Coffee.club sold for $100,000. Wine.club went for $140,000 at a NamesCon auction. 🍷
On day two of DomainFest 2015, I sat down with Colin Campbell, CEO and founder of .CLUB, and Jeff Sass, its CMO, to talk about investing in new domain extensions. 🎙️
📊 In this episode, we unpacked:
- 💰 Big .club sales
- 🎯 What to invest in
- 🔁 Dropped names and SnapNames
- 🤝 Complementing .com, not competing
- 📣 Building a global brand
🎥 Watch the full episode:
💰 Big .club Sales
Colin calls .club one of the most popular new extensions. It complements .com: brands use it for loyalty programs, and entrepreneurs launch on it. Coffee.club sold for $100,000, Wine.club for $140,000 at the NamesCon auction, and Vegas.club was announced at $100,000. 💰
There’s also an active aftermarket: people who registered names at $10 or $15 a year have resold some for several thousand dollars. For more on domain investing, read Manmeet Pal Singh’s interview. 🔗
🎯 What to Invest In
Jeff’s advice: focus on names that are almost commodities. Single words can always go to auction. Numbers were hot too, mostly with Chinese buyers: 9999.club sold for $11,000, 001.club for $1,350 and 345.club for $800. 🎯
Colin compares a TLD to a city: check that it’s popular, then look for generic terms with meaning, single words, numbers or two-word category killers. Beauty.club sold to Mary Kay for an undisclosed but fairly substantial sum. 🏙️
🔁 Dropped Names and SnapNames
Dropping .club names go to SnapNames. With one bid, you get the name for $69. With several bids, it goes to a three-day auction. Staffing.club sold for about $70, and blogger Michael Berkens’ WorldWide Media picked up carpooling.club for $69. 🔁
BTC.club had nine or ten bids before its auction began. Jeff listed about a thousand suggested names on NamePros. It’s still early, and that’s where investors make money. For expired domain tactics, read Kalin Karakehayov’s interview. 🔗
🤝 Complementing .com, Not Competing
People buy .club because the name they want is available and means something. The buyer of coffee.club wanted a subscription coffee business, and the name fit. Box-of-the-month services and communities are natural fits. 🤝
Some companies switch to shorten long .com URLs, such as the band Bombay Bicycle Club moving to bombaybicycle.club. “If you are a club, you should be using a .club name.” Club is both generic and specific: any group with a shared interest, from two people to two million. 🎸
📣 Building a Global Brand
Colin’s previous company was Hostopia, a public hosting company he sold. A study of gTLDs led to .club. They raised $11 million, bought the name at auction, and spend about $3.6 million a year on marketing to build a global brand. 📣
They’re active on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Weibo, tweet interesting new registrations daily, and work with celebrities. Demi Lovato’s lovato.club video drew 500,000 views. They had sold almost 300,000 names, with some of the highest usage in the industry. For another registry view, read Raymond King of Top Level Design. 🔗
📝 Key Takeaways From the .CLUB Interview
- 🎯 Favor single words, numbers and category killers
- 🏙️ Pick a popular TLD first, like choosing a city
- 🔁 Watch dropped names for $69 deals
- 🤝 Choose a TLD that means something
- 📣 Usage matters more than registrations
❓ FAQs About Colin Campbell and Jeff Sass
Who runs .CLUB?
Colin Campbell is CEO and founder, and Jeff Sass was chief marketing officer at the time of this interview.
What are the biggest .club sales?
Wine.club sold for $140,000, and coffee.club and vegas.club each sold for $100,000.
Where do dropped .club domains go?
To SnapNames, where a single bid wins at $69 and multiple bids trigger a three-day auction.
🎙️ More Inside A Hustler’s Brain Interviews You’ll Love
- Interview with Edmon Chung CEO of DotAsia.org at Domainfest 2015
- Interview With Jothan Frakes co-founder of NamesCon at DomainFest 2015
- Interview with Team Sedo.com Frank Tillmanns & Sophie Pieck
- Interview with Mary Wong from ICANN: Domainfest 2015
Would you build a brand on a .club domain? Tell me in the comments. 💬
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Jitendra Vaswani is a well-known expert in SEO and AI-driven digital marketing. He has spoken at international events and founded Digiexe, a digital marketing agency, and AffiliateBooster, WordPress plugin designed specifically for affiliate marketers. With over 10 years of experience, Jitendra has helped many businesses succeed online. His bestselling book, Inside A Hustler’s Brain: In Pursuit of Financial Freedom, with over 20,000 copies sold globally, underscores his influence and commitment to empowering digital marketers.