An example of why you a .com domain.
What happens when you use a non .com domain name and market it? Yeah, every one knows that the .com equivalent suddenly gets more traffic. In case you’re looking for another concrete example, Domain Name Wire reader Ross Hosman stumbled upon TwoOfUs.org.
Hosman was on Pandora recently and saw ads for TwoOfUs.org, a web site by National Healthy Marriage Resource Center. He ran a quick check at Quantcast to see how much traffic the web site gets and compared it to .com. Here’s what he found:
Although data is limited, Quantcast figures that both the real web site and the .com version are getting about the same amount of traffic.
Compete.com shows a wider difference, estimating that the .org domain name gets about 12,000 uniques a month compared to 1,200 for the .com. But either way, it’s clear that the .com is benefiting from the .org’s marketing.
Just wait until new top level domain names come out. Spillover traffic to dot coms will increase.
Free Domain Newsletter says
This is only a problem if the .com is in competition with the .org, otherwise it really is not that big of a deal.
For example, if I owned LasVegas.org (unfortunatly I don’t) and continually lost traffic to LasVegas.com then that would be a problem to me because people that were looking for info on Las Vegas would get it on my competitors site.
On the other had, if I owned FailBlog.org and continutally lost traffic to the parked page at FailBlog.com then it would be no big deal because people wanting to go to failblog.org that accidentlly type in FailBlog.com would simply see a page of links and remember to type in .org (as I have done a few times).
This is another example of domainers needing to be business builders not just domainers. In some situations not having the .com will really hurt, but in some cases it won’t make that big of a deal.
On the flip side, .org allows newer domainers to build a brand while spending significantly less than the .com would cost. I just purchased a .org city name for a world famous vacation city for less that $9000. The .com is worth over a million, I am sure of it, and I picked up the .org for less that $9000. That is less that 1% of the value of the .com.
Some people would tell me that I am crazy because my fully developed site will send traffic to the .com, while that is certaitly true, it is well worth it to me to lose some traffic and be able to still compete with the big boy paying only $9000 for a premium .org domain, then having to pay $1,000,000 for the .com domain and pick up some extra traffic from the .org.
It is simply a matter of making a business decsion and plenty of good businesses have been built on tld’s aside from .com, while many crappy business have been built on .com’s. In the end the domain has an influence but more of an influence will be found in the brain and the person behind the idea.
jorge says
@free… nice analysis.
Sammy Ashouri says
@ Free: Awesome comment. My views on this situation exactly.
Free Domain Newsletter says
Thanks guys=)
Ray says
I agree. I think the new TLDs will simply make everyone aware that what comes after the dot really, really matters. With dozens of new extensions, just typing keyword + .com and hoping for the best is a waste of time.
Unasi says
“I think the new TLDs will simply make everyone aware that what comes after the dot really, really matters.”
Haha you are so naive 🙂
everything.tv says
I agree Free excellent analysis, I thank God I got an education and when someone says go check out my site keyword.org I put in the .org. I realize there is no cure for stupid but you don’t want stupid customers anyway. Build a business and stop dreaming about being Frank Schilling and a lot of people would be a lot better off IMO.
Rafael says
Great points.
Steve M says
Back in 2007, the NY Times did an article on financial websites, including GetRichSlowly.org.
Problem (for them) was that when initially posted to the web (don’t know if mistake appeared in the paper version), they put in my Get Rich Slowly.com site by mistake.
For the next 3 days, my traffic was more than 5x what I usually receive. Even though they fixed the mistake the next day.
Which just confirmed for me again the value of golden .coms.
domain guy says
this is a big deal i own all extensions .com,.net,.org..info and .us with a keyword.they are all directed to the .com website.however a billion dollar company came in with a design element and got it registered on the principal register.leaving the keyword to be disclaimed on the principal register.now i get a lot of traffic from the .org keyword.this is not my traffic and is useless to me.i filed an answer with the uspo and the ttab allowed the mark to proceed to register.so here is a billion dollar company that uses my keyword and i get a good percentage of their traffic.
this is a real problem for this company, their lost traffic is worth a substancial amount of money.i am also tempeted to put up a .sucks site on the .org suffix thereby hurting this billior dollar company and hurting their credibility in the marketplace. this harvard graduate has failed in his schooling and their “lost traffic” is costing this company a substancial amount of money…..
LS Morgan says
I disagree when you say unlimited TLDs will increase .com spillover… If anything, vanity/corporate TLDs- and the concomitant marketing that will surely come when some big businesses start to use and promote them- may be the catalyst that actually breaks the ‘dot com instinct’ in the public’s mind.
As things stand, the public is conditioned to pay close attention to the keyword/keystring, then in too many cases, just presume it’s on a .com (because usually, it is…)
When unlimited TLDs start coming out and we see diet.coke and laptops.ibm, well, I think we should at least be OPEN to the possibility of a decreasing ‘.com instinct’ and a potentially shifting paradigm as it pertains to how TLDs are viewed (over time, of course. It won’t happen overnight)