Domain wordplay

[sephirotica]

If any of you have experience with this, I'd like to know if it can be profitable to avoid .com domain in favor of .it or .me if it would produce a more memorable name.

Do you think there might be a market for things like that?

What I'm talking about are addressees like
watch.tv
buy.it
hire.me
iwant.it

Not sure if those are registered, altho im assuming they are, but thats off the top of my head.
Do you think grabbing a name like this would have any major pros or would it be cons mostly XD

 

[NameOffice.]

I would say avoid these like you would have your girlfriend avoid Twinkies. Everything goes downhill once she gets her hands on them.

 

[Webbs]

.Com is where it usually is at. I do see some value in exceptional domains in alternate extensions.

hire.me
smart.car

How will the nTLD expansion change things? Very hard to say. But I would be fearful of any non .com and country code specific domains for some time.

 

[sephirotica]

But I would be fearful of any non .com and country code specific domains for some time.

Yeah, that was kinda the question i was going for.
Would you rather go with the "safe and generic" .com or chance it with a catchy "something else" XD

 

[Rado_Ch]

Yeah, that was kinda the question i was going for.
Would you rather go with the "safe and generic" .com or chance it with a catchy "something else" XD

I think that one is case-specific. Both routes have their pro's and con's and they might trigger, influenced by various factors. Are you going for a business website or a personal project? What are your target group of visitors and what would be your approach towards them? The name, in my opinion, have to reflect on this impression you want to leave in people. I can't necessarily rule out the "catchy" domains combined with their extension - I've seen great examples of such websites and the fact that they're not .com does not impact them badly at all. From an SEO standpoint, might not be the best approach, but its not contributing so majorly

 

[Kenny]

There are some very valuable domain hacks... mostly crap left by now.

Peace,
Cy

 

[sephirotica]

While were at it, do you think that using .co or something other than .com for a personal website (my domain portfolio + CV and contact info, nothing special really) would reduce my credibility?

You know, "a domainer who cant even get himself a proper domain" xD

 

[Venga]

You may want a .com (or .net /.org or your country-specific TLD) still simply for reasons of usability.

 

[youmakemewanna]

too few dot com domains now.

 

[Rado_Ch]

While were at it, do you think that using .co or something other than .com for a personal website (my domain portfolio + CV and contact info, nothing special really) would reduce my credibility?

You know, "a domainer who cant even get himself a proper domain" xD

For .co specifically, don't think its a useful extension as a stand-alone domain, I would more likely use it as a parked domain, pointing to my website, along with other domains.

Now the value of the .com has been talked about over and over and over and I think most people should understand it by now. As most of the times it should be your primary choice, for a personal website you have more freedom to experiment. For non-commerce websites you play by the rules of your target group - if you are going for the local approach a country-specific TLD might be a great idea, a .me domain has worked mighty fine with some personal blogs etc.

At the end of the day, having a .com for your name is always good, but if you are engaging enough, having a different extension can work in your favor, building recognition more easily.