# does anyone use .net for their site?



## N the Hood (Nov 23, 2009)

Does anyone here use a .net domain on there site and still make good money selling tshirts ...


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## Fr4nk13 (Feb 10, 2010)

*Re: .net*

.net domains can still generate lots of traffic, however if you can get a .com, it would be better for you.

People seem to automatically assume that a website will be followed by .com because it's so common.

If you have to use a .net, try incorporating it into the name of the site, to make it memorable. filecabi.net (possibly nsfw, just using it as an example) does this.

The real trick is marketing, though. And it could always be worse. You could have a .me, .us or any of the other uncommon ones.


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## Girlzndollz (Oct 3, 2007)

*Re: .net*



N the Hood said:


> Does anyone here use a .net domain on there site and still make good money selling tshirts ...


Great question, but I got to wondering, how would they "know" without having the dot com site to do a side by side comparison of income? 

That's a great, but probably tough question to ask and get answered. Also, income is so relative... $100K might be great to one person and piddly to another. ?? 

Generally, the dot com is always preferred whenEVER possible, for the reason stated above.


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## N the Hood (Nov 23, 2009)

*Re: .net*

I was thinking about using a .net domain for my site.


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## Fr4nk13 (Feb 10, 2010)

*Re: .net*

If at all possible try to get the .com version of your website too. Even if you want your site to be hosted at the .net, you can always have the .com redirect to your site.

That way, even if a customer enters your address with a .com, they aren't giving their business to someone else.


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## N the Hood (Nov 23, 2009)

*Re: .net*

Yes thats exactly what i was thinking about doing it with this name ok Thanks..


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## tcrowder (Apr 27, 2006)

*Re: .net*



N the Hood said:


> I was thinking about using a .net domain for my site.


The .com has been taken for 10 years now and the .net for the past 3 yaers. Do a whois search before you put too much time into naming a brand.


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## Girlzndollz (Oct 3, 2007)

*Re: .net*



N the Hood said:


> Yes thats exactly what i was thinking about doing it with this name ok Thanks..



Why would you choose to use the .net over the .com if both are available?


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## N the Hood (Nov 23, 2009)

*Re: .net*

No nthe.net i have it register but not nthe.com..


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

N the Hood said:


> Does anyone here use a .net domain on there site and still make good money selling tshirts ...


If the .com is available, get the .com.

If you want to brand your site as the .net version, then get both.

But if *only* the .net version is available, I'd suggest a different name.

I worked with this one company that had the .net of their t-shirt site and they were getting some major media coverage (CNN, radio etc).

I was able to help them buy the .com from the owner and watched the traffic to the .com spike every time they got a new mention in the media as people that saw or heard the web address still just naturally typed in the .com. 

The .com definitely makes a difference


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## proworlded (Oct 3, 2006)

I agree with Rodney. We have both .com and .net websites and there is much more action on the .com address. Try to get a .com, if you can.


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## Guest (Feb 16, 2010)

Get both. If the .com is taken, then I would reconsider the name altogether because users will always go there first, even if they have heard the name as a .net


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## maiasaura (Nov 11, 2009)

*Re: .net*



Girlzndollz said:


> Why would you choose to use the .net over the .com if both are available?


.net is supposed to be used for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet Service Providers and other infrastructure companies. Personally, I would get turned off if a shopping site used the .net because it would tell me that the site operators don't really know what they're doing--but that's maybe just me.


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2010)

I should have been more clear. The reason you also get the .net as well as the .com, is because if you don't, somebody else will and that can damage your brand. You should always get at least both for the main brand and then others if you see it necessary, such as misspelled versions of the same, etc.

It is much cheaper and easier to register a domain name than try to get it back through ICANN. 

Shoppers could care less how they got there and what extension you use as long as they landed at the place they wanted to be.


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## maiasaura (Nov 11, 2009)

I understand that. I have a domain that someone bought the .net to. It was an educational website, and I see they dropped it. It didn't affect my business much, since most clicks come from referrals, and few people bother to type in URLs anymore. Still, the potential was there to hijack my site (if I had anything worth hijacking). Big players have to worry more.

Also, I let one of my domains lapse by a few weeks and it was snatched up by a domain farmer. Now THAT was annoying. My own fault, but annoying.


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## Guest (Feb 17, 2010)

I think it was like 1999, Microsoft inadvertently let the registration for Hotmail.com expire. It was a mess as you can imagine, nobody could get to their email. Plus, the embarassment. LOL


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## IYFGraphics (Sep 28, 2009)

maiasaura said:


> I understand that. I have a domain that someone bought the .net to. It was an educational website, and I see they dropped it.
> 
> Also, I let one of my domains lapse by a few weeks and it was snatched up by a domain farmer. Now THAT was annoying. My own fault, but annoying.


You also want to be careful choosing a domain name that was previously registered, one site that we own dragtopia.com which is a drag racing site was previously registered and was ....well a drag queen site, not that I have anything against others lifestyles I don't but for a while until traffic was built for our site google searches still turned up links to the other site....not really a good thing. I would never consider a domain that you could not own all the associated extensions....if the only difference between your site and someone else's is a .com or .net ie the name is the same it's going to cause you problems IMHO.

So a little research into past domains is a good thing when choosing a name, I also feel for the cost it's worth it to grab all the other associated domain extensions to either lock them up or redirect then to your site. If your site is successful there are sure to be copy cats or knockoffs trying to get your traffic any way they can.

Just my 2 cents.


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## maiasaura (Nov 11, 2009)

So funny. One our Wisconsin Secretary of State, Doug LaFollette let his campaign funding domain lapse and it was picked up by a porno site Campaign site goes hardcore - JSOnline. 

"He acknowledged that he's known about the problem for months, but the statewide officeholder is unsure how to undo the damage.

Actually, it may not be all that difficult. *No Quarter *needed less than an hour to get an offer to purchase the site name from the new owner."

He was, he says, spending $25 dollars a month for his domain name, so that alone makes him a dim bulb.



Dawn123 said:


> I think it was like 1999, Microsoft inadvertently let the registration for Hotmail.com expire. It was a mess as you can imagine, nobody could get to their email. Plus, the embarassment. LOL


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## EddieM (Jun 29, 2009)

Why not go for a .biz your site is going to be a business site selling things right.

.biz is just for that. if the .com is taken.

I have picked up a few .biz sites that the .com was all ready taken and i all ready out rank the .com versions in google so if you are found and they are not.. They have no chance of selling something unless the customers has ordered from them before and goes right to their site.


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## Girlzndollz (Oct 3, 2007)

*Re: .net*



maiasaura said:


> .net is supposed to be used for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet Service Providers and other infrastructure companies. Personally, I would get turned off if a shopping site used the .net because it would tell me that the site operators don't really know what they're doing--but that's maybe just me.


I get hit with a little of the same reaction when I see a .net as a shopping site as well. I am groomed via the dot com world for that and thought I "can" adjust if people start using .nets more often, it'll be a real adjustment for me.

I'm comfortable with .com and that's why I use .com and would always try to use a .com over a .net - if I had a choice at all.

Getting the other extensions, like Dawn mentioned, is a good idea for why she said... I'd probably spring for the .net extension if nothing else.

For me, I have a .com, and then opted for a shorter name that is not the company name, but what people would likely google to find me. I picked up the .com of it, and that site is pointed at my .com with the company name.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

EddieM said:


> Why not go for a .biz your site is going to be a business site selling things right.
> 
> .biz is just for that. if the .com is taken.
> 
> I have picked up a few .biz sites that the .com was all ready taken and i all ready out rank the .com versions in google so if you are found and they are not.. They have no chance of selling something unless the customers has ordered from them before and goes right to their site.


I would never buy a product from someone with a .biz site. To me, .biz gives the impression of a fly by night business.


I just came across this blog post that explained how much traffic a site with an alternate extension (.info in this case) can lose over the .com version of the same domain name:

How Much Traffic Can a .Info Site Lose To A .Com? 27,000 Visitors In 1 Day | The Domains


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## EddieM (Jun 29, 2009)

I think that can be true but not so true if the person is just doing a search for key words they are looking for and your .biz or other . name site shows up on page one and the .com version is on page 5 or 6.
The .com site may never be found and yours will.

Also if the .com is all ready taken and doing ok if you can get your .bix or whetever showing up better then the .com version you can easy take customers away from the .com site.

If the customer just searches for the name.

Like the .com site is named

supersportsshirts.com
and your name is
supersportsshirts.biz

And the customers searches for super sports shirts in google and your site shows up first for that search you can do well if you site looks good and is selling what they are looking for.

But over all if you can get the .com get it.

I have some other as all the .coms are taken for what i wanted and i wanted the right search words in my name.


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