Theyre pushing for a top level domain (TLD) exclusively for porn sites. Im quoting from this article at http://www.babnet.net/en_detail.aspid=1224: There is also concern that the existance of .xxx will lead to legislation making its use mandatory for sexually explicit material, leading to legal conflicts over the definition of sexually explicit, free speech rights, and jurisdiction.
Thats like saying that the Louisville Slugger company in Kentucky shouldnt make bats anymore because they can be used as weapons. Just because something can be dangerous when placed in the hands of one intent on doing harm, doesnt mean that it shouldnt exist. And to tell you the truth, the adult industry and the government are already - and always - at loggerheads with each other when it comes to the First Amendment.
Let me start off by saying I agree with the article in this respect: the existence of an .xxx TLD would be a God-send to parents trying to prevent their children from accessing pornographic sites.
But the reason .xxx is not for me has nothing to do with the above-mentioned quote. Not that everyone thinks along the same lines that I do, but, according to the article, in order to use the .xxx TLD, youd have to download certain internet explorer plugins; plugins that are categorized as spyware and adware. Spyware and adware No thanks. Lord knows how many hours Ive spent trying to rid my computer of popup-inducing software and applications.
And $60 to register a domain (I hear that in the UK that itll cost about 40 pounds) Unless you as a webmaster are trying to cover all your bases (e.g. you currently own mypornsite.com, my-porn-site.com, mypornsite.net, etc, and would like to own mypornsite.xxx), why bother paying that much If youre not purchasing a popular, high-traffic domain directly from another webmaster, any decent domain can be had for less than $20.
Moreover, .com is so entrenched in the laymans mind, no other TLD comes even close to its popularity. I find that people dont remember your website URL as well if it doesnt end in a .com. I think thats why, with all the television programming out there, .tv is not such a household name as far as TLDs go.
And, not to spread rumors or anything (so remember, you didnt hear it from me :-)), I dont think that the .nets, the .bizs, and the .infos of the world do as well in the search engines. However, the .orgs and the .govs, where the search term is appropriate, seem to have no problems ranking well in SERPs (search engine results pages). Thats just my personal and un-scientific opinion.
Go on and try it: search for popular and generic words on your favorite search engine, and see how many listings come up .tv, .net, .biz, or .info. Or maybe its the old chicken and the egg puzzle; maybe there are no results to be had because many prospective webmasters fear registering those less popular TLDs in the first place.
The author is affiliated with , and writes regular porn and sextoy articles for his blogpage.
Domain names are not just online identities anymore they are the most important asset an online company owns. There are businesses being spun out because the owner stumbled on a good domain name. These folks are minting money like hell that they use this revenue to build more and better businesses. Have you invested in stocks and found that a small bad news would completely change the value of the stock Rather invest in online domain names they are relatively easy to acquire and maintain. The initial acquisition cost is sometimes high but most often in the right hands this will be gold mines that can bring in 10 times more revenue per year than the initial investment each year. Have you owned real estate property as investments You know that their value goes up slowly but surely. The domain names are similar to the land you buy, you can change the home you build on top as many times while the land value goes up. Acquiring land is important like that the domain names are important to buy when one good one becomes available. For example patriotism is a good theme and it is evergreen, owning a domain name that deals with patriotism it is a good investment. Like this there are many common themes that you can invest on which are long term great investments.
There are many ways where you can go to find good domain names that come for sale like afternic. But you got to constantly look for the good ones. More so often the owners dont want to reveal that their domain name is for sale. So you got to maintain a lot of contacts who can bring you the news about the great domain names for sale. When you buy the domain names, be sure to transfer the name immediately and create a website for it. You can park these domain names and make more money through redirect traffic as well. Dont pay the asking price try to get more details on how long the person has owned the website and whether it is listed in a blacklist. This is critical blacklisted domains are cheaper as they take time to heal. Also you may dont want to miss out the domain names which have good websites that has been drawing traffic. The other important factor to look for is the pagerank of the website the higher the PR the more valuable the domain name is. You may also want to make sure they are listed in search engines. This will ensure you can have some good free traffic while you work on the business model.
There are many additional factors that determine the value of the domain. But there is the additional perceived value for a domain name that when factored in will either diminishes or increase the value. The rough equation for looking for domain value is
(Domain Name quality) + Page Rank + SERP + (perceived value) + current relevance
You got to understand the last factor as well. The domain name may be a hot cake now or in some yesteryear and the search engines give it good placement for keywords for thing that were popular like John Kerry a few years back now it doesnt have value. So make calculated judgment and be a good businessperson while negotiating. Take into consideration how important the domain name is for your long term business aspirations and its short term value. You should also take into consideration the investment potential.
One example of a great domain name that is for sale on the Patriotic theme is patriotic.com. You can find similar dictionary domain names rarely but look out on the Internet for great domain names like this.
Author does freelancing through the no fee free Freelance website freelancefree.com