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SailorDance

posts: 4

Nov 27, 2006 1:28 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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Hello,

I am in the process of trying to come up with business name for my consulting business as well as a domain name for my website. It is very hard trying to find a .com domain name. Not that there is an actual site for names that I`ve come up with. Most of the time the domain is parked. I`m not in the position to pay thousands of dollars to buy a domain name. Most of the time the domain parkers only park the .com and all the other ones are available. I`ve been thinking of registering a domain name using .us. It`s easy to remember, it`s American. I read that once you come up with a domain name you should also try to register it with some of the popular alternates like .net, .org, and .biz.

Any thoughts on using the some of the alternates... .us, .net, .biz

Thank you for your input...

John

edobedo

posts: 3

Nov 27, 2006 7:13 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I do not know what type of consulting business you are venturing into, but there is a free software tool called "Domain Name Analyzer" that you can download and construct and check the availability of domain names. For example, I just padded the word "consulting" with very common business terms, and I came up with the following domain name within 2 minutes.

consultingidea.COM

Anyhow, my opinion is that .com is king...People will always try .com first when trying to get to a website! - Ed

hipercube

posts: 3

Nov 28, 2006 12:56 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I agree with edobedo ... Domain Name Analyzer is a good software. It is worth investing some time (In the worst case, It hardly takes less than few hours to come up with a interesting domain name that is available).

It is important that you ensure that .com and .net are available. .com is definetely the king just because by default everyone thinks www.companyname.com is your website. And since website is the best and essential marketing tool, be patient and invest some time. Involve couple of your friends to come up with innovative names. Its definetely worth investing some time! Good luck!

-------------------------

www.hipercube.com Solutions for High Performance Reliable Computing

SnoMon

posts: 31

Nov 30, 2006 9:54 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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To .com or not to .com, that is the question...

The thing with .com is that consumers are already trained to "think" and "type" .com. I think .com`s are the easiest choice for marketing purposes.
Now, search engines could care less whether you are a .com or a .biz, so don`t worry about that.
Also, whether you decide on a .com, a .net, or a .us, I would recommend registering all of them (may as well protect your brand), but of course only market one and have the rest re-directed to it. Be careful not to actually use all the domains, that would be considered duplicate content, and the search engines do not like that. Simply re-direct them to the site you are marketing.

...just my two cents

-------------------------

Rod Call
Snoloha
www.snoloha.com
rod@snoloha.com

DaleKing

posts: 1061

Oct 04, 2007 5:05 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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.org has been good to me.

Dale King

-------------------------

If you`re tired of all the money-making
hype, lies and scams...read this!
Click here for more details!

houseofjerkyjanie

posts: 1150

Oct 04, 2007 6:40 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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If they type in your domain name without .com, they`ll probably find you if you use.us or something else. But if they type in .com which most do, and you don`t come up in the search, they might give up searching.

Texadero

posts: 19

Oct 04, 2007 6:58 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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If you are marketing your company offline, then indeed a .com name is the way to go. Of course what comes before the dot com still needs to be easy to remember and spell.

If you`re marketing solely online then like SnoMon said, search engines don`t really care.

I`ve had success in finding available domain names with a free tool called BustAName where you can easily try different keyword combinations.

-------------------------

Joe Rawlinson
Texadero - Web Marketing and Development
Family Says - Your private family website made easy!

vwebworld

posts: 1237

Oct 04, 2007 10:54 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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John,

Go with .com if you can... and get the .us version if you want.

.org has been good to me.

Dale King

.ORG was created in 1984 as one of the Internet`s original top-level domains (TLDs) and was designated as "open" and "unrestricted," meaning that anyone can register a .ORG site, but it primarily is used by noncommercial entities around the world, including nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations, philanthropies, charities, religious organizations, educational and cultural institutions, arts organizations, sports clubs, and others. Today, .ORG is a recognized brand that includes the Internet`s most trusted Web sites, sites that also are known for providing valuable information.

Do you fit into one of those "entities"?

~Roland

-------------------------

Web Design | Best Beef Jerky | ecommerce articles | Follow vwebworld on Twitter

JohnsBests

posts: 21

May 11, 2008 12:08 AM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I did not like using the Domain Name Analyzer Toolbar software. I found some better tools by searching google.

RStudios

posts: 3

May 13, 2008 2:10 PM ET Quote Report Abuse

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I always advise my clients to go for .com as it is what people will guess and type in automatically. Also people will send email addresses to .com instead of .us. I know someone whose business uses .net and he is always missing emails that people sent to .com instead

Even if your business name isn`t available alone a variation probably will be. For example instead of Sailordance.com use sailordanceconuslting.com, sailordanceconsultants.com, sailordancellc.com, etc

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