E-paper Marketing with .me. Success stories & lighthouse projects. More personality. More identity. More
Table of contents. 04 Executive summary 03 It’s time for .me The history of the ambiguous top-level domain .me Who can benefit from .me? Trust.me – How the registry guarantees security and protection 09.me for personal brands Success story I – Private individuals Success story II – Freelancers Success story III – Experts 15.me for companies Success story IV – Remotify Success story V – seoagency Choose.me – Finding the perfect .me domain 18 Register .me! 20 Source references and image credits 21 About 22
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Executive summary It’s time for
But how can the domain industry, along with agen cies, businesses and start-ups, profitably use this “me” as the new focal point?
evokes an immediate connection conveys trustworthiness easily creates call-to-action domains enhance every domain portfolio .me
Here, we are focusing on the potential of the ccTLD .me. .me domains can place emphasis on this ego-centered development and are consciously and profitably employed by marketing strategists.
Executive summary.
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The market is reacting to this shift with new gTLDs and also with websites and campaigns that very accurately reach target groups directly and at a personal level. These days, the appropriate domains take on a central role in marketing and the customer journey.
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Individualization is one of the dominating mega trends of the 21st century. With more prosperity, shorter working times and a higher level of education, the focus is increasingly shifting to the “individual”. The fact that this development has also affected the internet can be seen daily on social media channels and with remarketing campaigns. We are pro gressively living in ME clouds and bubbles.
SourceRegisterChooseCompaniesbrand.me.mereferencesAbout
This individualization is reflected in many other fields. Whether in private or business environments, living with selfdetermination and expressing one‘s own personality has become the new objective.
It’s time for .me
The individual person has become its own beloved child. And also marketing strate gies must align themselves to this. Products, content and technology are following suit and realizing that individua lity and personality are drivers of innova tion. Of course, this trend also extends to domain extensions. This epaper takes a closer look at a very special domain ex tension that already holds a great deal of personality in its name: .me You will find out more about the unusual history of this TLD and, in targetaboutparticular,thevariousgroupsthat can benefit from an online presence using .me. By exploring a num ber of successful campaigns, we will show you how .me domains can be used effectively to achieve objectives in completely different sectors. These days everybody wants and even demands a personal fit. Also online. About .me As of April 2022, .me has over 1,225,000 registered domains, over 350 registrar partners, customers and/or registrants from 200 countries and territo ries around the world and over 2,000 domains in the Majestic Million.
It’s time for .me
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These days it’s not only understood as good form, but also as absolutely essen tial to address users and the client base directly, to gauge the interests of poten tial customers even before they make a purchase and give them the feeling that the products and services on offer reflect their individual needs across the entire customer journey. Users and customers greatly appreciate this and have also come to expect nothing less. There is hardly an online shop that does not include goods or services that the custo mer can confi gure according to their preferences.individualBuying off the shelf is out. These days everybody wants and even demands a personal fit. Also online.
Executive summary
From the very beginning, the newly formed registry was aware of the enormous generic and worldwide appeal that the term “me” has with its multiplicity of meanings in different “Welanguages.decided to open the domain for the general public because the word ‘ME’ carries meaning in many languages including English, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Portuguese and many other languages and we knew it would be popular.” 2 The domain extension can even be used in China – pairing .me with the verb makes it a ques tion in Mandarin. An example, www.ele.me means “Are you hungry?”. Legally and technically, it would certainly have been possible to exclusively offer .me domains to the citizens of Montenegro. However, this would have prevented the great economic success that the domain extension was to achieve later on. Instead, the consortium opted for a solution along two lines. The top-level domain was made available for everyone around the world, while various third-level domains were kept exclusive for Montenegrin citizens and companies. So, for example: .its.me and .priv.me are available for global use .edu.me for educational institutions .gov.me for government agencies .net.me, .org.me and co.me for citizens and entities of Montenegro
The history of the multi-purpose top-level domain .me After a national referendum on May 21st 2006 to decide on the independence of Monte negro, the result narrowly fell in favor of restoration of Montenegrin independence. The resulting independent Balkan state had previously used the country extension of yugos lavia, yu1. In order to demonstrate sovereignty on the domain level as well, the ccTLD of Montenegro, .me was allocated to Montenegro in 2007.
05 1 Wikipedia .me 2 DoMEn d.o.o.: About .me
The ccTLD was initially managed by the Montenegrin government. Only a short time later, in January 2008, a consortium consisting of local and international companies under the name “doMEn d.o.o.” took over the administration of the domain extension and made it available for registration around the world, launching General Availability on 17 July 2008.
Executive summary It’s time for .me Personal SourceRegisterChooseCompaniesbrand.me.mereferencesAbout
The registry also decided against any additional registration requirements. During the Sunrise Phase, the registration of all other domains was first opened up for the holders of trademarks and other rights. From July 2008 onwards, anybody could become the regis trant of a .me domain.
• fux.me (still available) • around.me (still available)
So, the path to gaining a .me domain does not pose any great obstacles. But, which kind of user is most likely to benefit from this extension?
• find.me (still available)
• baumstamm.me (still available)
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Executive summary It’s time for .me Personal SourceRegisterChooseCompaniesbrand.me.mereferencesAbout
Names that are of particular value are managed as so-called premium domains. These include names that • are commonly used as first names, like john.me, • meaningful keywords with a high search volume and market relevance or • call-to-action combinations (CTAs).
• burdenso.me (still available)
Domain hack Domain hacks provide alternatives to “conventional” domain names, as socalled domain hacking entails combining second-level and third-level domain in such a way that they make up a term, brand, name or phrase.
As expected, the domain hack .me proved to be one of the the greatest success factors for the domain extension as it can be used in a clever play on words, allowing combinati ons such as: • help.me • judge.me • apieceof.me • volu.me • im.me (still available)
Premium domains Due to their attractive nature, premium domains differ from “normal” domains with regard to pricing. The great majority of premium .me domains are available via EPP at InterNetX. For a small minority of .me premium domains, interested companies must go through the selection program defined by the registry in order to acquire a specific premium domain.
