With so many of the newer TLD's holding one word domains for Premium registration and higher renewal fees should domainers invest into them?
It's a tricky question because there is money to be made in the newer extensions but there is no regulation on renewal fees and the new TLD's are being run by private companies with all of them having a different set of rules. In the end it is up to each registry to decide how much they want and what the renewal fees will be.
The problem is the two tiered system where so so domains cost twenty bucks to renew and more premium domains are jacked to $300.
What is the purpose of these higher renewal fees?
Often it is a way for the registry to discourage the owner from renewing and when the domain drops it is given a Premium price to re-acquire. It is risky using a Premium domain for your business because you are at the mercy of the registries and as share holders demand more the registry has to think of new ways to target domain investors and end users.
The most at risk extensions are the ones where a dropped domain automatically goes back to the registry without an open auction or the ability for a new client to acquire the domain. The registry can simply indicate a new price and the perspective end user has to pay. If it ended there it could still be OK but the registry can also use tired renewal pricing forcing you to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to renew each year. It's a great money making concept and once the registry has reached capacity the only way to make more money is to jack up the renewal rates on these so called Premium domains to the point where more owners will decide to drop them. Then the process continues until the extension becomes totally unaffordable for a decent domain.
The legacy extensions can be expensive to acquire but the stability of the renewal costs are a big plus.
The ccTLD's like .ca can be an affordable option when conducting business in one country but if something else is required a two or three word .com can often describe your business perfectly with both the .com and .ca still available.
Example: New Business - Bobs Basic Gardening - We take care of all your weekly lawn care needs
BobsBasicGardening.com and BobsBasicGardening.ca are both available.
You can now rent a tow trailer for your SUV and add a sticker saying BobsBasicGardening.ca and your business is set up.
As much as short names are desirable, more often than not a longer name says exactly what you need and can be acquired for a simple registration fee.
Now when you get big and successful you can always look at acquiring BBGardening.com at an additional cost but be careful not to get rid of the old name because BBGarding.com requires you to add Bobs Basic Gardening under the name for the perspective client to understand when they are following you in traffic.
When you become synonymous with gardening, and everybody knows your name, you may have the financial ability to acquire a top tier domain name like gardening.ca or gardening.com.
The moral of the story: Stick to your local ccTLD like .ca or a .com and get creative instead of investing in an alternate TLD that could leave you in the lurch with unexpected costs or even the possibility that the registry might close.
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