"Stick to .coms when you start domaining".. I see it a lot. What does it mean?

[bigbagofbricks]

I'm very new to this site and have only ever bought one domain hoping for a profit. Ie. Complete newb. Anyways, I see this phrase everywhere and wonder what people mean by it..

Do people mean that you can venture out into a few of the new ".tech" domains when you have some profit to play with? Or is it that you'll only really understand the (lack of) potential after more time in the business?


I'm only interested in .com but yea, I've seen it said like ten times today.

 

[CrocodileDundee]

Or is it that you'll only really understand the (lack of) potential after more time in the business?

This, when you have a feel of the industry you can try venture out but in the beginning its best to stay with .com imo! (renewal fees for certain new extensions are really big too)

 

[bigbagofbricks]

This, when you have a feel of the industry you can try venture out but in the beginning its best to stay with .com imo! (renewal fees for certain new extensions are really big too)

Those renewal fees have saved me a few times from going for a domain that I've later realised was a bit silly.. Thankful in a way!

 

[Kate]

It simply means that there is more demand for .com domains, thus the likelihood of selling is higher. But this not enough of course, the names have to be decent enough, and even great.

 

[indiegrind]

.com is far and away the king of extensions. It is the extension most universally identified with internet websites. Only thing close would be in country specific tlds where the market audience is local, like .de, .co.uk, .ru.

Businesses who place any importance in their web identity should want a .com address that matches their business without hyphens.

.org might be 1st choice for nonprofits
.net is second choice if you cant get the .com

The masses arent as familiar with other extensions.
The .com generally has significantly greater value.

Endusers will likely try to acquire the .com first, if not, they will often add prefixes, suffixes or numbers so the .com rather than go to a 2nd or 3rd tier extension.

You just have a steep uphill battle trying to sell other extensions unless they are the most premium keywords, or unless it is something like short 1, 2, 3 characters or numerics currently trending with other domain investors.


Even good .coms are hard to sell. Why handicap yourself further with some downgrade extension a fraction of sites use.

 

[paul79]

i guess the next logical question is: if there are no decent .coms about (or you can't afford them) do you just wait or go for a better name in a lesser extension?

 

[Willox Perez]

i guess the next logical question is: if there are no decent .coms about (or you can't afford them) do you just wait or go for a better name in a lesser extension?

Everyone has their preference but I feel you have to do both especially if you do not have a huge budget. You should wait out til you can afford some descent .coms and at the same time if you come across some good .net, .info, .org etc then go for it. From experience and from looking at so much sales history the domains that sell the most in other extensions are usually the 1 word ones.

Of course now the short 3 letters an 4 letters are super hot but I personally do not understand what makes them valuable it is tough to say if the value will just keep going up or will it come crashing down for these short letters.

- Will

 

[SpareDomains]

Basically .Com is...

1) The highest in demand from companies
2) Has reasonable renewal fees

So for someone new to the game with zero experience makes sense to invest into the most desirable extension to increase your chances of a sale. Also helps that renewal fees won't break the bank while your in the learning process. Once you've tweaked/gained some experience and become consistent in selling .com domains then up to you if you wish to move other extensions as well if an opportunity presented itself. The longer your in the game the quicker you'll be able to spot good buys so makes sense to try the easiest extension to sell that won't break the bank until those skills get sharp.

Personally 99%+ of my sales in 13+ years are .Com, own a few other extensions but only premium 1-2 keyword domains. More of a "If it ain't broke don't fix it" for me though as .Com has been good to me so rare that I stray from it unless the price is right to do so.