Should I buy both the .com and the .net?

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Hi all,

I know I read this somewhere on the forum a while back and I have spent the last half hour searching, to no avail. So, I apologize in advance but could some of you give your opinion on whether or not I should purchase both the .com and .net extensions of a domain name in order to protect my domain from competition? I know people will type in the .com extension if they remember the name but if they just type the name in Google, would it be better for me to own the .net for competition purposes? Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!!
#buy #net
  • Profile picture of the author jbpatlanta
    It really depends on what kind or website you are building. Do you think there will be much competition? If yes buy them both.

    I tend to buy both names anyway, I mean it is only $10, and contrary to how some people feel $10 will not make or break you.

    You can sit up the .net to redirect to the .com and later if the first site is doing well, through up a second site on the .net and try to get even more people to visit. Use it to start building a network of sites.

    JBP
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  • Profile picture of the author Roy Penrod
    If you're going to build a brand around your website and plan on investing in it for years, you'll probably want to pick up the .com, .net, and .org versions of your domain.

    It helps you protect your website's brand identity.

    If you've got a keyword rich domain, people are probably only going to type in the .com URL directly. A few people will probably check out the .com, .net, and .org URLs out of curiosity. (I only do it when I'm researching whether I want to purchase a domain name.)

    Roy
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Yes, if it's a brand.

    If you own pepsi, it's best to buy up all of the extensions.

    Yes, if you're ahead of the curve.

    If you know next week Ophrah is going to be promoting the jellybean diet, might be a good idea to capitalize on that information.

    No, if it's generic long-tail keywords.

    You don't need to buy up all of the available TDL's for 12inchecurtainrods
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  • Profile picture of the author imkazu
    if its a long term site and you are going to spend time/effort building upon it, I'd register .net

    Also, think if your traffic is going to come from organic VS ppc; if its just a domain i'm buying for ppc/affiliate purpose, i wouldn't worry too much about the variations
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    • Profile picture of the author TSDMike
      All the responses so far are valid - I just wanted to add one thing. If your domain can have more than one meaning, I would suggest you act appropriately.

      Case in point: Take the website "Pen Island" for instance. They do promotional pens and stuff that can be logoed and so on so forth. Their website is penisland.net.

      (I would strongly recommend NOT visiting the '.com' version of that domain... unless you're into that sort of thing )
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    Case in point: Take the website "Pen Island" for instance. They do promotional pens and stuff that can be logoed and so on so forth. Their website is penisland.net.
    I've had my first LOL of the day.

    pen island, that isn't even a good name to begin with.
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    • Profile picture of the author shelby7910
      Thank you everyone for your fast responses! I got a lot of good information, including the redirect thing (which I'd forgotten about) and the warning about the pen island site

      Shelby
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  • Profile picture of the author skygod
    I only buy .COM one of the reason is I only used PPC.
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  • Profile picture of the author miranon
    Originally Posted by shelby7910 View Post

    Hi all,
    Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated!
    If it's a really good keyword(s) then i would buy both extensions, but if it is a company name / abstract name, then i would take only the .com
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