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To .com or .us

SailorDanceSailorDance subscriber Posts: 2
Hello,I am in the process of trying to come up with business name for my consulting business as well as a domain name for my website. It is very hard trying to find a .com domain name. Not that there is an actual site for names that I`ve come up with. Most of the time the domain is parked. I`m not in the position to pay thousands of dollars to buy a domain name. Most of the time the domain parkers only park the .com and all the other ones are available. I`ve been thinking of registering a domain name using .us. It`s easy to remember, it`s American. I read that once you come up with a domain name you should also try to register it with some of the popular alternates like .net, .org, and .biz.Any thoughts on using the some of the alternates... .us, .net, .bizThank you for your input...John

Comments

  • edobedoedobedo subscriber Posts: 0
    I do not know what type of consulting business you are venturing into, but there is a free software tool called "Domain Name Analyzer" that you can download and construct and check the availability of domain names. For example, I just padded the word "consulting" with very common business terms, and I came up with the following domain name within 2 minutes.
    consultingidea.COMAnyhow, my opinion is that .com is king...People will always try .com first when trying to get to a website! - Ed
  • hipercubehipercube subscriber Posts: 1
    I agree with edobedo ... Domain Name Analyzer is a good software. It is worth investing some time (In the worst case, It hardly takes less than few hours to come up with a interesting domain name that is available).
    It is important that you ensure that .com and .net are available. .com is definetely the king just because by default everyone thinks www.companyname.com</A> is your website. And since website is the best and essential marketing tool, be patient and invest some time. Involve couple of your friends to come up with innovative names. Its definetely worth investing some time! Good luck!
  • SnoMonSnoMon subscriber Posts: 4
    To .com or not to .com, that is the question...The thing with .com is that consumers are already trained to "think" and "type" .com.  I think .com`s are the easiest choice for marketing purposes.  Now, search engines could care less whether you are a .com or a .biz, so don`t worry about that.Also, whether you decide on a .com, a .net, or a .us, I would recommend registering all of them (may as well protect your brand), but of course only market one and have the rest re-directed to it.  Be careful not to actually use all the domains, that would be considered duplicate content, and the search engines do not like that.  Simply re-direct them to the site you are marketing.  ...just my two cents
  • DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
    .org has been good to me.
    Dale King
     
  • TexaderoTexadero subscriber Posts: 0
    If you are marketing your company offline, then indeed a .com name is the way to go. Of course what comes before the dot com still needs to be easy to remember and spell.If you`re marketing solely online then like SnoMon said, search engines don`t really care.I`ve had success in finding available domain names with a free tool called BustAName where you can easily try different keyword combinations.
    Texadero2007-10-4 18:59:55
  • vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    John,
    Go with .com if you can... and get the .us version if you want.
    .org has been good to me.
    Dale King
    .ORG was created in 1984 as one of the Internet`s original top-level domains (TLDs) and was designated as "open" and "unrestricted," meaning that anyone can register a .ORG site, but it primarily is used by noncommercial entities around the world, including nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, philanthropies, charities, religious organizations, educational and cultural institutions, arts organizations, sports clubs, and others. Today, .ORG is a recognized brand that includes the Internet`s most trusted Web sites, sites that also are known for providing valuable information.
    Do you fit into one of those "entities"?
    ~Rolandvwebworld2007-10-4 22:56:3
  • RStudiosRStudios subscriber Posts: 0
    I always advise my clients to go for .com as it is what people will guess and type in automatically. Also people will send email addresses to .com instead of .us. I know someone whose business uses .net and he is always missing emails that people sent to .com instead
    Even if your business name isn`t available alone a variation probably will be. For example instead of Sailordance.com use sailordanceconuslting.com, sailordanceconsultants.com, sailordancellc.com, etc
  • VideographyVideography subscriber Posts: 401 Silver Level Member
    The two popular browsers default to www.????.com.  Just type `google` in your address bar and it return, and the browser will add the www. and the .com automatically.
    Unfortunately, the PURPOSE of the TLD`s has been corrupted because of the scarcity of available domains.  .com is for commercial use, .org is for non-profit organizations, .net is for network providers (principally ISP`s), and .us is for personal use in the USA.  The .tv TLD is from the island country Tuvalu, but since there are so few residents of Tuvalu, the government there has licensed their .tv TLD for commercial use.
    It doesn`t matter which Domain Registrar you use, they all go to the same database of domain names.  I use GoDaddy exclusively.  They have a option that you can pay them to watch for the domain you want to expire and they will try to grab it for you.  Somewhere on their home page is a link to Bob Parsons thesis on domain spiking, which is the leeches who grab a domain name and park it for sale just because there was an inquiry.  You may very well have triggered such leeches just by domain shopping on different registrar sites.Videography5/13/2008 6:53 PM
  • lmckaylmckay subscriber Posts: 1
    I just went through this - took me 7 years to actually land the domain name I wanted without getting nailed by the $5000.00 the name company wanted for me to buy it.
     
    If you are stuck on a name you love look it up in whois.com see when it`s up for renewal
    Check it out at alexis to see the page rank
     
    If it`s not that high and it`s coming up for renewal you can backorder it.
     
    I purchased .com, .net, .org in my name and plan to point .net and .org at my .com name.
     
    .com is the way to go if you can swing a name you like! And somewhere down the road if you finally do land the name of your dreams... you can always redirect traffic to your existing site.
     
    Right now there is a huge business being built on buying and selling names. I had no idea until I started trying to get my name.
  • WebJunkyWebJunky subscriber Posts: 8 Member
    agree with a lot of thoughts circulated in this discussion,
     
    the .us .in .cn domains will become more popular as the world economies continue to globalize.  one might argue that the internet is already global (has been from the start) but still there is a lot of psychology involved in this discussion.  there are simply many constituents and factors involved (i.e. business mind-set, the average online visitor, business propositions and target demographics, etc).
     
    that all said, the .com domain is the most popular and will continue to be. i simply don`t see it going anywhere.  it is just how we were brought up during the internet revolution (which many say has not reached critical mass of yet).  in any case, try to secure a .com name if you can. i understand that good names are scarce, but there are still some out there up for grabs.  use the domain analyzer tools provided in this discussion thread and search for others on google if you can`t find any.
     
    many vendors like godaddy who sell domain names provide a means for you to search for the best name possible and available for your website.  few years back they did not have this capability (or rather charged for this function).  another alternative is to consider the secondary market.  as unfortunate or fortunate as we may see it, many are in the business of buying and selling domain names.  try approaching existing holders of the domain name you want and ask how much they want for it.  it never hurts to ask.  i know someone who got their domain name for under $100.
     
    on the other hand, i also have a friend who sold his .cn domain name for $5,000.  it was a name of a fortune 500 company and the company had serious plans to do business in china.  just thought that was interesting to throw out there.  i do expect .cn and .in domain extensions to take off in the next decade as the emerging chinese and indian economies progress.
     
    im summary though, i would recommend the .com name and then getting as many of the other extensions as you can for your URL (.org .net .biz .us .in .cn and a ton of others)  after all they cost less than $10 each and it is definitely worth having them if you have serious plans for your business. once you collect all your extensions, point every single one to your main .com URL !!
  • rfreshrfresh subscriber Posts: 0
    There is no question on this answer: .com is the way to go.
  • profitizerprofitizer subscriber Posts: 16 Bronze Level Member
    Hello SailorDance.
     
    I agree that `.com` is still what many folks go with first when they can`t remember what the extension is, but that tide is turning much faster now.  There are also masses of those who routinely use the search engine field in place of their browser`s address bar to find web addresses even when they know the name and extension.  With that said, there are masses of those using `.net` and other extensions who are doing quite well in terms of complete name recognition. 
     
    It`s gotten tremendously better because Internet users are becoming more saavy out of necessity and are now paying much closer attention to the domain name extension than in times past.  It`s to the point that we`re seeing those other extensions more in print, on television, in radio, as well as on the Internet.  Also, more times than not, folks are reading the domain name either from printed literature or clicking it from somewhere on the `Net and then bookmarking it for future use.  They tend to fall back on using the search engines when unsure.  Folks recognize that [most] of the desired 1 and 2-word `.com` names are taken which kind of forces them to pay closer attention.. 
     
    From an E-mail perspective, again, folks are paying closer attention to the domain name and are not necessarily making the mistakes to the level as before.  The problem that still persists then is typos that prevents E-mail from being delivered to the right destination.
     
     
    When choosing a domain name, two (2) strong considerations are marketing ability of the name and the search engine consideration.  Search engines are keyword-driven and therefore, ranks fancy or non-generic names much lower than they do generics; and they ignore all domain name extensions. 
     
    What this means is, although  you may want to use, say, a non-generic name or acronym because it matches your company name, it makes the promotion side more difficult because more has to be done to `brand` that name.  But, you can have a secondary, more generic name that redirects to that company name (or vice versa) that is easier to market because it may be easier to remember or spell and is relevant to the website`s content, even if it is not a `.com`.
     
    Believe it or not, there are some who own a `.com` version but choose not to use it so to provide that `difference.`   Sometimes it`s because that other extension has a better `ring` to it and/or is more descriptive of the website`s content e.g. `.info.`   In other instances, it`s because they want folks to believe the persona that they are the `official organization` or `association` of that industry, because they know that they can gain more natural traffic using a `.org` when found in search engine results, type-ins, or when doing Internet advertising.
     
    Bottom line is, the MUST-have a `.com` is not necessarily the same so-called requirement as it was historically because Web surfers are more knowledgeable.  Even domain registrars are making other extensions `Premium` now especially if the `.com` is already taken.  Granted the `Premium` designation is great for them economically, but it also shows that Premiums are no longer just for ".com`s" anymore, either.  If you can get the `.com`, fine.  But if you really need the first part of the domain name even more and you feel you can market it just as well as the `.com` and the already-taken `.com` content is not offensive, then go for it.
     
    Just a thought...
     
    HTH
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Also, check out these threads:Thread#1 Thread#2 Thread#3
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     
    profitizer6/25/2008 2:21 PM
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