Web site domain question

[David Freed]

I would like to get opinions on registering a domain. I heard or read somewhere that if you register one domain for a business, such as mybusiness.com, and it turns into a profitable business, someone else could register a domain as mybusiness.net and try to make money by stealing your customers. I registered a couple of names already as .com, .net, .org, and .biz because of that and I have a couple more domains I am ready to register and I am having second thoughts about registering anything more than just .com. Any thoughts?

[Ed Hazel]

I would not bother with the other domain names, the only way they could steal your customers is if your customer actually types yourdomain.net instead of your domain.com.

On a different note I would be more concerned with getting my product name in the domain more than my business name in the domain.

[David Freed]

Maybe "stealing customers" was the wrong term to use.I am not worried about losing customers that are typing the domain name. What I am concerned about is my .com site and a competitors .net site both showing up in a search for the product. You could lose a lot of business that way. What are the chances of that happening?

I do have the product (or a form of it) in each domain name.

[Scott Shepherd]

My opinion is you are doing the right thing if you are concerned about it. Your concern is very valid and justified. It really comes down to if you can afford it. If you can afford to do that, then do it. If you can't, then don't.

The odds of it happening are slim, but it does happen and it can happen. If you are concerned about it, then keep doing what you are doing.

[David Freed]

It costs $3/month per domain. I went ahead and registered all of them for now. I can drop some of them later if the businesses don't sell very well. Now for the real work; building the sites. I have a real good start on the one that is going to take probably as much work as the other 3 combined. I started on it about 2 months ago and then was temporarily sidetracked for about a month. I am using the same design for all of them, so that will make it a little easier. Thanks for the replies.

[Lee Ludden]

You can just have all of them forward to the same website.

[Jim Becker]

Just remember that the folks that set up the domains are in the business of making money...the more top-level domains (.com, .net, .biz, etc.) they can sell you, the more they make. (and the more you pay over time on renewals) Unless you have a major business that is recognizable, registering your name in a whole bunch of top-level domains just costs a lot of money for something that you'll unlikely benefit from. But since you have them, just pick one as primary and do as Lee suggests...redirect them to your primary.

[Joe Pelonio]

I actually had that happen, when I initially started my business website and a competitor in a nearby city bought the same domain name but added an s to the end and had it go to their website. Apparently it didn't do much for them because after a couple of years it became available and I got it as well as a few other variations for $15/year each. You'd really have to buy all the possible combinations .com, .net, .biz and so on to prevent this. Recently one of my suppliers got hacked by a competitor and didn't know it until I told them (a Rowmark supplier). Some company in another state managed to hijack their domain to go to their own website.

[Sean Troy]

Are you making all the sites the same and pointing to one as the main? I may have misunderstood but if you do, you very much risk being banned by the search engines as mirror sites.

[Ed Hazel]

Are your three products they same or close to it? If so I would go with one site. You can forward the other domains to the one site.

Building the site is the easy part getting your sites to rank in the SE is the time consuming part it never ends.

Have you researched the traffic volume for your products?

Top level domains should cost no more than 10/year.

[John McClanahan]

For $3 each, I would do it. I don't know if this is still true, but it used to be that if you typed whitehouse.com rather than whitehouse.org, you ended up at a porn site. :eek:

john

[Dave Wagner]

$3/month! Does that include the website and everything, mail, etc...?
Did you try GoDaddy.com, they are only like $10-12/year for your domains. You should get some of them that people could type in. .COM, .NET. .BIZ,

What happens is like they said, other people could put up totally different sites with different suffixes (.net, .biz, etc..) with your same name and advertise the heck out of them, using your prefixed company name....then they go to their sites, not yours.

You can also Re-direct them from the .BIZ, .NET, etc..so they are point to your .COM site. So, if they type in the different extensions, they all point to the same domain.

[David Freed]

Unless you have a major business that is recognizable, registering your name in a whole bunch of top-level domains just costs a lot of money for something that you'll unlikely benefit from.
You'd really have to buy all the possible combinations .com, .net, .biz and so on to prevent this.
That is why I am still seriously thinking about just going with .com and forgetting the rest. I couldn't afford every conceivable combination.


Are you making all the sites the same and pointing to one as the main? I may have misunderstood but if you do, you very much risk being banned by the search engines as mirror sites.
Are your three products they same or close to it? If so I would go with one site. You can forward the other domains to the one site. This is going to be quite enough work in itself without going to the trouble of making mirror sites. Anyway I already know that is a big no-no.

Actually it is 5 separate products (and a possible 6th) with 2 pairs of them related to each other. One product in one of the pairs is going to require an extensive site to cover all the options and the related product would get lost in the mix, so I am intending to set up 4 websites. Right now the products are pole barns, portable buildings, cabinets, coffins, and leather products (phone cases, belts, etc.) I will be selling the leather products myself and marketing the rest for other businesses on commission. If the opportunity arises I may add more products also.


Building the site is the easy part getting your sites to rank in the SE is the time consuming part it never ends.

Have you researched the traffic volume for your products?

Top level domains should cost no more than 10/year.
I know that the SEO is going to be a big job. All of the products are big sellers. I realize that I might get a package cheaper somewhere else, but I have been with homestead for a few years and they are an excellent company to work with in all areas. When you call customer service, you get AMERICANS that talk ENGLISH and are very helpful.


$3/month! Does that include the website and everything, mail, etc...?
Did you try GoDaddy.com, they are only like $10-12/year for your domains. You should get some of them that people could type in. .COM, .NET. .BIZ,

What happens is like they said, other people could put up totally different sites with different suffixes (.net, .biz, etc..) with your same name and advertise the heck out of them, using your prefixed company name....then they go to their sites, not yours.

You can also Re-direct them from the .BIZ, .NET, etc..so they are point to your .COM site. So, if they type in the different extensions, they all point to the same domain.
This is the package I have now for $20/mo + $3/mo for each extra domain.The $3 is broken down into $2 for the domain and an optional $1 for domain privacy.


Unlimited Websites
Unlimited Pages
Blog
PayPal Commerce
100 GB bandwidth
1 Domain
10 Subdomains
5 Email boxes

I am pretty sure that I'm going to upgrade to this package for $50/mo + $3/mo.



Unlimited sites and pages
3 personalized domain names (www.my-sitename.com (http://www.my-sitename.com))
up to $30/monthly credit for online advertising ($360 annual value!!)
50 Personalized email addresses powered by Hmail
2 Feature-packed Hmail Suite accounts
1 blog for each website you create
Support: Unlimited via phone, unlimited via email
10 GB disk space, 500 GB bandwidth
Free WebListings ($149 annual value!!)

[Neal Clayton]

the point about reputable registrars is a very valid one, imo.

what happens when you forget the username/password and the email address you registered it with dies after you change ISPs? if you can't call the people you registered it with, you're screwed and your site disappears when the bill goes unpaid.

that said i've always used godaddy and don't have any complaints. they also answer the phone with english speaking support.

as for .biz, .tv, etc., most of those are cheaper than the others and are almost universally used for spam advertising. .com and .net are the only two anyone notices, with .org a distant third. i wouldn't bother registering them all for a small business.

[David Freed]

I was able to do a few hours research last night and taking into account what has been said here along with other things I read, I'm beginning to think I should go with one site. I had said some of my products were not related, but they are in one aspect. They are all Amish made. I can dump any or all of the domains I have and only be out the registration fee.

[David Freed]

I decided to drop everything but the .com and .net domains. I started a new thread to ask another question.