Non dot com names, brand suicide?

[TrevorJ]

So I have a cool name, but the brand name is taken by some band, bleh obviously. Is a non dot com name brand suicide or can it work?

 

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[Lauryn]

If it's .NET or.CO it could work. However you can play with modifiers and find a .com for it.

Ex:

Fubar.com

OfficialFubar.com
Fubarofficial.com
thefubar.com
fubarguide.com
fubardistrict.com

If we had access to the Google Keyword tool, you could have done an SEO keyword search and found a URL that would have had a nice brandable ring to it also.

 

[TrevorJ]

well i also got the brandname + keyword.com. makes it a little long but not crazy.

 

[Vick]

yes.

you should have a .com

play around with words. I wanted 8eyewear.com but it was taken. I played around with words and letters over weeks, until I eventually choose this. iwear8.com it's a play on words, I Wear 8. Which works out well, and I kinda like it more now. And, I only paid 12 bux for it. Just play around for awhile, you never know what you can come up with.

just make sure it's a .com

people will trust the website more. and your company.

 

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[rkmalo1]

You should have a .com for sure. However, I did come across one company that has became successful with a .net (and even raised millions):

www.leadpages.net

When I wanted to sign up for their service, I originally typed in leadpages.com, luckily I believe their product is superior to the competition so I went looking for it. I was shocked that it was .net.

 

[JAJT]

People are going to put ".com" when trying to find your website. Guaranteed.

There is nothing you can do to stop this. No marketing, no branding, no repetition, nothing. The average user assumes .com and questions everything else.

You CAN use a different domain, sure, but you should fully understand you'll be sending plenty of traffic to whoever owns the .com in the process.

 

[Vigilante]

Hi.

I am going to invest in real estate, and I want the maximum number of people to visit me.

Should I get a great location, or a shittier one?

Thanks…V

 

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[tafy]

I thought .co was the up and coming domain name nowadays?

 

[JAJT]

I thought .co was the up and coming domain name nowadays?

So buy it in addition to, not in replace of.

 

[Mrs. BRKb]

I thought .co was the up and coming domain name nowadays?

It didn't work out too well for Overstock.com:

O.co loses 61% of its traffic to O.com
“O.co was my bad call... about eight out of 13 people who were trying to visit us through O.co, eight were typing O.com”

 

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[Gale4rc]

It depends on your market

.com domains are good for older users who aren't used to new domain types yet

new domains are good for the younger generation who gets them, they have proven to be just fine time and time again and in many cases they can add to your overall brand ex - about.me

 

[DennisD]

"VideoCopilot.net" creates dozens of products, hundreds of tutorials, and is the MOST popular site within the After Effects and Motion Graphics community. It's ranking #1 for "After Effects Tutorials"... and a few other good ones... because it's the best, it has brand loyalty. I will share this site before I share my own site, or a friends site. It's that good.

HOWEVER.. somebody did mention that site in an interview on Mixergy, and they said .com not .net. So there's the downfall. People assume popular sites are .coms. They look more expensive, they seem more legit, .nets and ..infos look like knockoffs

It's up to you.
Castleforge.com was taken, I chose to go with CastleforgeMedia.
I'll buy Castleforge form whoever it belongs to when I can.

 

[Mrs. BRKb]

There were 1,930 applications to the administrative body for new domain endings (ie, instead of the 22 existing endings, like .com, .net, .org).

The first four have just rolled out.

There will be more.

The first four gTLD strings are the Arabic word for web or network, the Cyrillic words for online and website, and Chinese for game.

“It’s happening—the biggest change to the Internet since its inception,” said Atallah in a statement.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2057540/icann-starts-rolling-out-new-generic-toplevel-domains.html

List of proposed new top-level domains

 

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[Gale4rc]

.net & .info are trashy IMO

Go with something new like
.me
.co
.io
etc

instagr.am
last.fm
clarity.fm
bit.ly
art.sy
canv.as
who.is
about.me

 

[whiteeclipse]

I think people just trust .com, that's what everyone knows, I would stick to .com, all my domains are .com.

 

[Gale4rc]

I really don't believe that people only trust .com's now-a-days.

Great design is the most important. If you have a crappy design, I don't trust you and I don't care what your .com is.

 

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[zippi101]

people buy from a .COM and learn from ao .ORG or .NET

Of course there are exceptions but why would you want to limit yourself. Just get a .COM

 

[XOthermic]

LOCATION LOCATiON LOCATION! .coms rank higher than .us or weird .biz .whogivesashieeet

However the .net does work, if it trully is a brandable name. Something like "Beastmode.net" is something you want to get (years ago but now it obviously is a black hole for trying to push a brand under in 2013).

But to get the domain "thebeastmode.com" the Beastmodeonly.com will not have the same brandability.

There are outliers though. Like epicfoodbattles.com or some shit like that. Where it is more longtail but just clicks.

 

[tak]

Awhile ago I use to work at Go Daddy as their hosting specialist. In regards to domian names .com's will still be popular and #1 for quite sometime. Even with all the new TLD's (unless one of them beocomes mainstream)

 

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[kamanuci]

I have worked in the domain industry for 7 years now and I would get the .com. Even if you have to spend some extra cash to purchase it from the original owner I would do it. If you want some tips on how to contact that owner and see if they want to sell it PM me.

 

[dknise]

I think having anything other than a .com while another company holds onto the .com is suicide. The first thing your customers will try is yourbrand.com. Even if you advertise yourbrand.us, you should also have yourbrand.com forwarding to yourbrand.us.

 

[Brander]

Depends on the purpose of the site - authority, brand, mini...

 

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[RHL]

FWIW, .com or bust. I actually based my entire brand around what .com was available. It's paid off; with a very memorable, short .com I'm generating hundreds of organic hits per day already, and my site is just a bare scaffold with a couple pages on it, waiting for hard launch at the end of December.

 

[DeletedUser12]

Best way to brainstorm domain names IMO: http://www.bustaname.com/

 

[benhebert]

It really depends on your business. Your website is an extension of your business, a channel to convert leads into sales. If you're an App maker in the Apple store, it's a lot less important to have a .com domain versus an e-commerce merchant.

 

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[johnp]

From someone who actually built a site on something other than a .com...

I selected a .me for my site. But I also own the .com version of the .me. The .com version directs the user to the .me domain.

Most people do not seem to access the site via the .com...But that could be because the .me actually sounds better and more natural than the .com version.

I always wanted to use the .me...then once I started using the .me, I really started to miss the .com. Now I find myself wanting to switch fully to a .com, and I probably will.

B2B- When I called up my target market the convo went like this:

Me: "Do you have a few minutes to sign up while I have on you on the phone? This way I can walk you through the process?"

Client: "sure, what's the site called again?"

Me: "xydfdjdfi.me"

Client:"What? Can you please say that again? .me?"

It confused most of the B2B people.

Now on the B2C side, it seemed to work. Most people understood the .me and it seemed to stick in their mind. And surprisingly, age doesn't seem to make a HUGE difference. Some of my users are as old as 55 years old and they understood the .me.

Like everyone else says, I would stick with the .com. But most important, just take action and do something.

 

[cdrag]

.COM is king end of story

however, I am also fond of 1 worded dictionary .CO's

If you are starting your own company or brand, go with .com.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I pulled most of this from a thread on the INSIDE.

Here are my thoughts...

BUYING A DOMAIN NAME
NEVER try to build a brand based on anything other than a .COM.

NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.

You can do so, but I guarantee you will regret it in the future. Anytime I ask someone to name one, just one, name-brand, household name that is founded on a .NET -- the response is always the same ... dead air. Silence.

There's a reason why.

Examine p0ker websites... The .NET was the "Play for Free" website (they couldn't advertise the .com because of gambling regs) and yet this advertising strategy worked great because people generally dropped the .net and defaulted to the .com ... so in a round-about-way, they advertised a gambling website by advertising a .net, knowing full-well that people would go to the .com just based on human nature and forgetfulness.

WHAT ABOUT BOX.NET?

They later bought the dot com. (Was it cheap ya think?) Now the .NET redirects to the .COM. What does that tell you?

SHOULD I START ON A .NET? OR A DOT CO? OR A DOT WHATEVER?

Go ahead, but you will regret it. PAINFULLY REGRET IT.

As soon as your .NET is launched, the value of the .COM goes up. Whomever owns .COM just benefited from YOUR WORK. And the more successful the .NET becomes, the more costly the .COM will become to buy from the primary owner.

I have firsthand experience in this EXACT scenario unfolding which is why now I feel it is the biggest mistake a web entrepreneur can make -- do NOT buy anything but a .COM.

If someone sends me a business proposal or an offering memorandum on anything other than something anchored on a .COM, I won't even look at it.

CAN I BUILD A BRAND AT THE NON-DOT COM, AND BUY THE DOT COM LATER?

Did you not just read what I wrote above? You will REGRET IT. It's a BIG FN MISTAKE.

You're also putting the cart before the horse and jumping from step 1, to step 3,321. You're assuming that a brand will be built AND you will be flush with cash to buy the dot com. I doubt you will. I doubt you succeed. Why? Brands are NOT built on .NETs or .CO's or .WHATEVERs and all attempts by you doing so will be like swimming upstream. I'm not saying it cannot be done (or its impossible) but the odds move against you. Entrepreneurship is HARD as it is -- don't make it even harder.

Here's why:

In order to get to a brandable position, you have to overcome domain dissonance which I guarantee you, will happen the moment your first customer emails you and says "What happened to your website? Why can't I order anymore? WTF is going on?" ... then after a little research and back-n-forth with the client, you realize that your customer is at the wrong website, the .COM, and not .NET (Again, all of this has happened to me via experience.)

The only way I'd say a .NET is OK is for SEO purposes, or when a brand is actually "network" related-- really a network! (EX: Authorize.Net) Or, fit's in the .ME scheme. Read.Me. etc.

As for buying the "dot com" later, this is a bad strategy. It's like anticipating winning the lottery --- "Eh, why worry about it, when I'm making millions, or flush with millions in VC cash, a few 100K won't matter!" -- again, cart before the horse. You assume you have cash. You assume you have built a brand. I'm telling you, you won't.

I'M PRETTY COMPETITIVE - I KNOW I CAN DO IT AT THE NON DOT COM!
Being competitive is a great trait to have, but you also have to be smart. In competitive sports, its not always the best athletes that win, but the smartest. Trying to brand at non-dot com is like rowing a boat upstream while your competitors row downstream.

MY PREFERRED DOT COM ISN'T AVAILABLE -- WHAT NOW?
Wait until you find it, or find it at a price you can afford. Most likely you will have to buy in the secondary market. I find great domains ALWAYS in the secondary market, and many for less than $1K. Your biggest decision as an entrepreneur is a brandable domain -- don't F*ck it up by buying some domain in a low-rent district on the crappy side of town. You know what that is? That's .NET, .CO, .NAME, and .LAME.

FIND AND PAY FOR THE BEACH FRONT PROPERTY.

Buying a NON-DOT com just for the sake of "doing something" is impatience and event oriented thinking. Just because a domain isn't available, doesn't mean to give up. Find a way, but find a way to do it right.

Part of building a sustainable business (Fastlane or not) is creating a defensible position in the market once your concept is proven and shown to be profitable. A strong .COM and brand is a part of that defense... A .NET leaves the backdoor wide open. All your branding efforts are siphoned and stolen by the dot-com, whether that name is in use or not.

 

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[Deege]

@MJ DeMarco The end all be all post of what you should do regarding domain names. Cut and Dry. Thanks for that GEM

 

[RHL]

@MJ DeMarco

I have a followup to that impeccable post: Is it worth it, in your estimation, to go for the godaddy bait of also buying the .net, .co .us etc. when you buy the .com? I just bought the .com and didn't worry about the 50 .crap iterations, but my hard launch isn't until the end of this month, and I could still pick up the others for a song. I can't really imagine regretting not having the others (maybe the .net), but this is my first rodeo with web design and management.