Fresh TLDs disappear from GoDaddy home page, plus 1&1’s hidden sunrise

GoDaddy demotes fresh TLDs from the home page, 1&1 not offering sunrise registrations through its largest brand.

Here are a couple noteworthy items related to fresh top level domain names.

First, over the weekend I noticed that promotions for fresh top level domain names are nowhere to be found on GoDaddy’s home page. Following promoting them for the past month or two, it’s been kicked off the home page. (It is front and center, still, on the “Domains” tab.)

In response to my tweet regarding this over the weekend, GoDaddy responded:

That’s true. Like a lot of firms, GoDaddy is constantly tweaking its home page to improve conversions. I suspect that fresh TLDs weren’t converting into enough orders, or it just wasn’t as notable as promoting fresh products such as managed WordPress hosting.

As I’ve argued ahead of, fresh TLDs are coming out with a bit of whimper. I’m not sure if the current offering of TLDs and pre-registration opportunities is enough to warrant front page exposure, depending on who a registrar’s clientele is.

One firm that has invested very heavily in promoting pre-registrations is 1&1. Although I’ve seen a number ahead of, I reached out to the firm to verify its spend on ads promoting pre-registrations. The firm confirmed to me that it has spent $50 million across all media channels (online, print, TV).

That’s a lot of dough.

One thing that’s missing from its 1and1.com website, still, is any way to place a sunrise order on a domain name. Sunrise is proving to be a bust for most fresh TLDs, as there are only 23,000 or so registered marks with the Trademark Clearinghouse. I think a lot of brands will just wait for general availability to protect their domains.

I bet most sunrise orders are taking place at brand protection registrars such as MarkMonitor.

1&1 stated it is offering sunrise registrations through United Domains, which is one of its sister firms (as is Sedo, which is offering sunrise and landrush auction services).