What do you buy when the .COM is taken?

dot-com

It’s a question that entrepreneurs deal with daily. After spending thousands of dollars or more working with a marketing agency to come up with a name they are left in the challenging position of acquiring the domain. Of course, they first go for the .COM, then often find that the .COM is $50k or more and realize they need to pick a different extension.

Back in the early 2000’s if you couldn’t get the .COM the obvious answer was to get the .NET. In 2010 the obvious answer was .CO or .ME, now the obvious answer is…what is the obvious answer?

Well if you’re a startup that deals directly with developers .IO seems to be pretty hot. If you’re running a subscription service or “club” then .CLUB definitely fits the bill. You’re a lawyer? Well then .lawyer probably makes sense. So what happened? It used to be so easy, no I do honestly believe that five year from now if you can’t get the .COM you’ll have 20+ choices that are all relatively equal, but a handful will be specifically applicable to your business.

So I’ll ask you the question. You’re starting a business, you want to call it Awesome, but Awesome.com is too expensive, what’s your second choice?

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton