13 replies to this topic

[glengara]

I've got both but can't decide which to use, site is aimed at webmasters and SEO is not a factor here.

Any preferences?

[ARizzo]

I'd go for "straight". I say that because your site is geared toward webmasters that you hope will keep coming back. Let em feel like they can read your URL without the hypens. I think it'll positively increase their confidence in you by making them feel like they figured out your meaning without aid of a hyphen.

[glengara]

Interesting point of view ARizzo ;-)

[Jill]

Neither. Hyphens suck and so does .net. Get creative and find a .com without hyphens, there are still TONS of 'em available.

[glengara]

I'd probably agree, but the two word combination is ideal, and I don't mean from an SEO POV.. ;-(

[Betty]

But it's not ideal if you can't get a domain name to go with it.

Have you tried buying the .com from the owner?

Either that or find a new name. We recently went through this and had to ditch not less then 15-20 great names because the domain name wasn't available. Eventually we ran out of ideas and added the word "outlet" to our main name. Although that's not a perfect solution - it's working for us.

You can try the usual tricks of adding things like Officialdomainname.com or domainnameonline.com theoriginaldomain.com - that sort of thing.

[glengara]

And I'd thought we were losing that old .com prejudice ;-)

[Selie]

No, it seriously hurts if you don't have the .com - my company does not have the .com and it hurts us.

I'm not in a position to do anything about or anything, but I can confirm that having something other than a .com can be a serious problem.

[qwerty]

The US isn't over the .com prejudice; that's for sure. But if your target audience isn't in the US, there's the national TLD.

If you do need a US audience, I'd say the .net is better than the hyphenated .com, but I agree with Jill. You might be better off using a neologism with a .com. If you go that route, just don't participate in the silly Web 2.0 fad of dropping a vowel (e.g. flickr).

[glengara]

I hear you all and consider myself duly warned, but it's sooooo tempting....

The .com isn't in use and is registered to Verisign, seems I need to get my interest registered in their Central Listing Service, anyone recommend a good Dropcatcher?

[glengara]

Just an update, your advice held me back, they shifted focus slightly from one aspect to another, and I managed to get a pretty hot .com.

Drinks are on me....

[arteworks]

Hyphens suck and so does .net. 

What's wrong with .net? For a webmaster site especially?

[Randy]

What's wrong with .net? For a webmaster site especially?

It depends. How much traffic are you willing to lose because you have the .net and everybody types in the .com since that's all they see in advertisements?

It always goes back to Branding and other-than-search-engine advertising. By getting a .net when someone else has the .com you're only putting a hill in your path that you don't need to climb.

Most people are not that Internet savvy. Heck, outside of those of us who do this stuff for a living, many don't even know what .net is!

[arteworks]

Oh, yes, okay. I was thinking from a se perspective. You are correct. Mine ends in a .biz - and a couple of times a month I get a phone call from a client asking why I didn't respond to their email - and it's because I come to find out that they sent it to matt@arteworks.com - instead of .biz.

So yeah, you are correct.