July 15th, 2010 
greg 
I prefer to register dot us domain names because it is easier to acquire a great name then it is for dot com, dot net or dot org name. Or at least it was. Earlier in the week I wrote there is a lot of competition for .us drops and it hasn’t let up. Day after day I try to get my favorite names and each day I come up empty handed. Ok people, enough is enough. Save some names for me to register.
I could understand if it was premier names that are being scooped up, but they’re not. Don’t get me wrong, the premier names have always been scooped up but at least there were some scraps to chew on, now even the scraps are being devoured…and quickly.
Today I had 41 names of various quality on my initial list, some of those names were of very questionable quality. Here we are 3 hours after the drops and there are only 3 left (and all hyphens): Top-Rated.us, Pan-Handle.us and Flu-Mask.us. Here are the names from my list that were registered today:
AMERICANBEEF.US, RENTNY.US, RTW.US, LUU.US, MYSTERYSHOPPING.US, AIRBRUSHED.US, ALCOHOLGUIDE.US, ARISTOCRACY.US, HAULITAWAY.US, DECORATINGTIPS.US, ROLLINGPAPER.US, TEAL.US, THRIFT.US, COOKIEBOUQUET.US, CUSTODYBATTLE.US, SITECREATOR.US, WINDPOWERGENERATORS.US, HOSTINGSITE.US,
N1H1.US, COSMOTOLOGYSCHOOL.US, RUNFAST.US, OPENMARKET.US, DRYMARTINI.US, KITCHEN-DESIGN.US, CLOUDAPPS.US, OPPORTUNITIES.US, HIGHPOWERED.US, BLOWOUT.US, THEFTS.US, PAIDRESEARCH.US, PREVENTWASTE.US, REDUCEWASTE.US,
EASYCLICK.US, HOMECONCEPTS.US, DILATE.US, AIDEN.US, UMN.US and GUILLERMO.US.
There certainly are some very good names on that list but there is also some names that normally would sit unregistered. It’s alright with me, actually it is good news. Dot us names are gaining much more interest on the domaining level and that means that prices will go up as a result. It also means that I (we) may need to consider different strategies in order to secure some of these names. I’m in it for the long haul so I will do whatever it takes!!!
Related posts:
Posted in 
Yeah, I’m not sure where all the buying is coming from lately but one could certainly take it as a positive sign for .US. I know that there weren’t many in that list that would have tickled my fancy, but I do have very specific tastes so while it may not “work” for me, others may do well with them.
For .US, I tend to focus on names that I like to call 50k names. It’s a simple formula:
The Exact Local searches for the keyword * the CPC >= 50k for me to really aggressively go after the name. So a name that gets 10,000 exact match searches should have near $5 CPC for me to really start salivating. But a name that gets 100k exacts and only 50 cents CPC, still fits my criteria.
There are some exceptions based on length and if the name is a category that covers multiple keywords, then I may drop the exact match numbers some. In a slightly counter-intuitive bit of thinking, I prefer names where the .com (and .net and .org) aren’t developed as that means less competition in search engine rankings! So there are certainly exceptions to the rule, but it’s a good starting point.
Heck, I have some names that just catch my eye (like outdoorwear.us that I recently hand reg’d). But if you don’t have any standards and don’t get a feel for how much certain names are worth then you can spend a lot of money on wasted registrations.
Unfortunately, names that fit that 50k criteria now seemingly have to be backordered at one or more places for me to get a chance to even compete to own the name. But hey, it’s the price we pay for progress!
[...] This post was Twitted by UtterDomain [...]