Another Reason To Get A Dot-Com Domain Right Away

April 19th, 2007 · 29 Comments

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So did you hear about DMOZ founder Rich Skrenta’s Topix.net purchasing the Topix.com domain name from a Canadian company for a cool USD 1,000,000? I guess too many people were being lost in the type-in traffic going to the dot-com.

So, think about that when you choose a domain name. If it’s a dot-net (or something else) and your site becomes hugely successful, you might need to pay big buckeroos later for the dot-com.

Here’s the link to the article at WebProNews.

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Tags: Blogging News · Opinion · Rules For Blogging · SEO

29 responses so far ↓

1 collis // Apr 19, 2007 at 2:25 am

You know I was just thinking as a corollary to this…

If you see a site that looks like it has the potential to be super successful and it is on a ‘.net’ domain … it could be a worthwhile purchase to try negotiating with the .com owner, then you can upsell to the .net guy two years later when their site has mushroomed.

just a thought anyhow, pretty speculative action to be trying of course
2 Shane // Apr 20, 2007 at 1:56 am

On the one hand, the situation kinda sucks. On the other, success is a good problem to have!

As long as they have figured out that the ROI will pay for the domain in a reasonable time period, it’s a great and necessary investment.
3 Matt Jones // Apr 22, 2007 at 5:59 am

Yeah a dot-com is better than dot-net but then again dot-net is way better than say a dot-blogspot-dot-com
4 Anthony // Apr 25, 2007 at 8:59 am

This exact thing happened to Darren at Problogger.net. He finally bought Problogger.com after a few unsuccessful attempts to buy it in the past. And I’m sure he had to pay good money for it.

I’m going to focus on dot-coms when I start replacing my blogspot blogs.
5 Robert Irizarry // Apr 27, 2007 at 10:44 pm

Interesting stuff but I suppose it’s to be expected. Your average person instantly thinks of .com and come to think of it, so do I despite my involvement with blogging and technology.
6 Alan Liew // May 1, 2007 at 7:48 am

Well, after reading this interesting post I suddenly come out an idea to profit with dot com domain.

By researching on the dot-net sites that have become very successful, then check to see whether the dot-com domains of these successful sites are still available. If available, purchase those dot-com and then resell them for high profit.

Sound good right. But I think people has discover this opportunities long time ago and may be I’m too late to profit this way.
7 Rene Kriest@ProBloggerWorld.de // May 5, 2007 at 4:16 pm

BTW: What happened to this blog?

No new posting for almost 1 month!

Hey PJ, pls give your fans a lifesign.

Regards,

René/ProBloggerWorld
8 Philip Liu // May 5, 2007 at 5:05 pm

Life sign here! Just getting my bearings in place after a big month of personal change. Sorry for the wait!
9 collis // May 10, 2007 at 12:51 am

hehe yeah come back Philip!!
10 怀孕症状 // May 17, 2007 at 8:46 am

This exact thing happened to Darren at Problogger.net. He finally bought Problogger.com after a few unsuccessful attempts to buy it in the past. And I’m sure he had to pay good money for it.

I’m going to focus on dot-coms when I start replacing my blogspot blogs.
11 Rene Kriest@ProBloggerWorld.de // May 19, 2007 at 7:16 am

I love your Blog, Philip!

I wish you all the best for your changes and hope that you get this Blog going (again).

It´s a jewel in the world of ProBlogging.

Regards,

René
12 Alwitt // Jun 5, 2007 at 3:14 pm

I like your blog for its simplicity and minimalist look. Very clean!
13 Joel Badinas // Jun 9, 2007 at 9:37 am

I think that’s pretty much a proof that we should buy a dot com domain. I bought mine just last week.
14 动画片 // Jun 15, 2007 at 10:06 am

.com is the first choose at anytime
15 Amrit Hallan // Jul 1, 2007 at 4:00 pm

Hi Philip.

I’m leaving this comment because there is no “contact” link on your blog (or I couldn’t find it). Nice blog!

But when I tried to subscribe to your RSS feed the Google reader gave an error “No feed available for (your RSS link).
16 scott // Jul 5, 2007 at 5:49 pm

i’ve never understood why people will register a .net or a .org over a .com. i can understand someone taking a .net or .org because the .com is taken… but that’s a nightmare waiting to happen.
17 Urbanist // Jul 8, 2007 at 4:59 am

I’m a huge fan of 6-letter pronouncable domain names like romlet.com or allsux.com … I mean, eventually these could be worth a lot, or nothing at all, but they are short, catchy and easy to spell, so what have you got to lose? I recommend dinking around looking for ones like those
18 Compare The Brands // Jul 10, 2007 at 2:53 pm

Dot Com domain names are like real estate. There is a saying in the real estate industry that goes something like “They’re not making any more land. But they just keep making new people”. While there are only so many word-combos you can come up with for good domain names, new companies keep popping up every day. Sure there are plenty of other TLDs to choose from, but .com will always be the Beachfront property.
19 William Profet :: OneJobTwoSalaries.com // Jul 11, 2007 at 11:28 am

I am trying to buy .com domains only. All my websites are in dot com area! :))

I am waiting for the buyers!
20 The Prize Blog // Jul 16, 2007 at 6:33 pm

Hey,

I’m a big fan of your blog, and wanted to tell you about my:
6 Day Blogging Competition at ThePrizeBlog.com.

Alright Thanks,
Brian Aldrich
21 Tom // Jul 20, 2007 at 4:00 pm

.coms are good for typein traffic as people just assume subconsciously that all domains end in a .com. So if you hav a .info site and it does get popular, most traffic will be flowing to the .com version and if that site a crap or uses spyware, the reputation of the real site can be in danger. So given the low rates for a .info or .org, it is still better to go for a .com
22 Leonid Shalimov // Jul 26, 2007 at 2:06 pm

And dictionary.com was sold for something like 10 million am I right?
23 Clarks // Aug 21, 2007 at 7:33 am

I don’t understand, they open their websites with 1000s of dollars and can’t register .com at the start ?
But this does not applies to me. First I try to buy .com , if its not available I maybe look for .net , but I know that if I register .net domain, I will be sending part of my traffic to .com
24 Karthik // Aug 22, 2007 at 9:00 am

We do see a lot of such cases, a few others are problogger(.net originally, but Darren purchased the .com later) and jconserv(again, .net and went on to buy the .com) But still we say a lot of people going for .net and .org even sometimes!

For me, its a .com even if I can’t get the desired name…I register the next best.
25 Armando Pinto // Aug 25, 2007 at 12:51 pm

First, congrats by your great site and job. it’s very useful. I agree with you when you says about .com domains, not just to resel it later but to create an easy-to-remember mark. its a first step to success.
(althought i dont have one)

____________________________
http://saladadecevada.blogspot.com
26 Data Governance // Sep 10, 2007 at 10:48 am

That is very true. I purchased the domain DataGovernanceBlog.com because without the word blog was already taken but only for the dot com. I wanted to have Data Governance in the name, and I also wanted to have a dot-com for branding reasons, so I went with adding the word Blog in.
27 Gaje Master // Oct 10, 2007 at 1:45 pm

I started to go with a cheaper domain but I went with a dot com and I am very glad that I did. It is much easier for people to look up.
28 Simona Rusnakova // Apr 12, 2008 at 9:15 am

When you mean it seriously with your website, definitely get a “proper” one, serious and dot-com is the best. However, I think .ie is more suitable if you are targetting Ireland only - what do you think?
29 Niall Devitt // May 12, 2008 at 10:06 am

In Europe we recently had a lot of publicity around .eu but as of yet I haven’t seen too many websites use this domain. I agree .com is the way to go for any business.