.uk extensions

[olebean]

Over this year has your strategy for use and or registration of .uk extensions changed? why?

 

[retired_member6]

Nominet shut down deleting because of one rule that they could have dismissed and allowed to relaunch, it pretty much stopped me in my tracks and I just went on holiday for several months.

Until I try every service out there at the moment, including drops which is a rip off at £10 but I'm told I'm being tight, then I don't know if anything currently compares, I admit I made a living out of deleting but Nominet shouldn't have shut a service down which enabled competition at the lowest level, without replacing it themselves.

The good news is several others did pop up from that closure, as inevitablely happens when an authority makes their biggest mistake and an awful one at that, so like I said until I try them all I don't know if things are getting back to normal.

Drop catch slots are there for the shrewd and there should be a price war as paying £30 up front for a catch is far too much and is aimed at businesses wanting a domain rather than the people who got cut out at deleting level. Yes I am tight but I know my overheads and I know that it will take six months to a year of testing before I start paying £30 without knowing I can pass that domain on for £00 to cover other good names that I'd reg.

So yes my strategy changed, various people give me lists from which I check domains, I don't pay for them. I am yet to pay for drop catching, I see some new people who appear to be forking out £30 a time but I won't be doing that just yet but if people pay then it must be acceptable. I may join in at some point.

Until then I'll sit out and pick up what's left and hope my choices are still available, although admittedly people are now picking up what I used to pick from deleting and selling on but that's something I need to adapt to now that I am back and I will.

So yes, deleting was the biggest of Nominet's mistake, a company full of dodgy solicitors that instead of allowing compeititon, stiffled it instead, but hopefully the numerous services that have gained from its demise will fill the gap on the free and fun front. Deleting can return, just without the date and IP lawers and slot sellers can still live in peace without grassing on each other for their own businesses benefit, dirty but that's life I suppose.

 

[ScottJ]

Consumers have been shown and branded .co.uk domains and there seems to be a good level of trust and recognition, that together with the fact that it is easier to rank top 10 in Google.co.uk than it is Google.com has meant I have spent more on good .co.uk domains for development into sites specifically for the UK market & Google.co.uk

Also leased my first domain based on it's ranking so I have embraced the UK domain space and moved into it a lot more with plenty work ahead of me in '08. I only like co.uk and have not been tempted by org's or the like.

 

[retired_member6]

And as typified by most I should think, I will finally complete my move from 123reg to Heart before the year is out, I reg my paypal domains through weycrest but because they banned Romania that aint exactly easy, and i'm taking a look at my whole hosting set up.

Hostroute say they will be looking at their fees in the new year. I've told them I'm considering moving my 50 and 100 accounts and have already bought an account elsewhere to set up another 150 sites to see how uptime goes with those. 123reg and webfusion go hand in hand as being the worst hosts I ever worked with and the worst registrar so pipex is at consisten at something...

2007 for me was supposed to be about business growth but due to moving to Romania and having far too much, going russia and travelling and my mum passing away it ended up being a little bit up and down, so 2008 will be about groth and better management and that's already begun.

But the big no nos for me are the ones mentioned but good things always come after bad decisions Nominet, 123reg etc. good business people find a way through to fight and defeat grasses and those who seek to halt their business needs and requirements.

Get your house in order Nominet, spend some of that money you have on much needed technology and Heart, keep up with the domain management programme and supplying services to the affiliate market and domainers in general and you'll win business from all over the globe, and remember your customers are global, don't be small minded like those arses from ukreg who expect me to phone them on my mobile and stay on the blower for an hour.

 

[olebean]

What about .ork.uk and me.uk?

 

[retired_member6]

This is tuning into a good and bad company list for 2007. Sedo, what a nightmare, their parking pages have been down to the majority of the world the majority of the year but thankfully other companies were able to fill the gap. You tell them their auction system fails to work for the majority but they don't listen, they seem to just like to boast about how many names they have listed rather than shifting the stock available.

You tell them wording to add to that little drop down box on bids but they keep the same ones there, slowing it all down, they're not interested in closing sales or getting them back on track - they want money first, brokering it they call it, ho ho ho. I've not sold one domain through sedo even though parties have been interested, with a little tweaking I'd have sold some on. Drop the fees all you want but if the system is rubbish...

Parking is dead anyway. So planning is very much brought to the fore and being let down wholesale by companies you entrust with your business is certainly not to be taken for granted and I suspect the email I sent to heart detailing how sure they need to be about their services before I move in proper, will become the norm for many companies we work with in the future.

These companies need to have reputation and for it to be acknowledged somehow, companies, even if we're small outfits, they need to be means tested. Thankfully it seems domainers know which are the best at the moment. Most mentioned aint.

PS: Someone tell 'Another' that the majority of their domains aint parked or either that I don't see them from Romania. Please park them so I don't have to keep looking at whois.

 

[mercato]

You want to find the worst one ?

Try 1&1.co.uk
They are the biggest crooks around

 

[olebean]

Try 1&1.co.uk
They are the biggest crooks around

I'm asking what strategy people are using... Are they sticking to .co.uk extending their definition of generic terms to increase holding? perhaps liquidating? Remaining parked? Building mini sites? increasing or extending to .org.uk and or me.uk

 

[retired_member6]

Try 1&1.co.uk
They are the biggest crooks around

I know, they tried taking me to court because three times they failed to take money out of my account. How's that my fault. I probably lost the domain, I aint cared to look, fed up of .com, dot com con is a dirty business.

 

[ScottJ]

I'm asking what strategy people are using... Are they sticking to .co.uk extending their definition of generic terms to increase holding? perhaps liquidating? Remaining parked? Building mini sites? increasing or extending to .org.uk and or me.uk

I am not a domainer so came here after running a high traffic site, I have never parked and intend to rank and lease which I have done once and intend to replicate that over the next 2 years.

I also plan to develop a few sites but do them on real good generic domains that have value in themselves to make them more attractive to end users (the lessee) so that I can generate a greater income without in the end relying on said rankings or traffic or the many variables that dictate a websites earnings to make my income more waterproof from fluctuation. Sticking to .co.uk all the way though.

 

[monaghanmonaghan is verified member.]

I've registered a number of .co.uk's mostly with a basic mini-site, some parked with sedo and others just on a basic cPanel parking page. I wrote a simple DAC client and did some research to build a reasonable drops list. I've caught a few names of interest for me and my customers, but nothing hugely valuable yet.

Strategy wise next year will be to get better mini-sites and pay a lot more attention to the drop lists (easy to get distracted and miss a half decent name when there's in excess of 2-300 names in a database query, I'm almost asleep when the daily list is > 400 names )

I modified my system to cater for .org.uk's but have not really bothered that much with them so far.

Main challenge was really to build a working DAC client in C# rather than to get rich quick. EPP looks fun and will have to be a project for early next year as it should be quicker than the mail interface and the client will be useful for our web hosting customers as well as domaining customers.