I take offence that you call (.info) tld's spammy and crappy. What really makes me laugh is that your main site is on the Blogspot domain. In other words, you don't even own your domain and your other sites are on Squidoo, which you also don't own. So how can you call out (.info) as being cheap and spammy? You ain't in a position to do so, let's be honest. Have you done your research on (.info)? The intended usage is for informational sites and so if you created a product review site or provided fresh, daily content within a blog then it makes sense to use this domain as you are simply providing information. I run domains on (.com) and (.info) - and no such one gets any advantage from Google OR from visitors. So there ya go.
Wow! Excuse me for expressing my opinion which is actually very informed. As I said before, I do not consider the ending spammy. Only MANY of the sites that use it ARE spammy and it gives it a bad name. This has nothing to do with it's intended usage or anything of the sort. And it's not about research it's about the average internet user. I was actually just bringing this up with some of my friends and they agreed. In fact some of my guy friends were telling me that a lot of the sites they use for "guy-purposes" are, in fact, .info It's a stereotype that most average internet users have in their minds. People are more cautious now-a-days. They also tend to stay away from things like dashes in the url. I have plenty of experience with owning my own domain as I did this for about 7 years. I had a .com and a .net (the .net actually didn't get nearly as much traffic but that's beside the point since we're talking .info) So please don't tell me what my experience is and isn't. -Danielle
So you're now saying that (.net) ain't as worthwhile as (.com)? Try telling that to Darren Rowse, who owns ProBlogger.net, which is probably the most successful blog you can find online today. Please don't group (.info) with gay porn. There are millions of empty, scraped and spammy sites on (.com), but there's no need to associate any labels with that tld. You're nit picking, I could do the same about "splogs", but I don't see the need.
Wow, you are totally twisting my words around. First of all, I was just noting my experience with .net I never said anything about gay porn, second of all. But a lot of pornish sites or sites that are nothing but affiliate links, use .info And of course there are plenty using .com but users are used to .com so no amount of spam is going to override that. .info is not nearly as popular so users can easily form that stereotype after seeing several spammy sites. And, once again, I am saying it's what a lot of average internet users think. Just because you don't think this way doesn't mean that you can assume everyone is the same. -Danielle
Name some of them. Wow. That's news to us. Problogger is a good example, Ryan. Thank you for that one. I forgot all about it. Although it isn't an info extension, at one time, and probably still is, many think that it isn't a good extension, that it isn't "professional." Where these people get their thinking is beyond me. Thing is, many webmasters are very successful with it, like using the info extension, like the sites mentioned earlier. Bottom line is, if you like the name, and it means using another extension, do so. What matters is what your site looks like, and how you promote it.
Let me ask you then - why can't you buy your own top level domain? Is it because you can't afford one or cos you can't be bothered to get one? And if you're as experienced as you say you are then why haven't you got a privacy policy on your site or any copyright notices? It's the above reasons why you don't have a leg to stand on. Calling (.info) cheap and spammy is gonna offend a lot of webmasters on here. Me included.
Thank you for your posts, Ryan. I am glad to see somebody here who uses his brain, but the above is irrelevant. Well, even though her ignorance on this has been shown over and over again, in all fairness, she never said that. Damn, quite a thread! lol
.COM .ORG .NET .BIZ .INFO That's the order of popularity of domains. .INFO is more of a playground for domains, due to the really cheap prices, and they have no value. Perry Ryan, maybe .com might not reflect any sort of business-side to the address, but it has recognition value. If you don't have a .com you are bound to lose a lot of customers, however if you're a URL shortener where nobody gives two slams what your name is, then it doesn't make one second of a difference. All in all, .INFO is a domain playground for me. Whereas .COM, .NET and .ORG are for full-on businesses for me.
OK I'm really tired right now since it's about 1 in the morning so this is going to be my last post for tonight. I also really don't understand why you decided to attack me when a lot of people in this thread were basically saying the same thing. As I've said before, I'm NOT calling .info spammy. I'm saying that MANY sites that use it are. There's no reason for anyone to take offense to this, unless you are running one of those spammy sites (which I assume you aren't.) As I've said over and over, it's a stereotype and that's all it is. And in terms of it being cheap, well it kind of is. I don't know if this is the rate for all of them, but the ones I've seen have been selling for less than $2 a year. And as for my credibility, I don't currently have a top-domain because I started my current blog less than two months ago. I don't like to jump into things. Since my blog is fairly new, that's why I don't have the other things set up yet. I have a friend who is dealing with the legal-type stuff for me. He is writing the privacy policy currently. But I am not concerned about it because I don't collect any information from my visitors. Oh and to Blue1, are you that same guy again? Because you clearly signed up just to make these posts. And please stop calling me dumb. You are clearly the dumb one if you have nothing better to do. -Danielle
lol oh yeah, she did state that, among other dumb statements. Oops. Even I quoted her on that one on the previous page. I'm still waiting for her to give us some examples of info sites that are "pornish sites or sites that are nothing but affiliate links." heh bilawal360, granted, com does have recognition value, nobody would dispute that, but the thing is, there are just way too many webmasters who are business people, and they have the info, and they are doing just fine. I have the FM, and I do great. We all wanted a particular name, and a less popular extension was the only one left. Hell, I like the FM as it perks curiosity. On top of that, many sell information, and the info extension is perfect for them. It helps sell; to get people to click on the ads and links. It goes together. Smart advertisers, promoters knows this. I have a feeling that the webmasters who have the info may say different. Like the ones already mentioned. I have the even less popular extension, and I definitely say different. Net wasn't very popular at one time either. Many inexperienced said the same thing the ones of today are saying about the INFO, but look at the situation now. But, all in all, it is different strokes for different folks. Some prefer com's. others prefer info's and other extensions.
Firstly, I'm not attacking you, I just find it rather strange how you can label (.info) as cheap when you yourself adopt the "bum marketing" strategy, whereby you don't pay for domains, advertising etc. You can't get cheaper than that - that's why your little rants don't stand up too good. It's fine to stay on the Blogspot URL. I know many successful bloggers that have stayed on that domain and are doing very well. Again, I get a little confused when you say that the blog is just a few months old and you wanna build it up first. That logic is floored, cos if you re-direct your domain you'll lose all of your links and any PR that you may have collected. If you're gonna move to a fresh domain, do it on day one. With the privacy issue, of course you collect information. I bet you have a statcounter on there or Analytics. I saw that you collected emails by Feedburner - that's collecting information dear. Back to (.info), I have (.com's) on several domains and I'm fully aware that the value of (.info) is minimal at this time, but that's because of trends. (.com) and (.net) got there before anyone else and (.org) has a good reputation because it has established charities and organistions on board. For the (.info's) that I own, even if I could get the (.com) for each of them I wouldn't want them as they are content based blogs providing information, it's not as if I have used something irrelevant such as (.mobi) or (.ws)! If you want keyword rich domains then (.info) is the best option these days imo. To be successful you have to rank well in Google where webmasters can get the very best targeted traffic. Google don't care what tld you have, unless it's a tld based on a specific country code. They look at relevant links, nice anchor text and what not. If you can get that right then you'll hit high in the SERPS. The key then is to throw up keyword rich post titles for exact phrases and you add a detailed meta description tag. Web users look at that post title and they look at the meta tag. They don't think, "Oh that's not a dot com so am not gonna bother!" They visit the page and if the content is great they use the service, subscribe to the feed, bookmark it whatever. Google and visitors love valuable content and that's that. The tld is completely irrelevant and all the lame disputes only ever come from the "Seo experts" you find flocking such forums as this. As noted, it's all about trends and trends change. Just cos (.info) has little value at this time, doesn't mean it'll be like that in the future. All it will take is a few authority sites getting listed and things may change. If you built a PR8 (.info) site then it would have just as much as value as any other tld. Trends are exactly that - Myspace was once king and look what happened there, now look at Twitter. Just show a little respect to (.info), if it was that bad then why did it get the go ahead over (.web)? (.com) and (.net) both arrived in 1985, (.info) was 2001. It's still a baby, but it's still a great choice imo.
People prefer typing .com more than .info as it is more widely known... and on other notes not much difference...!!
When we start seeing big companies using ".infos" in television commercials then people will run to buy ".infos"