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To .ca or Not to .ca

by avandrunen
8 replies
I am working on choosing a business name to register and have run into a number of roadblocks...mainly...all the names that I think are cool and would fit...somebody has also thought the same thing...just earlier than I did

I have finally come upon a name that doesn't have a counterpart in the same industry that would come up if googled...but...the .com is not available...well it is...but for $995...my wife would kill me.

The .ca on the other hand is available...my concern is that having the .ca would significantly hamper my U.S. based sales.

Would love some thoughts and feeback on this.

Thanks
  • Profile picture of the author Jason Johns
    What about a .net or .us ? Namecheap I think are running a special on .us addresses at the moment?

    I think if you are specifically targeting people in the USA then the .ca could turn them off, but there is also a .biz you could use?

    Cheers

    Jason
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    • Profile picture of the author jbyte
      I think the best use for a .ca domain is for a business located in Canada targeting Canadians. I can't speak to what people in other countries feel about a .ca domain.
      I have a small hosting company that I am targeting local customers, so I registered a .ca domain and ran it from there. My thought is customers would respond to a local business rather than a .com which can be anywhere.

      HTH
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    • Profile picture of the author Carl Fridsjö
      .net would be your second best choice.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert G Williams
    Hi, there actually is a very simple answer here, if the name has gone in the, .com market try adding a number to the name i.e. 1, or 2, or try putting a word like “the” or you could use a hyphen.
    I never have trouble finding a close name that I want to use, even if it has gone, and you get domain names very cheaply these days
    Helping people to succeed
    Robert G Williams
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  • Profile picture of the author gixmo
    I still think you're better of using .ca then .net/.org/.biz
    .ca and .de are very respectable, you need a physical address in canada/germany to register them which is not the case for .com/.net/.org/.biz wich can be registered from any banana republic
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    • Profile picture of the author Carl Fridsjö
      Originally Posted by gixmo View Post

      I still think you're better of using .ca then .net/.org/.biz
      .ca and .de are very respectable, you need a physical address in canada/germany to register them which is not the case for .com/.net/.org/.biz wich can be registered from any banana republic
      You have a point but it's not true. You think his customers even know that you need a physical address to register .ca? Not likely. Country specific domains exists for a reason.

      To have a .de domain and not target germany would be just horrible and stupid.

      I wouldn't use any other than .com, .net, .org (for charities and organizations etc) or if I was targeting a specific country I'd use that TLD.

      .biz or .info.... no way.
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      • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
        I really like to see some one do a survey how many people know in the US what .ca stands for. I bet if you ask several small business owners they would not know. Would not be surprise if they thought it stood for California. IMHO
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      • Profile picture of the author gixmo
        Originally Posted by Carl Fridsjö View Post

        You have a point but it's not true. You think his customers even know that you need a physical address to register .ca? Not likely. Country specific domains exists for a reason.

        To have a .de domain and not target germany would be just horrible and stupid.

        I wouldn't use any other than .com, .net, .org (for charities and organizations etc) or if I was targeting a specific country I'd use that TLD.

        .biz or .info.... no way.
        Well I still think .ca is his second best option. .org is out of question if he's not an organization and .net would only be appropriate if its for a hosting company or something of the sort. Avandrunen, even if you get a .com domain your business will still be based in Canada, so the americans who don't want to deal with a canadian company won't deal with you even if you get a .americakicksass tld.
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