In December, get a .TOP for half a euro, and learn about Premium names

Life keeps coursing on endlessly in the interminable stream of time, seasons come and go and blur together as they come to more and more resemble each other not in just what we are doing but in how they look. And that last part is not such a good bit of news. Where's the snow? That should have been one of the questions asked at COP21 in Paris. To save the planet we're all doing our parts, however small. This month, we are proud to present you this newsletter printed on recycled electrons (in a chemical sense), containing 0% heavy metals, 30% natural blood, sweat and tears and just a whole bundle of promotions on domain names. All to bring you as much information we have arbitrarily deemed useful to you, dear Gandi users: we decided this month to take the opportunity to give you some extra information on premium domains, recently approved TLDs, a reminder about .net prices going up, the new gTLD release calendar for December and of course the moment you've all been waiting for, our promo roundup for December. The year is ending and so are a lot of promos, so read carefully.

1. What's a Premium Domain?
«Premium,» we all know, is one of those words people use to make «expensive» sound better. You may have also come across this term or at least the concept in the realm of domain names too. Essentially, regstries reserve the right to charge more than is standard for certain domain names they have deemed to be especially high-value of high-demand. You see, when they started releasing new gTLDs, registries learned from the wild gold rush days of domain name speculators that cool domain names can be sold for much higher than your run-of-the-mill domain name. So many registries of new gTLDs, both to try to restrict the inevitable panic of the rush on these highly desirable domain names as well as to make their pricing more responsive to demand, sat down and thought of what they expected to be the highest demand domains in their TLD and priced them differently for resale to registrars like us. So that's why when you try to register a cool domain name in a hot new TLD you might get a little sticker shock when you proceed to checkout. But don't get too down about it. Look at it this way: your domain name will be even cooler if you can think of one nobody thought to make premium.

2. Recently Approved TLDs
A quick look at recently added strings on ICANN's list of strings recently added to the root (see newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/delegated-strings) reveals, first of all, a lot of Brand TLDs. Putting aside those TLDs, two stuck out in particular: .med and .insurance. Medistry LLC, which is the parent of the Cleveland Clinic, an actual hospital in Cleveland, won out in its application against Google. As for, .insurance, it was fTLD, the joint project between American Bankers Association and the technology policy arm of the Financial Services Roundtable (BITS) who beat out Donuts, whose application was withdrawn to do an objection filed by none other than the Financial Services Roundtable. So it looks like lately it's been wins for the professions your mother always wanted you to go into.

3. Reminder: .net prices go up in February
Just a quick reminder to owners of .net domains, or those who may be thinking about bringing a .net into their lives soon, that there will be a small rise in .net prices starting February 1, 2016. So once again, we'd just like to encourage all of you looking to keep your .net domains for at least one more year to renew them before that magic date of February 1 rolls around. You can renew your domains for up to ten years so if you want to take most advantage of current prices, renew up to that limit and you'll be set for a decade.

4. New gTLD release Calendar for December
Here is this month's calendar of new gTLDs coming out this month:

Wednesday December 9:
.auto (Sunrise)
.car (Sunrise)
.cars (Sunrise)
.xn--tckwe (.com in Japanese) (Sunrise)

Monday December 14:
.theatre (Sunrise)

Thursday December 17:
.protection (Sunrise)
.security (Sunrise)

5. December Promo Roundup
It's your last chance for a lot of promos we've been running for a while now.
Here's a roundup of promos in the month of December:

Until December 31, .TOP costs less than a post stamp, and you'll be able to send much more than one letter, as every domain includes 5 mailboxes and 1000 forwarding addresses:
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-12-01/6254-top_of_the_.top_at_fifty_cents_a_pop/

Get a .club for half the price until December 31, that's only 5,16€ for one year!
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-12-01/6245-get_a_.club_for_half_the_price/

.io or .tech? You don't have to chose between these 2 tech savvy TLDs: if you buy a .io domain name, you will get a coupon to register a .tech for free. Be quick, it ends on December 25:
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-11-20/6017-a_.tech_for_every_.io/

Our funniest promo is ending on December 31, last days to get a .lol for 3,45€:
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-09-14/5174-u_can_has_.lol_nao_90-off/

Make it personal with a .me domain, and do it quick as promo's ending soon (9,60€ instead of 16,00€):
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-05-12/4094-promo_.me_at_40_off/

Promo on .irish is also ending on December 31, hurry up and get yours at only 14,00€:
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-10-05/5780-.irish_are_on_sale_this_fall_extended/

Ending January 15, .press and .host are on sale at 20,00€ and 18,00€ (instead of 69,20€ and 91,04€):
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-10-01/5678-another_great_promotion_for_.press_and_.host/

.news and .eu promos are ending on December 31:
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-09-03/5360-extra_.news_takes_50_off_registrations/
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-11-02/5981-promotion_on_.eu/

While .cm continues until the end of January:
www.gandi.net/news/en/2015-11-01/5936-promotion_for_.cm_until_the_end_of_january/

Also, as Christmas is just around the corner, some flash sales might peep out. We suggest you keep an eye on our promo page to be sure not to miss them:
www.gandi.net/news/tag/en/promos_tld

Well that's all for this month. We hope it's been interesting? Exciting? Educational? Everything you've ever wanted? Let us know, you can reach us at:

• Twitter [https://twitter.com/gandibar],
• Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/gandibar],
• Google+ [https://plus.google.com/u/0/+GandiNetUS/posts]
• and on the #gandi channel on Freenode. \o/

All the best, The Gandi Team