gTLD or ccTLD? Which has more value?

[Name Trader]

I am considering to buy a 4L, either the .BIZ or the .US for low-mid $$$. Neither TLD has great prospects, IMHO. Which do you think has better long-term value? I am expecting to develop the domain. .COM is developed and out of reach. I will not be developing in the same category as the .COM

Or would I be better off buying a longer .COM with my keyword included.

This is 2 questions. So I'd appreciate 2 answers. Thank you.

 

[Aamsra]

If intended business has US major market, then surely you must go to get.us name first. After that, getting .biz as well will boost the business growth,imo. So, get both based on the plan and budget.

Thank you

 

[sumbini]

I would go for the longer .com ... since it has the most National / International appeal and perceived trust among consumers. Also, because it will be more expensive and will take longer to rebrand if you outgrow your .biz or .us.

 

[Name Trader]

Hi

buy the best, most descriptive, longer .com you can hand-reg, then buy the 4l.us and 4l.biz


then point the .us and the .biz to the .com

tah-dah!




imo....

I had considered that as well But it's a bit of a waste of money to spend approx $800 just to do nothing more than to forward them to the .com, for basically a gTLD and a ccTLD which are basically on life support I could use that extra money for development of a .com. Which is now clearer in my mind than when I stated this thread

 

[Name Trader]

Is your main audience in the U.S.?
- If so, the .US could work just fine.
- If not, .US is not going to send the right message, unless it's something like show.us, teach.us, etc, that is benefited by the .us.

Unless it's something really neat like show.biz or drone.biz, I would say that .biz probably shouldn't even be an option. It's very, very low on the desirability list, and especially moreso nowadays.

Hard to say between the two without knowing more. They are very different choices (.biz vs cctld).

Personally I would far prefer to look at new gtld options than either a .us or .biz (unless it REALLY fits).

The 4L domain, being a dictionary word, is a quite good, CCVC, but not as popular as the ones you are mentioning here. I was focusing on the 4L .US or ..BIZ probably too much. I've convinced myself I'll be going with the longer .COM. Which I hadn't seriously considered when I posted this thread. But it is the advice I personally would have given, if this post had been by another member, and I was replying to it Now. the only question is, which one?

 

[Kate]

.us is relevant if you are targeting a US audience.
.biz stinks imo.

If you have a budget of $800 buy something that could appeal to somebody else - not just you.
The reasoning is this: if your project fails or you later want to move on to something else, you still have a good domain that is an asset, and you can resell the name later - possibly for a profit.
.us/.biz names are very hard to sell.

Do your own shortlist of possible domains and review the options available to you. Some alternative names might be available for sale. I like to use .net/.org for certain niches, sometimes. While their value is questionable to some, they are probably better than .us/.biz.

 

[Name Trader]

@Kate - $800 wasn't exactly a budget for domain acquisition. That was just about how much it would cost me to buy the 4L .BIZ and .US domains together. If I had a budget for domain acquisition it would be about half of that. But I do have some decent .COM domains of 5-8 chars with my keyword in them. Which I have decided are better for development than the 4L .BIZ or .US domains. So my acquisition budget is now $0 So now I have the luxury of deciding which .COM domain to choose Not an easy task in itself

 

[garptrader]

I believe all domainers should attempt to develop a few sites if for no other reason than to see the perspective of end users when it comes to buying a domain name.

For example, when domainers are looking for a domain for a portfolio site, they will quite often handreg a bunch of crap domains, seek input from the forum on which is the best and even though they are launching a business selling domain names, their budget for their business' domain is quite often no more than reg fee. If you are not willing to pay for an aftermarket domain for your domain business, why should you expect end users to do so?

 

[Name Trader]

@garptrader - This sounds like you are criticizing me here. I have not asked anyone on this forum for their views on any of my domains. Nor have I mentioned what I am going to use the domain for. And I certainly have a few "quality" domains bought in the aftermarket for $k's, which could be used. But I'm planning on going the brandable route with the domain I choose. Not an EMD. It is also unlikely to be a new registration. Although it could be.

 

[garptrader]

Stub-you did not mention developing a portfolio site. My point is that as a group domainers often expect end users to pay $xxxx or higher prices for average-quality domains. Yet when it comes to choosing a domain for their own site, the thought of paying serious money for a domain name seems ludicrous. It is good to see things from the other side of the fence.

 

[Name Trader]

@garptrader - Correct. Although I do agree with your tenant about a lot of domainers using cheap/crappy domains to sell their equally cheap/crappy domains at inflated prices. I think this should not be a "hard-and-fast" rule. You don't have to have an expensive domain to sell your domains to end-users. A good brandable (which could be a hand-reg) with well constructed SEO ranking it well in Googles SERPS, say on Page #2. Page #1 being full of Domain Registrars, would do the job.

For end-users. They don't really care that much what website is selling the domain they want. But I would be more leery of buying from a crappy domain website with little or no rankings than buying from Sedo, et al. I would expect a cheaper price than I would pay at Sedo, for example. Whether I'm an end-user or a domainer. Because they have less overhead and no commissions.

 

[ksusha64]

I am considering to buy a 4L, either the .BIZ or the .US for low-mid $$$. Neither TLD has great prospects, IMHO. Which do you think has better long-term value? I am expecting to develop the domain. .COM is developed and out of reach. I will not be developing in the same category as the .COM

Or would I be better off buying a longer .COM with my keyword included.

This is 2 questions. So I'd appreciate 2 answers. Thank you.

I think its awesome to develop domains! More domainers should do it. I would always go with KING dot com. If you ever decide to sell it as a business it will have much higher value than even greatest biz or us domain. Call it human nature, but people go with what they know. Your buyer may not even understand domains, but want to buy your business. He or She will be much more confrotable buying dot com business than dot US or Dot Biz. For Seo purposes dot com is much better of course as well.

 

[DnEbook]

I think it really does depend on each country, seems Usa would consider .com to be their cctld, of .us is adequate but for me .com would always be the first port of call, however in Australia .com.au rules the roost
It really is a case of assessing each country's attitude towards their own cctld

 

[Asfas1000]

Maybe it depends on the keyword too ... (if too long it could be awkward)

 

[Promaximus]

I am a new domainer so take my opinions with a grain of salt...

Interesting thread. Go to Google trends and type in .biz and compare it to .us. Both search terms have been in a decline since 2004... both look like a flatline on a heart monitor compared to other extensions. Both terms are searched way below a .co or other extensions.

Perception is reality in this business. I would say that very few will take you seriously with a .biz. When I do a search, I won't even click on a .biz in the resutls thinking it is a spam site or worse. I just don't see .biz as a serious site.

.US is different. I don't know if Google treats .us as gTLD or country code. I would have to find the list. But if your business is going to be global, I would definitely not use a .us extension since you are limiting your audience to the U.S. I would say the perception of a .us, while having a good reputation, is for the U.S. only.

At the same, I consider: mousepadsforappleandpccomputers.com as a basically worthless domain. Yea... its a .com but is it really memorable. I personally would rather have mousepad.co or mousepad.me if I had to chose between the three. But I would trash both and use mousepad.com or mousepad.net if I could afford them.

 

[domainer021]

Don't go for a long name. No matter what you do (including TV ads), names like listingallcars.com just don't work and will impede your success. Don't be averse to using a new gTLD.

 

[DNScholar]

Both have unique place and importance among TLDs.

 

[DU]

People spend way too much time worrying about finding the perfect name.

*guilty as charged*

Oscar Wilde is not famous because he came up with great book titles.
Jimi Hendrix learned to play on an abandoned ukelele.

Developing it kind of like putting on a concert... you just have to do it.

*I have loads of book titles if you want one

 

[westdotcn]

I don't really fancy a new gTLD that much

many chances from new GTLD