Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

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

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

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!

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www.hipercube.com Solutions for High Performance Reliable Computing

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



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

John,

.com always has carried the most credibility and is now basically part of pop culture. (especially in the context of the .com`s of the late 1990`s)

The same way "Google" was become synonymous with search.

And "Xerox" became synonymous with photocopy. (When I worked for IBM while in college, you wouldn`t believe how much of an ear full you`d catch if you accidentally said, "I`m going to Xerox this now!")

Obviously, .edu and .gov have quite a bit of credibility. But those are entirely different TLD`s for very different purposes.

You definitely want to have your .com domain name match your company name though. Do it any other way and you`ll forever struggle to "explain" things.

Best,
Joshua Feinberg, author
Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course

 

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.org has been good to me.

Dale King

 

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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.

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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.


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

John,

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

.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

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Roland,

I think what Dale with his .org has may be appropriate for his objectives with that site, but I think you hit the nail on the head with the .org issue.

With an .org domain name and promoting it as your main Web site for a consulting business of ANY kind, I`d be afraid that many of your prospects would think that your business is a philanthropic effort and in the business of giving away free consulting services. This is a VERY bad message to be sending your prospects, unless you are truly in the "business" of donating your consulting services for free/near free.

When I train computer consulting business owners, I always warn that those who ignore business-focused advice will end up becoming inadvertently a "non-profit".

Joshua Feinberg, author and editorial director
Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course
http://www.computerconsultingkit.net

 

 

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

Get Free Proven Computer Consulting Tips now at
Computer Consulting Kit Home Study Course
from Joshua Feinberg, author/editorial director