The .ME Registry announced today its popular ccTLD extension has hit 250,000 domains registered.
Montenegro’s .ME Registry has seen significant growth since it launched the domain extension worldwide just over one year ago. In fact, .ME is the fastest growing new ccTLD.
Many in the online marketing community believe .ME’s popularity directly correlates to the domain’s branding power. “Dot ME is extremely suitable for consumer brands,” notes Mark Kychma of Brands and Jingles, a marketing firm based in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Ukraine. His company owns hundreds of .ME domains. “Try to forget brands like Hotels4.Me, Pizza4.Me and Tickets4.Me… there is a 99 percent chance you will not,” adds Kychma. “Tell your friends about Love.Me, Fancy.Me, Unlock.Me and they will remember them for ages.”
The power of the right domain name combined with a .ME extension is astounding. YouAnd.Me, an explosively popular online dating service, launched just three months ago. According to the site’s founder, Steve Sikes, YouAnd.Me already has close to 50,000 members and is currently ranked among the top 90,000 Web sites in the world. Sikes is a big proponent of .ME domains. “Dot ME domain extensions just seem to mesh with the direction of the Web,” stated Sikes recently. “They are more personalized and provide more user generated content.”
“This is the kind of reaction we always knew we would elicit with dot ME,” states Predrag Lesic, executive director of the .ME Registry. “Dot ME has become an Internet phenomenon.”
.TEL Domain Registry has released a new tool enabling .tel’s innovative technology to be fully integrated into a traditional website.
This allows corporations that have invested heavily into branding their websites to maintain their look and feel while taking advantage of .tel’s improved SEO and click to communicate technology.
Benefits of Integrating .tel into a Website
By incorporating .tel technology into the “Contact Us” page of a website, customers can:
- Click to Connect: Integrate the power of “Click to Connect” technology using the same look and feel as your branded website
- Navigate Easily: Provide structured contact information enabling easy navigation to multiple departments or locations
- Update in Real Time: Update your contact information in real time without the need for web editing skills
- Manage Emergency Contacts: Quickly and easily publish important contact information, such as emergency numbers or help lines in a time of crisis
- Make Live Changes: Change profiles that allow different contact information to be displayed at different times of the day (office hours vs. after hours support)
- Improve SEO: Modify content as often as you wish, allowing search engines to re index your website and note that is often refreshed, which typically increases search engine optimization results
How it works
Users can integrate all their .tel details into their contact us page simply by downloading the .tel integration tool and using the code provided. They may choose to use the existing format (font, colors, icons, etc.) or fully customize their .tel details to fit their current branding.
Real Life Example
To view a real life example of how .tel can be integrated into a .tel domain, please visit: http://www.telnic.org/contact.html.
Download the Integration Tool
To download the .tel Integration Tool, please visit http://telnic.org/community applications contact.html and download the zip file.
As we all know there is a scarcity of good domain names that are available. This typically reduces all of our obvious options, so it’s good to create a checklist of factors that should be taken into account.
So here are some steps you can follow in order to get a good domain name:
- A to Z considerations. It’s good to know that a beats z
- Avoid negative connotations
- Punchy or plain weird FTW
- Avoid initials / acronyms
- Available on social media platforms
- Avoid numbers
- Don’t be silly with the placement of the dots
- Multinational spelling (avoid z and s issues, for example… optimize / optimize)
- Aesthetics (some letter combinations work better than others, as logo designers will no doubt testify)
- Sound
- Make it easy to pronounce
- Cheap (why spend $28,000 on a ‘premium domain name’ when I can build you a whole business for that amount? There are some exceptions to this rule!)
- Flexibility (it’s good to build in a little room for movement, in case your business changes direction)
- No hyphens
- Singular
- Target market friendly
- Synonyms
- Keywords (if possible it is wise to include at least one strategic keyword; multiple keywords joined together do not always make for the best brand names)
- Meaningful
- Domain name must match the brand name
- Unique
- Available in .com and other key extensions
- Short
- Easy to type
- Memorable
A new industry survey reveals that the .co.uk domain name is now an essential part of a companys brand presence in the UK. Two thirds of respondents said the domain extension inspired trust and security in a websites credentials, while 45% of respondents highlighted that .co.uk was their primary domain.
The survey also reveals that .com remains the most popular domain extension overall with an overwhelming 80% of businesses indicating they own such an address. However, despite the popularity of .com, two thirds of companies admit to owning additional top level domains (TLDs) such as, .org and .eu. Indeed, .biz, .asia and .me are also growing in adoption, pointing towards the rising scale of many companies domain portfolios.
The results are divided when it comes to domain name management, with responsibility split between IT departments, marketing teams and CEOs in over two thirds amongst those surveyed.
Nora Nanayakkara, Director of Business Development of global domain name marketplace, Sedo commented, Our research confirms what were seeing in our marketplace and is good news for the wider .uk brand. While .com continues to claim more than 75% of all new TLDs sold, .co.uk is proving to be a sturdy investment, especially in representing a local trusted brand. Average sales are now valued at £1,004, making .co.uk a wise purchase from a branding perspective for those companies looking to establish themselves in the UK.
Nanayakkara continued, Domain names are fundamental to a companys brand identity online and in failing to renew a domain registration, companies risk jeopardizing their brand and reputation. We urge businesses to consider the importance of having a solid domain name strategy in place and ensure they have a dedicated person in charge of the domain portfolio.
The .IE Domain Registry reported that the first quarter of 2009 had the highest level of domain registrations, compared to any other quarter to date.
The latest figures show that a total of 9,781 .ie domains were registered in the first quarter of 2009, a jump of 28% compared to last quarter of 2008. The previous highest number of registrations was recorded in the first quarter of 2008 with 9,092.
Over 80% of the new .ie website addresses were registered by sole traders or limited companies. The remainder were registered by clubs, societies and charities.
The growing number of companies and sole traders moving their business operations online and choosing to do so with a .ie website is one of the main reasons for the rise, in addition to 6 consecutive years of price reductions by the Registry, which has made it more affordable for businesses to do so. The cost of registering a .ie domain has fallen by over 60% since 2003.
Earlier this week, .DK Domain Registry passed the one million registrations mark.
The number of registrations has increased at the rate of just over 8,000 per month this year, increasing 34,727 registrations since December 31 until yesterday, from 965,910 to 1,000,637. This is only slightly down on last year’s average of an extra 8,422 registrations per month in 2008.
A group seeking the creation of .eco Internet domain to promote environmental awareness has won the backing of former US vice president Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.
Dot Eco LLC, which has applied to the regulatory Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers for the .eco extension, made the announcement at ICANN’s current meeting in Mexico City.
Dot Eco said it has entered into an “integrated partnership” with Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection to secure the .eco domain.
“We fully support Dot Eco LLC in its efforts to secure the .eco top level domain through the ICANN application process and look forward to working with Dot Eco LLC to promote .eco,” Dot Eco quoted Gore as saying.
“This is a truly exciting opportunity for the environmental movement and for the Internet as a whole.”
Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his campaign against global warming and an Oscar for his green documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” is a co founder of the Alliance for Climate Protection and its current chairman. Dot Eco plans to apply to ICANN for the creation of .eco later this year.
The group said .eco “will be established for individuals to express their support for environmental causes, for companies to promote their environmental initiatives, and for environmental organizations to maintain their websites in a namespace that is more relevant to their core missions.” Proceeds from registration fees would be used to fund research on climate change and other environmentally related areas.
