TLD Showdown: .FM vs .TV

Lately .TV has been getting some negative press due to GoDaddy’s warning about the island of Tuvalu sinking. Many people have mentioned that GoDaddy is doing this not because the island is sinking but because they want to steer people towards other TLD’s that make more money from. GoDaddy had a major stake in .me and hasn’t seen the succecss they were hoping for so they have to make some tactical moves.

First – let’s get the facts straight here. It is expected that Tuvalu will see waters rise 40cm by the end of the 21st century. I’m not sure how long everyone else expects to live but I’m hoping for a solid 110 years – which means this will be a non-issue for me. Also – Tuvalu is 4.5m above sea level so 40cm isn’t going to cover the islands. Finally – does anyone really expect to buy and hold a domain name for 80+ years before selling? I don’t know about you guys but the long-term domain investments I have are more around the 5-year range.

Okay – now that we have that out of the way I’ll throw-in one more piece of information. Suppose that the scientists are wrong and the island sinks tomorrow…guess what? The TLD can still live-on. Remember the Soviet Union? .su still exists and technically even if a country is completely submerged in water it is still recognized as a country!

So this is my very verbose way of saying, .tv is not going anywhere – GoDaddy is making a business move here to keep people-away from .tv domains. At the end of the day, most people think .tv means .television and it’s hard to beat that kind of branding, because television is definitely not going anywhere!

So what about .FM? This domain-space is relatively untouched due to the high cost of registration. All I have to say here is that .com’s were amazingly expensive when Rick Schwartz and many of the other early Domainers started registering names…I think it was worth the investment.

With any investment there is always risk – which is why it is important to diversify your investments. .FM domains could be worth a pretty-penny five years from now – so could .TV – but you’ll never know unless you jump-in and give it a shot. I always like to look at a five-year window rather than expecting an immediate return. Both .FM and .TV domains can rank very well in search engines and with more keywords available than in .com, .net, and .org there is potential to become a major player within a particular niche.

So don’t be afraid of the island of Tuvalu sinking – unless you’re planning to buy and hold your domains for the next one-hundred years you can ignore this warning from GoDaddy, put on your SEO thinking cap, and boldly go where no one has gone before!

Tell me what you think? Is .FM a waste? Have you cancelled your vacation to Tuvalu in fear that you’ll end-up staying for 200 years and witness the sinking of the island? Share your thoughts!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton