What is the next best extension if the dot com is taken

[domainhotspot]

Want to start a niche social networking website , the .com,.net and .org is taken . This is for a small community site and i was wondering which extension would be best suitable .
Is the .me better or .in ( the community has a big presence in india )

 

[Nitindomains]

.in

Must go for it, if the focus is India-centric..

 

[Chris Wright]

If the community will grow beyond India, the extension may hinder it slightly.
Unless you get something like join.in, crowd.in, plug.in, etc...

 

[domainhotspot]

Thanks for your replies.What if i get the .me extension .Will that be useful globally ?

 

[ruzeen]

Thanks for your replies.What if i get the .me extension .Will that be useful globally ?

.me? Not a great idea!

 

[Rado_Ch]

What language would the content be? Would it be in Hindi, or English, or both? Because that just might be helpful for your decision. Regardless, you mention its a SMALL community, mainly centered in India so .in does sound like the smartest choice. Plus, it quite easier to establish and popularize a local brand instead of a global one. Still, if you think that some of your potential users might be put off by this extension, you can go for something neutral like .net (which again is tricky, as the .com domain will surely "steal" some of its traffic).

 

[Smart click]

I prefer the .Net
I believe it's in teh second place then .Org.

 

[craigly]

thanks

 

[Charles Sweeney]

I would get the appropriate country code. That said, the only country code I register is .co.uk because I am in the UK and I NEVER register one unless I can get the .com too.

So to answer your question really, If you can't get the .com nothing is anywhere near as good unless it is intended for one country with no intention of ever going out of that country, in which case the country code might be ok but I believe you can always get a half-decent .com which is always going to be heaps better than anything else.

IndianSocialNetworking.com is available and it was the first name I checked.

 

[Name Trader]

Charles is correct. You can always find an available .com related to your subject matter. Try adding "the" prefix for example. Or something more relevant to your subject matter. You should definitely use a .com if you are going outside just India. There are millions a brandable names in .com you could use also.

If the majority of your potential users (80-90%) are in India, you might concentrate only on the Indian market and use the .in.

The domain name has very little SEO value these days. Content is king, if you want to rank well in the SERPS (which means you could use almost any .com name).

 

[domainhotspot]

Thank you everyone for your replies. The other country that i ex[ect traffic from is australia so would it be better if i go for .com.au instead of the .in ( i will register the .in from branding and keep it )

 

[Rado_Ch]

Thank you everyone for your replies. The other country that i ex[ect traffic from is australia so would it be better if i go for .com.au instead of the .in ( i will register the .in from branding and keep it )

Again it comes to down where will MOST of the traffic come from...but in all cases you can still register both the .in and .com.au and park them together so they can both open the same website. As a matter of fact you can get multiple extensions that you find relevant to your traffic and do the same

 

[NameOmnia]

Australians tend to go for the .com.au so if you expect traffic from here you will have to register that extension for sure.
Considering how many people live in India and how many live in Australia I would go for the .in as the main domain and with the .com.au as a way to redirect traffic to your main name.