your thoughts on ".net" websites

[dude wheres my canon]

Lets say you thought of the perfect short-n-sweet domain for your business, and the .com is taken, but the .net is available. Do you go with the .net, or just go with another name?

thanks

[salexande867]

.net is meant for networks, so I do not. I ran into this a couple of months ago. Every good name I came up with was already registered. What bothers me is that most of them don't even have a web site. Someone has just registered the name.

[kuanyu]

Although '.com' used to be for comercial you'll find many useing .net now. I have and still do use both. I would go ahead and get the .net name before someone else does.

[PhotosGuy]

My com goes to my home page. My net goes to PrintRoom for print sales. It just makes it easier when I send someone to one of them.

[bieber]

Buy the .net, but don't use it primarily. You want to have it so that it doesn't get used for something else, but you're not going to want to hand it out because people could easily make the mistake of typing .com instead. So I'd say go with the best .com you can get, and also have the .net redirect to your other domain.

[loscocco]

as a domain expert as well asa photogrpaher i would definately choose another .com over a .net if you are starting a business. I have seen businesses go under due to the .com name drowning them out.
with that said i run some of my stuff from my .net just as an internet placeholder and i don't use my site to try to create income. www.loscocco.net. My uncle owns the .com :(

[asysin2leads]

What about getting another .com and forwarding the .net there? It goes on behind the scenes so that the general public won't notice.

[shredchic]

A chick I know just got a .org for her photography website. I would have NEVER done that.

[liza]

Ran into the same thing. I just went with an alternate .com name.

[Gary_Evans]

A chick I know just got a .org for her photography website. I would have NEVER done that.

Why not?

[cdifoto]

Why not?

.org implies not-for-profit organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.org

[willowdawn]

I wouldn't go with .net... I don't trust that folks will remember the suffix.

[Uhland]

The .com I wanted was taken.
I took the .us

[Gary_Evans]

.org implies not-for-profit organization.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.org


Originally, yes. Does anyone care now?

Ultimately you just need a web address that is catchy and memorable, thats all. A good site is better than a good name. Doesnt matter whether its a dot-com, dot-net or dot-to-dot. Which is a better name fishing.com or fishing.net? The latter because its a clever play on words, shame the website itself isnt so good

[cdifoto]

Originally, yes. Does anyone care now?

*shrug*

But it would suck to have .net registered but lose business to the .com just because you couldn't register it (presumnig the .com is in the same line of work - which can happen). Or to never be found because people keep typing .com and never remember it's .net then see a .com without a website (you know, those temp pages) and assume you went out of business.

If I'm gonna get a .net, it's gonna be because I already got the .com. Just my take on it.

[SoaringUSAEagle]

I'd never go with anything other than a .com for a photography website either. .com is the most well known domain out there anyway. I had to go with my full name instead of just jeff because it was taken. What really ticks me off is it's used as a forward to the guy's church website. UGH! The .net is available, but I decided against that and went with jeffrey.

The choice is yours, but even a .us is weird to go with. I am sure there is something you can get thats catchy in a .com

[butcha27]

I'd take the advice of getting another .com name and forwarding it to the .net if need be. Here in Australia we have the .com.au option which helps immensely and it is very common so people expect it.

[SoundsGood]

Lets say you thought of the perfect short-n-sweet domain for your business, and the .com is taken, but the .net is available. Do you go with the .net, or just go with another name?
The .com name is certainly preferable, but it really depends on how you're planning on using it. If you want people to remember your domain name, and go to your site at a later date, get a .com. But if they will be directed to your site by reading your business card, an ad, or by clicking on a link on another website -- then the extension doesn't matter as much.

I may not know a ton about photography, but I know domain names. ;)

[mellowd]

It really doesn't matter at all. .com, .uk, .org, .za ..... they are just domain suffixes. You can get whatever you want. I would much rather have easy.net than toodifficulttoremember.com

[daleftw]

Yes, but the problem is, people will remember your ".NET" and then go straight to the identical ".COM" when they get home. If it just so happens that there's another photographer with the .com you wanted, then that will cause confusion!

Like for example, there's a performanceforums.com (car forum) and performanceforums.com.au (also a car forum). One of these forums ****s on the other, and if you were referred to .com.au and forgot to put .au on the end then you'd either be confused or genuinely think you were in the right place if it was your first visit.

[SoundsGood]

Like for example, there's a performanceforums.com (car forum) and performanceforums.com.au (also a car forum). One of these forums ****s on the other, and if you were referred to .com.au and forgot to put .au on the end then you'd either be confused or genuinely think you were in the right place if it was your first visit.
Well, country codes are a little different than "regular" extensions.

[mellowd]

Yes, but the problem is, people will remember your ".NET" and then go straight to the identical ".COM" when they get home. If it just so happens that there's another photographer with the .com you wanted, then that will cause confusion!

Like for example, there's a performanceforums.com (car forum) and performanceforums.com.au (also a car forum). One of these forums ****s on the other, and if you were referred to .com.au and forgot to put .au on the end then you'd either be confused or genuinely think you were in the right place if it was your first visit.

That depends on a lot. I have no problem with a non .com domain at all. POTN is a prime example, it's .net

[jylitalo]

Yes, but the problem is, people will remember your ".NET" and then go straight to the identical ".COM" when they get home. If it just so happens that there's another photographer with the .com you wanted, then that will cause confusion!


I guess one thing to keep in mind is that rules are different for people and companies in USA and people and companies in other countries. For example in Finland, corporations sometimes prefer national (.fi) suffix over others. If they reserve something in addition to dot fi that, they will probably go for dot com.

Just to give some examples:
vastavalo.fi is real site, vastavalo.com is placeholder
cartinafinland.fi is real site, cartinafinland.com doesn't exist
plugi.fi is finnish photo stock agency, plugi.com is something completely different.

P.S. In some countries like UK and Australia, they appearantly have co.uk, etc. subdomains, but in Finland we don't have those, so its common to reserve domain names like lastname.fi. Same thing in Germany (.de), Netherlands (.nl), Sweden (.se), ...

[Nocturnus]

Really, .net .com .org doenst matter. If you can, register them all.

[int3rc3ptor]

Hi,

Sorry if this has been answered loads up to recently my portfolio of work was on a .net domain.

I'm not a company so I avoided .co.uk or .com and obviously .org is non profit.

.net didn't rank me any lower in the search rankings and no one fed back to me as to why it was on a .net

If a .com isn't available and you really want the name, then a .net is well worth it, but keep an eye on the .com domain as not everyone is efficient enough to keep paying the fees every two years and you might find it may ultimately come back into the public domain

Regards

Darren

[kevo2005]

my .com was taken so I have .us as well...www.studiokphotos.us

[djscrib]

It doesn't matter if you are a business, person, organization, whatever.

Use .COM

When you think of a domain name do you automatically assume it's a .NET, or .ORG? Nope .COM it is.

Even when people see your business card and are typing the url in their browser, they will frequently put .com at the end even if your card says .net.

Pick an unused domain name that is fairly short, phoenetically simple, and follow standard spelling conventions (No hey the "T" is silent").

People are generally hitting your site via links, or by copying the url from an email, or typing it from your card. Verbal word of mouth is a rare way to acquire visitors. People forget before they write it down, can't spell, it, etc.

So get a .COM, get the .NET if you want to prevent someone from sniping the .net domain though.

[mellowd]

When you think of a domain name do you automatically assume it's a .NET, or .ORG? Nope .COM it is.

Even when people see your business card and are typing the url in their browser, they will frequently put .com at the end even if your card says .net.



Perhaps in the US. Here in the rest of the world that's not the case

[strmrdr]

I aways register the .com .net .org .us and .biz for all my clients and point them too the .com website.
That prevents some jerk from registering the others and making money off your good name.


If someone owns the .com and is in the same business as you and the same area or its a nationwide trademark there is case law that they can sue you for trademark infringement if its registered.

[kevo2005]

^ True story...Lots of people have studio K...I just happen to be buying the trademark next month. Its like $500 to register the name, and more to register any logos.

[flipstyle72]

get another .com but also register the .net version if it's something that someone else may be able to use and point it back to your .com


flip

p.s. hope you are not paying network solution prices for your domains.