Dot Me Domain Names Might Target Social MEdia Sites

By Mike Banks Valentine
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-06-03

In keeping with the focus on user generated content from social MEdia sites, it could be that this new domain name may actually get legs and walk away with a target audience currently using .name domains.

The headline here leads to the wikipedia entry for .me. The dot me domain is actually a country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) for Montenegro and in a twist that is almost too funny to be true ... well here is the Wikipedia explanation of how this came about:

This follows Montenegro's June 3, 2006 declaration of independence from Serbia and Montenegro, which used the code YU. The .me registry is operated by doMEn, which won a contract to do so after a bid process conducted by the government of Montenegro. In addition to declaring .me to be independent of .yu, a new .rs domain is to be deployed for Serbian use.

Wow! It's almost like the "Who's on First" sketch from Abbot and Costello and if you haven't seen that - here ya go!

Well now that we've had our fun. Let's learn a bit more about the sale of .me domains. It is currently not a live domain and is in what is known as the "Landrush" phase of sales in which you can put in your bid for $49 if nobody else bids for your .me domain until June 26, 2008, which followed the "Sunrise" period where trademark holders could buy domains first for $100 each.



On July 17, 2008 we reach the "GoLive" stage where anyone can purchase any unclaimed .me domain names. If you bid on a domain during "Landrush" and someone else bids on the domain you request, the bidders enter an auction in which the highest bidder pays that amount PLUS the $49 to take the .me domain you compete to win.

All that make sense? You wanna buy me? No not me, you, wanna buy dot me domain names? Back to Abbot & Costello. ;-)

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About the Author:
Mike Banks Valentine operates SEOptimism, Offering SEO training of in-house content managers as well as the Small Business Ecommerce Tutorial at http://WebSite101.com and blogs about SEO at http://RealitySEO.com where this article appears with live links to SMO stories, buttons, blog posts and examples.