Hi, I have a .pro site called Total.pro. It's mainly a blog about the extension, but also shows historic sales, reviews registrars, lists my .pro domains, explains .pro restrictions, and graphs total .pros registered.
I wouldn't recommend .pro if you want to park a domain and earn PPC but I wouldn't recommend any alternative extension for that purpose. I have .info domains I've paid $XX,XXX+ for and they get very little natural traffic. I'm developing a .org at the moment, the keyword is not for profit oriented, but I don't think I have had a single type in visit.
Monetizing a .pro is like monetizing any alternative extension. It all comes down to content, SEO, back links etc. I don't think Google discriminates against or favours any extension, but it likes old continuously regged domains and most of those are .coms.
Relatively new extensions like .pro can get ranked well on Google but if people are using a .pro it probably means the keyword is highly competitive and all the sites on the first 2-3 pages of Google have a decent page rank, relevant content and plenty of backlinks and history.
.pro is still hobbled with restrictions and virtually unknown outside of domaining circles. If you look at the US trademark database, there are more trademarks with "Pro" in than most other alternative extensions put together. Businesses use "Pro" as a prefix and suffix for business names to convey credibility and excellence. Few alternative extensions have that tried, tested and trademarked marketing appeal.
In my best case scenario, RegistryPro will pass .pro back to ICANN when their current management contract expires in May 2010 because their parent Hostway won't have the stomach to fund another 5 years of losses, and that's what will happen, in fact their losses will grow as new unrestricted gTLD's get released.
ICANN will then give it to Affilias or Verisign in return for removing restrictions. Minus ridiculous restrictions, it could have the non sector specific appeal to business that alot of hyped extensions like .mobi, .asia, and .me don't have.
I would be very cautious about developing a business on a .pro until the financial future of the extension is secured. While the registry is loss making, and I'm assuming it is, and doesn't have the funds to promote the .pro brand, it's far too risky. I plan to significantly reduce the .pro domains I hold but I will keep all my premium keywords because I still see long term development potential if RegistryPro give up managing the extension next year.
