registries have priced the premiums too high for investment.
• I don’t like domains that are sold for a buck at retail since they attract spammers, but I also don’t like ones that are $30. It’s easy for me to renew domains that cost regarding as much as a .com.
• I remain bullish on city TLDs.