Will only dot com do?

Robin1982

I have come up with an business idea for a website (this time next year I expect to be a gazillionaire ) however I find myself getting fixated on choosing a domain name.

I like certain domain names - two syllables, short, maybe even a play on words but when I say them out loud its always "whatever.com". And the names I come up with are already registered as dot coms (small companies/organisations albeit) with some clearly set up to be sold for 200$+.

Now, initially the customer base I will be targeting will be UK & Ireland customers with UK being the primary - and the customers not being too net savvy (I tend to find these people think of websites always as dot coms). However, should things go (very, very) well I would hope to expand to the US and Japan.

What do you think - is it really a big business decision to use a domain name that already exists except with a different extention (i.e. .co.uk) or should I just forget about it and reckon I'll eventually find something available?

I assume you've considered .eu? May solve headaches for Ireland/UK.

frodo_dcu

I assume he was hoping to find a domain where the .ie, .co.uk, .com, .net, .org, .eu, .biz, .cn, .us, .jp, .com.au etc etc etc was available. what I would say is find a domain where the .ie and .co.uk is available and mabye the .com is owned by a small company so then ....

Robin1982 wrote:

Should things go (very, very) well

You should be able to afford to buy out it and some of the others

gary.b

Go for a .net if you can - they sound and look nice.

But be prepared to register lots of domains - maybe one for every "region" you plan to target, and preferably change the site to suit every region.(change currency /slang / jargon etc)

.co.uk and .ie are great for UK and ireland because in general, people with money and little tech savvy click on the "Pages From Ireland" button in google

Try as hard as you can to find / buy a domain that's very unique. Some sites thrive on the fact that thay "sound" or "look" like others.

I'm not sure about .eu - it's too early to call how "respected" the domain will be - it only takes a few dozen spamming whores to give a whole TLD a bad name - look at Nigeria's (.ng) - would you trust any domain under .ng with your credit card? I know i wouldn't - i got one phishing email too many from wealthy nigerian princes seeking to use my bank account to "Transfer" their funds..

Oh, and please do post your website link when it's up - i'd love to have a look :P

vito

Consider the marketing angle also - try to choose a name that is memorable. One good rule is that if you have to spell it to someone over the phone then pick again.

Not sure if .eu will do anything but make you look spammy - check out whoisireland.com blog.

Maybe try getting somehthing that you can register both .ie and .co.uk. You could also do one or the other and then host in the one you didn't get (whoah).

I would go with originality if you can come up with something that works on the phone. (oh and if you do find something original save yourself a possible future headache and register whatever .tld's you think you might target in the future. Only costs 10's of dollars and could save you a fortune in the future if you do well)

Rollo Tamasi

Robin1982 wrote:

Now, initially the customer base I will be targeting will be UK & Ireland customers with UK being the primary - and the customers not being too net savvy (I tend to find these people think of websites always as dot coms). However, should things go (very, very) well I would hope to expand to the US and Japan.

Hi Robin, this is the most important thing to consider when you finally pick your domain name....your audience. If your target audience is not tech savvy then how are they going to find your website? Via a search engine?

If that's the case then it's very important that your domain name contains keywords that reflect what your site is about. For example there is no point buying a domain name such a shizzam.com and have it selling apples. It won't come up in the search. A domain name such as appleshop.com has a much better chance of ranking for 'apples'.

PM me your business idea and i'll share some of my renowed wisdom with you for a paltray sum....20 sheep.

Seriously. That's how i do my business. I'm minted.

vito

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

If that's the case then it's very important that your domain name contains keywords that reflect what your site is about. For example there is no point buying a domain name such a shizzam.com and have it selling apples. It won't come up in the search. A domain name such as appleshop.com has a much better chance of ranking for 'apples'.

Sorry but I would disagree here. The bias given by SE's for keyword rich domain names is liklely to be low for generic words. In fact the bias is going to be quite low regardless of the words used. (except MSN maybe )

Ranking in SE's is about far more than domain name - all things being equal appleshop will beat shizzam in SERPs. Do a bit of work on shizzam and it will beat appleshop no problems.

If your worried about SE's then the most important factor WRT domain name is ccTLD and location of server (relative to targeted country).

Off-site factors far more important than on-site factors.

Rollo Tamasi

vito wrote:

Ranking in SE's is about far more than domain name - all things being equal appleshop will beat shizzam in SERPs. Do a bit of work on shizzam and it will beat appleshop no problems.

the work to move up the rankings needs to be put into the site regardless of the domain name. Getting appleshop.com up the ranks would seem to be easier than getting shizzam up the rankings.

vito

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

Getting appleshop.com up the ranks would seem to be easier than getting shizzam up the rankings.

Unless you hit your primary keyword phrase exactly mapping it to domain name then the difference will be neglible a best.

Robin1982

Good solid advice so far, thanks!

I guess my questions were leading to this:

Just how important is it to have a .com when you are trying to create an online-only business with global aspirations?

In effect, if you can't get .com, are you losing out somewhat?

The thing is my business idea, although it will be targeting the UK primarily, the content of the site is based on events taking place globally (the UK market is more in-tune to what i'll be selling than others).

Therefore, to my inexperienced eye, it would seem that only the TLDs .com and .net are the ones to focus on (.biz, .eu - urgh not for me), and with .com being taken, you can see where i'm going...

mneylon

If you are starting off with a clean slate try to choose a name that is available in com/net/org/info/biz/eu/co.uk and .ie (and any other regional TLDs you want to target)
While you may be able to get away with running a blog or something on a name that's already occupied (ie. taken in other TLDs) it's ultimately going to cause you hassle.

frodo_dcu

you usally can combine the best of all the points raised here, by finding a unique company and combining it with the service you plan to offer
for instance:

foshizzelHosting.com
foshizzelHosting.net
foshizzelHosting.org
foshizzelHosting.info
foshizzelHosting.biz
foshizzelHosting.eu
foshizzelHosting.co.uk
foshizzelHosting.ie


are ALL available and more i'd say if i could be bothered checking

ps no stealing my new hosting company's name