I am thinking of using a .net for a new site but the .com is owned by someone else that hasn't done anything with it for a while. Bad idea?
I am facing a similar situation. More like I dont have a choice. Here is an article: http://www.seobyelan.com/2009/08/seo-friendly-domain-extensions-does-this-matter-in-seo/
I mean obviously since I am wanting to use this particular name if the .com is not a choice the .net is the only option I am just worried about all the traffic that will be sent to the .com because of my site. This is the first time I will be using a .net domain if I choose to do so thanks for the article though it has many grammer mistakes but the main point is a very good one!
.net is also popular,if you really couldn't find a .com one,try it.But make sure it's unique and catchy.What's more,work hard to promote it.Maybe you should spend more energy and time on it than on a .com one.But it's worthy.
its not a bad idea. Some people prefer .net over .com anyways. Even if the .com was being used, its probably ok to use .net as long as you aren't spoofing the .com...
It depends on how you plan to build your business. If you are building locally and passing our biz cards and word of mouth then you will need a .com. Almost most other case .com is preferred but since you can't get it. You need to look at other things. IF you are building online then .net is fine as most people will click on your link or banner so name doesn't matter. If you are thinking about SEO then again it doesn't matter as both are TLD and google won't care. Also in regards to keywords you will get better marketing if it is an important and searched for keyword. If you wanted business.com and it was taken. I would take business.net over joescoolbusiness.com So the only Real problem is most people just remember a domain and then Assume it is .com If the name is good enough or special to you then 8 times out of 10 .net is fine I have a site http://www.unlimitedcellphone.net that I just started building to promote 1 of my businesses. Since I am building online I didn't mind not using .com (which of course was taken) and also for SEO purposes that is also my keyword unlimited cell phone. So it was an easy decision.
Probably people will go to the dot com but then remember your site was different. Then they will try a .net so you still get many people. Focus on the fact your site is .NET so people will remember.
The only bad thing about .net is that people sometimes forget what was after the dot and type yourname.com because com is the most popular tld.
so when you use .net for your business, people will buy the .com (Me, for example, lol). And so, peoplein the world will come to my house more than to you, I think
it sucks because a lot of people think .com when they remember a website, so you might be giving traffic to your competition.
If I had to compromise with one, I can just hear myself later feeling like: "Man ... sure wish I got" "Man ..... sure wish I had a" "Wonder if it still makes a big difference" At least half the battle would be the doubt and dissatisfaction stuck in my mind for the next year.
It's a tough call in this situation. Personally I would say go for it if the .net domain is very relevant to your business/website. Bear in mind however that if your site eventually becomes incredibly popular someone could capitalize on that by making use of the .com
with such a blend of .org, .com and .net sites - it doensn't really matter if you have .net vs. .com - those are still major TLDs.
...and then there's .info too ;-) But kidding aside, it depends a bit on how you get people to your site. If you make them click on links primarily, i.e., in resource boxes, it really doesn't matter. But since I'm here, what do you think of the following two options: ghostwriterpro.net vs. ghostwriterphd.com Obviously, ghostwriterpro.com was taken... Thanks for your input.
If you plan to invest in branding and making the .NET domain known, then probably you'll lose some of that investment to whoever has the .COM domain. Your domain name would not be unique. Essentially you would be advertising your competitor, because people are more and more getting used to typing the name they may have heard somewhere to Google, rather than the browser address bar. And if both the .NET and .COM domains show up in the Google search results, they would rather click on the .COM site.