closed Do you think xxx domains will become more popular?

[mansmoking]

Do you think xxx domains will become more and more popular over the next 10 years or do you think that they may fade away?

I think that the .xxx is always going to be a catch if you have a good name

 

[Biggie]

when you put .xxx in with



.nasty
.adult
.porn
.sex

and comin' soon...

.nudity


then it's gets pretty redundant


imo...

 

[HeyVic]

I believe it will become more popular in time. Especially as the market becomes acclimated to the brand value of the TLD. I understand Biggedon's view as stated earlier in the thread, but I disagree to some degree. I would use a different list of names to illustrate my point.

Girls.com vs. Girls.xxx
Men.com vs. Men.xxx
Hot.com vs. Hot.xxx

In each of these examples, you do not know what to expect when you go to the .COM version of the page, but you know with reasonable certainty what is in store with the .XXX names. This would make them also very strong candidates for direct navigation traffic too.
imo...

 

[katherine]

Do you think xxx domains will become more and more popular over the next 10 years or do you think that they may fade away?

No. Because there is hardly any demand, and they will be diluted in a a myriad of equally junk extensions. The TLD has had a bad start and the trends are depressing. Anyway, it's a niche TLD.

 

[mansmoking]

Yes I can see how the new TLDs will take away some of the value from the .xxx extension in the long term I think I'll be looking at keeping to the premium brandable domains. I do believe though that with the internet becoming more and more accessible to everyone worldwide that there will be plenty more opportunities out there for the new adult TLDs, hopefully...

 

[Biggie]

I believe it will become more popular in time. Especially as the market becomes acclimated to the brand value of the TLD. I understand Biggedon's view as stated earlier in the thread, but I disagree to some degree. I would use a different list of names to illustrate my point.

Girls.com vs. Girls.xxx
Men.com vs. Men.xxx
Hot.com vs. Hot.xxx

In each of these examples, you do not know what to expect when you go to the .COM version of the page, but you know with reasonable certainty what is in store with the .XXX names. This would make them also very strong candidates for direct navigation traffic too.
imo...

there is no reasonable amount of certainty, of what will be on a .xxx domain, because majority are parked

 

[Raider]

Girls.com vs. Girls.xxx
Men.com vs. Men.xxx
Hot.com vs. Hot.xxx

In each of these examples, you do not know what to expect when you go to the .COM version of the page

But we know exactly what to expect when we go to .XXX; Lots and lots of links with flashy banners redirecting the user to other web sites, many of which are .COM, Hot.xxx for example takes the user to Google Adsense links and Men.xxx takes us to; This domain has been reserved from registration.

When I see names like these I think of all the top adult affiliates who abandoned their prized top generics, names like Teens.com, developed sites that were pulling in over a million a year, Most have since either sold or parked them or use them to redirect to Niche oriented sites that convert far better. I don't doubt that your going to get traffic to generic.xxx sites, the problem is most domainers DON'T develop and DON'T know how to effectively convert adult traffic into cash other than cent clicks from Google..

As a result, the internet is inundated with .xxx sites with ZERO content, more links, more pop-ups, more useless crap the internet user never expected to begin with when he typed in generic.xxx, Add this to the list of reasons why .XXX will ultimately fail like so many other TLD's have.

If you want to make money with Adult content, Find a Niche and a .COM to go with it.

 

[ImageAuthors]

I see enormous brand value in good .XXX domains. However, adult webmasters as a group are some of the least brand-savvy people I've met; and they're extremely stingy. If they had to choose between Girls.xxx for $200 and Pro-NakedSororityGirls.com for $9, they'd go with the latter. A foolish decision, in my opinion, but it's what I'm seeing.

Plus, there is so much antipathy toward the ICM Registry that adult webmasters are boycotting .XXX. The boycott isn't anything official, but the sentiment is widespread. This means 2 things -- fewer people to sell to and fewer people developing .XXX sites. An adult webmaster will say that Girls.xxx is worthless because it is a .XXX domain. Why? Because the ICM Registry is the great satan. Or, if not that, they'll tell you that Girls.xxx is worthless because there are so few developed .XXX domains. And why are there so few developed .XXX domains? Partly because it's only been around for a year, but partly because so many of the adult webmasters want it to be so.

If you point out that .XXX domains have been selling for $300k and $500k recently, these same webmasters will laugh at the person who bought it. What is actually going on, in my opinion, is that major adult companies are quietly branching out into .XXX in order to grab a bigger chunk of the market. Meanwhile, smaller adult companies and webmasters believe that if they hate .XXX enough it will just go away. So 5 years from now, the general public will be surfing adult sites on both .COM and .XXX; and it will be mainly a few big companies who bought up all the good .XXX domains while the small players in the industry were busy with their boycott. In the end, the small-time webmasters will have a smaller piece of the pie. And the aftermarket will be artificially stifled in its crib. Domainers and adult webmasters will lose. The ICM Registry and a few of the smarter bigger adult companies will win.

 

[ImageAuthors]

If there are 10 domainers considering whether or not to renew their 10 portfolios of .XXX what they ought to do is this: Put their heads together and decide which of their combined .XXX domains are the best. Then they should enter into a partnership to develop the best domains. If domainers devote all their budget to renewals rather than to development, then their .XXX domains will go nowhere because of industry prejudice toward the ICM Registry. But if there is a development budget, plenty of adult webmasters will lend a hand to develop .XXX sites.

Otherwise, the disconnect between the registry, the webmaster end users, and domain investors is an insurmountable gap. Webmasters won't buy until they see it working. It won't work until webmasters put in the work. Webmasters won't put in the work unless they're making money. Nobody will pay them unless the domainers pay.

P.S. Regarding, .adult, .sex, and .porn ... Here the ICM Registry has made probably its ONLY smart decision. The goal seems to be to sequester these extensions -- to keep them OFF the market. The registry's stated policy is to ONLY allow the OWNER of Example.xxx to utilize Example.adult / Example.sex / Example.porn. So there would be no dilution unless the OWNER decided to mobilize one of those other TLDs for branding purposes, in which case it would be Example.sex displayed and Example.xxx forwarding to it.

 

[Gerry]

Q: Do you think xxx domains will become more popular?
A: No.

 

[ImageAuthors]

Q: Do you think xxx domains will become more popular?
A: No.

Really? Literally? Their popularity right now is basically zero -- few adult-industry buyers and hardly any developed sites. Practically ANY change would be in the direction of greater popularity. I could definitely understand how someone who is pessimistic about .XXX might say that .XXX will never become very popular. I disagree, but I can understand that. But it's difficult for me to imagine that they wouldn't become more popular. Strictly in terms of the number of developed .XXX websites, the trend is bound to be from fewer to more. The only way .XXX could become less popular is if the few established websites pulled the plug on themselves and the public forgot the meaning of "XXX"!

Maybe you were answering the question, "Do you think xxx domains will become more popular among domainers?" The answer to that question is definitely No. Domainers like to get rich quick, and the riches have not been quick in coming for .XXX.

 

[hugegrowth]

It is a natural extension for adult content, so it has a chance of making it. There are so many gtlds coming out in the next year or so, it will be a giant experiment for all of them. The internet is still growing, and the big question is how will the public adopt the new gtlds, or will it be mass confusion? Over time I'm sure some will make it, if the stars align for them.

 

[ImageAuthors]

One thing the ICM Registry has done right is to protect its own brand from the diluting effects of all those confusing new gTLDs. Obviously, I'm referring to them securing .adult, .porn, .sex, etc. and putting them in quarantine to be used at the registrant's discretion. The rest of the new gTLDs will have a much harder time. They'll all have to compete against each other and be released into the world simultaneously -- .RENT, .RENTAL, .RENTALS, .APARTMENT, .APARTMENTS, .HOUSING, .HOUSE, .CONDO, .CONDOS, .CASA, .CASAS, .HAUS, .HAUSEN, .APARTAMENTO, .APARTAMENTOS, etc. etc. At least, the ICM Registry has thought ahead in this one regard -- if no other. And, after all, .XXX does not suffer from ambiguity when it comes to all the world's various languages -- whereas something like .HOUSE is limited to an English-speaking audience.

 

[ImageAuthors]

Of course, whoever ends up running .RENT couldn't begin to duplicate the ICM Registry's mistakes even if they tried. It's been amazing how well the ICM Registry has alienated its population of end users, for the most part. Adult webmasters posting death to children of ICM Registry employees and so forth ... When it comes to the rental market, property managers don't spend all day in online echo chambers reinforcing their hatred of a registry. For most industries, end users are barely aware of what a registry is. But adult webmasters live online; and once they begin with the death threats and the stacks of photos of men defecating on each other ... well, it's difficult to win them over at that point.

The public at large would probably embrace .XXX. But with the adult web masters so prejudiced against the extension, the marketplace has been very distorted and the general public isn't getting its chance. The real question is whether enough .XXX will be developed soon enough for the revenue they generate to make these adult webmasters rethink their prejudice.

 

[Raider]

I see enormous brand value in good .XXX domains.

And I doubt what any of us say here will make you think differently.

adult webmasters as a group are some of the least brand-savvy people I've met; and they're extremely stingy. If they had to choose between Girls.xxx for $200 and Pro-NakedSororityGirls.com for $9, they'd go with the latter. A foolish decision, in my opinion, but it's what I'm seeing.

Stingy? I actually used to think this when Moniker was auctioning off domains at Internext, and the sales overall were disappointing to say the least, but then I came to the realization that it had more to do with practicality than money, Like I said before, the Adult industry has made a shift over the years to Niche sites because they convert far better than generic sites, So for the adult webmaster who wanted to build a site for sorority girls or college girls, would they choose girls.xxx? I know I wouldn't... I'd probably do a hand reg and register realsororitygirls.com, which is available.

If you point out that .XXX domains have been selling for $300k and $500k recently, these same webmasters will laugh at the person who bought it.

And they'll be laughing even more when they see what they sold for.

So 5 years from now, the general public will be surfing adult sites on both .COM and .XXX; and it will be mainly a few big companies who bought up all the good .XXX domains while the small players in the industry were busy with their boycott.

Do you honestly believe this?

I think quite the opposite, I think in 5 years that most of the domains with parked pages using xxx will be available for registration, I also see the reg fee dropping below $30, I see the extension being so diluted with other TLD's that the only people who will remember it will be those who lost money investing in it.

In the Adult industry, the generic quality of a domain name does not have as much relevance as you might think, As long as you have a niche, great content and a strong affiliate program to go with it, you DON"T need a great domain name, you don't need girls.xxx or even sororitygirls.xxx, It would certainly be nice to have but when you consider it's the affiliates doing the promoting and not the search engines, what's the point?

I really think you would benefit greatly by attending a Internext convention and enrolling in some of the seminars, they have one coming up next month in Las Vegas January 13-15... It can only help in your investment.

 

[ImageAuthors]

In the Adult industry, the generic quality of a domain name does not have as much relevance as you might think, As long as you have a niche, great content and a strong affiliate program to go with it, you DON"T need a great domain name, you don't need girls.xxx or even sororitygirls.xxx, It would certainly be nice to have but when you consider it's the affiliates doing the promoting and not the search engines, what's the point?

How does a person get to realsororitygirls.com? Through an affiliate? Then how does that person get to the affiliate? Links from other websites? Then how does that person get to that website? Sooner or later you end up at some basic "on ramp" -- search, or spam emails, or a bookmark, or the domain brand itself. Search leads to the competition; so search is a bad option. Spam emails presumably have low conversion rates; so they're an inferior option. My bookmarks are too disorganized to be very accessible, which I assume is true for most people. Any website you go to regularly is one where you probably go there via the domain name -- either direct type in or searching without the TLD. That's how return customers navigate the web. And I'm pretty sure that adult webmasters will admit that their return customers are worth 10 times what their one-time visitors are worth. Return customers don't return if the domain name is forgettable or ambiguous. RealSororityGirls.com doesn't stand up brand-wise next to Sorority.xxx.

I fail to see why domains are important for all industries except adult entertainment. If "it's the affiliates doing the promoting", then the site is spending money on affiliates. If it's the search engines doing the promoting, then the site is spending on money on one major affiliate -- Google AdWords. Either way, the logic is the same. Get a better brand and spend less money on renting traffic from others.

If adult entertainment has moved away from broad categories like Girls.xxx, then pick another .xxx domain that defines the niche where conversion rates are higher. That may be an argument against the "Girls" SLD but not against the .XXX TLD.

Yes, I honestly see brand value in .XXX. And, yes, I really think people will be surfing .XXX sites 5 years from now. Might I be wrong? Maybe. But that's what I think. And I also honestly think that domains "don't matter" in the adult entertainment industry only because domainers can't sell domains to stingy adult webmasters. But most of those webmasters are just clueless about domains in general, which is why they've registered so many forgettable, interchangeable, hyphenated, made-up, 3-word domains and end up making their money by paying somebody else to give them anonymous traffic rather than by building a brand with a consistent clientele. There are exceptions, obviously. And those exceptions picked stronger domains -- sometimes brandable domains, but their consumers latch on to them via that domain.

I really think you would benefit greatly by attending a Internext convention and enrolling in some of the seminars, they have one coming up next month in Las Vegas January 13-15... It can only help in your investment.

Thanks for the tip about the Internext convention. Maybe I'll go.

 

[Raider]

I'm glad your considering it, If you do go, I recommend you stop at the Silvercash booth and ask them personally why they don't use premium generics for any of their 80+ sites, Silvercash or rather Price Communications has been in the biz for over 9 years and is one of the most successful adult affiliate progams out there, And when you look at their site list, I can tell you your not going to be impressed with the domains their using; http://silvercash.com/sitelist/?nats=

If "it's the affiliates doing the promoting", then the site is spending money on affiliates.

Yes, but the conversion they earn more than pays for it, Just one signup can net anywhere from 1 month to over 1 year in subscription renewals, sometimes longer.. And considering adult has moved to more niche oriented sites as I pointed out, these are names that most internet users wouldn't think of entering into the address bar.

Of course theirs a demand for premium adult generics, but as with any new TLD, all the good ones are already registered or reserved, and for the ones that are available in .xxx, the prices are way out of reach for many webmasters who foresee taking years just to pay for itself.

Return customers don't return if the domain name is forgettable or ambiguous.

They don't need to return, they already signed up and agreed to auto renewal.

 

[ImageAuthors]

@Raider,

I appreciate the detailed reply. You've obviously put some research into your opinion, and there's probably plenty of truth in what you say.

Of course, you're right about SilverCash.com's domain names. As domains go, they're pretty pathetic. And yet they're successful anyway, which apparently proves that domains don't matter in their industry. And they're experienced in the adult industry, which must mean that they are authorities on the irrelevance of domains. I guess my first question is this: Have they compared how a premium adult domain performs compared to a 3-word made-up domain? I don't see any premium adult domains among their sites; so I'm guessing that their opinion about the relevance of domain names is just an untested assumption -- and not experience at all.

They're experts in the adult industry, sure. But you're the domainer. You've seen the relevance of domain names in every other industry that has made the experiment. So why take the adult industry's word about the relevance of domains? Why be lectured by them about what you know first-hand? If a business owner in any other industry who owned a 3-word made-up domain name told you that premium domains in his niche don't matter because some other guy is already successful without them, would you just take his word for it? After all, he knows his business ...

With adult entertainment, they circulate all sorts of traffic from affiliate websites to direct-monetization websites. But every industry works in its own unique way online. The domain is still a factor that can add real value.

You say that "the conversion more than pays for" the money they're paying to their affiliates. "Just one signup can net anywhere from 1 month to over 1 year in subscription renewals". And the conclusion is that affiliate programs are justifiable, but traffic from domains is irrelevant.

Substitute "Google Adwords" for the "affiliate programs" and then you've got a perfect argument against ALL domains for ANYBODY who runs an Adwords campaign. They'd simply say, "Well, the conversion more than pays for the AdWords campaign. Just one customer can net anywhere from 1 month to over 1 year in service renewals." And the conclusion is that AdWords campaigns are justifiable, but traffic from domains is irrelevant.

So if 1 conversion more than pays for an affiliate program, why wouldn't 1 conversion from Search.xxx or Google traffic more than pay for a .XXX domain?

 

[DomainsInc]

they're dead in the water. i don't see what would make .xxx popular now. the adult industry has for the most part, ignored .xxx.

 

[Biggie]

i guess one reason why domain names may not be as important in adult industry, compared to others sectors, is because "adult ads" in local newspapers still play major role in driving traffic.


btw: i know a guy who's in the "escort" business and all of his sites are .com


the thing with escort services is, you really can't say that 'sex' is, or will be part of the date, but if you put an escort business on a .xxx extension, then the expectations and "class or lack of it perception" could change for that or any other entity.


imo...