In my last post, I really enjoyed discussing dot co domain names. It seems like dot co is on fire right now and everyone has at least a few in their portfolio. I’m thrilled that I picked up a handful myself. Today, however, I’d like to shift gears and talk about another great TLD, dot me. I’m going to make the argument today that it’s the absolute perfect time to register dot me domain names, more so than any other TLD on the market!
Dot ME Was The Hot Topic of July, 2008
It was on July 19, 2008 that I registered my first dot me domain. In the weeks that followed, I accumulated many great dot me names such as DRIP.me (I’m a big fan of DRIP investing, or dividend reinvestment plans). It made perfect sense: Dot me was all over the press and it was a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor. Really, July 2008 was just like July 2010! However, it was all about dot me at the time and now it’s all about dot co.
Very quickly, however, most of the best dot me domains got registered. The folks at the dot me registry did such a great job promoting their TLD that all the top domains were gone pretty much as soon as August, 2008 rolled around. July 2010 sure reminds me of July 2008. If you see a great dot co, register it now! Otherwise, it will be gone.
Dot ME Domains Are Dropping Like Crazy
Here’s the craziest part of July 2010! With all the hype around dot co, people are forgetting that it’s been two full years since dot me had its big debut. What does two years mean, you ask? It means the first dot me domains that were registered are starting to drop! We’re in a rough economy right now and people may not have the funds to renew their dot me domains. Moreover, many of the early investors in dot me may have been hoping for a quick sale that they never got. One thing is for sure: Dot me domains are dropping and I’m absolutely amazed at some of the names I have been able to pick up over the last week.
I mentioned above that I picked up DRIP.me back in 2008 because I’m a fan of DRIP investing (dividend reinvestment plans). Well, just last week I picked up Dividend.me as a hand registration on GoDaddy. I was absolutely shocked that I got this domain (49,500 exact searches/month and 1,500,000 phrase searches/month) in addition to a few others that are even better. Each and every day, I continue to find great dot me domains that I’m able to hand register because they dropped. I’m honestly having better luck with dot me than dot co because there’s little hype around dot me right now, creating the investment opportunity of a lifetime. If you thought you missed the boat back in 2008, it’s now your time to get the dot me domains you really want!
Why I’m a Huge Fan of Dot ME
In my last post, I discussed many reasons why dot co is an amazing TLD. Today, I’d like the make the case that dot me is just as powerful as dot co, in its own unique way. First and foremost, dot me is personal. So many domains have that amazing personal tone when you add "me" as the TLD. Let’s look at the two examples discussed above, DRIP.me and Dividend.me. Both of these have such a nice ring to them. They’re personal. They’re user-centric. They’re domains that create a connection!
I’m also a huge fan of dot me because it’s cheap right now. On GoDaddy, dot me domains have historically cost around $19.99/year (about $10/year cheaper than dot co). However, GoDaddy has a promotion right now for just $8.99! Your first year is only $8.99 and every year thereafter is at the regular price. In my opinion, this deal is too good to pass up.
Another reason I’m more excited about dot me than ever: Dot me domains are selling in the aftermarket. Dot me is still new enough that only time will tell if it has longevity on the secondary market. Preliminary indications, however, are really promising. Want proof? Just check out ccTLDInvestors.com – dot me domains are showing up in the weekly ccTLD sales stats consistently (at high prices)!
Last, I’m a fan of dot me because it’s a domain that works organically! Over the last year, I have developed four of my dot me domains into several-page minisites. Even though it’s the ccTLD (country code top level domain) of Montenegro, dot me has been marketed as a big gTLD (global top level domain). Google has validated this marketing model and is ranking great .me sites in its US organic results. My dot me sites have been real winners! So, what are you waiting for? Time to go scour GoDaddy for some awesome dot me opportunities!
Image of URL Bar © iStockPhoto – tiridifilm
Which reminds me — please renew my .me domains before they expire 🙂
Hey Ian. My first Comment on your Blog. Great Post as always. It seems there are many domain extensions with great value and .ME is for sure one. What do you think about .TV extension? I think that one is a very commercial extension, specially for video streaming or similars.
If possible, I want to suggest you a correction for a mispelling in your last post. You wrote that .CO extension was officialy related to “Columbia” (The Country). This is a mistake most people do. The correct spelling for both, english and spanish is “COLOMBIA”. (hehe, I from Colombia, and I felt that I had to mention it.)
Best Regards
Nicole,
Domains are renewed! 🙂
Ian
Juan,
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and for the awesome comment! I agree with you that .TV is a solid extension, especially for video sites. I’m not a huge video guy so I don’t own any .TV domains yet. However, my goal is to own as many different TLDs as possible so I can experiment and understand which ones work best for different applications. So, .TV is certainly in my future! Also, I really appreciate your correcting my spelling mistake! I have already fixed it. Juan, thanks once again, I very much appreciate it!
All the best,
Ian
Ian
Thanks for your response. You’re a great professional with a great blog and “human touch” (thats ironically something a little bit hard to find on humans), and all your advices and posts are awesome.
I have another question related to TLDs. ¿Do you think a .INFO extension could work on a SEM campaign?¡For a example for promoting a niche affiliate product site? ¿Should I expect any negative repercusions on my Quality Score because using a controversial extension as .INFO?
Best Regards
Sorry I made some mistakes in my last comment.
“Thanks for your response. You’re a great professional with a great blog and “human touch” (thats ironically something a little bit hard to find on humans), and all your advices and posts are awesome.
I have another question related to TLDs. ¿Do you think a .INFO extension could work on a SEM campaign? For example ¿Promoting an affiliate product? ¿Should I expect any negative repercussions on my Quality Score for using a controversial extension as .INFO?
Sorry for that one. I was in a hurry when I wrote it.
Regards
Juan,
Thanks so much for the comments and questions, I very much appreciate it! You bring up a great question about .INFO. I’m going to discuss .INFO SEM from two perspectives, first SEO/organic and second PPC/pay per click. However, before I even do that I want to say that there is hope for .INFO in my opinion. Yes, it’s not going to do as well as some of the major TLDs such as .COM and .NET, but I do view .INFO as a potentially valuable domain name at a value price. GoDaddy will allow you to register .INFO for only $0.89 the first year and then $10.69 in subsequent years.
Now, let’s talk about .INFO performance. In terms of SEO/organic search, .INFO can be a real winner. For example, look up the keyword “84 inch shower curtain” on Google. You will see a one page minisite with the .INFO TLD ranking on the first page. This is actually a really competitive keyword with 40.500 exact match searches per month! Just from this one micro example, it’s apparent to me that .INFO has some real strength potential in the organic world. Why do I think .INFO works well organically in certain situations? People viewing the organic search results are often looking for information. They are performing research! .INFO is all about information!
Now, what about PPC? To be honest, I have never tried .INFO in the PPC context. I have two points, however. First, I don’t believe Google’s quality score takes TLD into account. Put another way, I don’t think you will experience a quality score penalty by using .INFO. My second point is that I think .INFO could work from a CTR perspective, but not from a conversion rate perspective. You might get a lot of informational traffic which is less likely to convert. This is just fine when you’re in the organic world. However, when you’re paying for clicks, it might make sense to go with a more commercial TLD such as .COM, .NET, or even the brand new .CO.
Juan, thanks again! Hope this helps!
All the best,
Ian
Great. Better Impossible. Thanks a lot!!
Hi,Ian. Excellent post here. I’m glad to see your articles. Would you mind to give me your ideas about the domain investment? And what domain structure is valuable sustainable?
Thanks.
David
Hi David,
Thanks so much for the comment and for visiting PPC Ian! 🙂 You ask some great questions. I’m a very big fan of domain investment, especially if you have the goal of developing domains. For me, it’s all about passive income through high quality developed domain names and I’ve definitely had success with .me domain names in achieving this goal. I plan on writing more posts about domains and also suggest checking out my Domains Category. There, you will find an archive of all my domaining posts!
All the best,
Ian
some websites just meant to have .me extension: http://www.google.me, http://www.youadvise.me
Dan,
Thanks so much for visiting PPC Ian and for the comment! 🙂 You are very correct, indeed. Many URLs just read better with the dot me extension.
All the best,
Ian