Like many of you I watched the video on Rick Latona’s blog. I was really curious what the response would be like. Would people believe it, dismiss it, question it? And afterwards, what will happen then with ccTLD’s?
First my hat is off to Rick Latona for taking a big risk making a whole show about ccTLD’s. Big risks = big rewards. I’ve heard of ccTLD’s since we first started the business. While there’s no doubt there is money in these, as with everything, it requires specialization. Specialization takes time, ability to learn which means enough wind in your sails to allow for errors. And most importantly, it is the opportunity cost. There are opportunities everywhere, is it really the best place to spend your time and money or can you increase the odds if you do something else elsewhere? My answer to that would be to ask what is your goal? If it is a 100$ a day, or 300$ a day cashflow than in my opinion, domaining is one of the best areas to achieve such a goal. Now if you are trying to achieve $3,000 a day the rules change a little. They change because of the scalability factor. While $100 cashflow with domains isn’t that difficult, multiplying it 30 times, from my experience, is.
Watching the video, I believe it is real. I believe the person wants to increase awareness in order to increase his own properties’ values. I believe that person is doing a good job doing it.
If we’re at it let me reply here to few who raised some questions (comments area)on Rick Latona’s blog:
Robb writes:
Nice but should have some examples of domains
I tend to do the same and not disclose domains when giving examples. The person is already going out of his way to help you learn something new. Disclosing his domains is just a little too personal and something many who do well avoid. I see this as a complete normal behavior and for me personally, this does not make the video, or the information in it, questionable.
Elliot writes:
$3k a day is great, but to put this in perspective, you really need to know the number of domains registered and renewal fees
From my experience (seeing ccTLD’s portfolio of others) renewal of such a portfolio will cost 15%-30% of total revenues. Either way, significant money is still left on the table.
WQ writes:
Sounds like Don Lapre.
I spoke with Don few times in the past, I think he is a great guy ! 
Ed writes:
The .com has its place for a global marketplace but so do ccTLD’s.
In Australia (as in all the other countries I have travelled to) people assume that the domain extention is their local ccTLD domain and go for the .com second.
100% in agreement however from domaining perspective, it is not a question if there’s money in it or not but it is about the risk and opportunity cost involved.
Bob writes:
-Obviously all tms/typos
That’s a great approach. If there is a real opportunity here you just killed it with a guess. Nice going.
Overall, like many of you I’d like to see/learn some more. Although we don’t own ccTLD’s (our specialization over the years has been with .com domains) I do know of many who do, and do well.
It was definitely a though-provoking video for those able to overlook the obvious hype. I’m looking forward to the next installment, as I’ve always ignored the ccTLD market due to the legwork required to break into it (figuring out if English is better than the native language for each ccTLD you invest in, which ones get more type-in traffic and are more embraced by locals, etc). If they’re willing to share their formula and it becomes easier to enter the market, I’m sure we’ll see a surge in interest.
I have quite of experience with Polish and Ukrainian ccTLD. I do agree - one gets high traffic if he/she registers a typo. But:
0) you get it on any TLD
1) the good ones are already taken
2) as the local industry grows, so are the chances for losing a WIPO case
Sure.ly - time to drop those “nice” domains and make it someone’s else headache plus make some extra cash on selling the books.
Julia - you are so bloody right.
Some ccTLD are good, indeed, for English speakers (don’t ignore Chinese too) - .tv .it .me .us .ly - if you jingle them of course, teen-fashion.tv, just-drop.it, unlock.me, please-help.us, week.ly … expect no type in traffic though, just wrap it nice.ly and flip with proper price tag.
Living in Europe, I think CCTLD’S are true investments and I have written about this before on a Blog. I think it was at Elliots. Well, that was close to a year ago. Anyway, I take the Video as true and a reminder that I have been walking the right path by sticking to what I started several years ago. Going after CCTLD’s besides regular dot Com. Important is speaking the language when going after these names, especially when you start going after 2 or 3 word CCTLD’s. Like we all know computers and websites do not translate in perfect pronunciation, so they are not much of a use. Sticking with someone who knows the language of the CCTLD’S which you want to approach would be your best bet.
It is also correct that the French, the German and all other European countries use there CCTLD before using a dot com. Something most .com owners especially from the United States never had in mind that there are more languages and countries on this Planet.
Let’s take the dot DE for example. The .DE is most used in Germany but also in Austria and Switzerland because they also speak German and they are much smaller countries than Germany. Secondly you will find more and better quality of information on the dot DE generics because of the volume of dot DE registrations.
More than 120 Million people speak German in Europe. Germany has the strongest economy in Europe and belongs to the top export countries in the world.
This was just a example of one CCTLD. There are several more that are very interesting. I can also only recommend looking past the dot com horizon because there is much more than just dot com.
To end this comment I would like take an example. I tested a dot com verses a CCTLD to see which one actually gets more type in traffic. It was real easy to find this out.
1. Take a City with population over 1 million and register the best typo in the CCTLD on it
(This city is looked up more than 10 million times a month)
2. Get the exact same city typo as a dot com.
The result was the CCTLD TYPO gets 200 – 300 hits per month on type in traffic.
The dot com to this day has never had a hit. This was no IDN city name with Ü, Ö or Ä in it.
I have had these typos for more than 6 months.
Well looking past the dot com horizon is a great point!
I purchased many dot eu domains and I think the time will come
where people need new domains and there’s no other way than buying a non dot com..
Great discussion.. Keep it going..
Dave