Watchlists, pre-registrations, and sunrise/landrush: How to prepare for new TLDs

If you’re starting to look into new TLD options, then you’re just in time to be really confused by the multitude of lists and services available to you right now. Watchlists, pre-registrations, sunrise, landrush—how will you know when the new TLDs you want to register will be available, and how do you navigate through the different options available to you right now? Lucky for you, we’ve put together this informative and handy-dandy guide to watchlists, pre-registration, and sunrise/landrush.

Watchlists and pre-registration: What’s the difference?

You’ll sometimes see these terms used interchangeably, but while watchlists and pre-registration may be used together (such as our New TLD Watcher, which allows you to watch extensions and specific domains), they aren’t always the same thing. Both offer the opportunity to express your interest in a new TLD before it’s officially available, and both are used by registrars to gauge how to prepare the market, but watchlists and pre-registration have different levels of commitment and serve different purposes:

• Watchlist: A service usually offered by registrars, like us, that in one way or another allows you to get information on the progression of new TLDs. Watchlists, like our watcher service, should be free, since you’re not actually buying anything or registering a domain name. Good watchlists will allow you to customize your list, so you’ll get information on the specific new TLDs and domains you’re interested in. You will almost always have to enter some personal info, including an email address, or even create an account to start a watchlist—requiring identification counters nefarious influences on perceived new TLD popularity, making sure that registrars and registries respond to true market demand. 

• Pre-registration: Pre-registration should also be free, at least until a price is solidified on whatever new TLD you’re watching, which should start happening in September/October 2013. What pre-registration allows you to do is to actually sign up to register for a specific domain name, using a new extension. It’s a commitment that’s more serious than a watchlist, in that you’re letting your registrar know that you have a specific domain name in mind, and you are serious about registering it, but it’s still not set in stone until your registrar asks you to secure your pre-registration with a deposit and then it goes through without a hitch. Pre-registration allows you to complete every step up to the actual purchase, so you’ll be ready to pounce when the time is right.

Is pre-registration different than Sunrise?

Yes. We talk a lot, and I mean a lot, about sunrise here, so make sure to catch up on the ins and outs of sunrise, and how you can take advantage of it. But the basic run-down is that sunrise is for trademark owners, meaning in order to take advantage of sunrise for any given TLD, you must be able to prove that you own the trademark for the string you’ll be registering. For example, if I want to register ErmahgerdPertaters.eat, then I must own the rights to “Ermahgerd Pertaters,” either as a brand or trademark. Otherwise I’d have to wait for landrush to register. (The watcher would be a good way to make sure I know when the .EAT landrush began and I could pre-register right before, or register when it became available).

Sometimes registering during a sunrise period is called pre-registration, since you’re getting in before everyone else. And chances are you’ll be able to pre-register for sunrise before it happens, which makes it doubly confusing. But sunrise allows you to get in only if you have a TM, while pre-registration for new TLDs is offered to all registers, and is targeted mainly for the landrush period.

What to look out for

Because someone is always trying to take your money for nothing, there are a few things you should definitely look out for. We don’t want to go all tin foil cap on you or anything, but if you decide to stray from the glory that is Name.com, make sure you only sign up for services offered by ICANN accredited registrars and registries to ensure that you’ll get the services and domain names you’re paying for.

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times — we really offer the best watcher service. That’s our completely biased, slanted, and informed-by-us opinion. We not only allow you to watch the new TLDs you want to watch, we also let you watch specific domain names, and we keep you up-to-date on the progression of each, so you’ll be able to register first. We’ll also keep you updated on the entire new TLD process, so you’ll know when new TLDs are launching. Most importantly, we won’t take your money for nothing. Because that’s not nice.