My Favorite Extensions

Subscribe to Elliot's BlogPeople frequently ask me what I think are the most important domain extensions to own for development and for protective purposes. My off the cuff first response is typically “.com and maybe .org.”
I registered a set of domain names for a new company a month ago, and I looked back on the names I bought this morning. I registered the .com for the primary website, as well as the .net, .org and .info for protective purposes. I believe these extensions have garnered the most recognition and trust amongst consumers, and I believe they are the most important to register. I don’t think anyone would try to pass themselves off as this company, but these are the extensions I care enough about to register.
This isn’t earth shattering news by any stretch, but just a tidbit of information about my new registration habits and thoughts.

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Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

24 COMMENTS

  1. I agree that these are the major ones, but I would register a few more.
    I would take the relevant ccTLD to begin with, and maybe the .tv and .mobi depends on the company/product.

  2. Elliot, would you register a domain that you liked which was available only in .org, but not in the .com? I’ve found that there are quite a few sensible .org’s available, but I’m somewhat hesitant to reg too many of them due to the lack of control over the dotcom. Any thoughts that you would like to share would be appreciated.
    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    Probably not. If I developed a non .com, I would be worried that the .com will get a bunch of the traffic. If I wanted something badly enough, I would buy it. If I didn’t want to pay the price it would command, I would find another name that would work – in .com. Nothing wrong with some other extensions, but they’re just not for me.

  3. Every new extension that is released diminishes the value of the other extensions….even .net and .org, but has the opposite effect with .com. It builds .com. With all the confusion of the other extensions cause folks will see the .com as the most reliable and trustworthy after repeated let downs by visiting bad, nonexistant, and yes….even parked sites (there are whole seas of them in some extensions that will never be developed).
    Look at how many .coms are still not developed. The other extensions are virtual ghost towns. How many times will you visit a ghost town before you decide the real fun is in New York with all the restaurants, bars, and women? My point is all the fun is in .com and that is reinforced by all the times you are rewarded with a decent site when you visit a .com.
    13 years later after the explosion of the internet, .net and .org are still largely untapped development wise. I’m fairly certain that in 50 years .com will still reign.
    Really, when we are dying the Net will just be beginning.

  4. There is a market for net’s and org’s as well… Of course they won’t make you anything parked but once developed they are gold. As the web grows, the demand increases for good keyword domains and anybody who says that a good 2 or 3 keyword domain or even longer isn’t worth at least the reg fee is really short sighted and doesn’t have a clue of what’s been going on and where things are heading.
    I stay away from info/biz/us… etc. Only other ccTLD i’ve personally invested any money in over the last few years are .co.uk and .de — I’ve gradually expanded globally to particular countries and happy I did so as there are quiet a few untapped markets and opportunities that unfortunately do not exist anymore in the US/Canada.
    Mike
    http://www.wannadevelop.com/

  5. Good point.
    Dont forget about the dashed version if it applies. Also get the singular or plural and the ing or ed if possible.
    Also .co.uk, .ca etc if needed. Not so much needed any more but the wwwbusiness and typos to capture misspells by your customers.
    I think about what name I would hate to see developed or even registered that is too close for comfort.
    Then, also thing about how your site might expand… into a blog, news, forum, products, services etc and grab those too.
    All depends on your comfort level and size of the business.

  6. .mobi is on the cusp. it’s gfoing to explode bigtime in the next 6 months as the iPhone dies. Do you see all the new phones coming out? Those are phones from .mobi backers. Go MOBI!

  7. 1. “it’s gfoing to explode bigtime in the next 6 months as the iPhone dies.” Now there’s a prediction you don’t see too often 🙂
    2. My#### and The#### are just brandables. Might be worthwhile HAND REGISTERING if necessary but I wouldn’t worry about them too much for protection.
    3. Elliot… Is there any way to get email notifications when someone leaves a comment? I’d like to know when someone leaves a comment after me and I would imagine other people would like that too, at least the option with a check box like other blogs.
    Thanks.
    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
    Not sure about that but I will check to see if there is some sort of widget I can have added. If you find something, let me know.

  8. No doubt .com is the best but .org is increasingly being used. You cold use the .com as primary while the .org as an informational site with addtional terms and key words to set serp’s into action.

  9. Hey Big E,
    Here’s my 2 cents… and, readers, please don’t think that’s all my advice is worth. lol
    My big push, especially since joining the WhyPark.com team, is that the .ORG extension is going to be HUGE. However, it will only be what you want it to be if you develop it. Since the SE’s don’t care about the extension of your domain, a great opportunity exists to get a premium phrase with a recognizable extension.
    The reason for this is that the .ORG extension is the only other TLD besides .COM that is heavily promoted. Why? Because every non-profit organization in the world buys their name with the .ORG extension. Then they spend their marketing budget on promoting that domain. “SalvationArmy.org”, “RedCross.org”, and if you go to “IDEALIST.ORG”, you can find a list of thousands of other big nonprofits using .ORG as their domain name extension.
    The biggest surprise for me happened about a month ago when I saw a nationally televised VW commercial with Brooke Shields, and the domain name shown, proudly, at the end of the commercial: RoutonBoom.org
    That sealed for me my predictions about .org domains I made five years ago. The .NET domains are what I worry about now, although many people still like them, and I get some good traffic on several .net’s I own.
    Anyway, I predict that .org domains will rise in value in 2009. Heck, what do I know other than what Elliot, Andrew Allemann and Adam Strong tell me?
    By the way, I’ll sell Ethanolmotor.org for $199 if anyone is interested.
    Now, the real question is why I didn’t post this as an article on my blog at http://www.successclick.com instead of as a lowly comment on this young domainer upstart, Elliot’s blog.
    Probably because I believe Elliot will live longer than this old Viking warrior. “Must… pass on… ancient… magic potions and wisdom to… young knights… *gasp*

  10. Do I need to be a U.K. citizen in order to register a domain with the extention CO.UK??
    the same relative to .DE extantion?
    thanks

  11. @ Milliy: CO.UK is open to anyone, .DE is also open to anyone, but you need someone to represent you in Germany, some registrars provide that service, i got this info from DENIC.
    About extensions, i believe .org became very respected, and it has gained its own space, people look at .net as an eternal vice to .com, but .org is a different “game” IMO
    I like .tv, and it seems to me, that in USA domainers don’t like it much, and en users associate to television. In Europe, domainers seem to like it, and end users too, i’ve been reading that .tv is growing in Europe, even big brands like it (mercedes-benz.tv)
    My personal believe is that ccTLD’s will rule in the future, imagine this: Over 90% of the existing businesses worldwide, are local, they’re not even national, so it will make more sense to have a ccTLD than a global TLD, of course the .com will always be on top, but it might have to share that top with ccTLD’s in a few years.

  12. I have observed at various sources and the markets that:
    1. COM is definitely the most valuable
    2. NET/ORG are mostly used by networks and institutions and for protection purposes
    3. INFO and BIZ seem to have the next best consumer respect and market value after COM
    4. TV and MOBI are fast gaining popularity (just hand regged a few mobi’s – HelloWeb, HiWeb, FoneBlog, SpokenBlog – stay tuned for a new concept I am building with these – like Elliot could phone in his blog entry)
    5. Among ccTLDs US, DE, CO.UK and IN seem to be the most promising
    6. People are still confused what to do with NAME, TRAVEL and now JOBS
    7. Then there are ccTLDs like WS, ME, CC etc adding to the confusion of naive customers – how does Elliot.Me sound? Aargh!
    I don’t know why ICANN has never considered a generic TLD for the BANKing industry, a far more important entity than travel or recruiting agencies. .BANK would be a great confidence building and anti-fraud measure – only valid banks getting to register that, so online customers can rest assured. Friends, twice I have written to ICANN suggesting this TLD. Money is the most used commodity on the internet! Anyone game to build a movement for .BANK?

  13. Helder, you are correct that most businesses will use their country code TLD for their websites in the future… The good .com are all long taken mostly for resale/flip purposes but that hopeful thinking of an offer to sell for $x,xxx is rare especially this days. Domains are going to be going through a discounting cycle where approx 95% of all domains which are 2 keywords or more are going to drop in value big time as the market corrects it self… It has got to in order to keep moving forward 🙂

  14. Mike, i agree with you, and i hope your right, the good .com will be back in the market again. The future will be COM, ccTLD’s and ORG for specific purposes.

  15. So much controversy regarding hyphenated names as of late.
    Some say spicy for SEO and longer domain name clarity.
    Don’t everyone jump all over me at one time but I plan to use a hyphenated name for an affiliate site I am building. easycash.com was ummm taken:) so I took easycash-now.com.
    Wise or unwise move guys???

  16. Controversy for sure Diana, but here goes, if you want to develop an affiliate site the hyphens are ok, to atract visitors you’ll depend basically on good SEO, and quality time spent on social media sites interacting with other people. Most web visitors and end users don’t care much about the hyphens, a lot of people out of the domaining world like the hyphens because they think it makes the name easier to read.
    Even some big brands are using hyphens mercedes-benz.tv is a good example. In domaining hyphens take the value of a domain, but for the intention you have for the domain the hyphen is ok, if you can’t have the keywords you want in any other way, then use the hyphens.

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