Post by Andrew Allemann at DomainNameWire.COM on May 21, 2015

Leaderboard dominated by domains that cost a couple bucks or less.

New top level domain name operators that want to be recognized as one of the biggest, here’s a simple tip: offer your domains for free or close to it.

Take a look at the TOP 10 domain names on nTLDStats, representing about 2.5 million domain names:

.Club is the only domain name on the list that appears to be selling domain names for prices around .com. The others are selling many domain names for a dollar or two, primarily through registrars in Asia.

A lot of people have pointed to .XYZ and its approximately 400,000 free registrations at Network Solutions. Its #2 and #3 registrars are offering the domain names for about $2.00-$2.50.

.Science and .Party have been offered for free or under $1.00. .Berlin gave away around 100,000 names. .Realtor domains are mostly free for one year. .Link and .Top can be yours for a dollar or two per year.

Once you get out of the top ten, you start to come across domain names that have been sold for prices at .Com or higher levels. Donuts domains, such as .guru and .email, are in the top 20 and sell for a premium. .NYC currently ranks as #11, but might actually slot as #2 when you consider its registration price.

Giving domains away for free or selling them for a couple bucks might be a good strategy for some registries. In .Realtor’s case, for example, the domains are free for just the first year and come with restrictions.

One challenge for companies offering cheap domains is keeping them out of the hands of spammers and scammers. Once the reputation of an entire namespace is compromised, it’s hard to recover.