VinoRouge.club: Ranked on Page 1 of Google in Less Than 48 Hours

Being a member of a twelve-member wine club that meets once a month for the last 22+ years provided motivation to finally create website to document what our club does.  What do we do you may ask...we taste red wine.  In fact, between all of our regular tastings and special tastings, we've tasted thousands of red wines over the years from all over the world and we have kept detailed records of the tasting we've done over that time, including a member preference poll for each tasting we have ever had.  Now that we are well into the digital age, we decided it was time to create a website for our wine club, so that we could share with the world what we've been up to and provide some insight on what our collective pallets like the most.

When considering a domain name for our wine club, it only seemed natural to register a dot club domain name, VinoRouge.club, since that is our name and a club is what we are!    Oh, and the dot com was already taken.  That IS the beauty of a new gtld!  It is a niche...it is available... and it is what it is, not to sound like Frank Zappa or Bill Belichick.  

New gTLDs just may have a leg up in search engine marketing.  Recently in Las Vegas at Namescon 2015, Bill Hartzer, Senior SEO Strategist at Globe Runner SEO, participated in a speaking panel about search engine optimization and an experiment he conducted using exact match domains in dot com and a new gTLD.  In the example he provided, he talked about two domain names that he developed with identical content, 3caratdiamonds.com and 3carat.diamonds.  What Bill shared was that getting traffic through Google Adwords cost a bit less for the new gTLD than it did for the dot com.  Bill also shared the fact that over time, the conversion rates (for downloading a PDF about diamond sizing) were also better for the new gTLD than they were for the dot com.  

Okay, while this is not earth shattering, it is, perhaps, an indication that search engines may prefer new gTLDs over time, as they are more significantly niche focused, they have fresh content since they are new and they are relevant to the search being conducted, although nobody's is admitting that over there.   

I have also heard several stories about new gTLD websites ranking well in organic search.  One specific story was about Credit.club and how only after two weeks, they were ranked in the first position for a Google search of Credit Club.  Granted, there was a lot of publicity, news stories and links that preceeded the ranking, due to credit.club being hand registered for regular fee.  However, regarding my newly launched VinoRouge.club, it is interesting to note that after only 48 hours (with no publicity, news stories or links), the website is ranking on page 1 of Google for a search of Vino Rouge (out of over 3.5 million results) and in the first position for Vino Rouge Club.  No magic SEO here, just fresh and interesting content, as well as a new gTLD domain name.  Time will tell if it was just luck, but my hunch is that this year will start to see more and more new gTLD websites being successful because of favorable rankings and cheaper advertising options.  I know I'm looking forward to trying it again soon with a different new gTLD domain name.  If the results are similar, I'll be sure to come back here and let you all know about it!  Thanks for reading and remember, don't drink wine and register domain names at the same time!

New .VIN domain names: what about accents?

Extract: If accents are a strong added value when it comes to selling wine, we believe - for sure - that combination of signs including accents are part of that list of reserved names. An example for "Béarn": will the "Bearn" (with no accent) Geographical Indication be protected as well as "Béarn" with an accent? If bearn.wine and bearn.vin are reserved, what about béarn.wine and béarn.wine?
In this case, that is two names reserved in two fifferent extensions.

Source: http://www.gtld.club/2014/11/new-vin-domain-names-what-about-accents.html.

Le bon .VIN Californien

Extract:

Les nouvelles extensions Internet apparaissent peu à peu sur Internet et de nombreux nouveaux sites Web voient le jour. Terminé les noms de domaine qui se terminent en .COM, c’est à présent au tour des .BERLIN, des .CLUB et des .INTERNATIONAL de se faire un nom.

Pourtant, si ces noms tardent à se faire connaître, il existe deux nouvelles extensions, en instance de validation, dont on parle beaucoup. Il s’agit des deux candidatures déposées à l’ICANN - l’organisme de gouvernance des noms de domaine - pour le vin: des noms de domaine qui se termineront en .VIN et en .WINE. Le site Web de Nicolas changera probablement, nous l’espérons, pour un .VIN.

A lire sur le JDN: http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/expert/59029/qu-il-est-bon-ce--vin-californien.shtml.

The .WINE new gTLD Rumor (more on .wine and .vin new gTLDs)

Extract: "It appears that .WINE was recently won in a private auction : if two applications from the three existing ones are soon withdrawn, it means that this pending situation could come to end. Note that at this point, it does not really matter how much was spent to win this Top-Level Domain nor it matters who won the auction because some problems remain to be solved: the protection of wine Geographical Indications…and a few other things that I won’t be explaining here. Regarding how much was spent for .WINE, the new gTLD history will tell.

The recent letter from Fadi Chehadé shows that the wine applications issues evolve in the right direction. After two years listening to the GAC, it appears that the ICANN CEO is taking this situation seriously and the wine worldwide community is (probably) thanking him for this".

Read my complete article on gTLD.club: http://gtld.club/2014/11/04/the-wine-new-gtld-rumor/.

Are you the member of a wine club? Register your mywine.CLUB domain name with Uniregistry.

Fadi Chehadé mentions "a list" in his letter to Honorable Axelle Lemaire on .WINE & .VIN

"C'est la consécration" ;-)

The letter, made public last night, mentions "a reserved list of names". I personally want to congratulate parties in charge of protecting Wine Geographical Indications for reaching out to this conclusion.

Even if we did not have the chance to be thanked the same way as Honorable Axelle Lemaire in 2013 for informing ICANN about these exact same solutions, we are happy to read that these past two years were not wasted for nothing and that an agreement is to be found.

We also want to suggest ICANN (and Axelle Lemaire) to read our article dated April 22, 2013.

Extract of the letter: "The parties involved are now working on devising a mechanism which would offer protections to a reserved list of names, which would be contractually protected through ICANN’s registry agreement, along with a set of rules around how those names could be distributed to parties that have interests in and the rights to them".

Sources:

1. The letter (to be downloaded): https://www.icann.org/resources/correspondence/chehade-to-lemaire-2014-10-22-en;
2. Geographical Indications and Appellations of Origin are easy to protect: stick to the official databases: http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130403_hints_and_solution_for_the_protection_of_wine_geographical_gtld/;
3. Official letter sent by Project dotVinum to ICANN in 2013: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/2013-2014-01-24-en;
4. Why Donuts should do both .WINE and .VIN new gTLDs: http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130422_why_donuts_should_win_all_wine_new_gtld_applications/.

Wine Geographical Indications might be able to register their domain names with Uniregistry (in a close future).

Today : GAC Briefing to the ICANN Community - Protection of Geographic Names in gTLDs

Note this is about the future Round.

This session is to inform and exchange with the community about considerations regarding protection of geographic names in future new gTLD application rounds.

http://la51.icann.org/en/schedule/wed-gac-geographic-names

More on .WINE and .VIN at ICANN51

CENTR issued a guide for ICANN51 in which a date is given where interested parties in the .WINE question can learn more about how this wonderful story will probably end.

"This is not a large part on the GAC’s agenda at ICANN Los Angeles, but it is a very sensitive topic and likely to reflect wider divisions between governments on human rights issues at the United Nations. The session, scheduled for Tuesday, 14 October, 9:30-10:00, is not labeled a GAC-specific session, but an ICANN-wide session. It is, however, organized by the GAC. As with the issue of geographic indicators raised by .WINE and .VIN, the introduction of human rights into the ICANN sphere deepens links between public policy issues discussed in international intergovernmental forums and the forums that primarily focus on technical Internet governance. 

These interactions will increase the need to harmonize or coordinate between these different forums, and GAC members, as participants in both intergovernmental forums and ICANN, may have an important role to play in connecting those two worlds. How the GAC manages this session, therefore, could be an indication of how the GAC intends to approach that role in the near future".

Download the guide here: https://centr.org/CENTR-Guide_for_ICANN51

CENTR is an association of Internet Country Code Top Level Domain Registries such as .uk in the United Kingdom and .es in Spain. Full Membership is open to organisations, corporate bodies or individuals that operate a country code top level domain registry.

Les élus du vin mobilisés avant la prochaine session de l’ICANN

Philippe A. Martin, député coprésident de l’Association Nationale des Elus de la Vigne et du vin (ANEV), accompagné par les députées Catherine Quéré et Fanny Dombre Coste, respectivement Présidente et Vice-présidente du groupe d’études Viticulture de l’Assemblée Nationale, ont été reçus par Denis Tersen, directeur de cabinet du Ministère de l’Economie Numérique mercredi 8 octobre. Ils souhaitaient s’assurer de la poursuite de la mobilisation de la France sur ce dossier qui inquiète de nombreux vignerons.
A lire sur gTLD.club

I wrote to Neelie KROES (.wine / .vin)

With no more information related to .WINE and .VIN from ICANN, I thought the EC would have more information so I wrote to Neelie KROES,

This is the message I received:

Thank you for your e-mail. It has been registered and you will receive a reply asap, within 15 working days. We ask your understanding for this delay, which is due to the  large number of messages that we receive daily. Please feel free to send a follow up message if your request incurred further delays.

    Cabinet of Mrs Neelie Kroes

    Vice-President responsible for the Digital Agenda
    Mail Registry Unit

Let's see what happens. Let's see if something happens.

France has saved money on .WINE!

"What if France had applied for a .WINE new gTLD?" is my latest article on gTLD.club

Another view of the situation regarding .WINE is to wonder if it would have been a good idea for France to apply. If we consider the situation, France has saved a lot of money by not applying to .WINE. The problem to protect wine Geographical Indications remains and the solution is now to be found with existing applicants.

Read my article on gTLD.club:

http://gtld.club/2014/07/01/what-if-france-had-applied-for-a-wine-new-gtld/

.WINE : is France frustrated?

A journalist to ask ICANN CEO : "Is the .WINE so serious for France so ICANN has to be rebuilt the way they want?" Listen to Fadi Chehadé's answer on that question. The question is asked at 2:20 in the video.

Still want to protect wine Geographical Indications?

ICANN gave its go on .WINE and .VIN and France thinks that protecting wine Geographical indications is definitely not possible? Actually it is not…
There is a way.

I am in London from 24 to 25 but back to Paris on the 27. Axelle, if your team is not already on holidays, I can give them tips.

Read my latest "Trait d'humour" on .WINE and .VIN: http://gtld.club/2014/06/22/wine-vin-a-la-votre/

.WINE & .VIN domain names : a strange story

As the founding member of Project dotVinum for Wine Registries - a story which started in 2010 - I am just amazed by what I read in the press at the moment. If ICANN had done serious international communication about new gTLDs and not just a simple video posted on its blog, the situation about .WINE & .VIN would certainly not be the one it is today.

The last publication from Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission, looks like a desperate letter sent to an ICANN board which will probably have few impact on "whatever the board decides"...unless I am wrong.

Since 2010, I had the chance to talk a lot about these wine Top-Level Domains, I even wrote a community project for .WINE - .VIN and .VINO domain names which was presented to some French wine institutions with that same message in the end: "Wow: interesting" or again: "Wow: expensive". I am very sad that I did not meet the CNAOC earlier because this could have been a French project in the end.

Today, the message sent to the wine community is very negative but...who's fault is it? And do we care to know who's fault it is now the ICANN Board has approved to proceed? As I wrote it many times, it certainly is not new gTLD applicants' fault who followed the methodology provided by ICANN: the new gTLD applicant guidebook (which French version is still not "final" and translated from the English one by the way).

Regarding the protection of Wine Geographical Indications, I'd be interested to know if the EC has any paid consultants on this question because solutions have been published, and read more than 6000 times. They are here and they were sent to ICANN. We never received any call from the EC to discuss them, why?
Regarding ICANN, we are not surprised if they never called as they probably considered that the Trademark Clearinghouse would be enough to protect Wine GIs (which is the case in a certain way). We were just very surprised to see that some ICANN insiders represented one applicant in discussions with officials.

Now .WINE and .VIN are approaching, the only suggestion that I think of for our European Institutions to exist on Internet is to start building their own Internet: an Internet managed by them. Regarding existing in ICANN...we'll still be talking about this in 20 years :-)

Cast your vote on .WINE & .VIN new gTLDs

Paris craint les adresses internet “.VIN”

Trois ministres ont interpellé Bruxelles sur le projet d’attribution de certains noms de domaine qui pourraient porter préjudice aux viticulteurs.

Les ministres français appellent plus largement Bruxelles à passer à l’offensive pour permettre une réforme de la gouvernance de l’Icann, organisme de régulation qui a son siège en Californie et relève à ce titre, en dernière instance, du département du Commerce américain.

A lire sur gTLD.club

.WINE : a Worldwide press coverage

• In Greece: http://www.agronews.gr/diatrofi-agrotourismos/diakinisi-proiodon/arthro/113978/upo-apeili-oi-onomasies-proeleusis-ton-oinon-sto-idernet/;
• In Italy: http://www.ansa.it/terraegusto/notizie/rubriche/europa/2014/05/27/vino-agricoltori-e-coop-in-difesa-domini-web-.vin-e-.wine_5d527ab5-db13-4391-a874-cc6b669ba730.html;
• By "Europe":
  http://www.ansa.it/terraegusto/notizie/rubriche/europa/2014/05/27/vino-agricoltori-e-coop-in-difesa-domini-web-.vin-e-.wine_5d527ab5-db13-4391-a874-cc6b669ba730.html;
• And guess where? In France:
  http://www.ndd.buzz/2014/05/noms-de-sites-internet-linquietude-des.html

Thank to ICANN, when all this is fixed, register your .WINE & .VIN domain names with GoDaddy.com

.WINE : the Congress of the US wrote to ICANN

"I hope that the applicants for .wine and .vin are able to reach agreement with interested parties on Public Interest Commitments (PIC) Speciñcations that adequately protect Geographic Indications (GIS) for wine growing regions in my district and across the world from cybersquatting and other activities that could have unnecessary negative repercussions on the wine industry. However, if interested parties are unable to reach an agreement over the next several months, I urge you to withhold granting the .wine and .vin gTLDs to any applicant".
Read the complete letter on gTLD.club

.WINE and .VIN : "la politique de l'Autruche"

All parties following the .WINE & .VIN Opera already know about the latest ICANN publication (see the link below). Let's hope we have a decision from the board starting June 3, 2014:

"... In response, the NGPC accepted that GAC advice and directed ICANN Staff not to commence the contracting process for the applications for .WINE and .VIN for 60 days. That 60-day hold period, which expires June 3, 2014, was implemented by the NGPC to “provide additional time for the relevant impacted parties to negotiate, which they are encouraged to do.”

ICANN encourages all interested parties to use the 60-day hold period to continue to negotiate and seek common ground and hopes that these efforts will result in improved outcomes to all parties".
ICANN update: http://blog.icann.org/2014/05/wine-and-vin-where-does-icann-stand/

Hints and Solution for the Protection of Wine Geographical Indications in the ICANN New gTLD Program:http://www.circleid.com/posts/20130403_hints_and_solution_for_the_protection_of_wine_geographical_gtld/

Letter from Keith Besgrove (Australian Government) regarding the new gTLD applications for .WINE and .VIN

"The Australian Government is concerned that proposals being put forward for additional conditions could unduly limit the legitimate use of GI-related terms, and unfairly restrict access to online avenues of trade. Domain names themselves are not GIs, and terms relating to GIs can legitimately be used as part of a domain name for a range of purposes. For example, the term champagne is recognised as a GI in Australia and, as a result, sparkling wine made in Australia may not be labelled as champagne. However, it is acceptable for an Australian wine retailer to sell champagne [that is, wine that is produced in the French region of Champagne under the rules of appellation]. It is also acceptable for Australian entities to use the word champagne in business names and domain names, such as champagnedistributors.wine. In this example, the existing safeguards for new would appropriately prohibit a fraudulent or deceptive use of that domain name, and require a process to deal with any complaints that may arise. Conditions additional to these could inappropriately obstruct legitimate trade".

Download the letter here: http://www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/besgrove-to-crocker-08may14-en

Update on .WINE & .VIN new gTLDs

An invitation was sent to all 3 .WINE applicants

The European Commission recently sent an invitation to all three .wine applicants for the negotiation on safeguards of .vin and .wine new gTLDs. The official invitation (Letter Nigel Hickson & ICANN 15 16 May 2014) was sent by the EFOW. Here is the letter sent by the European Commission.

Read the letters on gTLD.club

Published today, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment from New Zealand (.KIWI) considers the actual safeguards are sufficient to protect wine Geographical Indications.

Read the letter here.

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