Blog – Developed NYC

Developed NYC

Why all New Yorkers should register a .nyc domain name

As .nyc nears its 8th birthday, it's hard to ignore how widely used the domain ending is, once you start looking.

So why has it been so strongly adopted and embraced by New Yorkers? With over 65,000 businesses and individuals registering their name with the .nyc ending - the demand and appeal is evident, and the reasons for registering a .nyc domain are as varied as the people living here.

To kick this off, below are the top 10 reasons why you should register a .nyc domain name today.

1. Community AstorPlace.nyc (.nyc domain on top left of banner)

.NYC domains are for New York businesses, organizations and residents only. Community is built into the namespace and adoption has been authentic and passionate like New Yorkers themselves - yes, New Yorkers have been known to be a little passionate.

When folks see your .nyc domain printed on a business card, or vinyl cut and stuck on the side of a van, or on a sign in your store's w…

Some New York City Mayoral Candidates Love .NYC Domains

With early voting for New York City Mayor approaching next Friday 12th June, New Yorkers attention on the Bill DeBlasio's spot is intensifying.

One perspective that has many of us interested is not just the politics of what is happening with the race and generally with the city, but something a little less dramatic - the mayoral candidates' choice of domain name.

Surely those who want to represent the city would represent with a .NYC? Well not so fast. Let's take a look, one by one.

According to the official voting.nyc website here are the candidates by party along with their choice of domain:

Democratic Candidates:

Eric L Adams - www.ericadams2021.comArt Chang - www.chang.nyc (email: campaign@chang.nyc)Shaun Donovan - www.shaunfornyc.com (email: info@shaunfornyc.com)Aaron Foldenauer - www.aaronfornyc.com (email: info@aaronfornyc.com)Kathryn A Garcia - www.kgfornyc.com (email: info@kgfornyc.com)Raymond J McGuire - www.rayfo…

New domain name endings – a thought experiment

I recently wrote about possible hidden motivations behind folks promoting or bashing all new gTLDs (.nyc, .tech, .app, etc.) in an attempt to understand the effect that these new domain endings are having on the web.

In this article I'd like to do a short thought experiment to reframe your perspective, to explore the potential that the new domain endings have, to not only be accepted against .com, but preferred.

Before we start the thought experiment here are some photos I took during July of new gTLDs (.nyc, .jobs, .sale and .health) in use:

I took these photos while driving around (and eating unhealthily) and I wasn't really looking for domains but they were right in front of me. These new domain endings are all over the place.

Recently, I've been spending time on Twitter looking into anyone who is reasonably pro-new gTLD and I came across RB Tewksbury who had the audacity to demand evidence of .com supremacy ov…

New domain name endings – hidden motives for and against them

I love thoughtful debate and reflection. I love being understood and then challenged. (Being misunderstood and then challenged isn't so much fun!) I'm comfortable having my mind changed and admitting it. More broadly, it's a great feeling to solve a problem, knowing that all variables have been considered, feedback received, reflections contested and solutions iterated.

In the domain investing world the big issue for the last five or so years has been "What effect will new gTLDs have on the internet?"

If you're new to this topic, in brief, about 5 years ago there was an expansion of the internet naming system - instead of .coms, .nets and .orgs over 1,000 other domain endings (e.g. .nyc, .tech and .guru) were scheduled to launch. This made some domain investors nervous and other excited. Non-domain investors (most of the world) didn't flinch - they're just finding out this happened!

Back then (2014-ish) there were people right out of the gate who…

Tangling with Rick Schwartz

Recently, I have been tangling with Rick Schwartz on Twitter (nested replies). His upset may have started last month when I commented on his blog and wrote about his bashing of new TLDs on this website.

I wasn't looking for trouble when things went south, I was just defending my view that new gTLDs like .nycs (geoTLDs) and .tech or .toys (keyword gTLDs) are not aimed at domain investors but they do provide end users a real option to acquire a perfect fit domain name at a great price when the .com is out of reach (being used or offered for sale at a price the end user cannot justify).

Rick's position seems to be that either the end user should stump up the cash for the .com or choose an alternate version of their name but stick to .com. It's a shame that Rick resorted to name calling and not to addressing the points I made - we could have had a great discussion but he muddied the water, it got a bit weird and I'm not sure why!

Back in 2013 the …

New domain investors should avoid new gTLDs (including .nyc domains?)

While my intention with this site, developed.nyc, is to promote .NYC usage and discuss news relevant to the geoTLD space - I love learning and talking about domains in general - even .coms which aren't disappearing anytime soon!

For those of you who are new to buying domain names (e.g. .coms, .nycs or .whatevers) - especially considering investing in them, there are a few key resources that you must check out and there are some names in the game who have some great advice.

DomainSherpa.com - A weekly vlog with interesting and entertaining interviews with big and small investors (usually a panel of 3) as well as those in related fields. Media Options (Drew Rosener and Tess Diaz) took over Domain Sherpa after founder Michael Cyger moved on to pursue other projects). I especially like the few interviews with Ali Zandi (his tips helped my sales - gmail Streak extension and concise email wording) and of course the videos with Domain Shane are just entertaini…

Exciting parallels between new gTLDs and Formula E

Recently, I attended the New York International Auto Show at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in NYC. It's a yearly ritual with my son and one thing is clear electric is booming. I recommend it to anyone in the area. It runs until Sunday 28th April.

There's amazing tech across multiple show floors, including safety features, in car entertainment, electric vehicles and lots of experiences with auto VR.

VR at the ABB Formula E Exhibit

Almost every major car company is proudly and prominently displaying their EVs and the high performance sports cars on show are jaw dropping.

Mullen USA

As I reflected after my visit, I couldn't help but think about the challenges that electric vehicles have had to face: improving the technology of the car motors, batteries and charging stations, boosting consumer awareness and interest, negotiating laws/standards/governments, carrying significant losses while wooing and maintaining investors and fighting a…

Rick Schwartz .scared or .caring?

For readers who do not know Rick Schwartz, he is an early .com domain investor. He started trading adult related 800 numbers and moved into adult related .coms and made millions from premium generic, keyword .com domains.

He was in the right place at the right time and had the experience and skill to seize the opportunity to profit from buying .com domains, holding them for a long time and waiting for the perfect end user to come knocking and buy the domain for top dollar. On his website ricksblog.com he mentions that he has only ever sold 35 of his 6500 domain names, which may give him 6,465 reasons why he is so strongly against new gTLDs - more on this later.

Let me start from the gTLD beginning.

Back in 2014 many new domain extensions were launched, some being geoTLDs (.nyc, .paris, .london), some were generic keyword gTLDs (.toys, .city, .photography) and in some cases businesses launched their own for private use (.bmw, .neustar, barclays).…

Why the .NYC TLD namespace has a solid foundation

I have always believed that geoTLDs (.nyc, .london, .paris, .boston) have the greatest potential of all new domain extensions especially when we look to metrics of potential other than registry profits.

GeoTLDs have a clear audience of individuals, organizations and businesses - many of whom focus their marketing and messages at the local community. Of course financial feasibility of running a TLD is important, and part of that correlates to the size of the city as well as the love and affinity people share for the city. .nyc therefore, seems to have it all.

Something else .nyc has, is a city government that is behind it as a partner with the registry (Neustar). The City of New York has both a financial incentive for the TLDs success (40% share in the profits, the rest to Neustar) and a moral obligation to nurture .NYC to be a safe space that innovates and provides economic opportunity.

While researching the beginnings of .NYC I came across th…

GoWomen – GoDaddy Celebrates International Women’s Day

GoDaddy did something quite special today to celebrate women and move away from their (sexist) Super Bowl commercials - they changed their name to GoWomen.

GoDaddy also featured several profiles of inspirational women including designers, musicians and TV personalities across their website and they promoted the hashtag #BalanceForBetter as part of the cause.

It was really the subtle switch of the GoDaddy logo to the GoWomen logo that seemed to have the most powerful effect for me. When a company changes its name, however briefly to support a cause, they are quite literally putting the cause before themselves - respect.

This also reopened my mind to how male dominated the tech and web field is. My work as a high school computer science teacher has seen a big emphasis on encouraging underrepresented groups to get involved in CS education - our recruitment work has focused on minorities and females.

A recent unit I've been teach…

Ivanka 2024 – Politics / Comedy

Image Source: RedBubble / BoxSmash

Michael Wolff may have predicted Ivanka's 2024 presidential run in his book, Fire and Fury, but this weekend it appeared that the first daughter was moving one step closer to this goal, with the registration of the domain name Ivanka2024.nyc (no website resolving at the time of publishing).

That was until I viewed the whois record for this recent domain registration:

I've redacted a few pieces of the registrant's personal details but the street field may give away that this, is in fact, part of a future comedy SNL news or John Oliver sketch. 30 Rockefeller Plaza is home to NBC Studios and their hit show 30 Rock will be familiar to many.

Using political names for satirical purposes is a well established pastime and it wasn't so long ago that John Oliver registered Giuliani2024.com which actually redirects to hillaryclintonillness.com which hosts the video below:

And who can forget TinyTinyM…

New Domain Extensions “Nail It!” – says Google

While trying to avoid real work I escaped to YouTube, the procrastinator's dream. The ad below played before the video of dogs who sound like humans.

I'd seen other ads for Google Domains but this was the first that I'd seen promoting a particular new gTLD - and I believe if one of the gTLDs had to be the spokesperson for all, it would be .toys

Turns out this ad is about 4 months old, but one thing I think is significant is that this is the ultimate tech-search-advertising company promoting a new domain extension as "nailing it".

Last year I wrote about investing in NYC domain names and spoke about the three categories of new domain extensions - brand, geo and generic/keyword. .toys is clearly a generic/keyword and below are the reasons I mentioned that this category of names are perfect for end users:

Add meaning to a website name.Acquire the keyword that was unobtainable in a .com in a .keyword.Possibly acquire a perfect-fit domain…

Food and Health Related Names on .NYC Domains – Why I love them.

The start of a new year is an exciting time - especially for domain investors. For me, there's a power in the crispness of a new year that makes it impossible to procrastinate the task of regrouping, reflecting and refocusing the strategy.

In reality December 31st is when start this work as it's important to be deliberate in which tax year the renewal expenses are incurred.

I knew all my domains were renewed until at least the end of the year, but that meant that some needed attention in January so I got straight to my Excel file to begin the mission of auditing my domains, renewing and transferring them. Also making sure that the names I wanted to sell were listed at Afternic and Efty (and that I had updated the nameservers to point at Efty).

Many of my .NYC domain names fall into clear categories: 3 character acronyms, names, products, services, activities, education, health and food.

After getting my Excel file updated with expir…

100 NYC domains for $321 in the NYE Countdown Sale

Almost a year ago to the day, I posted an article to celebrate the New Year and offered some great domain names for only $335. Almost immediately after publishing it I regretted it, not because the prices were too low (they really were - one of the domains offered for $335 sold for $7,000 later in the year) but because I missed out on a catchy $321 price to celebrate the New Year's Eve countdown. So here it is, what I've been waiting for all year, to correct my mistake. Below are 100 NYC domain names that I'm offering for $321 each. Take a look, there may be some gems in there. If something sparkly catches your eye, use the contact form here. These domains are listed on Sedo, Afternic and have for sale splash pages so there's a small chance they may sell elsewhere, but it's unlikely as I'll only keep the domains listed here for a few days. After that the opportunity will disappear just like your 2019 NYE memories. [NYE Countdown Sale now over - domains removed from list…

Carousel.nyc sells for $7,000

I originally posted back in July about my 4 year .nyc domain investing experience and recently followed up that article with news of 4 more .nyc domain sales that took me over the $20,000 sales mark. There was one sale however, that pushed me over the break even line and that was carousel.nyc which completed just a few weeks ago for $7,000. Up until recently my biggest .nyc domain sales were $3,000 (x 2 sales) and $3,090 so it was nice to exceed those with this sale. Maybe there's time for one more big sale before the year's up! I received an email about this domain about a month ago from a gmail account with no history and so I was intrigued about who it may be interested. After a couple of emails they said that they had decided to go in a different direction - so we both moved on. Fast forward a few weeks later and I received an email from Afternic congratulating me on the sale of carousel.nyc. I was excited but also nervous because of only one other domain sa…