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Originally Posted by BlackCrayon ... as for regular gtld domains...domainers are buying the majority of them with dreams of flipping them for big bucks. they will be dropping them next year.

Well, the domaineers are welcome to help defer the initial capitalization costs.

FYI, $186 thousand is just the application's entry fees -- if the application is approved the costs are higher but the trademark vanity gTLDs are immaterial as they represent a minor investment to large businesses.

The new Trademark Clearinghouse requirements of registries and registrars will protect of trademark containing names being registered -- new rules.

The second year falloff in domain name renewal registrations is expected. The average prices for most of these new gTLD non-premium names will be in the $20 -$45 range so abandonment in the second year is hardly a catastrophic loss ...

As far as any SEO value in these new gTLDs that remains to be seen. I think a lot of SEO value will be content oriented.

• If a new gTLD attracts domain operators with active domains producing real content -- they will succeed.
• If a new gTLD attracts domain operators just trying to make money with EMDs or keyword oriented domain names they will probably fall by the wayside in time.

Perhaps, the new availability of memorable names will change the way people use the web -- .sexy (just an example) may become your preferred ''brand''. This may be one reason for .ford and the like