It’s The Ideal Time To Buy Dot ME Domains

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Jul. 31

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

Dot ME Domains

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

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Dot CO Domain Names Rock

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Jul. 27

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you know I’m a huge fan of domain names and domain name development. So far this year, I’ve set a new record in terms of number of domains registered! I’ve been mostly focusing on dot com, dot net, dot org, dot me, and now dot co. Moreover, I’ve developed at least 18 domains so far this year. In short, I’ve caught the domaining bug and can’t get enough of this stuff. Today, I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss dot co and why it’s the perfect time to register your do co domains!

Dot CO, The Next Big Domain Extension

Dot CO

So you may be thinking, what the heck is dot co? Dot co is actually the country code top level domain (ccTLD) for Colombia. However, it’s being marketed as the next big global top level domain (gTLD). Just think about it: When you hear dot co, do you think of Colombia? Or, do you think about such concepts as: company, corporation, commerce, commercial? I personally think of the latter and so do the folks behind dot co and domainers worldwide. In fact, over 100,000 dot co domains were registered within the first half hour of this new TLD going live! Another great data point: Overstock.com bought o.co for $350,000. Can you believe it?

It’s Your Chance To Buy The Domain You Really Want

If you’ve ever tried to register a domain name, I’m sure you’ve run into the same problem as myself: Most of the great ones are taken! These days, if you want a great generic dot com, dot net, or dot org, you’re going to have to go to the aftermarket. I actually went to the aftermarket earlier this year to register IJL.net. You may wish to read about my experience buying domains on Sedo, one of the top places to buy premium aftermarket domains.

Now, let’s say you want to build a big portfolio or simply don’t have the big bucks to shell out for that perfect domain name. This is exactly where dot co steps in. In my opinion, most end users (especially those coming from PPC and SEO) aren’t really going to care whether you have a dot com or dot co domain. Dot co in the end user’s eyes is about as close to dot com as you can get! So, go ahead and register that domain name. You’ll finally be able to get the name you want.

Dot CO Is Great For PPC and SEO (Maybe Not So Much For Branding)

So I know what you’re thinking. How can I build a big brand around dot co? Most users are only familiar with dot com and will try to go to my site, but enter dot com and end up elsewhere. I’m totally with you and am not going to argue. If you’re trying to build a big brand, it’s all about dot com.

However, let’s say you don’t care about building a huge brand. Rather, you’re trying to build a direct business that gets most of its traffic from PPC and SEO. In this case, I’m all about dot co! In other words, whether you have a dot co or dot com, I don’t think your PPC click through rate will differ much. In terms of SEO, I also expect dot co to thrive. Why? I’ve built out four dot me (another great ccTLD being marketed as a gTLD) sites this year and all are doing very well organically. In terms of SEO, I expect dot co to follow in dot me’s footsteps.

Dot CO Is Not Cheap

So, where can you register dot co and how much does it cost? Registration is very simple. I recommend going with GoDaddy, one of my favorite registrars. In terms of pricing, you’re looking at 29.99/year which is very expensive in the world of domains. For the same price, I could buy three dot coms instead! As such, I have been relatively conservative in my dot co strategy. I only register dot co domains that have at least 20,000 exact match searches based on Google’s Keyword Tool External. Otherwise, the domain must have some serious special meaning for me to shell out that much money. While this may not seem like too much money when you’re registering one domain, it can really add up when you’re trying to build a large portfolio.

Interested in learning more about domain names? I also highly recommend my article about ccTLD domain names in PPC. One of my sub-goals this year: Buying as many great ccTLD domain names as possible. In addition to dot co and dot me, I’m also focusing on dot in, dot mx, dot es, and others!

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PPC Ian Featured On MorganLinton.com!

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Jul. 04

Hey Everyone,
Happy 4th of July! Just a week after getting featured on ZK’s Blog, I was featured on MorganLinton.com today! I couldn’t be more excited. As you may know, I’m a huge fan of domains and domaining. In my 2010 goals, I include several goals around domaining – both learning more about the industry and building out my personal portfolio of domains. I’ve even written a few articles about domain names such as my guide to buying domains on Sedo.

Morgan Linton – A Leader In The Domain Industry

Morgan Linton

So, why am I talking about domains and who is this Morgan Linton guy? Easy! In short, Morgan Linton is one of the top leaders in the domain industry. In my opinion, Morgan is the top educator in the domain industry.

Morgan runs an amazing blog about domaining called MorganLinton.com. I’m honestly addicted to his blog and have been a frequent commentor for quite some time, you must check it out! Additionally, Morgan regularly interviews top leaders in the domaining industry via his television show Domainvestors Television. Domainvestors Television truly takes things to the next level, the production quality of Morgan’s videos astounds me. Morgan also works with clients via his company Linton Investments. On top of all of this, Morgan holds a regular day job that he absolutely loves, something that I totally respect.

I had the pleasure of meeting Morgan at TRAFFIC Las Vegas. Please make sure to check out my review on MorganLinton.com.

All the best,
PPC Ian (Ian Lopuch)

PS – Two more exciting updates: I’ll be reviewing the three winners of my blog commenting contest in my next post. Also, I just finished a 12 page whitepaper that I’ll be sharing with you shortly, one that I couldn’t be more excited about.

Morgan Linton Logo © MorganLinton.com

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Building My Internet Real Estate Empire

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Apr. 20

PPC Ian has been very busy over the past few weeks! Not only have I been working harder than ever at my PPC career, but I have also been developing domain names in my spare time. The more domains I develop, the more my Google AdSense, Commission Junction, eBay Partner Network, and Amazon Associates earnings rise. In short, I’m on a roll and have concluded that my 2010 goal of developing six domain names sets the bar way too low! I’m proud to say that I’ve already exceeded my 2010 goal and am therefore raising my goal to 20 sites this year. Longer term, I’m looking to develop 100 sites and then 1,000. Today, I wanted to share my thoughts around domain names and especially the parallels between domains and real estate.

Domain Names Are Virtual Real Estate

Sold Sign

In my opinion, domain names are the virtual parallel to physical real estate, a simple yet extremely revolutionary concept. Just think about it: There are only so many great domain names out there. What’s a great domain name, you ask? Simple! Great domain names are keyword-rich. They are exact matches to highly searched phrases as judged by Google’s Keyword Tool Great domain names are typically on one of the major TLDs such as dot com, dot net, or dot org. Great domain names, like great real estate, get a huge amount of free traffic. Free traffic comes via type-ins or from the natural results on search engines. My personal conclusion: Keyword-rich domain names on the important TLDs are the virtual equivalent of real estate. We all know that wealthy individuals own a lot of real estate. Over the coming decades it’s my hypothesis that the next round of wealthy elite will be virtual real estate investors (and I’m personally investing in this hypothesis).

How do you select the best names? Find high search volume phrases (exact match) via Google’s Keyword Tool, preferably in verticals where the CPCs are competitive. Then, hand register the domains if possible or acquire them on the aftermarket from a site such as Sedo. I actually bought the domain IJL.net from Sedo a few months back. You may wish to check out my post about buying domain names on Sedo.

Domain Names Carry Property Taxes

Another very interesting parallel to real estate: Domain names carry property taxes. With physical real estate, you pay property tax to the county. With domain names, you pay property tax to the registrar (such as GoDaddy or Moniker). A portion of your registrar fee goes to ICANN, the Internet’s governing body. Forget to pay your property tax and you could lose your virtual real estate!

Real Estate Investments Yield Positive Cash Flow

Those of you who have known me for a while know that I’m a huge fan of Robert Kiyosaki. I have read most of his books with my favorite being Retire Young, Retire Rich. Robert Kiyosaki eloquently points out that real estate can either be a liability or an asset depending on cash flow. Basically, real estate that takes money out of your pocket (revenue is less than expenses) is a liability and real estate the puts money in your pocket (revenue is greater than expenses) is an asset. I apply this very concept to domaining. I don’t want to own domain names that are earning less than their registration fees. I only want to own domain names that are assets. My friend Jason from DNPimping.com recently highlighted this very concept in his article about registering too many domain names. The point: Your domain investments should yield positive cash flow.

Why Not Lock Up As Much Real Estate As Possible?

Synthesizing all of this, I have personally concluded that it makes sense to lock up as many domain names as possible. As long as I can develop them (or work with others to outsource the work) and at least break even, it’s worth buying more and more domains. At the end of the day, I want to own an absolute empire of Internet real estate.

So far, I’ve been mainly focused on cash flow from type-ins and SEO. That’s for good reason: I’m all about cash flow as a measurement of investment value. However, we haven’t even talked about equity value and other added benefits. The beauty of all of this: Domain names are an investment vehicle that has proven to also exhibit rapidly increasing equity value. This was never more apparent than seeing domains sell for huge prices at the TRAFFIC conference. Another benefit: I can always build out my domains into full websites, drive pay per click traffic, and make a fortune in the future!

Outsourcing Is Everything

So you may be wondering, how does this corporate PPC guru have time for all of this? That’s an excellent question! I actually don’t. Between excelling in my pay per click career, working out, spending time with my wife, updating PPC Ian, and living life, there’s very little time left. However, that’s why outsourcing exists! Thankfully, I have built some amazing relationships with writers, web developers, and domain development experts. My strategy: I’ll work closely with others to build out my domain names while adding my own finishing touches on top, of course. Here’s to accumulating my Internet real estate empire!

Image of Sold Sign © iStockPhoto – GJS

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Leveraging ccTLD Domain Names In PPC

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Mar. 15

I started domaining back in 2007, but really caught the domaining bug in 2009. Over the last year, I have been absorbing pretty much any information I can get my hands on regarding the domain industry. A big turning point in my domaining education: Attending T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas.

Global Flags

Lately, ccTLDs have been getting a ton of buzz. What the heck is a ccTLD, you ask? ccTLDs are country code top level domains. Some of the really popular ones are dot us (United States), dot me (Montenegro), dot in (India), dot de (Germany), and dot mx (Mexico). In fact, according to Ron Jackson, ccTLDs sales are now outpacing gTLD sales (global top level domains such as dot com, dot net, and dot org). So why am I talking all about ccTLDs on this pay per click search engine marketing blog? Simple: I’m here to pose a test (slash challenge) to all of you. My challenge: I propose that ccTLDs will become an important part of pay per click online marketing within the US over the coming years. The remainder of this post will explain why!

ccTLDs are Cheap Right Now

I’m going to start off with a freebie for all of you loyal PPC Ian readers. Here it is: Right now (as of 11:44 PM pacific on 3/15/2010) the domain Degrees.mx is available to hand register for only $49.99 on GoDaddy! I’m serious. If I wanted to go out and buy Degrees.com on the aftermarket, I’m probably going to be out anywhere between $1,000,000 and $10,000,000 depending on how good I am at negotiating.

Why is Degrees.mx a great domain name? This is obvious to anyone in the education vertical. Education is one of the most lucrative and competitive verticals on the Internet. With a domain like Degrees.mx, you can have great display URLs in your pay per click campaigns like Accounting.Degrees.mx and Business.Degrees.mx.

The challenge here: Users aren’t as used to seeing the dot mx ccTLD. My hypothesis: I think it will work as a PPC display URL in the US. Will it perform as well as the dot com, dot net, dot org, or even dot us? Most likely not. Is it going to beat a long, convoluted domains like so many of us use? Quite possibly, in my opinion, definitely worth a test! Now, I don’t have the time or resources to test this, but would love to hear if one of you does. Could be some money on the table here. Because of their cheapness, I view ccTLDs as a great option, one that we’ll see more of in the US and global pay per click landscape over the coming years.

The Meaning of ccTLDs Transcends Their Country

One of my personal favorite ccTLDs: dot me. I have been accumulating a portfolio of dot me domains since the first day they launched several years back. While dot me is the official ccTLD of Montenegro, it has been marketed as a global TLD. In my opinion, it makes total sense: dot me is all about "me."

Let’s take another really popular category: mortgage refinance. Imagine if you bought the domain Refinance.me. In my opinion, this is an awesome pay per click domain. It flows really well and is personal. The Internet keeps getting more and more personal. If you don’t reach out to your users on a personal basis, you’re not going to get the conversion. Dot me ccTLD makes the personal connection easy.

Another great ccTLD: dot co. Dot co is the official ccTLD of Colombia but it’s being marketed as the next huge global TLD. It makes sense: What do you think of when you hear dot co? I think of company and commerce, very similar to dot com. For that reason, there’s a lot of opportunity here. Currently, GoDaddy is taking pre-orders for the dot co ccTLD (to be released to the public later this year) so it’s a great time to start thinking about investing in a few for your PPC future!

PPC Organizations Are Becoming More Global

Let’s go back to my first hypothesis, that one can successfully leverage generic sounding gTLDs in the US AdWords market. Let’s say I’m wrong. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time! I love testing and embrace my failures because they only mean I’m one step closer to success. If I fail every week, I know I’m doing my job and pushing the boundaries. In this case, I’d like to argue that these generic gTLDs are still very useful in paid search. Why? The industry is becoming a lot more global. A lot of the easy money in the US is gone. However, when I look at other countries, we’re just getting started. Buy your domains now so that you can leverage them in the future.

One nuance: Degrees.mx is unlikely to work in Mexico because it’s an English word. However, if you choose countries where English is very prevalent, especially in the business world, you’re golden. One example: Degrees.in. I imagine this would do well in India.

As a closing point, make sure to research before buying domain names. Some countries have restrictions. A good example is Canada. Unless you’re a Canadian business or citizen, there are some restrictions that you’d want to become very familiar with before registering dot ca domains. There are ways to make this happen, but I’ve been sticking to the basics myself: Registering domains that don’t have restrictions such as my beloved dot me!

Image of Global Flags © iStockPhoto – yesfoto

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