According to a story out today in itnewsonline.com Famous Four Media (FFM) is now selling premium domain names in some of their new gTLD extensions through the registrar channel. Since launching the premium domain program three months ago FFM has sold 320 domains ranging in 8 pricing levels.
“In the month of August, Famous Four Media reported a transaction value for premium names in excess of $2.1million.”
“Famous Four Media’s premium names vary in price from a very affordable $200 through to its super-premium names valued in the 6 to 7 figure range.”
Famous Four has an interesting marketing concept.
They are selling a huge volume of domain names through the domain name registrar Alpnames.com at very low sub $1 pricing putting three of their new gTLD extensions in the top 10 in terms of numbers of registered domains.
According to nTLDstats.com .Science is number 4, .Party is number 7 and .Win is the 10th new gTLD domain name in terms of registrations.
However the held back the premiums and are now selling them Donuts style through the registrar channel for premium registration and renewal prices.
I like FFM’s marketing concept.
Some of the registries have such high pricing that it will require a sizable corporate initiative to justify the purchase. .news is moving pretty decent volume, but the premium geos in that extension are priced well into 5 figures. Curious to see how local news organizations respond. Many were guilty of looking the other way when the internet hit and lost their opportunity to secure the local city.com. City.news could be a digital game changer for some.
Clever business model for driving higher usage vs. an unrealistic marketing spend. Key to see splits between actual usage / parking as a later metric for success based on this model. Smart mgt decision.