While this news might sound pretty shocking to some domain buyers, it might be less shocking to others.
According to Valuate.com, the web site that provides free domain name appraisals, this popular country code top level domain name is worth $40,000.
Globally, the number of monthly searches for the keyword in question using the Google Adwords: Keyword Tool (with a match type of “Exact”) is 1,830,000. Tailor the “Exact” search locally to the domain name’s country, and the number of searches for the month of August was over 60,000.
What’s the domain name?
The domain name is Fish.ca, a Canada domain name.
However, unlike some country code top level domain names such as .TV which can be registered by people outside of the domain’s country, requirements for registering a Canada domain name are more strict.
Now, I have to admit, I know almost nothing about .ca domains, but after stumbling across fish.ca available for hand-registration at GoDaddy, I’ve learned more about the process.
In order to register a .ca domain, you must meet certain eligibility requirements.
Basically, you must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or operate a corporation in Canada. While there are other options for registering a .ca domain, the process is restrictive. And speaking from experience, even if the registration appears to go through, if you don’t meet the requirements, it will fail and the domain name will be removed from your account.
While there are probably tricks that some domain buyers use to register a name, I’m not aware of any legal means, besides working with someone who meets the requirements and who can register the domain in their name.
Fishing is very popular in Canada, and for just over $10, if you meet the requirements for registering a .CA domain, you might want to think about picking up Fish.ca.
Like I said earlier, I don’t know the first thing about .CA domains, but according to the search volumes, globally and tailored to Canada, it seems like this domain is worth more than the registration fee.
11 replies on “This domain is worth a lot, has over 1MM exact searches, and it’s not even registered (What’s the .Catch?)”
You also have to get permission from the owner of fish.bc.ca in order to register it.
I just checked and it’s not available to register. I also checked the WhoIs on DomainTools.com and the status says UNAV.
It’s actually not registered because fish.bc.ca is registered. It’s a conflict, so you can’t freely register it. You need permission from the registrant of fish.bc.ca…but I wonder why they haven’t registered this.
Thanks for the clarification, Andrew. Like I said, I wasn’t familiar at all with the .CA process, but yesterday I had it in my GoDaddy shopping cart, and made the purchase just to see what the process was all about.
Today we got the notice from GoDaddy: “This notice is to inform you that the items listed below have been deleted from your ####### account:
.CA Domain Name Registration – 1 Year (recurring): FISH.CA”
Don’t be surprised if you see it show up on GoDaddy again in the next week, until someone who meets the registration requirements registers it, and then like Andrew pointed out, has the registration approved by fish.bc.ca
Thanks for the info.
I have no interest in registering a .ca. But when I was checking to see if the .co was available, Fish.ca showed up at Godaddy as available for registration.
Years ago, domains in Canada had the province included in the extension (bc,ab,sk,on, etc). Then when CIRA went to just a dot-ca designation, the dot-ca equivalents of a province.dot-ca name were reserved. Becasue fish.bc.ca existed before fish.ca, fish.ca became a reserved name (to be fair to the original fish.bc.ca owner).
This is how I understand it anyway.
Godaddy isn’t up to date with all of these reserved names. I got excited a few weeks ago when I saw that outlet.ca was available through GoDaddy. But checking the whois, it is unavailable as outlet.sk.ca is already registered.
MikeZ
It’s a great lesson for newbies like myself who haven’t dabbled in cctlds. Thanks for sharing your experience. Know exactly the excitement you felt, when I saw the same Fish.ca.
[…] rest is here: This domain is worth a lot, has over 1MM exact searches, and it's … By admin | category: canada domain name registration | tags: domain, domain-buyers, […]
the usa had the same rules for .com regsitrations in the late 90s
[…] the original post: This domain is worth a lot, has over 1MM exact searches, and it's … By admin | category: domain registering | tags: also-web, began-sometime, biggest, […]