That being said, bit of a newbie here with eyes towards launching a site maybe early next year that will hopefully serve as a resource hub for some recreation stuff. But I'm a bit stuck on stuff...
I'm leaning towards no hyphens and only .com for a TLD. However, my first choice, say wordword.com is already taken, as is wordword.net (both by the same entity with no website up and running for close to a couple years now...but they continuously renew each spring). I do have wordword.us, but again would like to stick with .com The wordword part is the company name and are key words to targeting my intended audience.
For the area of interest I'm targeting, many companies I'll reference have usa suffixes at the end of their domains...partly because original .com domains were taken and others because they are HQ's outside the U.S.
Any thoughts on good options to consider? I know that's a bit open-ended, but all suggestions are welcome! Getting past this hurdle to have something I'm comfortable with is obviously pretty important.
Anwyay, any input's appreciated!
Thanks,
SDTinCup
P.S. Not really in a position to pony up cash for the already-taken sites unless it was resonably priced...and I don't know how key it would be to pursue that.
I'm a newbie too but that's where I would start.
Unless its too pricy that is.
Good Luck
[edited by: Webwork at 11:10 pm (utc) on Oct. 6, 2005]
[edit reason] Please read the forum Charter and your sticky mail [/edit]
I'm working off the assumption that I won't be able to purchase it...either the owner will not want to sell or the cost will be prohibitive for me.
-SDTinCup
With so many cyber sitters out there it's becoming increasingly difficult to get the first choice name, and any way, word-word will help out with se's seeing each word individually.
hth
The issues:
Use .us - Not a problem if you plan to get traffic through the search engines and you expect it to serve the US (let's assume we ignore the fact it takes time to build search engine traffic). BIG problem if wordword is easy to remember and you expect people to type in your address directly. People still type in .com on the end of stuff. .us is so far behind in the recognition stakes that you are running a real risk of inflating the .com's worth if you get successful.
Use word-word.com - again, not a problem for the search engines (still taking as long though). People also rarely try the non-hyphenated version of a domain first. I'd say this is still better than the .us. Does the domain sound good for a radio commercial? word hyphen word dot com, probably not.
Buy wordword.com - I know you said you don't think you can afford it. This depends on how much time you are going to spend on building the site. If you are going to spend 20 hours of you spare time per week for the next 3 years it may be worth considering breaking out your wallet. Stumping up for the name will also make you more committed to making the site work. The alternative is that you offer some deal where the owner of the name benefits from giving the name towards the project. In the UK I would be tempted to set up a limited company and offer a small amount of equity in exchange for the domain, not much though, again based on how much you think the name is worth and how much other investment the project will take.
