Ted — Wed, 19 Jul 2000 23:48:10 +0000

Tough call, but I would say go with the DOT COM. Yes hyphens stink, but the reasons I say dot com are this:

I own a dot com (for my "real" job), and someone else owns the dot net. I occasionally get mail intended for the dot net company. People just automatically type dot com.

Another example:

I own a DOT COM and use the DOT NET counterpart for a free e-mail service (a la everyone.net). At least once a week I get mail in my dot com catch-all e-mail box intended for someone that has one of the free dot NET addresses (and we are not talking a big e-mail service here... I think I have about 75 users so far).

So it seems, people may hear dot net, but they type dot COM. I think a hyphen with dot COM would be more easily remembered than the dot net.

mjames — Tue, 18 Jul 2000 20:43:44 +0000

Minton, I would suggest getting the .net. Hyphens confuse web surfers too often. I know this from experience, as my site is Sports Central, but the best available domain I could get was sports-central.org, which I am using now. Oh well.

chicken — Sat, 15 Jul 2000 16:25:53 +0000

I would agree that many visitors come to sites from links. I think it depends on how and where you will advertise the site.

If you will be doing this through links/banners, then it doesn't really matter *that* much. Even a blah.cx name is fine.

But don't try to advertise BLAH.CX on tv or in print and expect the average person to understand it. I don't think they will.

Not to throw more confusion at you, but have you considered other TLD's? Maybe it would work for you.

minton — Fri, 14 Jul 2000 14:39:23 +0000

Hey,

Thanks for your replies. The reason I ask this is because I know that domains can bring back repeat traffic if the person remembers it. A shorter domain will be easier to remember but I know my natural instinct is to try the name + .com and not .net. I might not even try .net but I also would try the domain without a hyphen. SO what would people do?

Try whatever.net first or try what-ever.com. I personnaly dont like hyphens but this site will be making me money (hopefully ) and I always think that .coms are more professional. I suppose, what I am looking for is what goes on in the general publics subconcious when they visit a site - something which I dont think anyone here can tell me.

the .net would be 7 letters. .com would be 8. I am confused. I expect I will go for the .com when I am ready. I haven't got all the plans set yet so it will be a while and by then i expect the domian will have gone. Still.....

ReVigo — Fri, 14 Jul 2000 10:14:20 +0000

Look at webmaster-forums.com...a name with a hyphen, still a very succesful site, why? because of the content and promotion. If your site would have good content, than the name doesn't matter so much, because the big majority of people get to sites through links and not just type in the name. Unless it's a one word namelike business.com, where a lot of people might get in the site just from typing it in the browser.

Best regards,

chicken — Thu, 13 Jul 2000 01:25:26 +0000

Personally, hypens give me the willies. Just doesn't quite cut it for me. I'd rather have .net but I am not the one buying the domain. Either way, it has some problems.

Get Both?

Gem — Wed, 12 Jul 2000 20:12:50 +0000

This isn't a great answer but since domains are only about $11 or $12 a year why not get both? You could use someone like Gandi.net who I have personally used without any problems.

Justin S — Wed, 12 Jul 2000 18:06:23 +0000

This is very hard, because for me a COM with a hyphen in it is equal to the domain with a NET extension. I'd say go for the COM with a hyphen, but that's just my personal opinion.