James Schramko here. I’m going to share with you what domain is good to get. I often get asked, what sort of domain should you have for your business? If someone has the .com, is it okay to get the .net or the.org? Or if the .com is available, should you have the .net, the .org, etc.?
My general rule of thumb is simple – I want to own the .com. I don’t really want to have a business where I can’t have the .com because .com really is king. There are a few exceptions. But when it comes to just the regular site, I don’t want to be building on a .net or .org.
You can listen to some podcasts I did about this one with Clay Collins talking about Leadpages. They didn’t have the.com and it became an issue for them. But there are also many other examples. If you get the .net or the .org and build it out, there’s a good chance whoever has the.com will be the beneficiary of your traffic. So I like the .com.
Some exceptions might be if you have a software business. Some of those software applications use .io. However, I’ve still noticed companies like Intercom have still gone out and switch from .io to .com because .com is king.
Also things like trademark are a consideration. Before you buy a .com, make sure you do a trademark check. A few times, I’ve gone to check trademarks and found that they are owned by multinational corporations. And if you go and build on that .com, you will likely be told to stop using that domain so be careful about that. Usually the best .coms are taken. Most of them being used. But if they’re not, then you can often buy them.
Usually they’re listed with a broker. And often if you make a reasonable offer that is lower than what they’re asking, you will be able to find a price that is somewhat lower than the asking price. And I’ve found as a rule of thumb, you can usually get them for about half price. So for domains $2,000 or $3,000 or $4,000 or $5,000, there’s a pretty good chance if you offer $500 or $1,000 that you might end up getting a $2,000 domain. If you offer $1500, you might get a $3,000 domain.
It’s important though that you have other options. When you are trying to get a better deal, there’s a chance you will lose the deal. So if you really need a domain and if you’re the best person in the world to have that domain, sometimes, you just pay the money and get on with business. Because the right domain is worth a lot more than a few thousand dollars to you.
For example, in the past, I bought a domain for just a few hundred dollars that became the domain for my mastermind that is the single biggest product that I have in my portfolio. So it’s certainly worth a lot more to me than it is for anyone else and I trademarked it. So I feel very secure with that and I could sell it in the future for more than what I paid.
I hope this has been helpful. If you’ve got any questions about domains let me know. Also, I talk about this stuff inside SilverCircle and SuperFastBusiness. Also, I quite often buy domains for my customers because I have quite a bit of experience buying domains. So if you are a member of either of my communities and you want help buying a domain, then let me know in the private discussion.
I’m James Schramko. Hope you’ve enjoyed this.
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