.to domain names

[lost plontoon]

What's the general opinion on the .to extension? Is it possible and worthwhile to monetize these domain names?

 

[Sonny Banks]

Invest in .com

 

[Bill Roy]

WIth any domain suffix if you are able to develop it with the right content that will get it listed higher in Google and other search engines then .to could well be worthwhile. What you would lack is the number of internet users who automatically type in 'domainname.com' (and to a much lesser extent .net/.info/.org).

Of course availability of a more prominent suffix plays a great deal on whether the .to suffix is worth developing. It may well be that more popular suffixes are not available to register or purchase on the aftermarket or if available is prohibitively expensive, then this would make a lesser known suffix more attractive to develop. (Here also should be considered that the domain and suffix may result in an HDN - 'Hacked Domain Name' - where marketing and memorability could be a plus for a lesser known domain suffix, examples could be 'want.to', 'get.to', 'sell.to', 'shin.to', 'in.to', etc.)

Parking such domains is though generally less rewarding unless the domain has been previously a site and has residual existing traffic.

N.B. I have noted that it appears a lot of the developed sites on the .to suffix are in Japanese, so if parking it may well be that the base language selected should be Japanese to try and maximise returns.

Hope this helps, but whatever you decide to do good luck to you.

 

[katherine]

Just another exotic extension... the only thing that makes it a tad different is that it's more catchy than others, and it's been around since 1995 I think
But the TLD alone is not investment-grade in my view

 

[draggar]

Billbo and sdsinc have good points. The only other good point of the domain would be hacks - come.to, give.to etc..

Your best bet, with any TLD or ccTLD is development. It's been shown time and time again if a site with a non-.com TLD has better SEO, then it will get more search engine traffic. The advantage of oddball ccTLDs is that there are plenty of great keyword domains at low cost as opposed to a .com, but only invest if you're planning on developing or the domain is top notch.

 

[PeterMan]

Where can you register .to? Is there any restrictions?

 

[katherine]

Where can you register .to? Is there any restrictions?

tonic.to

The layout of their website hasn't changed since 1995 it seems

 

[BostonDomainer]

it's the next .com

 

[lost plontoon]

I bought www.vouchers.to
Will develop the site eventually , hopefully

 

[incka]

There's still some good ones for URL redirection available...