.org has to be always non profit?

use .org domain extension for a business

[Animated]

well i have a good name for a domain but the .com and .net are taken and i think the name goes well with the .org too and i plan to use it to sell some products on it so would that be unethical?

[Marcia]

It isn't unethical, but to me it looks tacky for a commercial site. But that's just me, I'm a grouchy fuss-budget.

Good domain name or not, unless you're an aggressive SEO, if you depend at all on type-in traffic you'll lose a bunch of it because people automatically type in the .com especially in certain demographics.

[Animated]

thanx for the reply:)
hmm well i dont plan on visitors from typing in the name of the domain ,but rather traffic from the SE's and i wonder if google would give less value to my site if they see an .org thats actually there for ecommerce.

[Marcia]

The .org TLD wouldn't make any difference to Google, there's never been any evidence at all of that happening.

[gpmgroup]

Its all about perception, the mind (often subconsciously) associates words together to try and establish meaning or "read between the lines".

The fact you are asking the question shows your mind is questioning the validity of doing commerce in a non commerce or at least a possibly perceived commerce free environment.

Your customers will all have different mainly preconceived ideas of what .org means to them.

Some wont care
Some will notice and still not care
Some will be wary of buying thinking it might be a scam
Some will think its wrong benefiting from a non profit.

All can be overcome but you may have to work harder :)

[Animated]

yeah i guess the majority of surfers dont really care as long as the site is not off topic and they get what they expect.

[jbinbpt]

Are you competing with the .com and .net or are the sites unrelated?

[Animated]

its a popular niche keyword and the .com .net are parked domains and i just checked on the .com and its expired so i try to get that if not i go on with the .org

[topr8]

>>>i plan to use it to sell some products on it so would that be unethical?

well from the horse's mouth: [icann.org...]

"In the 1980s, seven gTLDs (.com, .edu, .gov, .int, .mil, .net, and .org) were created. Domain names may be registered in three of these (.com, .net, and .org) without restriction"
[my emphasis]

[bwnbwn]

.org in a commercial site can be non profit as well Just pay yourself the remaining balance to bring tht company to break even.

All the non profit companies have monster payrolls to keep them from showing a profit why I try to give to a cause that the money will go to and not to someones bank account....

[Animated]

thanx for all the feedbacks :)
my conclusion is the average web user doesn't really care about those points about what.com,.net,org are really intended for ,as long as the site delivers to them what they want.

[edited by: Animated at 5:18 am (utc) on Jan. 3, 2008]

[dbdev]

I rank really high (#1 or #2 for many competitive key phrases) and get tons of se traffic using a .cn domain name...

imho g, y & m don't give a hoot about the tld.

[trader]

I am fairly certain the extension makes no difference as far as Google goes.

Org's work great with several important categories of names and not just non-profits (as some still incorrectly believe is the case). They are good with a number of financial website uses, traders, investors, govt services, travel, political, people names, educational and information sites because .org denotes a nice feeling of trust.

Personally, I love org's and have lots of them. Some also get natural type-in traffic but typically much less type-ins than dot-com receives. I believe visitors also have more confidence in an org website so maybe they feel more comfortable ordering from it too. What a great benefit that can be!

[mjwalshe]

.org orgianoaly was for anything that didnt fit in the origional hireachy eg .com .net .mill and .edu

Some American not for profits tried to retrospectivly grab all .org for themselves when the .org registry was last up for renewal - this got kocked down.

I worked for one of the bidders for .org at the time

[dailypress]

youll do fine if the .com and .net are parked as you mentioned. They will also benefit from you developing the .org site cause they may get some extra traffic from visitors typing in .com

put more emphasis on the DOT_ORG TLD by using a larger font or different color on your logo and most of your visitors will remember it!

it's worked for me!

good luck

[Insomniak]

I agree with trader that there are many ways an org can be used to your advantage. I have a number of org sites called The -blank- Organization, offering free -blank- information. So it sounds more trustworthy like a consumer organization as opposed to a commercial site. Of course mine work because they do offer lots of info (surrounded by adsense) and are not blatantly commercial.