The Value of Top Level Domains
My bulk registrar recently changed their pricing scheme and it made me rethink which TLD I should be buying.
I was buying .org domains for $1.49 each, but they raised the price to $2.49. They also lowered the price of .info domains down to $0.89, so those start to look enticing.
Now it may seem cheap to be worrying about paying $2.49 for a domain, but you can’t think of it that way if you’re running a business. Increasing the .org domains from $1.49 to $2.49 almost doubles my cost basis!
I will agree, however, that .org domains are more valuable than .info domains. The question is, “how much more valuable?” I decided to sit down and evaluate the value of the most popular TLDs.
What I did was take the least valuable TLD (.info) and assigned it a value of $1. I then assigned the other TLDs a value based on the .info value. So if .info domains are selling for $1, I wouldn’t want to pay more than $1.50 for a .net domain. I hope that makes sense.
.info domains Value: $1
I would estimate that 60-90% of webspam is served up on .info domains, which is exactly why I try to avoid them. People have become highly skeptical of this TLD. If the search engines woke up one day and decided to ban all .info domains I wouldn’t blame them.
.net domains Value: $1.50
Some people may be surprised that I rank .net domains so low. In my opinion, owning a .net domain screams, “I want to try to look legitimate, but someone else owns the .com and I’m too cheap to buy it from them.” If you were legitimate, you’d own the .com.
.org domains Value: $2.50
I like .org domains because they give a false sense of security to the user. Most people wrongly assume that the owner of a .org domain is a non-profit organization and will therefore trust what they have to say more than a corporation. For instance, more people are going to trust WeightLossAdvice.org than BuyHoodia.com.
.com domains Value: $5-$10
I had to put a range on this because it really matters what your intentions are. If you are planning on building a quality site for the long-term, you have to get a .com. There is no way around it. On the other hand, if you are building a landing page, doorway page, or something short-term, you probably don’t want to pay much more than the other TLDs. The real benefit with .com domains is that they get type-in traffic.
I realize that there are hundreds of other TLDs that I don’t cover here, and that’s because they’re usually associated with a country (.us, .co.uk, etc.) or too expensive to be worth it (.biz, .name, etc.). If you’re targeting a specific country, then of course you should buy that country’s TLD. However, I haven’t come across a single instance when I thought a .biz was worth the $6+ registrars are asking for.
Now that I’ve laid it all out, it’s time to decide what TLD I should buy. If .info domains are selling for $0.89, that means I shouldn’t pay more than (.89 * 2.5)=$2.23 for a .org, which falls just short of the $2.49 asking price.
.info it is.
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I sort of disagree with the .net lookign like you are too cheap.
I own a lot of tlds for syndk8 but the .net just seemed like the best option and also because before i owned it the domain had been quite famous.
But i see yur point.
Well, with syndk8 it’s a different situation because you own the .com, .net, and several of the other TLDs. So you can build up the .net knowing that if someone types in the .com you can help them find what it was they were looking for.
If someone else owned the .com, I don’t have to tell you that they wouldn’t be nice enough to have a link to your .net domain. They would try to monetize the traffic themselves.
My point was that it’s not enough to own the .net by itself if you’re going to put days, weeks, or months into promoting your domain. You’re just going to fill the pockets of whoever owns the .com because most users have enough trouble remembering the text in front of the TLD, and then just assume it’s a .com.
[…] I use .info domains, if the price is right. I agree that if you’re going to put alot of work into it, it’s usually worth springing for the .com. This is a shameless plug, but I outlined how I decide what TLD to buy here: The Value of Top Level Domains __________________ WageRank.com […]
[…] My guess is that godaddy assumes most of the people who visit their site (and certainly most of the people who will come as a result of watching the Super Bowl ad) are newbies and don’t realize the value of each TLD. A large portion of the people watching the Super Bowl ad are going to naively think to themselves, “hey, I wonder if insert-popular-niche-here.com has been registered?” […]
Where do you buy info domains for $1. I used to buy them at godaddy. However, they raised the price.
Thanks,