Why should I buy .net?

[shane mac]

Most if not all the great .coms have long since gone.However often I see .net available.Why should I start buing this extension..

 

[matrigaldo]

There are countries where .net is almost known and important as .com extension.
Besides, strong keywords domain names are pretty good with .net as well.
If you consider usually .net has the 1/20 - 1/30 value of .com, if you can hand-reg a .net with the .com sold for $30,000, you can always try to sell the .net for at least $1,000.
Just an example.

 

[NathanJacob]

Looking back in history, we know that .net has actually been around as long as .com has been. Although the recognition & success that .com has achieved may not have been achieved by .net, but without a doubt, it is the next most recognized gTLD.

 

[Spade]

Unless your pairing it with the same keyword in .com - you shouldnt.

 

[mntor]

.net is preferred compared to .com in some countries. It also depends on what kind of geo traffic you are targetting. There are also plenty of .net developed sites.

 

[BitcoinDK]

Unless your pairing it with the same keyword in .com - you shouldnt.

I agree 100% with Spade.

And Mntor, would you please tell me, which countries prefer .net instead of .com?

If you don't own the .com version and develope the .net you own, the .com would get the majority of your traffic.

I would prefer some of the more exotic extensions instead of .net. I myself only own the .net if I also own the .com.

 

[Jaco]

Actually just cranked out a blog post about this last night...
No sense reposting it here. See link in sig.

 

[mntor]

And Mntor, would you please tell me, which countries prefer .net instead of .com?

If you don't own the .com version and develope the .net you own, the .com would get the majority of your traffic.

From my experience, in Japan .net is preferred over .com. I used to live in Japan for a while and next to .jp & .co.jp i could only see .net names.

Though your point of traffic leaking to .com is valid, i can't agree that majority of the traffic going to .com when .net is the developed site.

 

[SeanPreston]

Intresting, I always though .com was the most popular worldwide.

I think sometimes with some domains the .net version sounds better.

Sean

 

[banners]

Unless your pairing it with the same keyword in .com - you shouldnt.

I agree 100% with Spade.

And Mntor, would you please tell me, which countries prefer .net instead of .com?

If you don't own the .com version and develope the .net you own, the .com would get the majority of your traffic.

I would prefer some of the more exotic extensions instead of .net. I myself only own the .net if I also own the .com.

Can you guys please elaborate / explain your thinking a bit more? I do not think that you would lose a majority of your traffic as you might think. Sure you will lose some...

Personally I think you would be best off sticking with a TLD.

 

[BitcoinDK]

-> Dongsman, nicely written. If you dont mind there are some parts worth pasting in here:

From Dongsman's blog:
“If those people were serious about their business, they would've used a .com...”
In short order, anything that wasn't built on a .com extension was viewed with suspicion, something of a bad-neighborhood interloper seen driving around Beverly Hills at 2:00 AM in a rusty 1984 Buick. No matter what the original intent was for .net, it couldn't overcome public perception. In the eyes of the consuming public, anything other than .com came to be perceived as 'second tier' – the name you settle for when the .com is already taken. Ya see, if you're trying to make money on the internet, you need to use the extension that is synonymous with money.... and .com means money.

I agree.

 

[deleted984054565403]

Unless your pairing it with the same keyword in .com - you shouldnt.

:tu:

.net cheapens your brand/site name, and tells the visitor, "The .com was taken, so I got the .net."

 

[Spade]

Can you guys please elaborate / explain your thinking a bit more? I do not think that you would lose a majority of your traffic as you might think. Sure you will lose some...

Personally I think you would be best off sticking with a TLD.

Two issues occur that im always concerned about. First, if you build on a .net because you cannot get the .com - you create what I call Traffic Bleed. Whenever someone is trying to think of your URL - a good portion of them are going to type in .com. Its become instinctive since 99% of the domains most people visit end in .com (I am referring primarily to U.S. citizens).

The second problem is lets say that you build a great site and things take off. You've subsequently created more value in the .com - making it much more pricey. Lets say it was offered to you at 5k when you first approached the owner. You opted to build the .net and now you've built a successful site / business and want to buy the .com. Do you think the owner is going to sell now at 5k? More than likely he'll add a few zeros onto that figure.

 

[owntype]

I have a .com domain. I noticed the .net domain was in use for a blog style site so I sent an email to the .net owner to check if he has interests to buy .com (around 12 months ago). He simply answered

LOL, not interested

These days, his site has achieved certain success and ranks Alexa 16K. I received a polite email from him last month.

Hi,

Are you willing to sell domain ??????????.com, if yes do send a quote.

Thanks

 

[BitcoinDK]

owntype, you should reply with:

"LOL, I thought you were not interested?"

But seriously, what did you tell him?

 

[HappyDay]

I bought a short net a few days ago here and the .tld is just perfect for my plan.I will port my .de forum to a .net forum when I find the time.

 

[owntype]

owntype, you should reply with:

"LOL, I thought you were not interested?"

But seriously, what did you tell him?

No, I didn't

It earns $2 - $3 daily so I replied $5k and we are still in negotiation.

None of us mentioned the past emails.

---------- Post added at 02:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:41 PM ----------

I bought a short net a few days ago here and the .tld is just perfect for my plan.I will port my .de forum to a .net forum when I find the time.

If the major visitors of your forum are from Germany, I would suggest you using .de and forward .net to .de

Just my opinion

 

[BitcoinDK]

Now I might sound like a hypocrite but recently I also reg. one .net without owning the .com:
publishyourself.net

I even got it through backorder and pay around $60 for it. But thats also the only .net I have without also owning the .com. I promise.

 

[HappyDay]

@owntype thanks for the tip but I have an international forum.I just don´t want run it under this .de name anymore. Hope it will work.Its an experiment.

 

[ZOX]

If you develop a .COM...you really should get the .NET.
...
Microsoft just developed Bing.com and Bing.NET, but not .org or any other extension

 

[bgmv]

I have actually sold quite a few .net to end users for $XXX. Eventhough there might not be the greatest demand for generic .nets they do prove quite successful in terms of SEO and this is valuable to any business if they are using the domain as a simple redirect to get some more traffic.

I have quite a large collection of generic .net and there definitley are end users out there if you know where to look.

 

[hawkeye]

The 'anti .net' justificators remind me of those 'anti long domains' preachers of past. Short sighted with only 'oneway' vision!

According to today's DNJ report -
onlineengineeringdegree.com - sold for $2700 (23 letters)
MillionDollarNapkin.com - sold for $11000 (3 words)

Not bad ROI's, and more than likely they were first regged more than 5-6 years ago!

 

[deleted984054565403]

The 'anti .net' justificators remind me of those 'anti long domains' preachers of past. Short sighted with only 'oneway' vision!

According to today's DNJ report -
onlineengineeringdegree.com - sold for $2700 (23 letters)
MillionDollarNapkin.com - sold for $11000 (3 words)

Not bad ROI's, and more than likely they were first regged more than 5-6 years ago!

Can you show me a case where the .net version of a domain would be preferred over a .com?

 

[hawkeye]

Can you show me a case where the .net version of a domain would be preferred over a .com?

Sure, any .com name owned by someone like FS, who only parks the dotcom name, and will 'never' develop it. Example - one name he owns that relates to our business and industry is and has been parked for years. We bought the .net, and have been number one on Google and Yahoo for the last 5-6 years. (Do I care if people go the .com page after? No, they don't sell products or have a phone number to talk to someone there, so they'd just get useless ads.)

Keep in mind, I didn't say that .net was better, I was just pointing out it's not the 'death sentence' extension so many like to make it out to be.

 

[banners]

Sure, any .com name owned by someone like FS, who only parks the dotcom name, and will 'never' develop it. Example - one name he owns that relates to our business and industry is and has been parked for years. We bought the .net, and have been number one on Google and Yahoo for the last 5-6 years. (Do I care if people go the .com page after? No, they don't sell products or have a phone number to talk to someone there, so they'd just get useless ads.)

Keep in mind, I didn't say that .net was better, I was just pointing out it's not the 'death sentence' extension so many like to make it out to be.

agreed. I see quite a bit of use for .nets and am happy owning a .net w/o the .com the .com bleed will not be a deal breaker IMHO * I will not beat this dead horse as it has been discussed enough already in other threads.

To each their own. I think domainers worry about .com more than users. Everyone has their own preferences. Personally I see the gap closing between .com and some of the other TLDs.

I guess do what you feel comfortable with.