Wanted: Domain Appraisal Graphic Designer .me.uk

[johnnyboy]

This is my first .me.uk purchase. What are domainers' thoughts on this one?

Cheers.

 

[accelerator]

The .me.uk isn't particularly great for resale. The keyphrase is a reasonable generic, but the problem is that the term is not easily monetisable in that you would have to do an awful lot of work to get traffic to the site, and even then the traffic isn't that monetisable. I prefer product domains where I know I can make affiliate sales.

Rgds

 

[johnnyboy]

Thanks for your view accelerator. Yeah, had no plans to develop it as, like you said, it would be hard to monetise. My reasoning behind registering it was that I felt the extension was suited to the domain name and hope that I could sell to a graphic designer based in the UK, giving them the advantage of highly searched term and UK extension.

Any other thoughts on this?

 

[accelerator]

Obviously it's perfect for a graphic designer community, but there's a lot of work involved in that. Best monetisation would be running a graphic design marketplace and taking commission from adverts somehow.

Rgds

 

[HariSeldon]

had no plans to develop it as, like you said, it would be hard to monetise.

I'm only just getting into .me.uk so no expert but my understanding is that unless the domain is a proper name then end users are practically non-existent.

Obviously the biggest drawback from a commercial perspective is that a business cannot own the domain.

While there will always be the odd exception, my view is that you need to develop/rank .me.uk domains to generate a ROI. Any domain regardless of extension will always have value if on page 1 of the Serps or generating an income.

 

[retired_member12]

...Obviously the biggest drawback from a commercial perspective is that a business cannot own the domain...

With the exception of .ltd.uk in terms of registrant type, there shouldn't be any restrictions on the use of a domain name. Those restrictions on Nominets' web site were established in optimistic times, long before the bulk of the good .co.uks were registered to the levels they are now, and the way .org.uks are going too!

Any enforcement of the Nominet conditions for .org.uks (and indeed .me.uks) could only ever be done as a result of Nominet deciding they want to do it. It's a huge expense with so many domains already 'out there', just look at the prenom exercise, that took them years to finalise!

Personally, i cant ever see Nominet doing this, and there is even one DRS where the Expert passed a .co.uk, .org.uk and a .me.uk back to a commercial claimant based on the name itself, see DRS 02736, directflooring.co.uk, directflooring.me.uk & directflooring.org.uk. Would Nominet really go back to the successful claimant over 4 years later and take them away? No!

 

[HariSeldon]

there shouldn't be any restrictions on the use of a domain name.

Concur on the use of a domain but that's different to who owns the domain.

While the legal status of a registrant makes little difference to domainers, to a company it opens up a whole can of worms and could easily be a deal breaker hence does have a significant impact on end-user pricing.

There's a specific clause in the Nominet rules that allows .me.uk to be owned by a company as a result of a DRS however the same rule also states the domain can not then be used for anything which is why directflooring.me.uk does not resolve.

9.4.1 Where, as the result of the DRS or judicial proceedings (of relevant jurisdiction) a .me.uk domain name is to be transferred to a person who would not qualify under Rule 9.2 (the “transferee”), the transfer to, and continued registration by, the transferee shall be permitted provided that no use is made of that .me.uk domain name for any purpose

 

[retired_member12]

...There's a specific clause in the Nominet rules that allows .me.uk to be owned by a company as a result of a DRS however the same rule also states the domain can not then be used for anything which is why directflooring.me.uk does not resolve.

Yes, same for the .org.uk not resolving.

Don't you think it's a bit odd though that a commercial company can't register a .me.uk, but can get one through the DRS? How can this be anything other than a clause which highlights weaknesses of the DRS and registration systems? If it has to have these registration rules, surely it should have put systems in place to prevent these 'wrong' registrations in the first place. Currently, the few that get caught up in a DRS have this convenient little clause to cover for it. Imagine if this clause didn't exist, it would have thrown DRS 02736 right into the long grass! There is no way in the world that our legal system would tolerate this level of ambiguity.

The DRS system in its current form is a dinosaur, better that it might be passed out to a separate body, given that the Experts are already supposedly 'independent'. I imagine any Government will expect that if it assumes responsibilities over Nominets' self-regulation model, it'll scrutinise all the decision making processes, and efforts will be made to make things black and white.

What point was there for Nominet to have had these rules for registrations for years? What have they done to police them?

It would be far simpler to remove these restrictions tomorrow; all those problems would go away in an instant.

 

[johnnyboy]

While there will always be the odd exception, my view is that you need to develop/rank .me.uk domains to generate a ROI.

I agree with that at the moment as there are plenty of decent .org.uk and .co.uk domains to register. But as more of these extensions get regged, I reckon companies may buy up general keyword domains to be redirected to their main sites (as I mentioned in the mascara.me.uk thread) and believe this will consequently increase the value of the extension.

 

[HariSeldon]

I reckon companies may buy up general keyword domains to be redirected to their main sites and believe this will consequently increase the value of the extension.

That's the issue though; companies are not allowed to own .me.uk domains so this is unlikely to happen.

However if it is a developed/ranked domain then that is a whole different ball game and I can see companies being much more prepared to jump through hoops to gain control of such domains.

In truth this is not that much different to any other extension; a well developed domain will always have substantially more value than a similar undeveloped one. The difference there is being that in most cases undeveloped .me.uks have little value.

 

[johnnyboy]

That's the issue though; companies are not allowed to own .me.uk domains so this is unlikely to happen.

That may be the case but the company footprint.co.uk redirect the domains lawyer.me.uk and designer.me.uk to their main site. I'm sure other companies are doing exactly the same thing.

 

[HariSeldon]

Don't you think it's a bit odd though that a commercial company can't register a .me.uk, but can get one through the DRS?

It certainly makes for a hollow DRS victory although for me the not resolving also shows that Nominet are serious about not allowing companies to own .me.uk for commercial uses.

Thinking about it, it would be nigh-on impossible to totally prevent commercial uses for every .me.uk so I guess this is the compromise that Nom were happy with.

 

[HariSeldon]

That may be the case but the company footprint.co.uk redirect the domains lawyer.me.uk and designer.me.uk to their main site. I'm sure other companies are doing exactly the same thing.

These two exceptions are also covered in the Rules as they were both registered in 2002.

There's no getting away from the fact that Nom does not want companies using .me.uk domains.

9.5 Transitional Arrangements

As a transitional measure, any .me.uk domain name registered before 25 October 2004 will not be subject to Rules 9.2 and 9.3 until it is next transferred or cancelled.

 

[retired_member12]

I'm sure if you map the use of .me.uk (registered post 25/10/04) and more so the .org.uk, you'll find a significant enough distrbution of commercial direct & indirect use. The rules mean jacks**t, it's far too late for anyone to do anything about their commercial use. Nominet have seemingly done nothing about this for so long, it would surely be unfair to try and unpick this now.

 

[HariSeldon]

I agree entirely that Nom are not going to get involved in what domains are being used for. Unless something illegal is brought to their attention then usage is not something they could or should be involved with.

However they clearly are actively enforcing that .me.uk domains should not be owned by companies and this by itself will play a major part in keeping resale prices relatively low.

As with most things in life, if there's enough money involved then people will always find a way around things. So develop/rank a .me.uk and I'm sure owners will see a decent ROI one way or the other.

 

[retired_member12]

It's fair to say that on the whole Nominet seem to stop limited company registrations from resolving, but there are lots registered, and some like limousine, cutlery, etc that are used.

Nevertheless, individuals also do trade, albeit in a smaller way, with affiliates, adsense, etc, so it seems if you are a sole trader maybe, you'll get away with it.