Well, no, it’s not just a domain name. It’s your new address on the web and it does matter. It especially matters to your users, it’s all part of how they will evaluate your site and subsequently your business.
Lately I’ve seen a few local companies registering .biz and .info domains, it makes me cringe. It’s not their fault though, they don’t know that .biz and .info scream “SPAM”!
Here’s a little background on choosing a domain name.
.com
A .com domain is by far the best domain you could get, it is the most respected and most well known. The only problem is that just about every word in the dictionary has already been registered and it’s very competitive for several terms. Always try for a .com first!
.net
Easily the second best domain, but a .com is still so much better!
Interesting note on .net’s – have you ever wondered why Poker domains are registered as .net’s? Have a look at the same site as a .com. It’s because they know you’ll go to the .com, but they can’t advertise that site. Example: PartyPoker.net vs. PartyPoker.com. 
.org
The .org domain was originally created for non-profit organizations, but several companies now use it as their main sites. Sometimes as a natural result of their company’s evolution. Example: SEOmoz.org.
.mobi
Domain names with the extensions .mobi were designed specifically for use with mobile phones. It hasn’t quite taken off yet, but I don’t think that cell phones are completely compatible and useful with the internet, at least not in it’s current form.
.us or .ca
Country designated domains, like .us, .ca, .au, etc. were created for country specific businesses. They’ve also been used for creative domains like Deli.icio.us, the actual domain name registered is www.icio.us. Pretty creative, right? Well, it actually hasn’t worked all that well from a brand perspective.
.biz
Eww…..a .biz domain screams spam, unfortunately. I think it has to do with the fact that it’s a bit of a slang term and domains and spammers gobble these up because they are cheap and lots of them are available.
.info
See .biz. These domains just don’t resonate well with users, for whatever reason. You can actually register .info domains for $1.00/year.
.tv and .fm
Originally I thought these were created for television and fm radio, respectively. But, a little research shows that .tv is for the Island Nation of Tuvalu and .fm is for the Federated States of Micronesia. The reason people think they are for tv and radio is partly obvious and partly a sales and marketing tactic.
.cm
These hold boundless opportunities for monetization, if you should happen to live in Cameroon. Just check Google.cm to see the type of revenue that these could generate. Do you know anyone in Cameroon?
Tips
- Always try for a .com first!
- Avoid dashes (www.domain-name-now.com)
- Don’t do spelling mistakes
- Being creative can backfire. Del.icio.us?
- Be careful adding words to obtain a good .com. Like all, now, usa, etc.
Here are some unintentionally funny domains and a good example of why you need to be careful.
- Oldmanshaven.com
- Americanscrapmetal.com
- Freebase.com
- Speedofart.com
- IPanywhere.com
CC
2 Comments
I take serious issue with your discarding the value of .CA domain names. As owner of a company that has been doing branding for Canadian companies for 9 years, I can assure you the exact opposite of what you stated is true.
There is considerable tangible value for a Canadian business with a product marketed to Canadians to use .CA as their primary website address.
For online purchases, it is especially critical. There are issues like shipping costs and taxes and customs charges which are very serious in Canada, because we are overwhelmed by U.S. merchants in our ordinary use of the Internet. The reverse is not true (which is a key reason why .US domain names never took off, because .COM is the de facto U.S. ccTLD).
As long ago as 2001, an independent consumer study showed Canadians were 71% more likely to buy if the website was .CA vs. other TLDs.
For other English-language countries, the issues are the same – Australia vs. New Zealand, the UK, etc. In all of these jurisdictions, the ccTLD is incredibly important in helping the consumer determine their interest in buying from that website.
The differences become even more pronounced in cases where language is an issue (witness .DE, one of the most populated TLDs, and contains over 90% of all online German language-only websites.
If you are a media site with a global audience, there is no question that .COM is the best choice to use for your branding. Beyond that, however, there are numerous other considerations.
Paul,
Sorry, I should have been more clear.
It’s not that I don’t think .ca or .us domain names are not of value or good for branding.
I was speaking more specifically that when people get creative, like Deli.icio.us, it doesn’t work well and users can get somewhat confused by what that url is.
BTW – Can you help me forward http://www.coastalclicks.ca to http://www.coastalclicks.com?
Thanks for your feedback!
Mike