Wyoming.St and Texas.St - please value these

[Bill Roy]

Hi Everyone,

I would like appraisals if you would please on the following 2 domains:

Wyoming.St

Texas.St

Obviously the .St's are slowly gaining recognition so I would like an update on values fellow domainers put on these. The 'St' is an accepted abbreviation for State but is also gaining ground as an abbreviation for 'site'.

Wyoming is the smallest State in the US with a population of just over 500,000 and Texas has a population of over 20,000,000.

Any help appreciated.

[keyser]

Close to $0 without development I am afraid.
my 2 cents

[Bill Roy]

Hi Colbert,

Thank you, but why zero?

St is the abbreviation for State, surely that makes the domains usable and marketable?

St also is an abbreviation for Site, again surely that makes the domains usable and marketable?

[Acro]

And .ws is for web site
And .cc is for credit card
And .in is for Internet.

Unfortunately I concur with Colbert. Unless developed into a state-specific portal, those exotic TLD's are of little value. However, larger states would be more valuable, even when developed, e.g. between these two Texas.st would be of higher value.

[Rockefeller]

Close to $0 without development I am afraid.
my 2 cents

Agreed, without development they are worth nothing. Hopefully you didnt spend too much on registering them..by the way...what the HELL is in Wyoming!!??

[typist]

by the way...what the HELL is in Wyoming!!??

Since you're asking: a lot of LLCs.

Tax efficient, non-transparent offshore structures (for non-US derived income).

I agree, the domain would definitely be worth more if developed into eg a Wyoming Incorporation Portal.

[Banned: Sonny]

In my opinion the .st extention is garbage and useless. Despite repeated attempts to pump up the extention by at least one, and possibly a group of .st holders the extention continues to flounder and most human beings do not know that it exists.

There have been numerous questionable threads in various domain forums concerning the .st extention as well. Many of these threads seem to ask an innocent question; however, I believe it may be part of a concerted attack designed to bring attention to the extention, with the names in the threads being just a small piece in the overall web that is being weaved.

I have also noticed at least two published articles in online business magazines where the .st extention is mentioned in breathless fashion, along with prices quoted in the millions. To me, the prices were out of line, yet consistent with the approach that I have seen regarding these names. There is also a website dedicated to these names that is beyond outrageous...in my opinion. This further erodes confidence in this extention, and further punishes any name that is followed by .st.

I am also extremely suspicious of a .st name that was mentioned as having been sold for over $10,000 on a major domain information website. Notwithstanding denials to the contrary, this poster believes that the reported sale was manufactured. The name was pointed to the .st registry for at least two months after the reported sale, only to be later pointed to a website that has a similar name, but no apparent official relationship with the domain name in question. The Whois history is confusing at best.

My friend, I believe that until there are some more high profile sales in this extention that can be documented and believed by a reasonable domainer, that my valuation for Wyoming.st and Texas.st will have to be zero.

I will gladly appraise any other names in this extention as well. I will keep my eyes out for high profile sales and will give you an upgrade on these names if and when I see a few that look legit.

The above is my opinion on these two names that comes mainly from my observations as to the .st extention in general, and it is based on hours and hours of research concerning the extention, as well as hours and hours of reading posts by at least one person on at least one forum who seems to have a vested interest in these names. I make no personal accusations nor will I mention the disputed name/sale that provides only a part of the basis for my valuation of the .st extention. I believe that this extention is DOOMED and I like to keep track of it.

Have a great evening.

[Rockefeller]

Since you're asking: a lot of LLCs.

Tax efficient, non-transparent offshore structures (for non-US derived income).

I agree, the domain would definitely be worth more if developed into eg a Wyoming Incorporation Portal.

I know. I live here!

[typist]

I kinda' figured that out after posting, looking at your location... :greenbiggrin:

[Bill Roy]

I am surprised but such negativity towards a domain suffix, but I am glad it is not held by everyone, otherwise I would not have completed a sale on the sedo auctions yesterday (Zen.St) and have 3 more auctions closing over the next few days, all of course .St's.

For an extension that has 'no value' it seems to have caught domainers immaginations, four successful auction listings speak for themselves!

[PRED]

Hi,
i am not a fan of extension but doesn't mean these are not worth anything.
In fact, particularly the Texas.st is a really nice looking domain.
Surely it has to be worth low $xxxx?
I mean if you want to develop a site on Texas, you can't afford the tlds or.us as they would be massively expensive, this is a great alternative.
I mean Texas 'site'
or Texas 'state'. Works, in this case, extremely well.
Cheers, Predator

[katherine]

I agree with the comments above.
.st is being promoted as a pseudo-generic TLD just like .ws or .cc before. But it looks like .st is a latecomer to the market.

Let's face it: the only ccTLD that has been successful in rebranding itself into generic is .tv. A few TLDs like .fm or .dj have had some limited success but they are not in the same league and do not enjoy the same recognition.
Bottom line: .st are pretty worthless IMO unless you will use and develop them. As for a resale good luck but who knows. With a lot of branding effort there is hope. I do hope you did not pay too much for these (I don't know the current reg fee).
BTW when I see 'st' I think 'street' before 'state' but it's just me.

[Bill Roy]

It is again surprising to me that the general replies on this thread are 'against' .st's having any value. I read the comments of all, with the exception of WhoDatDog, oh sorry I meant Sonny there, with immense interest.

I look on domaining from an advertising/marketing viewpoint, not as a domainer, and thus I look to see what domains have potential for exploitation to enhance a company/business exposure in the market place. If you have ten companies all producing widgets for example, a worldwide business, then only one of them can be fortunate enough to own widget.com, after this you then have widget.net/.org/.info/.biz. Even if each of these gTLD's were all owned by different companys then you still have at least five companies without a total singular word domain name!

Use of widget.us/widget.de/widget.co.uk/etc. gives a geographical restriction to the marketing of the company concerned caused by the use of the ccTLD suffix. This is where cleaver advertising/marketing of the whole domain name including suffix comes into its own. The 'st' suffix can be used for the abbreviation of many words including 'Street', 'State', and 'Site', and there is nothing wrong with utilizing this commodity of the suffix, indeed it would seem daft not too.

The final line of 'SDSinc's' post above says:

"BTW when I see 'st' I think 'street' before 'state' but it's just me.'

This order of recognition, Street before State, is how most Americans would see the domain unless the domain was and is a State name. Here it is also interesting to note the wording clearly, the use of the word 'before' also shows an acceptance, even if subconscious, of 'St' as an acceptable abbreviation for State! It is this that brings value to such domain suffixes in advertising/marketing terms.

We have all read about the influx of advertising dollars into advertising on the internet and away from traditional advertising media. It does seem though, to me at least, that few domainers see that we are soon approaching the advent of advertising agencies/brokers buying up domain names to utilize as a vehicle of advertising to the public. Advertising agencies/brokers would rather own a site than pay 'rental' for a site, for if they own it they can not only place their own adverts on the site but also restrict access to the site for others. This is the future, based purely on advertising/marketing psychology and economics.

I will continue to take the flak, that does not worry me, but please think ahead, as domainers surely that is what we are meant to do, we register a domain in the hope of having a product that, for whatever reason, is usable by an end-user. Here remember that many domain names, including a heck of a lot of dotcoms, are actually worthless without development, but they still have a value as purely a domain capable of development!

[PRED]

Did you read my post?
Predator

[Bill Roy]

Predator,

Thank you for your post, yes I did read it and hence the reason I quantitively qualified my response above as 'general replies'.

I chose Wyoming and Texas for appraisal due to the fact they are the smallest and largest 'State'.St States (by population) that I own (I actually own 31 such 'State' domains - covering over 60% of the US population, as well as several abbreviated 'State' domains).

I appreciate your candor in your post, especially as you are a seasoned and respected domainer.