Sport Federations: Paid to Promote Their Clubs?
New domain name extensions are a fantastic tool for the industry, the sport, the group or business they represent. When checking domain name registration volumes for some new sport domain name extensions, it is noticeable that some of them are on the decrease when the opposite should happen. Would this change if sport federations were paid to do the promotion of their sport by offering new descriptive domain names?
Domain name extension = “new gTLD”
Few sport clubs know that new gTLDs exist to represent them on Internet. Karate clubs, for example, would probably have changed their domain name to one ending in “.club” instead of “.com” if they knew about it. This is not yet the case. There is a way to change this and please both: owners of these new gTLDs and sport federations.
Sport federations: please join the .CLUB
New gTLDs still lack popularity and sport federations can help change this using affiliation. Affiliation can be used to promote a sport by offering federations to sell domain names.
Federations have their network, their communication channels, their newsletters and their website and these are the perfect places for them to do the promotion of their sport. Why not use these communication channel to sell domain names and generate an income from this?
Confusing isn’t it? Let’s take a club as an example using the “.club” domain name extension. Today we have domain names such as www.sportclub.com and the idea is to have sport clubs to use domain names ending like www.sport.club.
What do sport clubs want?
Sport clubs of all kinds also exist to promote their sport: introduce events, list federations, organize championships, manage licensees within geographical areas, etc… Their websites exist to promote a keyword: the name of their sport.
What do new gTLDs need?
“New gTLDs” are operated by Registries. They are in charge of managing domain name extensions and they need visibility. Visibility and usage encourage potential users to buy domain names with a descriptive extensions because they offer precision and novelty: better than “.com”, isn’t it?
How to answer both needs
Most sport federations have a website that has space for a banner, a newsletter where to send information with a clickable hyperlink and a Twitter account. These communication channels are the right tools to introduce a domain name extension for sport clubs. For example, a Karate federation could suggest the Karate clubs it represents to use a domain name ending in “.club”: when the receiver of the Karate federation’s newsletter clicks on the link and buys the “.club” domain name, the federation receives an income from this.
If there is small added value whatsoever for a sport federation to offer its fans to identify online using a domain name ending in “.uk” or “.fr”; there is a big one if they if offer to identify in an extension ending in “.club”: it is called recognition because “a club si a club”. By registering a domain name, the sport club’s fan demonstrates that he belongs to the same group.
In simpler words; when a baker puts a signs above the porch of his bakery, he wants the sign to say “baker” or “bakery”, not “shop”. This is what new gTLDs offer: precision and instant recognition.
How does it work?
If offering sport fans with a website to register a domain name with the same ending as their club is already a good way to promote a sport, why not add a payment to this? This is exactly what affiliation programs were created for, but with a specificity there: it is possible to offer to register a specific kind of domain name extension, not just “domain names” in general.
There are several programs and many accredited registrars - the place where to buy a domain name - offer to participate in an affiliation program. Basically, they create the hyperlink to put on your website or newsletter so they can track where the sale comes from.
I tried the one from Commission Junction and received a special link to offer to sell domain names ending in “.club”. The link looks like this: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-7466651-10397580-1467900623000
Typically, it requires to register within the CJ.com program, find the registrar who participates in the affiliation program, then select the kind of domain name extension the sport frderation wants to sell: domains ending in “.club” in that particular case. A simple hyperlink can be generated; banners of all kinds too, so that they can match with the website’s design.
Affiliation benefits to all: sport federations generate an income promoting clubs, and sport club websites can identify as clubs. Everybody wins.