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News and information about the people, places, companies and events that are helping build recognition and utilization of .US - America's Internet Address. If you have information you think would be of interest to the .US community, please email it to
Editor@ADN.US. Follow us on X.com (formerlyTwitter): @AmericanDomains

Bring On the Fireworks! In Addition to Being Independence Day July 4th is Our Birthday

By Ron Jackson

July 4th will always be a special day for us here at ADN (American Domain Names - the .US News & Information website). As Americans, it is obviously a revered date because it is Independence Day when we celebrate the founding of the United States itself. That, of course, was on July 4, 1776 - making today our nation's 248th birthday! However, July 4 is also the day that we chose to launch this website three years ago with a focus on .US - the official internet domain for the United States of America and home on the web for hundreds of thousands of businesses, organizations and individuals.

Image from Bigstock

As a 3 year old today we are still in our infancy as a website but we have been actively investing in and developing .US domains for over 20 years now and are looking forward to continuing to grow in lock step with the .US domain itself.

Earlier this year - on February 15, 2024 - .US, celebrated its 39th birthday. .US was created on Feb. 15, 1985 as the very first country code domain (ccTLD) on the Internet. Today every country on earth has its own ccTLD (for example, it is .uk for Great Britain, .ca for Canada and .de for Germany). In most cases the local ccTLD is the most popular and affordable alternative to .com.

.US has been on a hot streak in recent years. As of July 1, 2024, the annual growth rate for .US domain registrations was 8.5%, more than double the 4% growth rate for all of the world's ccTLDs combined. July also marked the 25th consecutive month that .US has posted a YOY increase in registrations which have now passed the 2 million mark. .US is also one of the 10 most popular TLDs in dollar volume at GoDaddy owned Afternic.com, the most popular platform for aftermarket premium domain sales.

Later this month we'll be in Boston at the end of an anniversary cruise. While looking for a hop on, hop off bus to use there, we couldn't help noticing the web address for this company. Guess which one we will be using!

Combine all of that with the opportunity to celebrate another birthday for our homeland calls for a cookout today and some fireworks tonight, so we've got to go get ready! Wishing all who are celebrating the holiday a great time and good fortune in your own Internet endeavors!

Posted July 4, 2024. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2024/0704.htm
Follow us on X.com (formerlyTwitter) @AmericanDomains

February 2023 Surge in .US Domain Registrations Pushed Total for America's TLD to the Highest Level Since We Began Tracking

By Ron Jackson On March 1, 2023 US domain registrations hit the highest level we have seen since we started tracking the numbers in July 2021 (ADN.US was launched on July 4, 2021). After 34,197 .US domains were added in February 2023, total registrations in America's official Top Level Domain (TLD) reached 1,915,300. That number represents a 7.3% increase in .US registration from the same date one year ago. That is far higher than the annual growth rate for all country code TLDs worldwide which was 4.5% according to Verisign's most recent Domain Name Industry Brief published in December 2022.
The 34,197 domains added in February 2023 is the third highest single month total we have seen in the 21 months we have been following the data. The highest one-month total was 38,264 in July 2022, followed closely by the 37,725 added in March 2022. There are almost 1,600 TLDs on the Internet today. With over 1.9 million domains registered, .US ranks among the top 2% of all TLDs worldwide, yet it is still one of the most affordable options - for both new registrations and premium aftermarket purchases - that any enterprise, organization or individual in search of a meaningful domain name will find. Posted March 2, 2023. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2023/0302.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

Happy 38th Birthday to the Web's First ccTLD - America's Internet Address - .US!

By Ron Jackson There are now hundreds of ccTLDs (country code top level domains) on the Internet as every country on earth, as well as other selected geo locations, have one of their own. They have become extremely popular too with over 132 million ccTLD domains currently registered worldwide (according to Verisign's latest *Domain Name Industry Brief). The honor of being the very first* ccTLD on the web went to America's Internet Address, .US, with the extension officially launched on February 15, 1985, 38 years ago today! That fact surprises a lot of people. .US feels like a newer TLD, largely because it wasn't made available to all Americans (and others who do business in America) for another 17 years! The .US version of Independence Day didn't arrive until April 24, 2002 when the gates that had limited it to specific uses (schools, law enforcement, etc) finally came down.
Despite the other original TLDs, including .com, .net and .org, getting a huge head start, .US has now taken its place as one of the best options for those looking to secure a meaningful, memorable address on the Internet. Nearly 2 million .US domains have been registered by individuals, organizations, small to medium sized businesses and major international corporations. The list includes the dominant force in video conferencing, Zoom.us, America's fastest growing supermarket chain (with over 2,500 stores) Aldi.us, Ollies.us (America's biggest chain of closeout bargain stores with nearly 400 stores across the U.S), fashion king CalvinKlein.us, MasterCard.us, Shell.us, Bosch.us, world famous ice cream maker HaagenDazs.us, CBRE.us (the huge real estate services provider with 200 offices across America), ClubMed.us, AirFrance.us, AndersonCompanies.us, Osram.us and many more. For domain buyers, the positive side of .US being held back for so long is that a lot of great domain names are still available at affordable prices in America's most meaningful namespace. Even at 38 (21 if you take away the 17 years the TLD wasn't allowed to leave the house!), .US still has lots of room to grow - giving fans of the nation's official domain extension even more reason to celebrate. Posted February 15, 2023. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2023/0215.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

.US Domain Registrations Edged Up Again in October - Increase Year Over Year is 11.25%

By Ron Jackson

.US domain registrations increased for the 11th time in the past 12 months in October but this time it was a small move, rising just 481 domains in the month ending November 1, 2022. However, that looks pretty good after seeing Verisign's 3Q-2022 Financial Results report in which the company announced its total .com and .net registrations had gone down 160,000 domains since the end of 2Q-2022.

The year over year results for .US registrations continue to look very good with America's official domain extension still enjoying double digit growth over the past 12 months. .US had 1,903,750 total registration as of November 1, 2022, a jump of 11.25% from the 1,711,201 that were registered on the same date a year ago. According to Verisign's 2Q-2022 Domain Name Industry Brief, the American ccTLD's annual growth rate is four times higher than the 3% rate for all TLDs combined and almost six times higher than the 2% rate for all ccTLDs combined.

Posted November 1, 2022. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/1101.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

.US Domain Registrations Soared 12.1% in the Year Ending October 1, Far Out-Performing Overall Market's 3% Rate

By Ron Jackson New numbers in October 1, 2022 showed .US domain registrations (3rd chart on page linked to) jumped 12.1% in the past year, climbing to more than 1.9 million after adding 205,435 domains. According to Verisign's latest Domain Name Industry Brief, the American ccTLD's annual growth rate was more than four times higher than the 3% rate for all TLDs combined. .US fared equally well in other comparisons as .coms grew just 2.6% year over year and all ccTLDs combined went up only 2%.
.US closed the year ending October 1 with three consecutive months of double digit growth as momentum picked up steam with each passing month. On August 1 .US regs were up 10.9% year over year. On September 1 they were up 11.3% YOY with the latest number hitting 12.1% on October 1 (you can see the monthly progression for .US on our Sales & Stats page). Posted October 3, 2022. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/1001.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

July Surge Pushes Annual Growth Rate for .US Domain Registrations Into Double Digits

By Ron Jackson .US domain registrations continue to outperform the overall market. In July 2022, .US added 38,264 domains (the largest one-month gain since we started tracking with the launch of this site on July 4, 2021). That brings total .us registrations up to 1,883,017, representing a 10.9% surge over where they stood one year ago on August 1, 2021 (you can see the monthly progression for .US on our Sales & Stats page).
This is a much higher growth rate than that for all TLDs combined, as well as for individual categories likes .com and all ccTLDs, based on data from the most recent Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief (.pdf file). Verisign's quarterly report for 2Q-2022 is not out yet, but their report for 1Q-2022 showed the total number of domains registered in all TLDs worldwide was up 13.2 million year over year for an annual growth rare of 3.9%. The .com TLD alone outperformed the market with a 4.3% growth rate. The 10.9% gain for America's ccTLD (country code domain) is even more impressive when you compare it to the most recent published rate for all of the world's ccTLDs combined (every nation has their own ccTLD). As a whole the ccTLD category was up 2.4% year over year at the end of 1Q-2022 but that rate picked up dramatically in the opening quarter of this year with that specific quarter up 4.7% from the same quarter in 2021. Posted August 1, 2022. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0801.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

TWO Reasons for Us to Celebrate Independence Day 2022 - America's Birthday is Ours Too!

By Ron Jackson

Well that year went quick! Seems like it hasn't been more than a month since we launched the American Domain Names website here at ADN.us on July 4, 2021 but here we are at the ripe old age of 1 on Independence Day 2022! They say time flies when you are having fun and we have certainly been doing that - and it looks like the star of our show - .US - has been doing the same.

As we reported on July 1, .US domain registrations soared by 9.1% over the previous year, a growth are well over double the rate for the market at large (all top level domains worldwide combined grew 3.9% in the same time frame). We also saw some of the biggest publicly reported .US aftermarket sales of all time, including Drive.us at $99,999 and Lawyer.us at $50,000.

As developers, buyers and sellers of .US domains ourselves, we hold a large portfolio of .US domains that produced its highest returns in the 20 years we've spent assembling it. We sold 49 .US domains over the past 12 months (an average of almost one a week) with the vast majority of those going to small to medium sized businesses (SMBs).

That is all further evidence to us that .US is making up for lost time after being kept off limits to everyday Americans for the first 17 years of its existence! It is hard to believe the country's official country code top level domain, the very first ccTLD on the Internet, was not available to the vast majority of U.S. citizens for so long. However, that was indeed the case from the TLD's birth in 1985 until it was finally given its own freedom on April 24, 2002 (a story we detailed in an article posted on the 20th anniversary of that historic event.

ADN was launched with the goal of helping to right that wrong by bringing as much recognition as possible to America's Internet Address. As the online home of the world's most powerful economy, .US is a brand that will sell itself if American businesses, individuals and organizations (as well as those who do business in or with the U.S.) are made aware that it is there for them. They will see that .US makes it still possible to get a short, memorable domain name at a very affordable price.

.Com is without question a great domain extension, one that we love as much as anyone, but those looking for a domain today will find that over 161 million names been taken in .com. By comparison, less than 2 million are gone in .US. That means there are 159 million names you can't get in .com that are available in .US. If the name you want has been taken in .US your cost to buy it on the aftermarket, if for sale, will still be a small fraction of what the same domain would cost in .com.

These are just some of the many reasons we have always been bullish on .US (with more reasons shared throughout this site). With our physical home in the USA and ADN's internet home on .US we couldn't be happier to be able to celebrate the birthday of both our country and our website on the same day. We hope all of you who are celebrating have a wonderful holiday too!

Posted July 4, 2022. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0704.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

.US Domain Registrations Rose 9.1% in the Past Year - More Than Double Latest Rate for All TLDs Combined

By Ron Jackson

We started tracking .US domain registrations on July 1, 2021 in preparation for the launch of the American Domain Names website that followed on July 4 (yes, our one-year anniversary) is almost here)! One year ago at this time, 1,691,304 .US domain has been registered. As of today, that number has jumped by 153,449 domains - an annual growth rate of 9.1% (you can see the month by month progression on our Sales & Stats page).

To put that number into perspective you can check out how the .US growth rate compares to the market for all TLDs combined, as well as individual categories likes .com and all ccTLDs, by looking at the information in the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief (.pdf file) that DNJournal.com broke down today. The new Verisign report covers the opening quarter of the year and includes both quarter to quarter and year over year comparisons. At the end of 1Q-2022, the total number of domains registered in all TLDs worldwide was 350.5 million. That was 13.2 million more than one year earlier - an annual growth rare of 3.9%. The .com TLD alone outperformed the market with a 4.3% growth rate (based on adding 6.7 million domains to bring the .com total to 161.3 million). Those are both healthy percentage increases, numbers so it is encouraging to see .US growing at an even faster clip.

The 9.1% gain for America's ccTLD (country code domain) is even more impressive when you compare it to the rate for all of the world's ccTLDs combined (every nation has their own ccTLD). 133.4 million country code domains were registered worldwide at the end of 1Q-2022 (not far from the total number of .com registrations). As a whole the ccTLD category grew 2.4% year over year (and it really started coming on strong in the opening quarter of this year when that rate doubled to 4.7% after 6 million domains were added in 1Q-2022 alone).

While it is gaining ground, .US still has a lot of room left to grow. It is far from being the biggest ccTLD in total registrations, a situation that resulted from most of the the world's other ccTLDs getting a 17-year head start. Though .US was launched as the very first ccTLD on the Internet on February 15, 2002, it was not made available to all U.S. citizens (and those doing business with the U.S.) until April 24, 2002! Prior to that the TLD was reserved for use by government agencies, law enforcement, schools and a handful of other entities. In the meantime, between 1985 and 2002, .com grew into the omnipresent global TLD it continues to be. However, since 2002, the Internet has also grown exponentially. Back them only about 25 million .com domains were registered. Today, as we noted, that number is over 160 million. That's why so many new TLDs were created to meet the demand for short, memorable domains. As the official TLD for the world's biggest economy, more and more people, especially in America's small to medium sized businesses, are seeing .US as one of the best possible options for their internet identity.

Posted July 1, 2022. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0701.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains


.US Domain Registrations Increased for the 8th Straight Month in May - Growth Rate More Than Double That of All ccTLDs Combined

By Ron Jackson .US domain registrations climbed for the eighth consecutive month in May 2022, adding 6,216 domains to push the American ccTLD's total to 1,845,459. Over the past three months the .US total has gone up 54,548 domains (a 3.4% rise in 90 days). In the 11 months since ADN launched last July, .US is up 9.1% - a much faster growth rate than the last available statistics for the ccTLD market at large. According to the last	Image from Bigstock
Verisign *Domain Name Industry Brief* the all ccTLDs combined grew at a 3.8% rate last year (everynation on earth and a variety of regions has an official ccTLD of their own. Germany's .de, the United Kingdom's .uk, Canada's .ca and the USA's .us are just a few examples of the more than 300 top level country code domains on the internet). On the downside, rising interest rates aimed at reigning in runaway inflation has led to reports of business slowing down and the May numbers for .US reflect appear to reflect that. While they continued to grow, this was the first time in their current 8-month run that the number of registrations added came in below the five-digit mark. Posted June 1, 2022. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0601.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains


Winning Streak for .US Domain Registrations Reaches 7 Months in a Row - On Track for Double Digit Growth YOY

By Ron Jackson .US domain registrations surged for the seventh consecutive month in April 2022, adding 16,823 domains to push the American ccTLD's total to 1,839,273. Over the past three months the .US total has risen 4.5% and in the 10 months since ADN launched last July, .US is up 8.75% - a far faster growth rate than the ccTLD market at large (every nation on earth and a variety of regions has an official ccTLD of their own. Germany's .de, the United	Image from Bigstock
Kingdom's .uk, Canada's .ca and the USA's .us are just a few examples of the more than 300 top level country code domains on the internet). If the average .US monthly growth rate for this year continues in May and June, .US will reach July 1 with a year over year jump of 11.4% and a six-figure increase in domains registered. By comparison, Verisign's latest Domain Name Industry Brief reported that the overall ccTLD market dropped 4% last year with all of that drop (and then some) caused by one TLD - China's .cn, after it underwent a reduction that lopped a whopping 9.4 million domains from the TLD. However, even after taking .cn out of the mix, the overall ccTLD market's growth rate, while solid, was limited to 3.8%. With two months to go, .US is on track to triple that level of increase in the year ending July 1. Posted May 1, 2022. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0501.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

April 24 is A Big Day in .US History - The 20th Anniversary of When the Domain Opened to ALL Americans

By Ron Jackson

There are two big dates in the history of .US, the United States of America's official country code top level domain (ccTLD). The first was February 15, 1985 - the day that .US was added to the Internet as the world's first ccTLD. Unfortunately, when .US debuted it was only available to a few segments of American society - reserved for government, law enforcement, schools and a handful of other special uses. It took more than 17 years for that to change, with ALL American citizens, as well as others who do business in or with Americans, finally being able to register .US domains when the registry finally open the doors completely on April 24, 2002 - exactly 20 years ago today.

Publicity about that event is actually how I learned about the domain business in the first place. At the time I was looking for a

Image from Bigstock

couple of domains for a new business idea and found the ones I was interested in already taken in .com. So, when I saw the news about .US opening, I happily registered the names in my country's own TLD and have been buying and selling them ever since.

It is regrettable that for 17 years, while citizens in other countries like the Germany (.de), the United Kingdom (.uk), France (.fr), Australia (.au) and about 300 others, flocked to their local TLDs - the vast majority of Americans could not do the same. While that situation gave other TLDs a gigantic head start, recognition for .US has grown steadily over the past couple of years. One big factor was the global pandemic putting the Zoom.us teleconferencing service in front of millions of people around the world on a daily basis.

Since the pandemic began was we have seen our aftermarket .US sales multiply dramatically and new .US registrations are performing far better than the overall ccTLD market. The latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief released last week shows the number of ccTLDs registered worldwide had dropped 4% in 2021 compared to 2020. A big zone reduction in China's .cn accounted for all of that drop and then some and when taken out of the mix, the rest of the world's ccTLDs cumulatively grew by 3.8%. That is a very solid number, but as we reported earlier this month, the number of .US registrations grew by double that percentage rate, 7.75% in just the nine months since we launched ADN July 4, 2021 and started tracking the numbers.

All of that makes the 20th Anniversary of the opening of .US to ALL Americans and especially happy holiday to celebrate for those who love our nation's internet address.

Posted April 24, 2022. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0424.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

.US Domain Registrations Continue 6-Month Surge With Biggest 1-Month Gain Since ADN Launched

By Ron Jackson

When American Domain Names (ADN.US) launched on July 4th, 2021, we started tracking .US metrics like registration numbers, aftermarket sales prices, etc. (the statistics are on our Sales & Stats page). In the month that just ended (March 2022), .US domains scored their 6th consecutive month of registration gains with their biggest one month gain since we started following the numbers.

.US added 37,725 domains in

March (following gains of 24,750 in February and 10,005 in January) to push total registrations in the United States of America's ccTLD up to 1,822,450. The 72,530 domains added in 1Q-2022 represents a 4.1% jump since the start of the year and .US registrations are up 7.75% since we launched last July. At their current pace they will easily reach a double digit year over year growth rate by the time we hit our 1-year anniversary on July 4, 2022.

A lot of that growth can be attributed to a rising ride lifting all boats. The overall domain market (new registrations and aftermarket sales) has been booming for more than a year now, with no sighs of slowing down after a great opening quarter in 2022. Some recent .US aftermarket sales have no doubt also helped boost interest in .US, especially the $99,999 sale of Drive.us that we told you about last month.

Regardless of what is powering the trend, it is great news for those who have been buying, developing and investing in .US domains ever since the TLD was first opened to all American citizens (and other who serve the American market) on April 24, 2002. Hard to believe the 20th anniversary of that key event is coming up this month. Of course, the history of .US goes back much further than that. .US first went live on February 15, 1985 as the very first ccTLD on the Internet.

Posted April 1, 2022. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0401.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

After Selling Drive.us for $99,999 Keith Trost Buys Art.us for $15,000
By Ron Jackson It didn't take veteran domain investor Keith Trost long to re-invest some of the proceeds from his record-breaking $99,999 sale of Drive.us that was reported yesterday (February 21). Today we got word from Keith that he just acquired another great domain, Art.us, via Sedo for $15,000. That would have looked like a steal even before Drive.us set a new standard but now, with Drive.us to measure other sales against, it looks like an even more astonishing bargain. The term "art" speaks for itself, of course, but the sheer number of results the keyword generates in Google - 12.4 billion - underscores the word's amazing mind share worldwide ("drive" also generate a huge number, returning 5.7 billion results but it is still less than half that of art).
While that is an interesting metric, bigger factors determine the price paid for an individual domain name. In addition to the inherent value of a word a search term or brand, things like how much a given buyer wants a specific name, how deep their pockets are, how they think the domain will pay for itself and - on the other side of the table - how motivated is the seller? How much have they invested in the domain and what is their financial situation (the latter often dictates the number at which they will let a name go). It can be a mysterious process, which is why domain investing is an much an art as it is a science (maybe Keith will get Science.us too and end up owning both sides of the equation)!
Posted February 22, 2022. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0222.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains *****

Drive.us Sold for $99,999 in Biggest Verified .US Sale Ever Reported

Editor's note: This article, first posted on DNJournal.com, has been reprinted with their permission.

By Ron Jackson

Since the current domain sales boom began (soon after the start of the global pandemic that forced countless businesses to create or strengthen their online presence) we've gotten used to seeing big sales in an increasingly wide variety of TLDs. While .coms continued to command the most money, TLDS like .io, .co, .xyz and and a few others have flirted with, or even surpassed the six-figure mark.

Now, in the biggest .US sale we have ever been able to verify, the ccTLD for the United States of America (and the first ccTLD created on internet in 1985) has thrown its hat into the ring. Veteran domain investor Keith Trost just sold Drive.us for $99,999 in a Buy It Now transaction on the Afternic platform (we've seen the documentation).

Keith, who had the year's 4th highest reported domain sale in 2020 with NAS.com at $720,000, doesn't yet know who the Drive.us buyer is. As of this writing, the domain is resolving to a GoDaddy parking page, however the public WhoIs record now shows a registrant email address tied to Mark Monitor, a firm well known for managing domain asserts for some of the biggest companies in the world. So, odds are good the new owner's name, when it is revealed, will be one that is already familiar to a lot people.

The $99,999 paid for Drive.us is a big jump from what the highest publicly reported .US sales fetched last year when Yellow.us and PPE.us went for $20,000 each and Task.us attracted $18,000. With the bull market sending prices for one-word and short acronym domains in .com into the stratosphere, short domains in some other TLDs will likely continue to attract buyers who either can't afford the term they want in .com or can't get it at any price due to it being in use and off the market. The rising tide may not be lifting all boats, but it is certainly lifting a lot more than it used to.

Posted February 21, 2022. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0221.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

*****

Happy 37th Birthday to the very first ccTLD created on the Internet - the official country code domain for the United States of America - .US, born on February 15, 1985!

How Some of the Dozens of .US Domains We Sold in 2021 are Being Used Now

By Ron Jackson

In 2021 our parent company sold 48 .US domains with most going where we expected they would, to small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) that have used them to build or strengthen their online presence. To see exactly how those domains are being used now, we re-visited them and started a series of articles to share the various ways they are being used with you. This is the second in that series - if you missed it, you can check out the first article here.

While .US is the official country code domain (ccTLD) for the United States - and thus most often used by American individuals, organizations and enterprises - companies based in other countries have also always given the .US extension a lot of love. That is because every nation has their own ccTLD and in many of those nations, the local country code is often the first choice. So, when they decide to expand their operations to target the American market, . US is an obvious option in their eyes.

One of our 2021 buyers, the South America based owners of Quick - a transportation and logistics company with worldwide operations - is a perfect example of that. They bought Quick.us from us to serve as an English language version of their original site that is located at Quick.com.co. The new owners wasted no time putting Quick.us to work for them to attract more clients in the United States, the world's biggest market.

We were also very interested to see who bought IRV.us and what it would be used for. As a common first-name, Irv would make a great personal site, especially for a public figure, but with the RV letters in the string, we also knew it could be very useful in the red hot recreational vehicle market. The latter use turned out to be exactly why the name was purchased by Integrity RV, an Atlanta based RV parts and service company that has been in business for over 10 years. The company was already doing business at IntegrityRV.us, but IRV.us gives them an unforgettable, almost typo-proof super-short address for directing traffic to their online home.

Over the past couple of years, one-word domain names have been the hottest commodities in the domain aftermarket. They make it possible to own a single word that defines not just your business, but your entire business category, giving you instant credibility. Another one of our 2021 sales, Pins.us, is a perfect example of that and the buyer took full advantage of it, going so far as to name their company, PINS.US Inc., after their new domain name. While the domain is new for them, the pin business is not. The owners have been in the pin business for over 20 years as a manufacturer specializing in custom enamel and button pins. Their clients can now go to Pins.us and use site tools to design their own custom pins that are then manufactured and shipped directly to the customer.

As the number of SMB's doing business on a .US domain continues to rise, recognition of the TLD has steadily climbed to new heights as web users have gotten used to seeing thousands of American companies, organizations and individuals using .US names. For us, the record-breaking year of 2021 felt very much like the tipping point for .US domains that we have been expecting ever since the TLD was opened to all U.S. citizens and those who serve the U.S. market in 2002. For those buyers, .US is the natural choice, especially when the .com version of a domain is either a budget buster or unavailable at any price. We'll introduce you to another group of our recent buyers in the next post in this series.

Posted February 10, 2022. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0210.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

After Selling 48 .US Domains in 2021 We Revisited Them to See How They are Being Used Now

By Ron Jackson

By all accounts 2021 was a boom year for domain sales. I am happy to be able to tell you that .US was among the TLDs that benefited from the surge. Our parent company has a large domain portfolio, and the .US portion reached its highest ever level of sales. We sold 48 .US domains in 2021 (and have sold six more in the first three weeks of 2022) and the buyers have been exactly who we hoped they would be. Most were SMBs (small

to medium sized businesses) and almost half of the domains they purchased have already been developed and are now helping to accelerate ever growing recognition of our nation's official ccTLD (country code top level domain).

To show you how the domains we sold in 2021 are being used now, we are going to do a series of posts featuring those new .US websites. These will illustrate the many things .US is perfectly suited for and why we are confident the extension is on its way to fulfilling the enormous potential we saw in it when it was first opened to all U.S. citizens (and those outside the U.S. who serve the U.S. market) in 2002.

A good example of the kind of buyer we attracted in 2021 is Digital Dolphin Products who bought DDP.US for their ecommerce site specializing in printer ink and toner cartridges compatible with just about all OEM products. DDP has a strong business but a 3-letter .com, even if it were for sale, could easily cost $100,000 or more - well beyond the budget of most SMBs. However, as a company that serves customers all over America, including many government agencies (the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security and theU.S. Navy among them), the 3-letter .US was a perfect fit at a fraction of the cost. By the way, DDP, who is based in Henderson, Nevada is also a generous, socially responsible company. A portion of every sale goes to global chairty Whales and Dolphin Conservation (WDC)


	The Restoration Company also put a domain they bought from us, Restoration.us, to good use. The Fresno, California based company is a full service restoration general contractor who fixes fire, water and mold damage of all kinds. One of the most appealing things about .US is that it can not only serve as a geographical locator to instantly show potential customers you are a proud American company, it can also be mean the word "us" - signifying that your
company is the very definition of the keyword. Restoration.us says "we are restoration, restoration is us!" It is a very powerful massage and it is all conveyed by the domain extension.

We also saw several of the domains we sold used as a shorter, more memorable name used to redirect traffic to an existing website with a long, easy to mis-spell or forget domain name in another extension (the new name also provides a much shorter email address). A perfect example is UWS.US (names can't get much shorter that that!) - a domain we sold to Upstate Warrior Solution, a non-profit organization based in Greenville, South Carolina that had already invested in an impressive site built on UpstateWarriorSolution.org.

UWS now uses UWS.US to make it much easier for people to reach them. Not only that - UWS's mission is to help American military veterans find jobs, collect any benefits they may qualify and generally just lend a a hand whenever it is needed. For an organization devoted to American vets what domain extension could be better than America's official Internet Address - .US? We know the answer to that and thousands of other American businesses, organizations and individuals are coming to realize and recognize the answer too.

In our next post (and several more after that) we will show you what many of our other recent buyers have done with their new .US domains. We have loved seeing them land in the hands of high quality organizations and enterprises who are building outstanding destinations on them - all helping to take America's domain extension to the next level.

Posted January 22, 2022. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2022/0122.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

After Attracting $113 Million in Series A Funding Intrinsic.us is Emerging as a Leader in Health & Wellness eCommerce

By Ron Jackson

Since launching American Domains Names (ADN) on July 4, 2021, we have been paying close attention to successful startups based on .US domains, as their accomplishments clearly show that America's official country code domain is serving as a solid foundation for some of America's most innovative and fastest growing companies. Intrinsic, an emerging leader in the health & wellness eCommerce space, located at www.Intrinsic.us, is a prime example. The

New York City based company, founded earlier this year in partnership with Redesign Health, attracted $113 million in series A funding In June.

Intrinsic scouts and buys fast-growing health & wellness brands selling on Amazon and helps them realize their full potential. By bringing capital, healthcare marketing expertise, supply chain expertise, and advanced analytics to its acquired brands, Intrinsic accelerates growth and reach. Intrinsic focuses on numerous areas of health & wellness, including Pregnancy & Baby, Healthy Aging, Orthopedics, Digestive Health, Immune Support, Eye Health and Skin Care.

Yadin Shemmer, Intrinsic Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Intrinsic is building the consumer health products business of tomorrow by acquiring and accelerating eCommerce native brands. Health & wellness eCommerce is immense and growing at a breakneck pace as consumers move their spending online. Intrinsic is purpose-built to meet this opportunity and address the unique needs of consumers and founders in the category. However, we see commerce as just the beginning of a relationship with health consumers. By aggregating a large population of consumers around their chosen solutions, we are building a bridge from commerce to care that will transcend retail products and impact the lives of people around the world."

Intrinsic executives (left to right): Erum Hasnain (VP Acquisitions), Yadin Shemmer
(Co-founder & CEO) and Mike Blank (VP Business Operations)

Yadin Shemmer previously served as Chief Executive Officer of Mango Health (sold to TrialCard in 2019) and as President of Everyday Health's Consumer Group (sold to Ziff Media Group in 2016 for $467 million).

Lynne Chou O'Keefe, Partner at Define Ventures, who joined Intrinsic's Board of Directors, noted "Consumer health products are frequently used to manage and maintain an individual's health. Intrinsic is not only rewriting the rules of consumer health products, but it is also building a platform for global health centered around eCommerce.

Intrinsic has also partnered with health and wellness experts, Dr. Mehmet Oz and Tony Robbins, to assist with marketing and strategy. Oz and Robbins are investors in Intrinsic and are serving as strategic advisors to the company.

Posted November 23, 2021.
Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/1123.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

Visor.us Attracts $5 Million in Seed Funding With Launch of the World's Most Connected Spreadsheet

By Ron Jackson Startups based on .US domains continue to attract investor interest with innovative technology. For Visor.us, who just received $5 million in seed round funding, the lure is a powerful new twist they have applied to an office staple, resulting in what they call "the world's most connected spreadsheet for internal application building.
Based on a familiar spreadsheet interface, Visor’s product enables anyone to build flexible internal applications powered by data from solutions like Jira, Salesforce, and HubSpot. As SaaS adoption has grown exponentially, enterprise data has become scattered and difficult to access. When employees need to collaborate and work with this data, they turn spreadsheets into de-facto business applications. This creates accuracy problems. Unlike other productivity & collaboration tools that have add-on integrations which require field mapping, Visor directly includes data from other apps in ultra-high fidelity. Interactive visualizations, including gantt and timeline views, unlock creativity. Built-in safeguards protect data integrity to prevent sync errors. Access controls allow collaboration while providing the right access to users. Screenshot from Visor.us Visor Founder and CEO Michael Yaroshefsky, said, "Spreadsheets offer the ultimate flexibility to build internal solutions, but they have a problem fitting into teams with many SaaS apps. Sync plugins are poor workarounds. To make rich data from other apps safely editable, we reimagined the whole spreadsheet experience" said "Visor gives anyone with spreadsheet skills the ability to create internal solutions without sacrificing accuracy or suffering with unreliable integrations." Companies including Amazon, Samsung, Doordash and many others are already taking advantage of Visor's capabilities. Larry Bohn, managing director at General Catalyst Partners (who led the seed financing round), added, "Spreadsheets have emerged as one of the most powerful tools for managing many business operations, yet they are often underutilized. What Michael and the team at Visor are building bridges that gap to create a low-code environment with deep integrations. It's impressive technology and we're excited to see them come to market to take on this massive opportunity." Alongside General Catalyst Partners additional funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Craft Ventures, Converge Venture Partners, M13 Ventures, and angel investors including Nat Friedman, CEO of Github. The company is using this financing to expand its suite of integrations and continue to grow the team. Interested candidates can learn more at www.visor.us/careers. Posted October 22, 2021. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/1022.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

Ollies.US is the Web Address for a Booming Bargain Store Chain With $1.7 Billion in Annual Sales

By Ron Jackson If you live in the Eastern half of the United States, you are probably familiar Ollie's stores. The fast growing seller of brand name closeout merchandise has 419 stores spreads across 28 states and they will be opening seven more this month alone (October 2021) - three in New York state with Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia and Oklahoma each adding another to the ones they have.
I've been a frequent visitor to Ollie's stores for a long time as we have five of them located in Florida's Tampa Bay area where we are located. As a domain investor and developer, the first thing I noticed about the chain was their prominently featured web address - Ollies.us - that is printed on the millions of flyers and newspaper ads they produce each year as well as on Help Wanted banners posted on the new retail buildings they expand into every month. It is interesting to note that the company also owns Ollies.com, but if you go there you get an error page that tells you to go to Ollies.us. Whatever Ollie's is doing, they are doing it right. The public company (NASDAQ: OLLI) rang up $868 million in sales in the first half of the year. With the Christmas season still ahead they will easily surpass $1.7 billion for the year and likely flirt with the $2 billion mark. Their EBITDA has grown 44% over the past two years. Ollie's was founded in 1982 in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The late President and CEO, Mark Butler, co-founded the the company based on the idea that “everyone in America loves a bargain.” From the start, Ollie's set themselves apart as an extreme value retailer of brand name merchandise at drastically reduced prices, under their slogan “Good Stuff Cheap!” Ollie's customers take advantage of deals on housewares, food, books and stationery, bed and bath, floor coverings, toys and hardware packed into warehouse style stores that average approximately 32,500 square feet. With that formula, Ollie's has posted consistently strong financial returns across all vintages, geographic regions, population densities, demographic groups and, real estate formats. With this track record of proven success, Ollie's is on track to eventually double the number of stores they currently have to 950. I'll continue dropping in to see what's new in their constantly changing inventory and will continue to appreciate the attention they bring to America's Internet Address - .US!
Posted October 1, 2021. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/1001.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

FVBank.us Attracts $8 Million Series A Investment - Online Only Bank Valued at $48 Million

By Ron Jackson

We've seen an impressive series of seven and eight-figure investments in .US based startup businesses over the past couple of weeks. As we told you on Friday (Sept. 10), insurance company Vouch.us raked in $90 million and, as we reported on September 6, workflow documentation innovator Tango.us attracted $5.7 million in new funding. The latest to join the party is FV Bank, an online-only bank located at FVBank.us, that received an $8 million Series A investment that values the company at $48.9 million.

Founded in 2018 by payments entrepreneurs Miles Paschini and Nitin Agarwal, FV Bank offers an online-only banking platform that meets the need for more open access to banking for FinTech, blockchain, and cryptocurrency companies. Based in Puerto Rico, FV Bank is also the first bank to offer companies a hybrid solution — marrying integrated traditional banking services, including payments, with the upcoming ability to hold fiat and digital assets in the same account and the facility to seamlessly convert digital assets to fiat currency.

The newly injected capital will enable FV Bank to launch its digital asset custody division, develop its debit card offering, and accelerate its international expansion. FV Bank plans to broaden its product suite to include interest-bearing products and B2B lending services in 2022, while aiming to achieve $750 million to $1 billion AUM (assets under management) within the next year.

Mr. Paschini, FV Bank’s CEO, noted, “The demand for banking services in the FinTech and digital asset industries currently far outweighs the supply. With this new round of funding we are in an excellent position to continue innovating and expanding our offerings to our growing client base."

Posted Sept. 14, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0914.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

Insurance Startup Built on Vouch.us Attracts $90 Million in New Funding - Company Valued at $550 Million

By Ron Jackson

As reported by TechCrunch today, Vouch, a provider of business insurance to startups and high-growth companies located at Vouch.us, today announced that the company has added $90 million in new funding. TechCrunch noted that the latest funding raised the total Vouch has raised since its inception in 2018 to $160 million. Ribbit Capital currently values Vouch at $550 million (thanks to Elliot Silver at DomainInvesting.com for directing us to the report).

Like many new companies, Vouch found that the name they chose was already taken in .com (by a company that helps parents find local tutors in their area that come with high recommendations). As an American company, .US gave Vouch a perfect option and they are clearly thriving in their online home as well as at their San Francisco address in the physical world.

This is becoming an increasingly common success story. Earlier this week we told you about Tango.us, another blossoming startup that just attracted a $5.7 million venture capital investment.

TechCrunch noted that Vouch, a licensed insurance carrier, "describes itself as “a new kind of insurance platform” for startups that offers fully digital, tailored coverage that takes just minutes to activate.” In the company's own announcement about the funding, they stated "Operating climates have changed and so have the risks startups face. In response, Vouch has developed a broader range of insurance coverages and invested in our technical capabilities to better serve startups and our partners."

Posted Sept. 10, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0910.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

Rapidly Rising SaaS Company Based on a .US Domain Attracts $5.7 Million Investment

By Ron Jackson

There are only 171,476 words in the Oxford English Dictionary and virtually every one of them has been registered as a .com domain. No surprise there since more than 156 million .com domains have been registered. As a result, one-word domains in .com are either prohibitively expensive for most small to medium sized business (SMBs) or not available at any price. That is why you are seeing so many new companies setting up shop on the next best option, which for many, is their nation's ccTLD (country code domain extension).

That was the case for Tango, a rapidly rising company in the SaaS space. A British beverage company is already operating on Tango.com, but the blossoming tech firm was able to secure Tango.us at an affordable price and their booming business is right at home in a natural online location for any American business.

Tango, a modern, easy-to-use application that streamlines the process of creating workflow documentation, just received a $5.7 million seed round investment led by Wing Venture Capital and joined by General Catalyst, GSV Ventures, Outsiders Fund, Red Sea Ventures, and many prominent angels. TechCrunch posted the full story about this exciting new company on August 24, 2021 that explains why they are attracting so much attention from investors and the tech community.

In addition to the steady flow of new companies driven by innovation, the current Covid

pandemic has demonstrated why everyone in business has to think about doing more business online. Those forces have created
a boom in the domain aftermarket. .US is benefiting from that boom thanks to its ability to provide popular one-word, 3-letter acronym and meaningful multiple word term domains at prices that are still affordable - while also providing a TLD (domain extension) home base that is a perfect match for any American company, organization or individual, as well as any enterprise that serves the U.S. market.

Posted Sept. 6, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0906.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

.US Registry Website Details Six Ways .US Domains Can Benefit You

By Ron Jackson

A forum member at NamePros.com sent me a message about a page he had found on the .US Registry's official website, About.us, that had a minor graphic glitch he thought I might be able to alert the registry to (and I will do that). I'm glad he directed me to the page in question - 6 Ways .US Can Benefit You - because it makes some very good points about the substantial strengths of the the .US TLD and those are worth sharing here:

Be Uniquely American

Your business, civic group, or personal story is rooted in America. Show your pride and share it with others. Your .US address will help tell your American story in ways that draw visitors in and keep them coming back.

Be findable

.US gives you greater chances of getting exactly the domain name you want—not some modified version that’s harder for people to find. Make it easy for people to find your brand, organization, or you.

Be searchable

Search engines tend to rank websites with .US more highly for searches in the US. That’s a real plus for any business or organization whose web traffic is mostly American-based.

Promote Your US-Based Business

Studies show that Americans like to buy American, especially from small or local companies. You’ve seen plenty of products bearing the “Made in America” label. Get the web address that says the same thing about your business.

Connect Your Cause and Country

Whether you’re advancing a worthy cause or a civic group, a .US address says you’re making your community and your country stronger. Patriotism comes in all shapes and sizes. Showcase yours.

Make “US” about You

Besides meaning United States, “US” also refers to couples, families, or any other group. So get creative. Imagine a wedding site: Ann-Russ.us. Or a page for your annual family reunion: WhoElseBut.us. The possibilities are endless, plus a lot of fun.

Those are all things we very much appreciate about America's ccTLD. The .US Registry's About.us website looks great and has a lot of excellent information that make it a perfect starting point for anyone who is not already familiar with .US and wants to learn more about it.

Regarding that glitch that prompted the sender to direct me to the .US Benefits page in the first place, it involves the blue .US pennant at the top (that serves as a link to the home page), about a third of the way across the page. The graphic is overlapping the first introductory line so some words are not visible. Should be an easy fix and we'll delete this paragraph when it's done. The only reason I made it part of the initial story is because it illustrates how much pride .US users have in their country's official domain extension. They like how it looks and they love what it represents, so if something is off, they will certainly let you know!

Posted August 27, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0827.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

More Americans Are Recognizing the Value of .US Domains Thanks To Buyers Based Overseas

By Ron Jackson

Over the past 19 years, I've sold hundreds of .US domain names with the vast majority of them going to end users rather than domain investors. The buyers tend to fall into one of two camps - those from overseas who are launching or expanding their business presence in the U.S. or small to medium sized business owners who live in America. The two groups come to .US from very different perspectives.

Buyers who live in the U.S., where .com became well established almost a decade before American businesses could even register a .US domain (.US didn't full open until April 2002), typically don't think about .US until they find the name they wanted in .com was already taken and was either beyond their budget or not available at any price. This happens far more often than not because 156 million .com domains have already been registered (millions of them by investors). By contrast, less than 2 million .US domains have been taken, so the word or term a buyer wants is available far more often and at a much more affordable price in .US.

It is ironic that overseas buyers are much more likely to recognize the

Image from Bigstock

value in .US than their American counterparts. That's because those overseas are already intimately familiar with ccTLDs (country code domains). In their nations the local ccTLD is often the first choice when a company starts looking for a suitable domain name. Germans are wildly in love with .de, in Great Britain you see .uk everywhere, China has .cn, and the trend continues through dozens of others as every nation has their own TLD (domain extension). In the United States, it is .US, so when a company from overseas wants to ramp up in America, many of them naturally think of the .US as well as the .com.

Scarcely a day goes by that I don't notice that dichotomy. As one example, I needed some new LED light bulbs so I went to Amazon and, overwhelmed by the number of options, decided to take the Amazon's Choice recommendation and ordered a dozen bulbs from a company called Energetic Lighting. They arrived today and they are great bulbs. Brilliant daylight white with what appears to be very good build quality (they also came with very high ratings from Amazon buyers). However, the

thing that delighted me even more was pulling a warranty card out of the box and seeing the company's web address - EnergeticLighting.us. The manufacturer is the China-based Yankon Group. I had not seen the brand before but they appear to be making a big splash in the U.S. and a .US domain is helping them do it.

We've seen a healthy jump in our .US sales this year and it has been very encouraging to see more and more American businesses going online with their nation's official ccTLD and it is a perfect fit. Com is a marvelous global TLD, but millions of businesses have to look for the best available option. As the first or second choice, and the most relevant geographical choice of all, ccTLDs have filled that void all over the world. As an American, it is great to see the current boom in the domain market (and high visibility websites like Zoom.us) helping the .US get its long overdue turn in the spotlight.

Posted August 20, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0820.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

.US Domains Highlighted on the Home Page at Sedo - the World Leader in ccTLD Sales

By Ron Jackson

When it comes to selling ccTLDs on the domain aftermarket, Sedo is the industry's 800-pound gorilla. If you look at the bi-weekly ccTLD Top 20 Sale Chart published at DNJournal.com, you will see that Sedo invariably has the vast majority of country code domain sales reported from around the world. Thousands of potential buyers visit Sedo.com daily in search of a relevant domain to build their website on, so it is good to see America's ccTLD, .US, being featured on Sedo's Home Page as we write this on August 8, 2021.

The link at Sedo brings up the huge catalog of .US domains currently available on the their platform. You can search through their inventory using a variety of filters to zero in on what you are looking for. Sedo's Buy It Now listings are especially popular and are the ones we check first. The aftermarket sales giant found that sellers who set a Buy It Now price on their domains will typically triple the number of sales they make. We found that to be true with our own portfolio after switching to all BIN pricing at the beginning of this year.

One thing we hope to accomplish with American Domain Names is to encourage aftermarket platforms, the .US registry operator and individual domain registrars to give the .US ccTLD, that represents the world's biggest economy, the visibility it deserves along side the world's other great ccTLDs. This is something that Sedo, with their unparalleled insight into the country code market, didn't need any prompting to do, and we certainly appreciate them for that.

Posted August 8, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0808.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

How .US is Helping an American Company With Over $23.8 Billion in 2020 Revenue Keep Growing

By Ron Jackson

CBRE is the world's biggest commercial real estate services company. With over 100,000 employees in over 480 offices around the world, Dallas, Texas based CBRE rang up $23.8 billlion in revenue last year. The Fortune 500 company (ranked #121 this year) has also been named one of Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies” for nine years in a row, including being ranked number one in the real estate sector in 2021, for the third consecutive year. The company's shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CBRE” and if you are looking for them on the Internet, you will find them on a .US domain - CBRE.US.

CBRE owns CBRE.com too, but if you are in the USA and type that in, you will be redirected to CBRE.US. As a global powerhouse, CBRE is a big believer in the geo-targeting power of ccTLDs (Country Code domain extensions). Every nation has their own ccTLD and in most major countries around the world, the local ccTLD is favored by millions of people, businesses and organizations. That is why CBRE also uses CBRE.co.uk to reach their customers in Great Britain, CBRE.de for those in Germany, CBRE.it for Italy and dozens of others that follow the same standard.

CBRE is just one of many major domestic and international companies that use .US to target the American market. That being the case, it is amazing to still see how easy and affordable it is to acquire a .US domain. With more than 363 million domains now taken worldwide, it is harder than ever to find a good domain, even in the major national ccTLDs. America's .US extension is one of the few exceptions to that rule. In Germany, where .de is the national TLD, 17 million .de domains have been registered. That is ten times more than the 1.7 million .US domains that have been taken as of July 2021. The comparison to .com is even more striking. More than 155 million .com domains have been taken. That means there are 91 times more open words, terms and acronyms in .US than in .com. Premium .US domains on the aftermarket will also cost a small fraction of what the same word or term would cost in .com (if it was available at all).

This situation exists largely because .US was not opened to all American citizens until 2002. In the 17 years prior to that, .US, launched in 1985, was reserved for use by government, law enforcement, schools and other special uses . By 2002 most Americans had already gotten used to using .com, a TLD that has gone on to become the world's most commonly used extension.

The fact that .US has been overlooked and under utilized in its own country has created a unique opportunity for people who need a meaningful, memorable domain. America's official domain extension remains a bargain even at a time when domain sales have exploded due to the rush by businesses to get online (or improve their online presence) after the Covid 19 pandemic wreaked havoc on businesses focused only on the physical world.

While premium .com domains are tremendous digital assets that are well worth the prices they command, they also come with price tags that a lot of people simply can't afford. If you are an American (or someone who does business in America), who needs a specific word, term or acronym to match your business identity, there is a good chance that America's official domain extension will provide the memorable yet affordable option you are looking for.

Posted July 30, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0730.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains


American Domain Names and .US Prospects Discussed on New Domain Name Wire Podcast

By Ron Jackson Andrew Allemann has been reporting on the domain industry at DomainNameWIre.com since 2005, launching the popular blog just three years after America's .US ccTLD (previously reserved for government, schools, law enforcement and other official use) was opened to all American citizens (as well as others who do business in the U.S.). I've been regularly reading DNW ever since and appreciating Andrew's thorough and concise coverage of one of the world's most interesting businesses. In 2014 Allemann began supplementing his work in print with an outstanding podcast series and he just posted the 347th episode today! It was a pleasure for me to be his guest on that show after accepting an invitation to talk about American Domain Names and our efforts to boost recognition of our nation's ccTLD (country code domain). You can listen to the show here. Every nation on earth has their own ccTLD and in many nations the local ccTLD is the preferred option. Just this past week, Germany's powerhouse ccTLD, .de, passed 17 million registrations. Despite having almost four times the population of Germany, America's under utilized extension still has just 1.7 million registrations. That is not something to be proud of but there is a positive side to it. It means there are many more good domains still available in .US as both low cost new registrations and premium names in the aftermarket that are easily within the financial reach of small businesses, organizations and individuals. After a long discussion about ADN and the prospects for .US we closed the show with an analysis of the biggest domain sales across all extensions so far this year. A half dozen of those, all .coms, went for at least	Andrew Allemann DomainNameWire.com
$1 million. By comparison, the highest .US sales in 2021 have been $20,000 or less, with the vast majority of aftermarket sales falling in three or four figures. That kind of affordability, in the one TLD backed by the US government, is why we believe .US is an often overlooked option that you should consider if the word, term or acronym you want is either unavailable or unaffordable in .com, as is so often the case. Posted July 19, 2021. Permalink for this story: https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0719.htm Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

ALDI - America's Fastest Growing Grocery Store Chain - Chose .US From the TLD Aisle

A new grocery store is currently going up immediately across the street from the entrance to our neighborhood in Florida. We weren't surprised to see that it is going to be another Aldi store. Aldi is the fastest growing grocery store chain in the United States with well over 2,000 locations nationwide. Aldi has been in our area for years now but the number of locations has exploded over the past year or two. Our new store is the 3rd one on that highway alone.

So, why is this of interest to those in the .US community? If you clicked on the Aldi link in the first paragraph, you've probably already noticed that the company is based at Aldi.US - a web address that appears in the millions of flyers that Aldi sends out to its customers every year (the screen shot at right is from the flyer I got in the mail today). That kind of exposure would be invaluable to any TLD and is a major endorsement for America's under-utilized ccTLD.

It's also just the start of what will be coming from Aldi, a huge multi-national corporation founded in Germany, that rung up approximately $15 billion in annual sales in the U.S. alone last year. By the end of next year the company plans to have 2,500 U.S. stores in operation, which will give Aldi a spot among America's big 3 grocery chains, alongside Wal-Mart and Kroger. If you are wondering if you will be in good company with a .US domain, companies like Aldi, Zoom.us and CBRE.us (the huge real estate services provider with 200 offices across America) should answer that question.

Posted July 14, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0714.htm
Follow us on Twitter: @AmericanDomains

The Case for Calling .US Domains What They Are - American Domain Names

By Ron Jackson

Everyone in the domain business knows what .US domains are. We're so familiar with "dot" nomenclature we don't have to give it a second thought. When we talk about TLDs (top level domains), it is always dot this or dot that - and that's fine within the industry. However, I learned long ago that when you are talking to people in the mainstream business world and mention dot anything, other than .com, .net or org, you can see in their eyes that they're not sure what you are talking about.

Mention .US and you will get a quizzical look telegraphing "I don't know what you mean." So, instead, I started referring to them as American domain names. As America's official country code TLD, it is an interchangeable term with .US, but when you are talking to an American and say "American domain names", the look or response I get from Americans is usually different. They still might not be sure what I mean but, being Americans, their response is "I should know what those are!" and sparks a desire to find out, now that you have brought it up. That simple change in terminology opened the door to a lot of conversations that led to respectable .US sales over the years.

Messaging is vitally important and it's why we named this site American Domain Names. Everyone who loves their nation has a sense of patriotism toward their country and I've always thought that factor and its specific geo-targeting to America were .US's biggest assets. Slogans like "Buy American" and "Made in the USA" are big deals in American commerce and it should be no different with domains.

The problem is the message, as it pertains to domains, has not gotten out and only we, all working together, can change that. This site alone will never do it - we can only hope to provide a spark that could motivate others to act as well and help bring .US the broader recognition and utilization that it deserves as America's Internet Address (officially designated as such by the American government who has ultimate oversight of the domain through the U.S. Department of Commerce). I think that status is an important distinction to make. .US is not one of the more than 1,000 private registry gTLDs (some of which have already come and gone in just a few years). It has been here since 1985 and it is here to stay. With that stability comes credibility and trust. .US is too great an asset to the country and its business community to leave hidden under the counter. It's time to put it in the showcase where it belongs, alongside the world's other great ccTLDs.

Posted July 12, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0712.htm
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Born on the 4th of July! America's ccTLD Gets It Own News & Information Website - American Domain Names at ADN.US

By Ron Jackson

On our first day at ADN - July 4, 2021 - the biggest .US related news I know about is our own birth! I felt nothing could be more fitting than having Independence Day as the launch date for American Domain Names. This site is the long overdue repayment of a debt that I always felt I owed .US.

The domain industry has been very good to me since I entered it back in the spring of 2002. While my domain business revenues have come from multiple sources (especially the domain industry trade magazine Domain Name Journal that I founded at DNJournal.com on New Year's Day in 2003), I never would have found this business in the first place were it not for .US! You can read all of the details about that in "My .US Story", the first entry in our Profiles section.

The short version is that I was looking for a new business to get into when I stumbled upon on a magazine ad for .US in April 2002

announcing the TLD had just been opened up to all American citizens and others who do business in America (it had previously been reserved for government and other special uses). I thought that was intriguing since I had already found it difficult to find a .com domain I wanted for my previous business.

In the course of looking further into .US, I discovered a domain forum and was astonished to learn that people were making money buying and selling domain names. I never thought of the domain name itself as having a lot of value, assuming that could only come from whatever you built on the domain. It was a revelation that sent me off in many new directions, including building a domain portfolio of more than 7,000 domains at its peak (concentrating on .com, .org and .us), starting DNJournal, traveling all over the world to cover and speak at domain conferences and meeting many hundreds of amazing people along the way.

As time passed, I kept thinking one day I should do something to pay .US back for the introduction it gave me to the world I have so happily lived for the past 20 years. I have always felt that .US, as the official domain extension of a nation that is a global power and has the world's greatest economy, has been greatly under utilized and under appreciated. The fact that it wasn't open to all until years after .com was already established as the world's dominant extension didn't help, but that doesn't change the inherent value of what .US represents. Many other ccTLDs (country code domains) around

the world are booming right now and .US should have been (and still can be) a bigger part of that story.

While I have had a popular platform at DNJournal, it is a publication for the entire domain industry and, as a career journalist, I never wanted to put my own interests above the responsibility to serve everyone as equally as possible. As a result, .US likely got much less coverage at DNJ than it would have if someone else had been the owner. With its much narrower scope, ADN, one of the few publications devoted to a single domain extension, will never be as big of a publication or business as DNJ has been, but that's OK with me. It will be a labor or love and payback for the rewards I've already gotten from walking through a door that .US opened for me.

Now what can you do? If you are part of or have an interest in .US and its community of users, you can send in information for our reporting (the email address is Editor@ADN.US). Tell us about your own experiences as a .US buyer, seller or developer. Let is know about .US sales that can be publicized, registrars that are offering great prices (one my favorites, Dynadot.com, has $1.99 registrations as I write this), interesting .US websites you know about or have seen in the wild (a .US TLD on a commercial vehicle is always a cool photo to get). With your help we can put together a valuable resource that can also be used to give potential buyers a lot of good reasons to consider America's official domain for their next project.

In the weeks and months ahead, I'm looking forward to filling this column with all kinds of .US News & Views while also doing some longer feature stories on key people and companies for our .US Profiles section. In the meantime, thank you for stopping by and Happy 4th of July! I hope you'll tell others about us and come back often!

Posted July 4, 2021. Permalink for this story:
https://www.adn.us/news-views/2021/0704.htm

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