Making The Dot Compromise: Consider Dot Net

Have you felt the frustration yet? Are you one of the
50,000 new netrepreneurs trying weekly to get your site
online only to get caught up in the dot com feeding frenzy?

It starts like this: You dream up a list of possible names
for your company. You run them through a domain search engine
only to find all your dot com selections are already taken.

So you face a choice. Do you settle for a domain name that
doesn't really turn your crank but is available with the
prized .com extension? Or do you say 'damn the torpedoes'
and go with a .net, .org or other suffix and hope your
clientele will remember it and appreciate what a rebel you
are?

For starters, regardless of the suffix, the best way for
traffic to find you is if your domain name reflects the
nature of your business and is catchy enough to recall
without a lot of mental gymnastics. (There are notable
big-budget exceptions to this rule).

You want a domain name that is spelled just as it is
pronounced so even if your potential clients hear it
mentioned in conversation, they can type it in later
without confusion. If you can squeeze in one or two
delectable search engine keywords, so much the better.

If you do wind up using .net, .org or one of the 250 country-
specific extensions, you need to hammer it home in your
promotions. Repeat it often. Accentuate the difference.

Jenean Matthews of http://www.vitaherbs.net does all that
plus supplements her online marketing with free gifts like
pens printed with her URL. Does she ever worry that she
missed the .com bandwagon?

Not a bit. She predicts that, with the advent of new
technologies, typed-in URLs will eventually become a thing of
the past anyway.

"I feel the way we surf the net will change. For example,
the CueCat device eliminates the need for typing URLs," says
Matthews. (Cuecat.com offers free software that sends your
browser automatically to the site you need.)

Shelley Lowery also bucked the trend. Three years ago, she
had to choose between sacrificing her favorite name, which
was already taken, or making the dot compromise.

Lowery took the bull by the horns and registered her business
as http://www.web-source.net . Today, it's a highly-
respected guide to professional web design and development
with a dedicated following. Lowery says going .net didn't
hurt a bit.

"A few years ago it seemed everyone was convinced that if
you didn't get a .com domain you were a second class citizen.
Things have changed considerably with the addition of the
new domain name suffixes and the extended number of
characters.

"In my opinion, you have just as much of a chance of your
visitors finding you with a .net or .ws suffix as you would
if you settled for an alphabet soup domain name like
www.learnhowtomarketontheinternet.com"

On the other hand, the website DotCom.com says we shouldn't
be afraid of using a longer name. Shorter isn't necessarily
better in the scramble for a domain name.

"Just as company names continually break boundaries in the
effort to be both unique and memorable, so too must domain
names extend beyond the currently prevailing convention of
simple words with as few characters as possible."

But that may end up being a moot point. New technologies and
new suffixes (like .info, .pro and .biz, among others) will
blow apart the dot com obsession.

Internet users will adapt to the ever-changing online
environment, as they always have. And we'll all be laughing
that we were ever so distraught over the dot com dilemma.

In the meantime, be a rebel. Stay open to the options and
try to enjoy what should be one of the most fun parts of
starting a new business - choosing a domain name!