I own the .NET, how important is it to get the .COM, .ORG, etc?

[CPisHere]

For my B&M business, I own the name of the store.net, as .com was not available.

Using Whois Lookup, I found the owner of the .com site (which is not currently being utilized), and tried to e-mail him to see if he would sell it to me, but got no response. The guy is in Japan, so I'm considering having the messages translated to Japanese and sending again - think this would help?

How important is it to have .COM address for a B&M business (that will eventually expand to e-commerce)?

Should I own any of the alternatives? .ORG, name with a dash, etc? Which ones would be most important to get?

 

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[458]

Matters very little. If you had said that the .com has already been built into a large brand than it might be different. Your .net will work just fine, look at boingboing.net to view how a .net can be very successful.

 

[livebig]

Yeah, I ran into the same issue just last week. Bought a domain for my fastlane business and then later realized it was the .org after I had purchased it. The .com and the .net are taken, but they're just placeholders and have been for years.

I agonized over it for a bit, but then realized, it'll be ok as long as the business becomes successful.

Michael

 

[aug]

I'd say it really depends on your niche. If it were a straight up consumer business, I would advise a .com as the consumer market is more fickle and highly competitive so the easier you make it to remember, the easier marketing and branding will be.

That said, I have seen many successful companies that are not .com's but their SERP's have been incredible. If you market right, it shouldn't give you any problems.

I once owned a very successful .net but these days I look for names that all the TLD's are available so I can own them all. Some day the IP will hold its own value when you gain momentum but again, depends on your objective. We used to flip traffic sites for quick cash and the TLD didn't matter because we had marketing in place to push major traffic. 100K active users in a niche for a quick $50K is a steal for marketers so the .com didn't matter. On the other hand, I worked on a .com that bought the name for $10M (yep you read right) but it was worth every penny as users associated with it immediately so we gained monumental market share and it helped with the IB's wanting to reverse merge and create instant shareholder value.

Godspeed...

 

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[Mike A.B.]

Since you say that this site is an addition for your B&M store I don't think it is very important. You can send people to your website, give them the link, e-mail them, anything really. So the visitors are not really searching for the site they are allready going there.

If you would want to use your site as a standalone e-commerce site for example, or if you want to do a lot of SEO a .com can be helpfull. BUT the .com domainis parked and therefore is absolutely NO competition for you.

All of the above is my personal oppinion so please don't gun me down when things turn out differently or anything like that ^^.

- Mike

 

[livebig]

I think I may keep thinking about getting a new .com name. The site will be the same so regardless of the name, I've got plenty to keep me busy.

 

[Ranger]

Right now I have a my-site.com(with dash) that is ranking #1. On some of my other sites where I grabbed the .net and .org for the same kw, the .org generally outranks the .net.

 

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[CPisHere]

Right now I have a my-site.com(with dash) that is ranking #1. On some of my other sites where I grabbed the .net and .org for the same kw, the .org generally outranks the .net.

But why would I use .ORG for an e-commerce site...?

Aren't .ORG's typically for non-profits?

 

[CPisHere]

Since you say that this site is an addition for your B&M store I don't think it is very important. You can send people to your website, give them the link, e-mail them, anything really. So the visitors are not really searching for the site they are allready going there.

If you would want to use your site as a standalone e-commerce site for example, or if you want to do a lot of SEO a .com can be helpfull. BUT the .com domainis parked and therefore is absolutely NO competition for you.

I can send my current customers there, but the goal with the e-commerce site would be to sell to consumers outside of my current geographic footprint - thus I will be relying on SEO, PPC, etc.

As a parked domain, it is not CURRENTLY competition, but I hate that it COULD BE - because the guy could start using it at any point.

All of the above is my personal oppinion so please don't gun me down when things turn out differently or anything like that ^^.

No problem, I promise not to kill anyone for their advice.

 

[Mike A.B.]

I don't know enough SEO to give you advice that you should blindly follow (I've only done it for a while, without succes, but I've "absorbed" a lot of information but I don't think you should put too much time into this thing.. if it's taken it's taken, bad luck. BUT what you could try to do is see if adding dashes and stuff like that can help.

if myexamplesite.com is taken try one of the following:

my-example-site.com
myexample-site.com
my-examplesite.com

OR

MyexamplesiteX.com
Myexamplesiteonline.com
myonlineexamplesite.com

Would that be a possibillity?

 

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[healthstatus]

But why would I use .ORG for an e-commerce site...?

Aren't .ORG's typically for non-profits?

Orgs tend to make more appearances in certain niches than others. I believe that Google is using the extension as a SMALL part of the grading factors that they consider, as they categorize your site. So if you have a health focused website, having an ORG is a good thing, while an ORG extension for stereo parts store isn't a bonus for you. I have not fully tested this, but Google is full of smart people that recognize patterns on the Internet. If everything was equal, StereoBob.com would get ranked above StereoBob.org, but in the health area (just as an example), Cancer.org may outrank Cancer.com.

 

[Brander]

.com, .net, .org or any ICANN domains can be turned of by the US government without cause. I would look for other extensions...

 

[CPisHere]

.com, .net, .org or any icann domains can be turned of by the us government without cause. I would look for other extensions...

wtf...?

 

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[Mike A.B.]

.com, .net, .org or any ICANN domains can be turned of by the US government without cause. I would look for other extensions...

What kind of sites are you hosting that the government blocks them?! 0.0

 

[Brander]

It's not about blocking, but about seizure. With SOPA and NDAA this will be even more widespread then it is today - it's interesting that you immediately think of something unlawful and assume the government is benevolent.

A wrong link or speech the government doesn't like (and that your competitors will gladly report to them) prompts the domain seizure. Google "US government domain and website seizure". It is happening right now and will accelerate in the future. Again if you are starting out get a domain of a country that doesn't do these things and you'll also get some great brand-able names, or you can stay the course and take the chance.