What do you guys think of .us for your offline digital agency?

9 years ago

It's a weak extension. Assuming you qualify, which I'm sure you do, it's a perfectly legitimate extension for a business, but it comes with inherent drawbacks. You'll find .us extensions have low market value and the perceived value - in relation to the target market and your agency - will be lower than if you'd decided upon a .com. Beer.com, for instance, is a more valuable domain than Beer.us. Similarly, the target market perceive the worth of the organization behind Beer.com to be of more value than the one behind Beer.us.

Tom

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qu4rk

9 years ago

Any suggestions for an alternative?

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iAmNameLess

9 years ago

Well I disagree with Tom... I agree that it does have a lower perceived value but I think Tom is thinking more along the lines of the questions asked in the Main internet marketing forum instead of building an offline, but digital agency.

Yes it is ideal to have a .com. However, when building up a business, very rarely and usually only in IM do people worry about the domain value instead of the business value.

The biggest hurdle to overcome is conversations on the phone, you tell someone your business name they're automatically going to type in .com instead of .net .org .info .us

Maybe there is another alternative for your domain name, but we can't help without knowing what your business name is? I suppose I can try anyway... lets use this as an example.

WarriorForum.com is taken
what about Warrior-Forum.com WarriorForumNow.com TheWarriorForum WarriorForumDigital etc.

Is there any variation you can use to get a .com?

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The Pines

9 years ago

If you really need a .com have you looked at...

www.companynameagency.com ?

i.e. putting 'agency' onto the end of your company name?

The most important factor will be to get the correct URL on every single piece of your outgoing marketing - if you control the outgoing marcomms then they'll be going direct to your site, regardless of the extension.

Also, it's always a good idea to check when your preferred domain name (the one that's currently taken) is up for renewal. Sometimes they lapse and you can nip in and take control of the domain.

Or put your domain name competitor out of business and pick up the scraps!

Thanks
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qu4rk

9 years ago

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

Well I disagree with Tom... I agree that it does have a lower perceived value but I think Tom is thinking more along the lines of the questions asked in the Main internet marketing forum instead of building an offline, but digital agency.

Yes it is ideal to have a .com. However, when building up a business, very rarely and usually only in IM do people worry about the domain value instead of the business value.

The biggest hurdle to overcome is conversations on the phone, you tell someone your business name they're automatically going to type in .com instead of .net .org .info .us

Maybe there is another alternative for your domain name, but we can't help without knowing what your business name is? I suppose I can try anyway... lets use this as an example.

WarriorForum.com is taken
what about Warrior-Forum.com WarriorForumNow.com TheWarriorForum WarriorForumDigital etc.

Is there any variation you can use to get a .com?

Thanks for your input. It's not so serious that I post my company name here. I rarely tell prospects the domain name over the phone because I just get their email & it's in my sig.

Originally Posted by The Pines

If you really need a .com have you looked at...

www.companynameagency.com ?

i.e. putting 'agency' onto the end of your company name?

The most important factor will be to get the correct URL on every single piece of your outgoing marketing - if you control the outgoing marcomms then they'll be going direct to your site, regardless of the extension.

Also, it's always a good idea to check when your preferred domain name (the one that's currently taken) is up for renewal. Sometimes they lapse and you can nip in and take control of the domain.

Or put your domain name competitor out of business and pick up the scraps!

Haha, those guys have had it for years...I've been waiting for a lapse & it ain't happening. LOL about putting them out of biz. It's not that serious.

I don't "need" a .com. I was just asking what everyone thinks.

The truth is .com names are becoming scarce & unless you start throwing words into the domain name, it won't work. I can't think of a word to add to the domain that would work better than companyname.us ... for me at least. I just wanted to know you guys perspective.

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bizgrower

9 years ago

businessnamedigitalmarketing.com or businessnamedigitalmarketer.com
businessnameinternetmarketing.com
businessnamewebagency.com

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qu4rk

9 years ago

Originally Posted by bizgrower

businessnamedigitalmarketing.com or businessnamedigitalmarketer.com
businessnameinternetmarketing.com
businessnamewebagency.com

Are you saying you would rather have:

bizgrowerdigitalmarketing.com

instead of:

bizgrower.us ?

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bizgrower

9 years ago

Originally Posted by qu4rk

Are you saying you would rather have:

bizgrowerdigitalmarketing.com

instead of:

bizgrower.us ?

Yes, something like that and mainly just because people do automatically say, write, or type .com.
Somewhat for SEO and descriptive value.

Hard to say for you without knowing your business name, positioning, strategies, and aims.

One of my aims is to get incoming calls.

Be super cool to just build a great reputation have people refer to me by personal name
so they Google that and get in touch as well.

Dan

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qu4rk

9 years ago

Originally Posted by johnben1444

Fact: At the long, what matters is how you play your cards. If you have sound internet marketing knowledge you can do extremely well with any domain name not to talk of an offline firm.

I like the way you think. You're right. I can do anything I put my mind to.

Originally Posted by bizgrower

Yes, something like that and mainly just because people do automatically say, write, or type .com.
Somewhat for SEO and descriptive value.

Hard to say for you without knowing your business name, positioning, strategies, and aims.

One of my aims is to get incoming calls.

Be super cool to just build a great reputation have people refer to me by personal name
so they Google that and get in touch as well.

Dan

I see. SEO is not even part of my gameplan. Neither is inbound. Straight outbound baby!

I will be posting the url in places to "advertise". Down the road, I will be networking & have biz cards. I will likely do light sponsorships.

My research tells me that peoples perception of peoples perception (yes...what people think people think) is that I will run into one problem:

People may mistakenly write down mybizname.com instead of mybizname.us.

I was more concerned about people thinking we are less legitimate or less of an authority because we are .us.

I would not hold that perception. This is my light version of market research. Does anyone here hold that perception?

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johnben1444

9 years ago

Fact: At the long, what matters is how you play your cards. If you have sound internet marketing knowledge you can do extremely well with any domain name not to talk of an offline firm.

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Tom Addams

9 years ago

Just to chip in again.

I saw mention of using hyphens. Let me ask you a question: You're speaking to a potential lead over the phone and the name of your business is Boston Beer. Which is easy to say on the phone, boston beer dot com or really hyphen inexpensive hyphen boston hyphen beer dot us? Not only that, but which one makes your business seem more prestigious?

If you and I both sell beer to Boston clients, and I own BostonBeer.com and you own Really-Inexpensive-Boston-Beer.US, not only do I own a domain that will help me should I ever decide to sell, not only will my domain rank better in SERPs (given we both take the same SEO approach), but my business, due to my domain, will have more perceived value and will, therefore, be generating more business.

Don't overlook the power of a great domain. It's a cliche, but think of it like real estate. Getting a great domain is very much like getting the best location in town for your business: more traffic, more resale value, greater perceived worth.

Tom

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Jbossz1983

9 years ago

Maybe if you name your website:
designfor.us
buildfor.us
workfor.us

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Underground

9 years ago

Why don't you get the TLD .agency

It does exist. For example Yello.agency

They may not have as much worth as dot.com but then Youtube wasn't as big as it is now back in 2007 when it just started.

You can even get .digital or .marketing or .media which might go better

I'd get in there now anyway. There's a lot still available, but as I found a few months back when some company lead me to believe I'd secured a perfect, almost to good to be true .london tld that was just right, and was waiting for them to do what they had to do to register it, only to discover some domain speculator in hollywood had bought it and was going to hold onto to it, there are people buying up the top ones, so you're want to get in and get what you can, as these tlds are only going to get more popular in the years to come.

You can go here and put in a domain name you know if already taken and it will give you a lot of other suggestions that are available.

Domain Names | Cheap Domain Names UK

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qu4rk

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Jbossz1983

Maybe if you name your website:
designfor.us
buildfor.us
workfor.us

This is a creative workaround. I will to use this. However, I want to use the "brand name".

Originally Posted by Underground

Why don't you get the TLD .agency

It does exist. For example Yello.agency

They may not have as much worth as dot.com but then Youtube wasn't as big as it is now back in 2007 when it just started.

You can even get .digital or .marketing or .media which might go better

I'd get in there now anyway. There's a lot still available, but as I found a few months back when some company lead me to believe I'd secured a perfect, almost to good to be true .london tld that was just right, and was waiting for them to do what they had to do to register it, only to discover some domain speculator in hollywood had bought it and was going to hold onto to it, there are people buying up the top ones, so you're want to get in and get what you can, as these tlds are only going to get more popular in the years to come.

You can go here and put in a domain name you know if already taken and it will give you a lot of other suggestions that are available.

Domain Names | Cheap Domain Names UK

I like this. I just checked the .agency...it's $25/year. I'm curious as to why these are so expensive.

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Rus Sells

9 years ago

I think some will realize the mistake of not having a .com domain when they learn via phone or elsewhere that people tried to reach their website to learn more about them and couldn't reach their site because they typed in .com and not .whatever extension you used.

All these extensions that are now available will take YEARS to get top of mind presence at the consumer level, if ever.

Stick with a .com in my opinion. .com is to website site addresses like hamburgers are to Mc Donalds.

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Underground

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Rus Sells

I think some will realize the mistake of not having a .com domain when they learn via phone or elsewhere that people tried to reach their website to learn more about them and couldn't reach their site because they typed in .com and not .whatever extension you used.

All these extensions that are now available will take YEARS to get top of mind presence at the consumer level, if ever.

Stick with a .com in my opinion. .com is to website site addresses like hamburgers are to Mc Donalds.

Do you get many people tell you that? I remember this was a point someone used to bring up a lot when we were working together, to make sure everything was just right for the customer, and keep referencing the book 'Don't make me think'.

I would make adjustments most of the time, but other time I'd say if they are really that thick I don't actually want them to contact me or to do business with them, lol.

It would be different if I was over there and .com was the main extension, but really if someone thinks the only web address is com, or would type your business name and location into google to see results, they probably wouldn't know how to use paypal or other payment processes online and be too stupid to figure out how to pay you. I'd consider that a fortunate near-miss.

I have no desire to deal with the kind of people who find it a chore to think and would rather not. Imagine what they'd be like as a customer.

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Underground 9 years ago

I do agree bagging the .com is obviously very much advisable if you can just because it does hold the biggest weight and will for many, many years, but for the OP they are taken. The other tld are best from brands really with lots of different sites and types of sites.
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qu4rk

9 years ago

Ok, both of these are valid points. Can you guys or any other pro .com'ers suggest how to create a domain name that doesn't sound stupid?

This is a problem that many will face in 2015 & beyond, so we can create some real value here for future seekers.

Let's take for example, "My Business Name" is the name of the business.

Given our example business name, we've seen suggestions in this thread of:

my-business-name.com
mybusinessnamenow.com
themybusinessname.com
mybusinessnamedigital.com
mybusinessnameagency.com
mybusinessnamedigitalmarketing.com mybusinessnamedigitalmarketer.com
mybusinessnameinternetmarketing.com
mybusinessnamewebagency.com

Some people have business names this long and some longer. Adding these words...some seem out of place, others seem in place but make the domain name longer. Any other suggestions on name variations using the "brand name"?

Originally Posted by Rus Sells

I think some will realize the mistake of not having a .com domain when they learn via phone or elsewhere that people tried to reach their website to learn more about them and couldn't reach their site because they typed in .com and not .whatever extension you used.

All these extensions that are now available will take YEARS to get top of mind presence at the consumer level, if ever.

Stick with a .com in my opinion. .com is to website site addresses like hamburgers are to Mc Donalds.

Originally Posted by Get Rich Methods

Just to chip in again.

I saw mention of using hyphens. Let me ask you a question: You're speaking to a potential lead over the phone and the name of your business is Boston Beer. Which is easy to say on the phone, boston beer dot com or really hyphen inexpensive hyphen boston hyphen beer dot us? Not only that, but which one makes your business seem more prestigious?

If you and I both sell beer to Boston clients, and I own BostonBeer.com and you own Really-Inexpensive-Boston-Beer.US, not only do I own a domain that will help me should I ever decide to sell, not only will my domain rank better in SERPs (given we both take the same SEO approach), but my business, due to my domain, will have more perceived value and will, therefore, be generating more business.

Don't overlook the power of a great domain. It's a cliche, but think of it like real estate. Getting a great domain is very much like getting the best location in town for your business: more traffic, more resale value, greater perceived worth.

Tom

Thanks

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bizgrower

9 years ago

It certainly does happen where people say they could not find you because they typed in .com
instead of .whatever

I had a domain name 'swiped'. I entered the desired name into the search box of what
I thought was a reputable hosting company. It was an unusual name, so I doubt
this was a coincidence. A few days later I tried to register the domain name for the client,
and it was taken. Registered at a subsidiary of the first hosting company.

Since then, I check availability of domain names by typing them into my browser bar first.
If it does not appear to be claimed, then I go to my registrar and be ready to register it on the spot.

Dan

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What do you guys think of .us for your offline digital agency?

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