The parent company of WordPress, Automattic, owns the .blog domain extension and up to this point they have basically just been sitting on it. According to a recent announcement, however, that is about to change.
The announcement confirmed that they will be offering .blog top level domains to all users, not just those who are using WordPress. They will be available for both self-hosted and those using WordPress.com as well as anyone who is using any other content management system for their blog.
The announcement stated, “You’ll be able to purchase a .blog domain at WordPress.com or through our partner domain name registrars. And again, the .blog domain will be available to everyone, regardless of what kind of site you have or who hosts it.”
They have not yet released any type of pricing structure, but most people expect it to be in line with what other top level domain owners are doing. The bulk of the domains will sell at a reasonable price (likely in the $5-15 per year range) with some ‘premium’ names fetching far more. In addition, they will give well known brands and companies the option to buy their own names and trademarks before opening the top level domains to everyone.
The domains are expected to start selling around August and October of this year depending on the type that is needed. While these new top level domains can certainly be useful, it isn’t always necessary to buy them up. If you are looking to promote a blog, however, this one may be a great opportunity.
There are no real rumors yet as to how much money Automattic is expected to bring in from the sales of these domains. They paid $19 for the rights to run the .blog registry, however, so it seems quite likely that they will be turning a profit on that purchase quite quickly.
