A few nights ago, a customer and long-time friends of my wife and I treated us to a double date of the Long Center presented Georgia On My Mind: A Celebration of Ray Charles and His Music.
The night was a walk down memory lane of Ray Charles’ catalog of greatest hits performed by highly esteemed, award-winning artists and musicians — Clint Holmes, Nnenna Freelon, Tom Scott, and Take 6.
If given the opportunity to attend this lively performance of Gospel, Blues, Jazz, and Country tunes, it’ll be a night and performance you’ll never forget.
Not only is the performance entertaining, engaging, and soulful, but it easily commands your attention while the minutes and hours slip on unnoticed.
Nevertheless, as I perused the program before the show and during intermission, I soon discovered a number of intriguing domain sightings.
I didn’t have to flip far to discover the first domain sighting of the night, having flipped to the first page and seeing an ad for Camper Clinic II with the following domain: CamperClinic2.com.
I’m not a big fan of domains using numbers, especially when other options like VisitCamperClinic.com or TheCamperClinic.com are available and certainly pass the radio test, unlike CamperClinic2.com.
There were a number of geo service domains using “austin” or “atx” appended/prepended to a keyword or their respective branding.
Surprisingly, most of the domains advertised are .org, with very few .com and .net domains.
- PapiAustin.com
- ChrousAustin.org
- AustinSymphony.org
- Balletustin.org
- DineAustin.net
- AustinChinatown.com
- StreetATX.com
The worst domain of the night was a .org address for Texas Children’s that contains 33 characters and 5 words: TexasChildrensSpecialtyCareAustin.org.
I like the ad design but not the Texas Children’s Hospital Specialty Care domain selection. Simply put, too many characters, and a bit challenging to remember.
I suggest they shorten this domain to something more memorable. A few alternative domains worth considering are as follows:
- TCHSpecialtyCare.com
- TCHSpecialtyCareAustin.com
- SpecialtyCareAustin.com
- SpecialtyCareATX.com
- SpecialCareAustin.com
- SpecialCareATX.com
Out of the remaining ads, there were two that caught my eye and for different reasons.
The first was a thyroid disease ad with cleverly written copy questioning whether or not your thyroid was out of tune with the rest of your body and the perfect domain: AustinThyroid.com.
The Long Center hosts a number of events — plays, musical concerts, etc. — that caters to an aging crowd that may likely suffer from thyroid disease.
About the only thing I’d suggest for Simone is that she defensively registers ThyroidAustin.com, ATXThyroid.com, and ThyroidATX.com to preserve her brand.
The final domain sighting certainly surprised me. Again, knowing the crowd for such events tends to be 55 years of age or older, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a banking ad with a .bank domain: Broadway.Bank.
Older internet users, as most users using the web over the last 30 years or so, are adept at using mostly .com, .org, or .net when typing in web URLs into browsers.
So, to see a bank using and prominently advertising a .bank domain is encouraging, but it may also be a big miss with the given target market.
In the case of their ad, I recommend Broadway adds “www.” to the beginning of their .bank domain as an approach to informing existing and potential customers of its website URL.
And for those of you wondering about how popular .bank domains are, NTLDStats.com reveals there are 2.6K .bank domains registered with just over 500 (~20%) .bank domains parked.
Nearing the 5-year mark of existence, the low registration numbers are due to the strict regulations of only fTLD Registry Services — the coalition that controls .bank and helps to vet companies and core vendors — approved banks being able to secure and use .bank domains.
Most banks have likely purchased their matching .bank domain yet are on the fence about the level of effort to rebrand as well as technical and security migration concerns — as mentioned in an AmericanBanker.com article.
The upside to securing and using a .bank domain is banks are the only entities eligible and able to register and purchase, ruling out the possibility of the domain aftermarket and domain investors cashing in.
In fact, most .bank domains average annual cost ranges between $1,000 and $2000, which such pricing makes it a high-risk and costly investment should domain investors be allowed to purchase — not likely ever to happen, and you can take that to the .bank!
Thanks, and that’s all for now!
As a domain investor and business consultant, Alvin actively participates in daily domain auctions. Outside of auctions, he passionately shares his views, opinions, and vision for how businesses should and should not use domain names to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
