Is it OK to register 25 free .info domains on every registrar that is offering them for free? Would this be considered as violation of TOS?

I bet someone has done this already....;)

I think it is a violation, the program was limited to 25 names per REGISTRANT. If you have a different registrant listed this might be allowed.

I actually got a different interpretation from DomainSite elsewhere:

You can get 25 name at each registrar.

I know of at least one individual that has registered 25 freebies through 4 different registrars - that's 100 .info's. He hasn't lost any of em & hasn't been billed for any - YET.

I'm having trouble coming up with a list of even 25 that I would bother registering. Got 9 so far.

Guess I need some inspiration.

What I was told

Limited to 25 domains per registrant (Afilias will monitor this and will let us know when a registrant has exceeded this limit, the registrar will pay the full price for domains above the limit)

family members can reg 25 each I beleive

You can certainly try it. There is no guarantee that the registry might not catch up with it.

Actually who is giving the .Info out for free? The registrars? Or the authority of .INFO?

Originally posted by boonchuan
Actually who is giving the .Info out for free? The registrars? Or the authority of .INFO? The registry Afilias.info is allowing up to 25 free .info names per registrant as a special offer to promote the .info TLD. The registrars are getting the names for free. Some registrars like Dotster are passing on the good fortune as a promotion for their own business, but others, like Godaddy are making windfall profits at $6.95 each.

It's an interesting idea to promote .info, but if you register 25 .info now you will have to pay for them for year 2 onwards

Originally posted by blacknight
It's an interesting idea to promote .info, but if you register 25 .info now you will have to pay for them for year 2 onwards

The promo is only good for a single year. After that you would pay normal renewal fees.

Originally posted by dmaven
The promo is only good for a single year. After that you would pay normal renewal fees.
That's what I said

Originally posted by djallan
So you only register freebies that you think have some resale value or that you plan to develop.

If you don't get around to developing, or you can't sell 'em before renewal time then you let them drop. I expect that there will be a huge # not being renewed in a year from now.



That is a safe assumption. I would say only a small fraction of all of these names will be renewed. Most of these registries want to encourage usage of the names vs just registering, I am surpised affilias did the giveway

The way I see it is that there are many different issues behind this promo.

1.) Afilias would like to get away from NeuLevel in terms of registration figures. Afilias and NeuLevel both introduced new TLDs at around the same time and have been basically equal in terms of registration figures. Afilias was always slightly ahead because they launched a couple of weeks before .BIZ

2.) Then .NET will soon be up for bidding. May be this will put Afilias in a better position for the .NET bid?


Has anybody thought about what this promo will do for the back-order industry? Imagine, that thousands and thousands of .INFO Domains are being registered during this promo and most likely the majority will not get renewed next year. I bet that companies like SnapNames, Pool, Namewinner, ...etc. each will have thousands of back-orders for some of these domains next year, when they come up for renewal.

Then .NET will soon be up for bidding. May be this will put Afilias in a better position for the .NET bid?


That seems a logical reason.

Originally posted by rojole
Afilias would like to get away from NeuLevel in terms of registration figures. Afilias and NeuLevel both introduced new TLDs at around the same time and have been basically equal in terms of registration figures. Afilias was always slightly ahead because they launched a couple of weeks before .BIZActually, Affilias currently has about 44% more .info registrations that Neulevel's .biz registrations. See: http://whois.sc/internet-statistics/

Originally posted by rojole
Has anybody thought about what this promo will do for the back-order industry? Imagine, that thousands and thousands of .INFO Domains are being registered during this promo and most likely the majority will not get renewed next year. I bet that companies like SnapNames, Pool, Namewinner, ...etc. each will have thousands of back-orders for some of these domains next year, when they come up for renewal. Excellent point. ;)

Actually, Affilias currently has about 44% more .info registrations that Neulevel's .biz registrations. See: http://whois.sc/internet-statistics/

This might be correct as of September, when the promotion for .INFO started, but until then .INFO was always slightly in the lead, when talking about registrations, but not much.

It will be interesting to see the renewal rate next year, respectively how many .INFo delete there will be.