There are over 125 million registered domain names today. About 90 million of those are .com. Just about every person on the internet knows the importance of having a great domain name. No one wants a very long, boring domain name. This will more than likely be hard to remember and frankly no one wants to type an extremely long name into their browser.
Everyone wants a short, easy to remember high quality domain name. Well, unless you registered that domain name over a decade ago, chances are that it is taken and can be sold to you for a extremely high price.
What is a .CO ?
What’s the alternative? Well, I’m not sure if you know about the newest domain extension – it is .CO. It is the official extension for Columbia, but it has been made available to the public a few months ago. Why is this extension so popular? Google has announced that .CO domains will be GLOBALLY targeted. That means that this .CO will become equivalent to .COM and if you can target traffic in ANY country. For example, the domain extension .co.uk is targeted to traffic in the UK – .US – the US, and so forth.
Grab your SHORT .CO Soon!
Many people are skeptical when it comes to the .co extension – however there are already over 600,000 REGISTERED .CO domain names. If this was not going to successful then I seriously doubt there would be 600,000 .co domains already taken. Everyone knows that .COM is king, but I have a great feeling that the .CO domain is going to become extremely popular. The entire concept of the .co domain is to allow regular people like ourselves the option to grad a great, short, easy to remember domain name – without the ridiculous .COM prices. Others are saying that people wont remember to use .CO. Are they serious? This is the shortest extension and is EXTREMELY easy to remember. It is easier to remember than .net or .org!
Recent .CO sales
There have already been some very high priced .co sales – mesothelioma.co $76,000 – denver.co $50,001 and more recently beauty.co sold for for $18.090. As you can see those are some very high priced sales! I’m sure that any one of us would be happy with a sale like that! Registering a .co currently costs $30 a year – however that comes out to .08 cents a day!
Build A .CO blog
Personally, I am using the .co extension not only as my personal blog but also as an investment. I believe that everyone who owns domain names should have a diverse portfolio and should have at least a few .co domains – especially short, easy to remember ones. Every domain extension that has keywords is valuable. Imagine how many more options people now have if they want to register a domain with the word “blog” – good luck doing that for $30 with a .com name! I found an short buzz .co domain that is being used for my personal blog, and it is working out great! If you are interested in reading more about the the official .co domain then please read this: COinternet . Also, if you are interested in reading more about .co on my blog, then please Click Here
I really want to read everyone’s replies! Did you know about .co? What are your thoughts? Do you own any .co domains? Feel free to post below!
Twitter: phonakins
says:
Well, we need to do something to keep the domains ticking.
Fiona´s recent blog post ..Thirteen
That means that this .CO will become equivalent to .COM and if you can target traffic in ANY country. For example, the domain extension .co.uk is targeted to traffic in the UK – .US – the US, and so forth.
I don’t get it..a co.uk domain is only targeted to UK but a CO. domain – Colombia – will be worldwide? Why I find this hard to believe?
Cole Stan´s recent blog post ..Get Personal Christmas Gifts For Your Wife
I dont know why you find it hard to believe – here is the proof:
“While the .co domain is still assigned to Colombia at the moment, a Google spokesperson said that would soon change. “We will rank .co domains appropriately if the content is globally targeted. Webmasters will soon have the functionality to be able to specify this by using the geotargeting options in Google Webmaster Tools.”
Taken from: http://domainnamewire.com/2010/07/22/report-google-to-treat-co-as-international-domain/
zoopco´s recent blog post ..Park Domains And QUESTIONS At SmartName
Twitter: DiTesco
says:
I myself have written something very similar about .co domains a couple of days since it was officially launched. .co domains are very good alternatives for people seeking for “good” keyword rich domains as .com are very difficult to find. This is the reason why .coms are highly valued in the aftermarket. I think that .co is a good option for long term investment or to secure that name you are looking for that is no longer available in other popular extensions, such as .net or .org. The biggest drawback about .co domain names for the moment is the cost for registering one. It is almost two to three times more than a .com, .net, or .org TLDs.
ditesco´s recent blog post ..Become An Affiliate Marketing Ninja With These Free WP Plugins
I could not agree more – Just about every good .co domain has already been registered 0 however there are still some great ones to be registered. I have a handful of .co domains but I have some great keywords. Yes, registration is high at $30 but there are plenty of coupons at godaddy that bring the price down to about $26. I have no problem investing $26 into something that could possibly be sold for thousands in a few years.
This is why I am trying to encourage and inform people about this extension. I dont think it will ever take over .com, but I think these extensions are better than .net or .org!
zoopco´s recent blog post ..Park Domains And QUESTIONS At SmartName
Twitter: Mommy_gaga
says:
I seriously thought about grabbing a few .co domains. Now, to figure out what niche to target! Thanks for the article.
Deanna U´s recent blog post ..Holiday Amazon Deals- GPS Units- Play Doh- Hasbro Games- Music Downloads and More
If you are looking for some niche specific keywords – I suggest using google’s adwords keyword tool – type in a word, then you will see monthly search results. Then I suggest trying to register the .CO domain if it is available – I have been using this method and have found some great 1 worded and keyword .CO domains.
Also on a side note, the CEO of godaddy just announced that the superbowl commercial will feature .CO domains! I’m telling you this is going to be big (with some big money involved)
zoopco´s recent blog post ..GoDaddy SuperBowl Commercial Will Feature CO
Thanks for the great post and tip about the .co! Happy Holidays and all the best this coming New Year!
Happy holidays to you too!
thanks for the comment!
Keep an eye out on the superbowl commerical! Godaddy is making a .CO commerical – get ready to see a spike in .co sales!
zoopco´s recent blog post ..A Must Read – Domain Newbies
Twitter: EllieAsksWhy
says:
Regarding remarks in prior comment by DiTesco:
The .CO domain is a top-level domain. True, it is the official domain of the country of Colombia. But I read the Google announcement about their intended treatment of sites that use .CO .
I don’t think that the domain will cease being assigned to the country of Colombia as the quote stated! That domain was assigned to Colombia as a sovereign nation by ICANN. What is true is that Google will distinguish between globally targeted content from .CO domains versus Colombia-specific internally directed traffic (maybe there will be a sub-domain of .CO, like the UK’s .co.uk?)
In any case, I’d recommend having a look at the actual .CO website, as it is very well laid out, and easy to read for English language only speakers (like me). One final thought would be comparison with the .ly domains for example, those used by bit.ly and ow.ly which are both URL shorteners. Remember that .ly is the domain of Libya, yet Google is able to differentiate between Libya-internally directed traffic sites with .ly versus the very popular URL shorteners that are used globally by Twitter users, bit.ly in particular.
The .CO should be in high demand, I’d guess. Thank you for the informative article, zoop!
Ellie K´s recent blog post ..Rebuilding the Antikythera Mechanism
@Ellie
Thanks for the well written and informative reply!
I also agree with you – The .CO is still going to be the official extension for columbia – but google (who pretty much rules the internet) is going to treat this extension as any other top level domain (.com .net .org) which will help those who want to use this extension for global traffic.
I do believe the .CO will start gaining more ground in 2011 – this is only speculation and no one knows for sure. I have about 15 .CO domains that I eventually want to develop.
Keep an eye out on the superbowl commercial – godaddy is going to feature the .CO domain.
zoopco´s recent blog post ..Drop Out Of College And Make 100-000
Interesting post, never heard of .co up until this post. Most of the traffic I get for my niche sites is Google so I choose .net or .com with a keyword related domain, not sure .co would work yet since most of my local traffic wouldn’t know what it was. Have you seen any big name sites using a .co yet?
Ryan´s recent blog post ..Townhomes at Mill Reserve
@Ryan
Thanks for the comment. Google has already announced that they are going to treat .CO as a TLD (top level domain) meaning that its traffic will be targeted globally – NOT just columbia – like a .co.uk, or a .pl etc etc. Also if you do develop a .CO domain then you can target your audience in google webmasters tools – which is what I did.
If you are new to .CO domains, then I suggest checking out my blog. I have many topics on co domains along with some free 3 and 4 letter domain lists I generated. Feel free to ask anymore questions either here or on my blog.
ALso as far as big companied using .CO – YES – Twitter (t.co) Overstock (o.co) GoDaddy (x.co) all use .CO extensions. Also GoDaddy is creating a superbowl commercial dedicated to the .co domain.
zoopco´s recent blog post ..Another CO Domain Sells For 15K
I read this article earlier and have spent all afternoon looking for a good .co domain. cheers for the tip.
spifty´s recent blog post ..What is Crowdsourcing
Good tip, there are some crazy prices for .coms out there, but I dont see why a small group of people should be able to hold the internet to ransom! – Just move the goal posts, brilliant!
husk´s recent blog post ..Exquisite Stained Glass
Great that .Co = .Com But What About Co.CC.. ?
Thanks
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