Domain dilemma -- madeup .COM or exact match ccTLD!?

[vccground]

I'm planning to start a comparison/reviews website of a physical product. Obviously, the exact match and good ones in .COM are taken and only a few madeup 3-word domains that are relevant are available in .COM.

The problem is, the exact match domain is available for hand registration in a popular ccTLD. The local US exact search volume is about 20,000.

Long, made-up .COM or "exact match" ccTLD...which way to go? Advice, suggestions please. Thank you.

 

[AEProgram]

dot com def better

 

[garptrader]

And you wouldn't consider acquiring an aftermarket domain? How much money/time do you plan on investing in this project? Do you plan to generate revenue from this project or is it merely a hobby site? If it is merely a hobby site with no monetization plans then a $10 domain is OK but if you plan to invest considerable resources (time and development costs) into the site perhaps you should set a budget to acquire a decent domain. If you are going to open a new business - restaurant, retail outlet, etc you want to reach potential customers and I have seen numerous businesses fail due to a poor location (though prime locations can also be problematic as the rents can be very expensive - with comparable results). A poor domain name can communicate to potential visitors who might stumble across your site in search results this is an amateur site and they won't even bother to click.

 

[SpareDomains]

You can be a success on any domain if properly developed. I do feel that having the exact match .com if within your budget does help or add a slight advantage as development on an alternate extension will always donate free leakage traffic to the .com and once ya develop the .com owner will want even more $ if they find your work on a neighbor extension.

ThisProductReview.com ThisProductReviews.com

adds more confidence to their purchase over...

ThisProductReview.guru

Buyers are also smarter these days. Once they get burned once or twice then they begin to look for anything that makes them feel safer such as SSL, Customer Reviews, FaceBook/Twitter interaction and anything you can do to instill confidence in a buyer helps.

 

[Kate]

Is the ccTLD relevant to the target audience ?

 

[urlurl]

go with a short brandable if you have a little money to spend

 

[vccground]

And you wouldn't consider acquiring an aftermarket domain? How much money/time do you plan on investing in this project? Do you plan to generate revenue from this project or is it merely a hobby site? If it is merely a hobby site with no monetization plans then a $10 domain is OK but if you plan to invest considerable resources (time and development costs) into the site perhaps you should set a budget to acquire a decent domain. If you are going to open a new business - restaurant, retail outlet, etc you want to reach potential customers and I have seen numerous businesses fail due to a poor location (though prime locations can also be problematic as the rents can be very expensive - with comparable results). A poor domain name can communicate to potential visitors who might stumble across your site in search results this is an amateur site and they won't even bother to click.

You can be a success on any domain if properly developed. I do feel that having the exact match .com if within your budget does help or add a slight advantage as development on an alternate extension will always donate free leakage traffic to the .com and once ya develop the .com owner will want even more $ if they find your work on a neighbor extension.

ThisProductReview.com ThisProductReviews.com

adds more confidence to their purchase over...

ThisProductReview.guru

Buyers are also smarter these days. Once they get burned once or twice then they begin to look for anything that makes them feel safer such as SSL, Customer Reviews, FaceBook/Twitter interaction and anything you can do to instill confidence in a buyer helps.

Great inputs, thanks to both of you.

The asking price for the exact match .COM is in the low $xx,xxx range. I simply don't have that kind of budget, and after all I'm only going to work on it after office hours and maybe at weekends. It's not going to be a personal or a hobby kind of site; revenue generation is definitely on the agenda.

Is the ccTLD relevant to the target audience ?

The ccTLD is .TV and just now found the exact match is available in .ME too.

 

[garptrader]

Since this is still going to be a part-time effort and the .COM is priced well beyond your reach, if you plan to utilize video content on your site, a .TV domain could be a good fit. Most relevant one-word .TV domains will be taken and priced accordingly but a meaningful two-word .TV might be available or at least priced at more realistic levels. Best Buy and other big box retail outlets will locate near major malls but reduce overhead by not actually having to pay for expensive mall space. A good domain name which doesn't drain your development budget can be a good choice. Just don't underestimate the effort necessary to develop an online business.

I guess the question I would ask any domain investor looking for a domain for a project - if you don't believe in spending money on a good domain for your project, why the &^%$@! are you investing in domain names for resale?

 

[SpareDomains]

The asking price for the exact match .COM is in the low $xx,xxx range. I simply don't have that kind of budget, and after all I'm only going to work on it after office hours and maybe at weekends. It's not going to be a personal or a hobby kind of site; revenue generation is definitely on the agenda.

Most of the domains I own and the ones I've developed on are all generic keyword .Coms. I did develop 1 site on a keyword brandable cause it was sitting in my portfolio for years and finally said what the hell that's a good name time to put in in action.

Keyword brandable meaning instead of Google, Yahoo which would mean nothing unless a mass budget was spent to make it a household name something along the lines of Searchly where you incorporate the main keyword that the site relates to and add some letters that flow to make it brandable. Not sure if ya can find something similar?

As far as inquiries go on my portfolio, the generic keyword .coms receive the highest inquiries but my keyword brandables receive quite a few offers as well. I personally prefer/would invest in keyword brandables over just random no meaning brandables.