We could have never predicted what 2020 was going to bring for the domain sales industry. While it was a rough year for many industries, the slow down of the world caused many to turn to the internet. Businesses were practically forced into making the leap into the digital world in order to stay open. People that were stuck in lockdown decided to take that leap of starting the blog that’s always been on the back burner.
Now that we have closed what has often been referred to as the “unprecedented year”, we want to spend a little time in reflection. While 2020 may have been unprecedented, some great things happened at .blog and we have some exciting plans in place to partner with our Registrars in the new year.
2020 .blog highlights
While we do want to share some specific wins that we had in 2020, we don’t want to overlook the most important thing — .blog users. They are the reason we do what we do and the reason our great registrar partners do what they do.
In 2020, we saw .blog users expand into even more blogging categories. There are individual bloggers and businesses using the domain. There are large blogs and small blogs along with new ones and old ones. And, we’re excited for all of them!
Here are some of the specific business highlights from 2020:
Three-character premium domains launched
Short domain names are valuable for several reasons, but largely because they’re easy to remember. In October, we released new premium domain names that are three characters long (think NFL.blog as an example).
These premium domain names are highly sought after due to marketability, branding, and popularity of the keywords. We’re excited to share that it was a successful launch with domain prices ranging from a few hundred dollars up towards $100k annually.
Leanne Hogben joined our team as the Head of Registry Services
In 2020, we were thrilled to announce a new hire for the position of Head of Registry Services. Leanne Hogben joined the team and brought with her a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the field.
She previously worked to help launch and grow the .shop domain. This gives her extensive personal experience in the market and a thorough understanding of the challenges that new domains face as they grow. We’re happy she’s leveraging that experience with .blog.
.blog turned 4!
Birthday celebrations may have looked a little different in 2020, but we didn’t let that get in our way of celebrating .blog’s 4th birthday!
After 4 years in business, we’ve learned a lot. We continue to learn and are dedicated to staying active to ensure continued growth going forward. We’ve also refined our vision and mission so we can work laser-focused in future years as we continue to expand to provide an accessible way for all people and companies to share their stories with the world.
We can’t wait to see what year 5 brings!
Successful flash sale in December
‘Test before invest’ is one of our business practices. We like testing the market to see what works and what doesn’t. In 2020, we ran a flash-sale on .blog domains in mid-December. We even went so far as to offer the largest discounts we ever have.
We invited our partners to join us in promoting the event. And we even made it easy for them by providing access to promotional materials and messaging they could use on their own websites. These highlighted the many benefits that come with the .blog domain.
And though we won’t know the full impact until renewals are due next year, the flash sale does look promising.
Things for Registrars to watch for in 2021
Now that you know some of the things that went well for us in 2020, here are some things that we’re excited about for 2021:
We are launching an email newsletter
We know you’re busy. Also, it can be tricky to stay on top of tracking down the latest domain news and events to promote. That’s why we decided to create an email newsletter to help keep you up to date. It will provide everything you need to know in one easy-to-access place — your inbox. Here’s a few things you can expect:
- Latest news and important announcements
- Upcoming events and promotions that should be on your radar
- Blog posts that you can re-purpose and use on your website
Registrars are pivotal in helping bloggers that are excited to share their ideas and stories with the world access .blog domains. So we want to further partner with you to make it easier than ever.
We’re crossing our fingers for in-person events
As soon as it is safe to return to travel, and in-person events return, you’ll be able to find .blog at industry conferences. Social events during conferences are an effective way to get the most out of your conference experience with networking and something we enjoy doing
We’re going to help make it easy and fun for you with our social events. Once we’re able to provide more details on this, we’ll make sure to make our partners aware. This is just one more reason why you’ll want to check out our newsletter (see above).
More collaborations
We truly believe that we are better together. That’s a message that hit the world in 2020 when everyone was staying “safer at home”, but we believe that the same message applies to our business and industry as well.
In 2021, we are planning even more collaboration with our channel and registrar partners. In fact, our first channel promotion is already underway.
Get ready for a great year
We hope you’ve been able to spend some time reflecting on your business achievements from 2020. We know it was probably not the year that you expected it to be, but it’s important to make sure you reflect on the good too, and not just the challenges.
As we move into this new year, we’d like to invite you again to check out our new email newsletter. This will help you stay connected with the latest news and events coming from .blog, including promotional opportunities that Registrars will not want to miss out on!
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