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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    266

    Question Domain name help: brand vs keyword, .com vs .net

    Hello,

    I could use some help/suggestions as i cannot make up my mind.

    I am starting a website which will buy ingame items for steam ( store.steampowered.com ) from users for real money (paypal, btc etc).

    Development is taken care of, it is all documented and work will start in 2 weeks.

    Where i run into "issues" and i am just not sure what to do is the domain name.

    All visitors which i care about (read: potential customers) will be gamers, so i think it is safe to say most will be more tech savvy than average internet user.

    I already grabbed "good" domain name with .net, but .com is taken and is up for sale for $2.5k (did not contact the seller to try to negotiate yet).

    Domain name i got is a keyword one. Lets say if i was in cookie selling business domain name i got would be:

    SellCookies.net
    SellCookie.net

    While: SellCookies.com is taken and up for sale.

    Issue for me is following:

    Name is too generic. Lets say you go on some forum to find good website where you can sell your cookies for cash and you get reply like:

    "hey man, you could try on:

    cookies300
    cookiemania
    sellcookies"

    - First problem my domain/future brand name is too generic. In example above it is clear that there is site called "sellcookies" because it is part of the list, but if mentioned in middle of the sentience it might not be as obvious? Maybe i am just giving it too much though?

    - It will be .net while competition is .com (and in some cases they have .money .cash .io (see: cs.money, skins.cash, marketplace.tf)

    I will not rely on search results to be discovered. This will be done by ad marketing, sponsorship of youtube videos and twitch streams, word of mouth, and affiliates program. But still it will be needed to be displayed in first few places when user searches "sellcookies" while terms are too generic and many of already established competitions will probably have higher "page rank".
    So being how i already need to invest a lot into marketing how much sense is there to try to grab .com? I could just spend that money in marketing and make sure to always have ".net" in there so it sticks to peoples heads.

    Any suggestions are most welcome!

  2. #2
    From my experience so far, for a money site like yours .com is a necessity. People aware about your business name will by default put .com rather than .net. Regarding keyword as your site name - keyword would be definitely be helpful. But in my opinion to rank in the first few pages other factors like backlinks, on page SEO etc. will outweigh this factor. If you still want to go ahead with using a keyword, do proper keyword research see number of searches, keyword difficulty etc. before selecting it.

    In my opinion, better go for a small name 4-8 characters easy to remember and connect with for your target customers which may or may not be a keyword. Ensure you have the .com extension.

    Hope this helps !

  3. #3
    If one has to choose between .com and .net then without a question .com is the winner but since .com is not freely available you should look for other options. Specially since there are so many tlds available.

    I could just spend that money in marketing and make sure to always have ".net" in there so it sticks to peoples heads.
    You have answered it yourself. You could use that money for marketing purpose.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2016
    Location
    Hampshire, England
    Posts
    109
    Here is my very subjective reply'

    A .net domain will always lose traffic to the .com

    You ask to choose between branding and keywords - I would choose both. Lets take your cookie example, and say you are setting up a site to sell cookies baked with coconut oil. You could brand them as Cocookies, and use the keyphrase name CoconutOilCookies.com to harvest traffic for the branded site.

    I don't like the name sellcookies, unless you are setting up a franchise and you want to attract store owners.
    I prefer to accept Bitcoin in payment for domain name sales.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Bronx, NY
    Posts
    121
    Hello zvjezdan,

    Have you thought about the new themed domain names that are out? Since your website is about games for gamers then why not get a .games domain instead. You might get a better keyword or you said the .com is taken why not get the .games of the .com

    Check out http://name.kitchen/

    It's a not-com website where they suggest to people to get a themed domain instead of a .com
    DominioNombres.com Marketplace!

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