.info domain names - are they worth it?

My opinion is that they all rank the same.

Personal experience. I've had no problems ranking .info sites, but I'll only ever put them on info sites with Adsense.

From my personal experience i can say they are same.

I own two .info domains that rank higher than the .com version for their respective keyword searches.


regards,
THAKKAR

I have had people who have had problems with .biz and .net and looking at the reasons I think it might be the content of the site.

This is my thinking:

.net is a 'network' (correct me if I can wrong) and .biz is a 'business' and .org is an organistation. Now I understand that allot of things can fall under these catergories but lets say your trying to sell paint from a .net site it would be better to have it as a.com site as it is not a network of anykind?

This is just my thinking and from the research I have done on other peoples sites and what their site is about it seems I could be right?

If someone knows somethign I dont then please tell me.

Awesome folks, thanks! Reason why I am asking, the domain I am after is available as a "premium.com" for $788, a .org for $14.99 or as a .info for $0.89

The site in question would actually be an "info site" type site with lots of solid free content and some ads.

It highly depends on what you intend to use the domain for. If you're looking to create a business website I wouldn't recommend .info

.info is used so often for spam websites because simply they are so cheap that I think it shorts of reduce their credibility slightly.

However I don't think it makes much of a difference but is more dependent on what you intend to do with it.

I personally only stick with .com, in my opinion it's much easier to sell unless it's a premium.info

I own ONE .info domain and made more money from IT last month than any of my other domains.

However, when I SELL a site, .info gets a much lower price than .com and .net, as a rule.

So, I'll continue to use them for myself (LOVE that $.89 price tag!) but not for sites I intend to sell.

Thanks again, yes this will be an "info site" that I intend to keep and put some adsense on, not to flip.

They all rank the same. How can it not be worth it at $0.99!??

By the sounds of it .info domain extension is perfect for your current situation; also recommended for beginning marketers whom are on a low budget to start up.

I use .info sites in the mix. Remember, the $0.89 sale price is only for the first year and then the price the second year can be comparable to a .com

I recently renewed a .co.uk domain for around 2.99. Godaddy I see have stopped selling them which does not surprise me at the high price they used to sell them for.

.info domains are just as global location-wise as a .com or .net unlike a .co.uk which is country specific though the site does not have to be hosted in the UK. However, when I used the .co.uk to publize my property in the UK it got ranked much better than the .com I used to begin with.

Thanks David, appreciate the tips!

I'm going to recommend you go with .com. Who knows where this will take you, and a .com just has more value if you wanted to sell it, or if it got big, you're going to wish you got the .com! I started with a .ca and wish I would have got the .com lol.

.com , .org and .net are the only ones worth bothering with.

I've found it to be a great way of starting out especially when cash is limited. No problems ranking them either.

I think it all has to do with content rather than the domain extension.

If it is a business name that you hope people would enter without looking up then obviously dot come is better however if your driving traffic with different techniques then dot info is fine.

Quentin

I haven't had any problems ranking .infos, but the one thing I'd suggest is registering it for a coupel of years rather than just one. This does have an effect...

As everyone else has said, they rank the same. Which is important for search engines.

But I'd say they don't roll of the tongue as easy as a .com would.

I suppose that would only be important if you were building a brand though!

In your particular case...I don't think I could pay a $700 premium just for a dot com if it was going to be for a content website.

I use them mainly for redirects (or just a home for a squeeze page). They're especially useful for non-link traffic, because memorable phrases are much more readily available as a .info than a .com -- but my constant worry is that people will remember the domain name and forget the .info, and then wind up at the .com. Frustrating, but there you are.

.info's are no different than any other TLD.

But nobody seemed to mention that the renewal fee is about $10. So if you buy up 100 info's, you are looking at a big renewal fee in 12 months.

Two of my .infos were only ever intended to be short-lived projects that ended up taking off to the point where I'm now more than happy to renew them every year. It's what you do with a domain that counts, and I think much of the bad reputation associated with .infos has come about because they attract people who want something for as little as possible. It's often not just the money they are unwilling to commit, but the effort too. The most they can manage to get before an audience is a comment saying 'I had a .info, but it tanked'.

There is no truth at all in the idea that .infos will always do badly.

"Saving money" in your domain purchase is not a sound approach... penny wise and pound foolish, as they say!

.info and .biz and similar may be okay for some purposes but if you're a serious marketer don't jeopardize your credibility to save $10. These domains are associated with low quality websites and there's just no two ways about it.

It has been mentioned once directly and once indirectly that .info domains cost as much as .com when not on sale i.e. in their second year.

If .info sites were priced at $20 they would have a perceived higher value. However, with everyone saying they are rubbish, people stay shy of them and they do not sell as well. In this case, to make them sell, they are offered at a sale price.

Since many people expect when they type a name directly as a URL (omitting the spaces) to add the .com extension expecting a website to have been built for that word phrase can often strike lucky but then you could easily end up at a rubbish parked domain with nothing more than links and adsense on it. The enlightened could also try typing the .info extension as a second attempt. Admittedly the .com will be tried first of all.

I expect those who have built successful .info sites and are earning off them will say that the price of the .info for the following year if bought at the low price initially is still worth it.

.info domains which have tanked and not re-registered will become available again and so there will be opportunities to get really good domains in the future and hopefully the market will become educated by then to give as much importance to .info domains as a .com

As ContentArticleWriter wrote the extensions have implied meanings and therefore to have a very good information site on a .net domain for example is not going to get direct traffic by typing in the URL and adding the most recognized extension (.com). If I am after information, I am not as likely to type a url in the address bar and add the .net as I would type the url and add .info

We are talking about technicalities here which the general public who are not internet savvy will know about. So to play safe, if you have a choice of buying a good domain for a keyword phrase and the .com is available, the .com will be the preferred option in the long run if the website is built with the long-term in view in mind. However, as the public become more educated you might expect them to add .info rather than .com when specifically looking for information in the future.

As others have testified any .extension will rank above another if the website has better content and relevancy and backlinks etc. as far as the search engines are concerned unless they have good reason to tar all .extensions of a certain type with the same brush, which I doubt will happen.