.ws with strong keywords - experiences?

I have an opportunity to be an affiliate for a friend of mine that is doing phenominal sales with his product. His top affiliate is making xx,xxx revenue, but they also have a site directly related to the product.

In searching for a good domain name, there is nothing notable to be found for sale or register. Except in .ws

Domain is available with the exact keywords I want, but with .ws name. Anyone have experiences with .ws? How do search engines treat it? With good content and links, could it compete with .net/.com, all things being equal?

Thanks for sharing any experiences/advice.

 

I'm not sure where you are located, but the .ws ccTLD is for Samoa.

http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html

It shouldn't be a problem for the search engines, but if you are located in North America or Europe, why would you want to register a domain name in Samoa?

There are a few other ccTLDs, like .cc and .tv, that are being erroneously passed off as gTLDs, when in fact they are not.

 

My experience (and what I've heard in here before) is that the extension doesn't matter at all.
But you will loose out the potention type-in traffic..

.ws was the ccTLD for Western Samoa, but has now been opened for worldwide registration and use, marketed as .Website.
So with proper development it should matter for the Search engines at all..

 

Thanks Tech. I'm in North America. Really my only concern is, all things being equal with PR, backlinks, keywords, could .ws compete with .com/.net. My plans are for an affiliate site. Build links, drive traffic, make sales of the product.

 

Redleg, thanks. I've read the same, but wanted to check a bit before making a decision. I've searched high/low for anything that would be good for .com , but it's a very competitive market and I'm about five years too late for any decent names in .com I've spent hours trying to find something, but everything remotely decent is long registered.

 

I don't think you will have a problem competing with the search engines, but in my opinion, there is a credibility factor with some ccTLDs.

By the way, anyone can register any of the unrestricted ccTLDs. Restricted ccTLDs generally require a physical presence in the country. There are several that have been openned up to the world and are being misrepresented as a genuine gTLD, which they are not. The list of legitimate TLDs is on the page in the link I provided.

.ws does not mean .website. It does mean Samoa, or more correctly Western Samoa.

.tv does not mean television, it does mean Tuvalu

There is a difference between the official standards and the way some registrars market a ccTLD in order to sell registrations.

 

I've developed several .ws sites myself, and I can't see any difference in spider activity and/or SERPS compared .com sites I run..
And I would rather have a short and sweet (good keyword) .ws/.cc/.tv, than a long and hard to remember .com site.

 

Crediility is definitely a factor that is crossing my mind and a good point. I rarely come across .ws domains when doing searches. What's your perception on .ws in terms of credibility? General perceptions?

 

Here's a humorous side note regarding ccTLDs. Sometimes the ccTLD can create suspicions in the minds of Web users.

I've got a friend in Switzerland who has a Web site with the official .ch ccTLD. People sometimes question his credibility (mostly Americans) because some non-Europeans identify .ch with China, when in fact .cn is used for China. .ch stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, which I understand is an alternate name for Switzerland.

 

I don't have a bad impression regarding .ws, but I personally would never uses a TLD that was not easily recognizable. I think maybe Americans and Canadians may be more sensitive to this issue than in other countries.

Like Redleg says, you do need to have a name that is memorable. Long domain names are not only difficult to remember; they are also easy to misspell.

Here's an article that might help:

How to Select a Domain Name for Your Business

 

Thank you both for your information and advice.

 

As far as I know localised TLDs are just given a small boost in the local versions of the search engines. On the .com versions it should perform as well as any other TLD.

 

i heard that .info and .ws are not that great. just what i have read.

 

I don't see why a .info or a .ws should ever rank better than a .com....

So I bet what you have heard is right.....

Even though I own a few .info's - I still really don't think much of them.

 

Try .biz or .info
It's sounds more general and not specific to any country

 

Some good points for resale. From a desireability stand point, no doubt .ws is not the most popular, by far. Setting aside it's popularity or desireability, my only concern is whether there would be any ranking problems within search engines, all things being equal.

I'm comfortable with my skills to promote and SEO the domain. Given it's powerful keywords and the sheer competitiveness of the market it represents, if .ws can rank the same as .com / .net / .org (all things being equal), then the keywords of the domain are far more important than the desireability of the extension for resale purposes. I'd try other extensions, but there are none left. I was surprised it was available in .ws, as many resellers have bought up many of the good .ws names.

Thanks for all the good feedback! I appreciate the diverse opinions. I've purchased the domain, but have not started working on it yet. Have two projects ahead of it.

 

Like said above, I wouldn't use a .ws domain, even for an affiliate site.
Why not do something like "keyword1-keyword2" instead?
Whenever I'm searching for something, I normally don't click on subdomains or on not-so-often used extensions, just because of the credibility factor. Sometimes I don't even click on "keyword1-keyword2" domains, because most of them are just built for adsense revenue.

But that's just me and I wouldn't consider myself a normal surfer ;-)

 

If you can get the keyword or keyphrase you want with .WS then go for it. .WS works just like .COM, .NET, etc. because it is now marketed to all as "dot website." The alternative is to get a lesser SLD with a premium extension and that to me is not the better alternative. It's all about development, and the more developed .WS sites out there, the better it is for all of us .WS domain holders.

AmCy

 

.INFO is very hot in the European market these days. A guy in another forum recently sold a French .INFO that he registered for free and made over 1000 euros on the deal. Yummy.

AmCy

 

If you want to see some domain sales to be able to rate the domain extensions, I'ld recommend to look at this site:
http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm