I’ve spent the last year writing and setting up landing pages for the various domains that Blacknight offers (over 500 in total!). Through the process, I’ve learned many interesting things. When I got to the country-code domains, I found some surprising uses for otherwise mundane ccTLD’s – e.g. uses beyond their use by organisations and people in those countries. Here’s a round-up of country domains that have interesting uses and hacks – all offered by Blacknight of course!
The domain for Guernsey has found a second-life with the gaming community. .GG can stand for a gaming group. Since anyone can register a .GG domain name – it has become very popular in the gaming world. Groups all over the world are securing the name of their gaming group so they can use it for game servers, Discord servers, and much more.
Click here to register .gg domains
The domain for Jersey (the Channel Island, not the US State) has found surprising popularity in Spanish speaking countries like Chile. ‘Je’ can mean ‘heh’ in Spanish, so it’s relevant to the Spanish-speaking humour vertical. It also has found popularity in France, because ‘Je’ in French means ‘I.’
Click here to register .je domains
This one is an easy one to figure out. What was intended to be the country domain name for Caribbean country of Antigua has become one of the hottest domains on the market for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) business world – which is one of the fasted growing industries in tech right now.
Click here to register .ai domains
While the British Indian Ocean Territory is not known by many or have any inhabitants (other than an American military base), the domain has found a second-life in the tech world since I/O is shorthand for input/output – one of the fundamental concepts of computer programming. This makes .IO very popular in the tech space. Many tech companies that can’t secure the corresponding .COM domain can usually secure the .IO domain.
Click here to register .io domains
The domain for the Federated States of Micronesia, a collection of islands spread out in the Pacific Ocean, has become popular in the radio and podcasting world. ‘FM’ happens to be the name for the most popular (and best quality) radio band and is now a shorthand for radio. So, this domain is popular with radio stations looking to staking their place on the web. Now that the world lives for Podcasts, many podcasts are also using FM as well – as are many of the services that help podcasters get heard.
Click here to register .fm domains
The official country code for Puerto Rico, a US territory in the Caribbean, has become popular in the public relations field. Many corporations will also register their .PR domain so that they can have a central website for all their communications operations.
Click here to register .pr domains
The official domain for Montenegro has become a very popular alternative domain. It’s especially popular with people setting up personal websites (I like using it for personal email myself). It’s also found popularity for use in the US state of Maine (who’s initials are ME) and as a catch-all domain for the entire Middle East.
Click here to register .me domains
The domain for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has found another life as the preferred domain for the Venture Capital world, usually based out of Silicon Valley. Having a .VC name identifies you with the people that can make the next tech unicorns happen.
Click here to register .vc domains
The .AM domain has found several uses outside of Armenia – since anyone can register one. Here in the United States, it can be used for AM band based radio stations. It’s also popular with any word or name ending with .AM – for example, the musician will.i.am uses https://will.i.am. It’s also popular with online streaming, especially with gamers.
Click here to register .am domains
The domain for Ireland has many other domain hack uses – since ‘ie’ is a common suffix in the English language. The only downside is that if you’re outside of Ireland, you have to prove a connection to register one, of course, Blacknight can help with the process!
Click here to register .ie domains
.BE means Belgium, but outside of Belgium .BE has become increasingly popular with the various Tube website but also with link shortening services. It also works with anyone looking to use the English word ‘be’ in their domain name.
Click here to register .be domains
Since ‘it’ is one of the most common words in the English language, .IT – the official country domain for Italy – has become a popular domain to register for domain hackers. Whether you want to play.it, hack.it, or make.it – this domain can be very useful for building the right online brand.
Click here to register .it domains
The small island of Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean found itself in an interesting position when it secured it’s ccTLD. Since everyone calls television ‘TV’ it became one of the most popular alternative domain names, especially in the entertainment world.
Click here to register .tv domains
Have you come across any other interesting domain hacks? Please let us know in the comments below!
About the Author: Jonathan Thomas
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.PT (Portugal) to be used for Personal Trainers/training
Steinar
Any examples?
Michele
Legitimate use: https://gnist.pt/
Hi Michele, we have seen quite a few deals for .es hacks as well, usually making up plural English words – things like pric.es, gam.es, stuff like that.
All the best, Shaun
Shaun
Very true – no idea why we didn’t think of that!
Michele
Many English words end in .rs, ccTLD for Serbia.
Most often the plurals like printe.rs, compute.rs, route.rs, some were dropped over the years like chandelie.rs, or my long time favorite reute.rs
If interested (everyone is eligible for .rs domains) go play with your ideas at https://www.rnids.rs/en/whois/
Keep up the excellent work
Voja
I’ve been using caricatur.es for years thinking I was very clever but it’s just resulted in me being approached by lots of inevitably disappointed Spanish people when they see the URL on my roll-up banner.
Hi Michele, interesting list !
Je also means you (sing.) in Dutch. And noun + -je is the general formula for diminutives in Dutch. ( like the suffix -ito/-ita in Spanish ).