Recently in dotme Category

If you want to get your own "slice" of the internet to setup a blog or to publish your CV then why not look at .me?

Unlike some country code domain names .me is completely free from restrictions - so you can register a .me domain name as easily as you can register a .com.

The .me domain is one of the few ccTLD extensions that Google allows you to target to ANY country - so you don't have to worry about Google "thinking" you want to use it for the wrong country!

"Me" says it all. It's about YOU. And what's wrong with that?

Nothing!

You could use a .me domain for a whole range of different things.

Don't limit yourself to just personal domains - you can also use a .me domain as a "call to action" (love.me, kiss.me, buy.me etc., etc.)

A personal blog is pretty obvious, but how about using it for your CV? Impress a prospective employer with an online version of your CV, or simply point it at your LinkedIn profile.

Or how about an online photo gallery?

The possibilities are endless.

You could setup email.....

Or grab your family name and give each member of the family their own subdomain.

What would you do with a .me?

Have you seen anybody doing really cool things with a .me domain name?

Special offers and discounts can be fun! If you subscribe to our newsletter you can get subscriber only discounts that we don't offer anywhere else!

In order to celebrate Friday, which seemed like a stupid enough reason to have a discount,  we've put together a couple of special discounts for you.

Use the coupon code: fridayfeeling
(coupon expires at midnight tonight Irish time (UTC) )

When ordering via our site you will get the following prices:

.net 1 year registration €4.99
.biz 1 year registration €2.99
.info 1 year registration €2.99
.mobi 1 year registration €4.99
.eu 1 year registration €1.99
.me 1 year registration €9.99
.be 1 year registration €0.99
.co.za 1 year registration €9.99

We're also trying to raise some money for a good cause. Check out our blog post here

Keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook accounts for other silly offers

Over the last few weeks we've been working hard on launching a bunch of domain extensions on our own accreditation.

While the main focus of our attention has been on getting the more popular domain extensions up and running (ie. com / net / org / info / biz / mobi etc.,) we've also ended up getting accredited for quite a few other cctlds in the process.

So far this year we've launched:

• mobi
• info
• org
• tel
  
• cm (Cameroon)
  
• me (Montenegro)
  
• fm
• im (Isle of Man)
  
• be (Belgium)
  
• gg (Guernsey)
  
• je (Jersey)
  
• co.nl (alternate to .nl, which is for Netherlands)
  

We've also got accredited in quite a few other cctlds, but we haven't gone "live" with them as yet and we also have a few others in the "pipeline".

Why are we doing this?

Simply put by running our own accreditation we can control the situation more and also pass on greater savings to our clients.

If there's an issue with a domain where we are directly accredited it's a lot easier for us to resolve it in a timely manner, whereas when we rely on someone else it can take time and cost more.

When I registered my first domain name about 10 years ago the average cost of a .com domain was about $35. Registering a .ie domain name wasn't really an option unless you were a company.

Nowadays the market has matured considerably. The retail market, which we cater for primarily, treats domains as commodities, so price is an important deciding factor. Registering a .com domain is no longer the cost of dinner, but maybe the cost of a cup of coffee and a croissant. I'd love to think that people choose registrars based on factors other than price, but that would be to deny reality. People are always going to be attracted by lower prices - service and other factors don't come into play for most of them.

With that in mind we've been doing our best to keep our prices as low as possible, while also retaining a reasonable margin.

In the coming weeks we hope to "go live" with .com and .net on our own accreditation, while we're also working on integrating several cctlds that we aren't currently offering.

So if there's a domain extension that you think we should be offering please let us know. We won't guarantee that we'll offer it, as many of the domain extensions either lack in automation or have quite restrictive rules. However we will look at each and every suggestion.

Keep an eye out for more special offers on domain name registrations - we're working hard to get as many deals as we can!

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For the last couple of days I've been in the lovely town of Bled, Slovenia, for the 2nd International Conference for ccTLD Registries and Registrars of CIS, Central and Eastern Europe which was organised by the .ru (Russia) registry.

The conference agenda covered a wide variety of topics and was very interesting. While some of the topics were about policy matters, others covered governance, security, marketing and the aftermarket.

Cctld registry operators ie. the organisations that manage country code domains, have very different ways of working. NASK, which runs .pl, for example, have embraced alternate business models and aren't afraid of domainers or the aftermarket, which makes a change.

While some domain extensions are completely "open", others have a variety of restrictions, so the presentations yesterday on how some countries are running their domain spaces was very revealing. Being able to actually speak directly to the people who run registry in person is a lot easier and productive than playing "email ping pong"!

It was also interesting to see how some of them, such as Latvia (.lv) view their role. The Latvian ccTLD operator, for example, has completely revamped their modus operandi in the last couple of years and is now looking at using social media etc., to reach out to its users.
 
From our perspective it was an excellent opportunity to meetup with some of the registry operators we already work with, such as .me (Montenegro), .eu (Eurid) and .mobi (Mtld) while being able to meet new potential partners is always a good thing.

As an English speaker it is all too easy to forget that for many people the Latin character set is completely foreign to them. Countries such as Bulgaria (.bg) are introducing internationalised domain names (IDNs), but they still have the awkward issue of switching from using Cyrillic characters to the Latin set to type in web addresses. So one of the hotter topics for delegates was the introduction of full IDN ccTLDs.

Thanks must go out to the .ru team who not only organised the entire event, but also treated us all like royalty since we got here.

Francesco from dotMobi has also posted an overview of the conference here.

We're delighted to announce that our .me accreditation is now "live". We had been offering .me domains via one of our partners up until earlier this afternoon.

DotMe (.me) is the country code domain for Montenegro. Of course, if your native language is English, "me" also spells the most important word in the English language - "me".

I'd been feeling a bit guilty about .me for quite some time, as I was at their launch reception in Paris over a year ago!


All new .me domain names registered via our website will be handled by our own .me accreditation ie. we won't be relying on any 3rd parties ...


What does that mean for you?

In practical terms - not a huge lot.

However it means that we will be able to pass on any savings we get from the registry.

It also means that we have a greater level of control over aspects of the domain name and don't have to rely on a 3rd party, which is important to us.

Just a word of warning - expect more of these announcements over the next few days, as we roll out several domain extensions onto our own registrar backend!