Big & hairy!

Back in May 2014 we chatted with Colin Campbell, the CEO of DotClub. He told us about his love of, “big, hairy, audacious goals” and his plan to get 5,000,000 .CLUB domain name registrations over the next five years. Let's see how big and hairy .CLUB is today...

Congratulations Jeff, you and the DotClub team must be over the moon. What’s been going on and what amazing things have you got coming next?

Thanks so much. We’re certainly happy about the great response we have had to .CLUB since we launched in May of last year. What has been particularly encouraging is the wide range of registrants for .CLUB names, from existing clubs (golf clubs, country clubs, Rotary Clubs), to innovative startups (Coffee.club, Shaving.club, TheDrop.club), to celebrities and sports figures (50Inda.club, Lovato.club, ViratKohli.club), to brands and bloggers and really anyone building a community around a passion or interest.

Tell us a little about Startup.club, if the press is to be believed you recently made quite a killing in Vegas, and your domain is being hailed as the true challenger of .COM

I think that reference was based on the success of some premium names sold through our Startup.club program (Coffee.club, Vegas.club) and the auction of Wine.club for $140,000. In truth, we really don’t think of .CLUB as a challenger to .COM. Rather, we are another domain name choice, and one that has meaning and relevance across a wide range of verticals. So if you are building a new website or business online, .CLUB may resonate for you better than another extension and be your preferred choice. On the other hand, even if you have a main domain name you are perfectly happy with, you may be able to use a .CLUB name to brand and point to a loyalty or reward program, or to your social pages such as Facebook. There are many cases where we see a great .CLUB name being used in addition to a .COM or other domain. It really depends on the stage a company or website is at.

For new ideas and business, a .CLUB name (or one of the many other new extensions) may be the perfect name choice from the beginning. Supporting new ideas is one of the reasons we started Startup.club. At Startup.club we list a number of great category killer premium .CLUB names, along with their prices. We have also developed logos for many of the names to help visualize and spark business ideas around those names. We want to help entrepreneurs build great businesses with great .CLUB names and through the Startup.club program if you have a great idea for a business we’ll let you pay for a great name over time (10 payments over 10 years, interest free) and we’ll provide other marketing and PR support to help launch and grow the business. We’re like an incubator for .CLUB businesses. This is how we helped get Coffee.club off the ground.

It’s vital that customers’ information is protected and we’re currently promoting Internet security quite heavily. The .CLUB domain is being used on club websites where members are asked to share information. Is this an issue for you, do you have any initiatives in the works for increased security?

As the registry for .CLUB we really don’t have much say on the content of the websites using our names. That said we do have stringent abuse policies that we take very seriously, and we actively monitor and respond to instances of misuse and abuse within our namespace.

It’s good to hear that we’re on the same page. Thanks Jeff, it’s been great catching up with you and all your news. Keep up the hard work and good luck with your .COM challenge. Same time next year?

Thank you for letting me share some of the .CLUB story. We really appreciate the support of great partners like EuroDNS and we’re very glad you’re in our club!

Do you want to sign-up for a .CLUB too? Register your domain name now!

TheDotClub registryis a Florida based company founded by serial entrepreneur Colin Campbell. The company was formed in 2012 specifically for the purpose of applying for and operating the new domain extension .CLUB.

The .CLUB extension has consistently ranked amongst the most popular of the new domains, and is currently ranked third in registered domain names.

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