Video promotes .Online domains vs. longer domains in .com.
Radix has launched a marketing campaign for .Online using the slogan “Business is tough. Make your domain name easy with .ONLINE.”.
It released a video in conjunction with the campaign, and I think it’s rather clever. A woman is watching TV commercials and tries to visit the advertisers’ websites. But they have long, hyphenated .com domain names and she can’t type them in before the commercials end. The final commercial is a company using .online, and she is able to quickly type it in.
It made me chuckle, and it’s Friday, so I’m embedding it here.
Ravi says
Andrew that is clever one…
Now wait for responses of .com warriors with lots of logics to kill .online in online 😉
Ethan says
“.com warriors”… well described. Personally, I’m really tired of seeing their sermons.
Don’t get me wrong. I also invest in .com. I just don’t only advocate .com.
gene says
Thanks for posting this. It is clever, and makes a very valid point about having a great SLD with a gTLD.
Naturally, nothing beats a great SLD with a dot-com extension. But I’ve brought up this point a zillion times on various blogs and never gotten a single, valid response: After that perfect dictionary word is gone forever – and knowing that there are tens of thousands of other businesses that needed the same name, but couldn’t afford it -, what are they supposed to do?
There are 1.8 billion websites, and approx. 190 million active companies in the world. There are ~ 170,000 English words in existence. So do the math — only a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of companies (some of them very large) can get the premier dictionary word in dot-com.
So given these facts, should a player which doesn’t have, and will never get, the single-word.com use a sub-par dot-com, or a great gTLD?
The only answers that I’ve ever gotten on this question are actually non-answers, i.e., “they need to step up the the plate and buy the single-word.com…or they should have done so if it’s already gone.”
Noted…but that’s not an answer.
Snoopy says
99.9% of people will choose a two or 3 word .com.
The ntld is not a good choice and the vast majority know it, there is always an extra word because of the extension and it is confusing to tell to customers.
James Kite says
Only because people aren’t used to it and that is changing.
I’m seeing more advertising using gtlds for the website and encountering more people who are aware they exist.
.com or the cctld of preference may be ideal, but gtlds are finding a place.
Dave Tyrer says
I’ve had a similar sentiment for about 10 years Gene, even since before the notorious Google Panda update of 2011.
As you likely remember, the most common mantra on the blogs before the update seemed to be:
“YOU HAVE TO GO AFTER THE EXACT MATCH.” (in dot com).
In harmony with where you say “do the math” it never made sense.
If there are 100 candy companies, only one can have Candy.com. The other 99 still have three good choices:
1. A good alternative dot com (SweetCandy.com)
2. A brandable (Hersheys.com)
3. A new gTLD or rebranded country code etc (Candy.store)
Any of those fine options answers “what are they supposed to do?”
Since the Google update, an exact match domain doesn’t guarantee you a position in search results. The best content wins.
Anyone who doesn’t think Candy.store is a great domain must be lacking in vision. The new G’s are gaining traction. The latest report from CENTR said they grew 11 per cent over the previous year (compared to dot com’s growth of 5 per cent).
Richard Lau said recently he overheard some millenials talking about the “cool new extensions”. Jeff Bezos has rolled out Amazon.jobs.
There is a shortage of good domains, so anyone who understands implacable market forces and the laws of supply and demand will also understand that it is pretty much impossible for the new G’s not to keep growing.
couponpages says
What bugs me is that I own a number of .Coms that end with “online.com”, and I tried ordering the .Online version of them but it says they’re taken, yet a whois tells another story “This domain has been reserved by the registry, and is not available for registration.”
I hate when a registrar holds back otherwise useful domains. In my case, I was hoping somebody with deep pockets would buy the .Online, then wake up and ask me for the .Com version.
H says
Its pretty much the same with every other ngTLD.
Snoopy says
Annoying when the registry holds back names that domainers want to hold back.
couponpages says
In my case, I wasn’t trying to hold it, but use it.
James Kite says
So your annoyed someone can’t buy the alternative leaving only your domain available?
couponpages says
I was joking about that part, but the fact is I still feel hat New TLDs are nothing more than a money grab from registries who push them as a great alternative to .Com.
In my opinion they are NOT a good alternative because throwing your money into promoting a non .com simply draws attention to the .Com version.
If you spent $100,000 promoting Sunglasses.Online in TV, print or radio advertising, there is no doubt that SunglassesOnline.Com would see a big boost in traffic. To me, that’s wasted money on the domain and the advertising.
Branding people understand this, so I doubt that most companies with deep pockets would bother buying or promoting a .Online site, especially when somebody else owns the —-Online.Com version. It simply won’t happen.
I get a kick out of the fact that they’re focusing on it being an alternative to long or hyphenated domains. If that was the only issue, they can get a better bang for the buck with a unique 5 letter word on BrandBucket. At least it won’t compete with the non-hyphenated version or the —-online version.
John says
That commercial was fun. But realistically what people would be seeing on TV is usually very good and memorable .coms.
Ironically by the way, I once saw a TV commercial for a .cc. They even made a point of saying something like “that’s right – it’s not .com, it’s .cc.” Pretty sure that was still in the 90’s when I saw that.
Nametree says
Fun commercial. But John should have checked to make sure the .com was taken.
Oh well, couldn’t help it…
http://www.johnsmattress.com
John says
I used to have a great “mattress” .com and let it expire and go. Kind of regretted that one.
Snoopy says
Well that says it all and is why businesses can easily get a suitable .com for reg fee in most instances.
Snoopy says
I don’t think it is going to convince many, who uses hyphens in their name? and the the new tld one is hardly easy to remember.
It is a bit like the .xyz ads of old in terms try to market with “not .com”.
Hal says
“Who uses hyphens in their name?”
m-w.com, which expands out to merriam-wbster.com
penny-arcade.com
washington-post.com resolves to washingtonpost.com
Interestingly, new-york-times.com brings up a Chinese site.
t-mobile.com
coca-colacompany.com
cartoon-network.com resolves to cartoonnetwork.com
mercedes-benz.com/en/
clay-tablet.com
…anyway, I think that makes the point.
Hal says
In other words, I concede that it’s rare. On the other hand, brands like Mercedes-Benz and Coca-Cola are not minor.
Hal says
Rolls-royce.com
Coca-cola.com, straight up
Miracle-ear.com
Band-aid.com
Hyphen-biomed.com (oh, the meta)
writing-skills.com
express-scripts.com
duke-energy.com
kimberly-clark.com
L3-com.com (Dept. of Redundancy Dept.)
owens-minor.com
auto-owners.com
…Yes, many of these are from a list of Fortune 500 domains, then verified. Which is kind of the point.
Ethan says
Good to know that new gTLDs are getting more exposures to the public.
C.S. Watch says
‘there are 4.6 QUADRILLION ten character dot-com options…’
pau.city
of.biz
competen.cc
#darwinism