I want the dot com TLD

what if you can't get the dot com name?

[raymond4unc]

I'm sure this has been beat to death, but maybe there is some new experience out there with more TLD's available. I'm adding a new product to sell online and I want the dot com TLD. As you can guess, it is taken. There are a host of other TLDs available (a few anyway). Has anyone had any experience with chosing another TLD than dot com? Do you do better with finding another name with a dot com TLD? I assume this is an on going issue?

[bakedjake]

.org can be a good TLD to have, especially if you give your site an "authoritative" feel.

People may be more eager to buy a recommended product from the International Federation of Widgets rather than Widgets-R-Us. ;-)

[KevinC]

personally from my own shopping experience, I have no problem with a dot net TLD - I think it is pretty much accepted these days.

[SlimKim]

The other day I heard a major radio talk show host refer to their website as a .com only to come back minutes later and correct it saying .net

I have some .us sites and every now and then type in the .com when I mean to visit my .us sites.

You can tell a hundred folks about your .org and they can hear you and understand you are at .org but tomorow when they get time to check you out, a good chunk will look for you at .com

If you intend to drive almost all your traffic from ad campaigns ... if you don't expect repeat customers or community ... then .us will be great

truth is, for all our talk about community and repeat visitors ... few folks obtain a meaningful amount of returning visitors.

Hope it helps
:)

[netguy]

>>adding a new product to sell online

If it is 'your' new product, I would be more concerned about naming it the same as another registered .com name. If your product becomes a success, the .com owner will just sit back and ride your coattail (for the free traffic).

If it is a new widget that will soon be available everywhere, I would probably get a .com 'brand' for your company, then promote the brand rather than an individual product.

Steve

[ogletree]

.com is ingrained in peoples mind. I still do it on lots of sites. I remember that whole whitehouse.gov thing. I remember hearing about an elemetary school teacher being horrified when her class had this poblem.

[PatrickDeese]

if you can't get widget.com - try widgets.com, try an adjective like bestwidgets.com - or even some brand name domain - and use a subdomain: widgets.brand.com

[shigamoto]

.net works perfectly, there are also new domains like .biz and stuff, don't know how well those are recieved, just stay away from .tk and similars :))

[otc_cmnn]

They are all trash.

It's dotcom or loose visitors. Country specific domains are good as well, but only outside the US.

.biz, .info, .us are all cash grabs by internic. Find a good .com tld that people can easily remember, has few or no common misspellings, has keywords in the domain. NEVER use hyphens.

Just my two bits, we have been in the domain name game since the beginning and own some whoppers such as <snip> etc etc we used to own a bunch of .nets as well but we let them all expire as they were trash and received less than 2% of the intuitive traffic the .com equivs got.

[edited by: engine at 9:55 pm (utc) on Aug. 26, 2004]
[edit reason] See TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]