When a business is migrating their marketing and customer outreach online, they want to cover bases and establish a strong internet presence using good quality domain names.

I happened up on a great business example of domain name coverage using both .US and .com web addresses. DWI and DUI are terms well known in the legal profession, and stand for “driving while impaired” and “driving under the influence”, respectively. DWI is sometimes alternatively referred to as “driving while intoxicated”.

DWI.US and DUI.US are owned by the Houston-based legal outfit of Scheiner Law Group P.C. Either domain name typed into the browser resolves to the Scheiner Law Group website which is very well done and pleasing to the eye. Both domains are short, highly descriptive of the services offered, and certainly fit well with the .US (United States) country code domain.

Similarly, DWI.com and DUI.com are both registered to a Paul Dunham who is using these top domains to offer an online directory of DWI and DUI legal specialists across the United States. Again, within a particular tld space, you have one company reaching customers by registering all of the relevant keywords for a particular area of interest.

You sometimes see this in real estate as well in which a single realty company will register their city location ending in homes, real estate, and condos. Good idea!

Bottom line: Use quality, descriptive domain names to reach customers searching online, and to strengthen one’s internet presence & credibility.

• Legal domain names for sale
• Real Estate domain names for sale
• Geo domain names for sale

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Neustar, who manage the .US and .biz domain name extensions, are now offering a unique .US blog and .US discussion forum for those interested in the dotUS namespace.

Neustar appear to be growing their services and raising their own profile. Their domain name registry services have been a leading product for years although Neustar are now offering web performance and risk management services too.

Forbes’ survey of the fastest growing tech firms in America placed Neustar in the Top 25 in 2009. To make the list, companies had to meet certain revenue and sales gains milestones. Neustar trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol: NSR.

My favorite .US premium domain names are United States cities. Geo domains are such good fits for the extension and provide lots of website development angles. Two cities I worked on last year were Charlotte .US and Detroit.US, both leading cities in their respective states and also with good national recognition ranking in America’s top 20 cities for population.

.US Domain Names .biz, .us, Neustar

Interesting timing in that I just posted here on the blog about the large loss in readership suffered by the USA’s largest newspapers. The morning news (front page Yahoo) featured an article about both of Philadelphia’s largest newspapers being sold at auction after having declared bankruptcy.

The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News have both gone under, and are being offered up in a private auction held in New York City. Executives of Revlon are making a bid for the Philadelphia papers along with creditors and a Canadian investment firm.

Fox News reported that the two papers had accumulated $390 million in debt by February 2009 forcing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The Philadelphia papers employ more than 4000 people in the area.

One has to wonder if the outcome would have been much different had the Philadelphia papers acquired and transitioned their companies to something like Philadelphia.com or Philadelphia.US. Boulevards New Media own Philadelphia.com, and Kraft Foods own Philadelphia.US. The missing ingredient is a premium city domain name.

Update 4/29/10: Bloomberg report that the auction concluded with both Philadelphia newspapers being acquired for $139 million by a group of lenders that included Angelo Gordon & Co. and a Credit Suisse Group AG unit. The sale must still be approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge. The new owners have committed to preserving employees’ jobs.

.US Domain Names .us, city domain names, newspapers

Key West, Florida is a beautiful & popular vacation destination at the southernmost tip of the United States. Key West is known for a tropical climate, white sandy beaches, and tons of personality.

The domain name, KeyWestFlorida.US, is for sale from the PremiumDomains.US portfolio and offered in a no reserve auction at Bido.com on Tuesday, September 22.

Key West receives a large amount of tourism and provides visitors with incredible cuisine, water sports, moonlight cruises, and a relaxing atmosphere which turns first time vacationers into instant Key West fans.

Premium geodomains carry a certain cachet as pure generic domain names, but also possess a special appeal for the residents, businesses, and visitors to the geo destination contained in the domain name. Certain local businesses can use a geodomain as a targeted geo-portal for their company’s products and services.

Examples include: hotel & travel, real estate professionals, local attorneys, apartment complexes, insurance sales, auto dealerships, and various organizations based out of the geo destination.

To visit the auction: go here

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Bido is an online auction platform for buying and selling internet domain names. PremiumDomains.US will be selling DomainAttorney.US at Bido on Monday, September 14 beginning at 1:15 p.m.

A “domain attorney” is a legal expert who deals with UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) cases, responds to cease & desist letters issued by entities claiming trademark infringement, and who assists with any variety of legal matters related to domain name registration and ownership.

Bido, as an auction platform, hold many daily auctions each of which lasts one hour. DomainAttorney.US is currently taking proxy bids. This premium legal domain (in the official U.S. country code) will be sold on September 14th in a no reserve auction. No reserve means there is no minimum price expectation, and the domain name will be acquired by the highest bidder.

Recent sales of .US domains on Bido include …

• DegreeCourses.us $286
• Blues.us $1709
• Bankrupt.us $1011
• Pizzeria.us $648
• Today.us $2409
• AnimalRescue.us $2120
• Degree.us $1264

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Amid the steady decline of newspaper revenues across the country, the Chicago Tribune has not been spared. Tribune Co., the larger parent, own the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel, and approximately 24 TV news stations in the United States.

Since 2005, the Chicago Tribune have periodically thinned their staff as revenues steadily sank. And Tribune Co. eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008. Currently saddled with billions in debt, Tribune Co. newspapers are just now looking at ways to remake their websites in an effort to breathe life into the company again. Discussed throughout the year has been the proposed sale of the Chicago Cubs baseball team franchise. Obviously a huge asset, but one which must be sold to reduce Tribune Co.’s massive debt load.

In a story dated 8/21/2009, the wealthy Ricketts family are reported to have signed an agreement with Tribune Co. to buy out a 95% ownership in the Chicago Cubs franchise, Wrigley Field, and a 25% stake in Comcast SportsNet (CSN) for $845 million. One must ponder how a monolith in American news publishing for over 150 years could begin to evaporate before our eyes, and forced into selling time honored assets simply to survive. What does this dramatic shift represent? And did failure to adapt lead to this eventual implosion?

The Chicago Tribune is obviously a famous brand, and as your might surmise their online website is ChicagoTribune.com. Logically enough, the Chicago Cubs’ website can be found at Cubs.com. Gerould Kern, the newly appointed editor in charge of revamping the Chicago Tribune, is quoted as saying about the newspaper …

“We’ve got to turn over every stone, do every smart thing we can do to stretch our resources. The newspaper business is in crisis. I want to do everything in my power to save it.”

As a domainer, I naturally think that “doing everything … to save it” would (and should) include purchasing the two definitive geo properties for Chicago, i.e. Chicago.com and Chicago.US. The first domain is the hands down ultra familiar .com destination, and the second domain is the one with the global footprint as the USA’s official country code. Whether Tribune Co. could afford these domains is a legitimate question. Whether they can afford not to own these domains is even more critical.

The Chicago Tribune is just now trying to figure out how they can reinvent themselves. No more resting on yesterday’s laurels. Can they someday become profitable again as the internet world moves forward at a dizzying pace? Will Tribune Co. miss the boat again by failing to recognize the power contained in a premium domain name?

I don’t know if the owners of Chicago.com and Chicago.US are even interested in selling their properties. But the Chicago Tribune, in my opinion, should find out. Unless another door to their future be closed in their face. My guess is that one day these premium domains will exchange hands. And the Chicago Tribune will either take that lead, or find themselves having lost out on their own future … failing to grab onto important future lifelines.

.US Domain Names .us, chicago, newspaper, tribune

Developing a geodomain offers many options and requires many decisions. These choices typically revolve around website content, website structure, and the site’s identity as perceived by visitors. My overriding goal with this project was to settle on a development model and “unique personality” which could be duplicated across many cities.

In building Charlotte.US from the ground up, I reviewed both the positive and negative aspects of a number of other geo sites. I also considered the platform on which to build Charlotte.US such as “static html” files vs. WordPress.

Content can be modified much more easily than can site structure. Structure is something which you will be married to and which cannot be easily converted. For this project, WordPress was selected due to its many automated features, plug-ins, publishing options, and excellent universal compatibility.

Actually, I had been looking for a geo portal template for some time that would allow me to add and subtract content components. Eventually, I found a news oriented portal, built on WordPress, that I could heavily edit. The current version, now viewable at Charlotte.US, has been dramatically modified from the original template.

The site is in what I consider a workable early form right now. There are a variety of auto-updating feeds & content such that revisiting the site numerous times per day will provide the user with new material. This concept I hope to take to an even higher level over time. I have had good success obtaining permissions where required, and I plan to develop partnerships with local businesses as time permits. Local advertising revenue will be pursued though no hurry on this at the moment.

Future upgrades will aim to customize the content sections especially in the real estate, apartments, entertainment, and online services area. Currently, these are linked to local service providers via Superpages content. The Ticketmaster section is fairly well done as is.

Interested readers may also like to follow Detroit.US which is being modeled after the Charlotte site.

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Just off the coastline in the San Francisco Bay is Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz Prison was erected there in 1934 and was in operation for 29 years (closed in 1964). Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly were two of its most infamous prisoners.

As a tourist destination, Alcatraz receives many thousands of visitors annually who are attracted to the location’s fascinating stories and history.

Alcatraz.US is a superb website dedicated to the Alcatraz tourist experience. The website contains almost every imaginable package there is from simply buying admission tickets online for the Alcatraz prison tour to reserving a helicopter tour of the greater San Francisco area’s many attractions.

Traffic estimate tools indicate that Alcatraz.US receives over 13,000 unique internet visitors per month. The site appears to be search engine optimized successfully since a basic search of “Alcatraz” finds Alcatraz.US listed on the first page of both Google and Yahoo.

The .US web address has continued to expand steadily with a noticeable pick-up in registrations and developed sites occurring over the last 18 months.

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