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Major "Mistakes" that have worked for others. Why?

by George Wright
13 replies
Hi Warriors,

Have you ever noticed that some really successful websites break the "rules" as set out by Internet Marketers.

Rules
  1. Only use .com Domain Names
  2. Stay away from - hyphens - in your Domain Names
Successful Rule Breakers
  1. Craigslist.ORG and icio.us (del.icio.us)
  2. e-junkie.com
Can you think of any others? What does this mean RE: "The Rules?"

George Wright
#major #mistakes #worked
  • Profile picture of the author alexei_aus
    these things are not mistakes. it just depends on how you are promoting something.

    domain name promotion has ended in the beginning of 21st century with search engines becoming smarter.
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    • Profile picture of the author George Wright
      Originally Posted by alexei_aus View Post

      these things are not mistakes. it just depends on how you are promoting something.

      domain name promotion has ended in the beginning of 21st century with search engines becoming smarter.
      That is why I have "mistakes" in quotes. They are not mistakes. You are right on about promoting in a sense, however in all three cases they are also viral. Maybe even more viral than promoted.

      George Wright P.S. Any other examples?
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  • Profile picture of the author samstephens
    I wonder how many people to go craigslist.com, though?

    Their .com redirects to their .org.

    I can't think of any off-hand, but I'm sure I've seen other successful sites like these.

    I just registered a domain name name the other day.

    It's a four word .com, 17 characters long.

    While in theory it's not good, I'm hoping in practice it'll be memorable enough so "the rules" don't apply

    cheers
    Sam
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
    Yeah, good question.

    I don't think that these "rules" should be followed. There are ways to do things, point of views, opinions, methods etc... While something works for some, it might not work for others and the opposite also applies.

    Don't let anyone tell you there is only 1 way to do things.

    I personally favour hyphens for example, I have some websites tanking very well that use hyphens (SEO wise).
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    • Profile picture of the author ExRat
      Hi George,

      If you take this subject right outside the box and reverse it, there is mileage in it.

      What I mean is -

      Whenever I discover a site that is 'winning' that has broken the rules, I ask questions. Sometimes, it's purely because the domain was old, it had built up rank/a following and it made sense to stick with a domain that wasn't ideal due to these factors.

      Other times, the person who bought the domain just wasn't in the know.

      But where you find the gold is if you find a site that is winning and it's 'mistake' is one where it clearly could have done better without the mistake, then you know that whatever it is doing right is working particularly well.

      So you look at what the site is doing that is driving it's success, because those factors have made it succeed DESPITE the mistakes.

      Hi Alexei_aus,

      these things are not mistakes. it just depends on how you are promoting something.

      domain name promotion has ended in the beginning of 21st century with search engines becoming smarter.
      With respect, I disagree with you. It's not just about search engines - it's about browser (human) behaviour (browser=human not browser=internet explorer).

      Example -

      Go here -

      (Because this forum shortens the link I will explain that the URL below is http:// del.icio.us but it redirects nowadays...)

      Delicious

      Then have a look at the URL that this site is re-directed to. This occurred after they realised their 'mistake' (or you could say that this occurred after they gained buzz by being one of the first sites to use the clever method of branding their site with a word ending in US for a .us URL but obviously later (once established) realised that it was better to use the URL that humans could remember and type-in more easily).
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Hi George,

    I think 'rules' should be renamed - guidelines.

    They're a good place to start, but like everything else in business - they may not be right for every situation, so use your brain before blindly following them.

    Andy
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    • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      I think 'rules' should be renamed - guidelines.
      I like that one, made it into my forum quotes doc.

      I just noticed about 10 minutes ago that an audio/video software really
      highly recommended on an mp3/4 forum had a .cn extension for their
      site. (It's MediaCoder at http://www.mediacoder.cn/in case anyone
      wants that detail.)

      I think the .com extension is more of an American concern. In Canada
      you usually don't want the .com. Dell.com is the site that won't ship to
      Canada, Dell.ca is the site that will. I actually like .ca better (and it
      saves typing!) but they are a bit more expensive, at least last time I
      checked.

      The extensions are definitely spreading out more these days and Craig's
      list was an example I have used, but I've seen at least a couple of
      threads where the url was given out as a .com.

      My browser homepage and 3 most important sites to me on the web are
      2 .nets and a .org. It's mostly a personal interest so won't pass those
      along.
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  • Profile picture of the author Diana Lane
    As well as the extensions (which looks wrong however I spell it!), none of the examples in the OP have keywords in the domains either. That's quite true of a few sites that I can think of.

    With regard to extensions, when I was selling multiple copies of the same site, I've seen at least one client do better with a .info domain than another one did when putting a copy of the same site on a .com domain. The first just updated his site more often. He'd probably have done even better with a .com, but I don't think a .com is always as necessary as we've been led to believe. I think it's what you do with it (or an alternative to it) that matters.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anthony J Namata
    I never thought there were rules.
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  • Profile picture of the author Norma Holt
    Originally Posted by George Wright View Post

    Hi Warriors,

    Have you ever noticed that some really successful websites break the "rules" as set out by Internet Marketers.

    Rules
    1. Only use .com Domain Names
    2. Stay away from - hyphens - in your Domain Names
    Successful Rule Breakers
    1. Craigslist.ORG and icio.us (del.icio.us)
    2. e-junkie.com
    Can you think of any others? What does this mean RE: "The Rules?"

    George Wright
    Hi George.

    This is a good point that you raise. I have used hyphens on some of my sites and a very well known Internet expert claims that it is best to use them to separate words. I tend to agree as some domain names are hard to read to read otherwise. secretstosuccess is one such combination. It makes my eyes spin. secrets-to-success is better. What do you prefer.

    People still know your site when it is hyphenated and maybe most would prefer it.

    As far as the .com use. I think it is natural to add .com to a domain name. I often get confused looking up sites where they have .net or .org or something else.

    I don't know that the rules are written in stone. I think it is more guess work on the part of some.
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  • Profile picture of the author sheryll
    I don't think those are rules either, more like guidelines and they change over time. For example, I've read that using underscores in your url is not as good as hyphens for seo, but I've also read that it doesn't matter anymore.

    When you have a long url, sometimes it may be good to have a few hyphens in there or else it can be hard to read/remember?
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  • Profile picture of the author rapidscc
    Hi george,

    Hope ur enjoying your day :-)

    This shows that nothing is really permanent.

    Even the hardest rules change.

    Keep enjoying..

    Regards,

    Omar/RapidScc
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  • Profile picture of the author scottwood1986
    People that bend the rules are often those that set the new trends for all things in life, whether it be fashion, music or even the internet... :-) Whether or not this applies to web url structure - who knows! Although i do think .com is here to stay.

    It could be just a matter of time before some crazy extension .fun ... etc becomes the new popular domain extension of choice, its just a matter or moving people out of their comfort zone into a new one.
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