I always hear people say, if you own a .com domain name buy the other extensions to protect your brand. Well I am here to tell you it works both ways.
For my example, I am using Justin.tv. Justin.tv has an Alexa rank of 253 with Compete.com showing over 3.5 million visitors each and every month. Using this name as the example, who do you think would be getting any mistaken type in traffic? If you guessed Justin.com you would be wrong. JustinTV.com has an Alexa rank of 65,359 and Compete.com is showing 49,192 visits last month.
JustinTV.com is for sale with an asking price of $500,000 FIRM. That of course is a ridiculous figure for the domain name. Or is it? Well, with Justin.tv being developed, now JustinTV.com has value. Is $500,000 too much? I don’t know. Only Justin.tv can say what the nearly 50,000 potential losses in monthly visits mean.
I am practicing what I preach. Last week my partner and I purchased TampaBayTV.com for $995 to protect our project TampaBay.tv. Which by the way, should be launching around October 15th. I tried to do this for Indianapolis.in but IndianapolisIN.com was already taken and being used.
This example is not only for .tv domain extensions. It is more so for any developed sites that are used in areas where .com is the extension of choice. Another example, which I commend him for, is Bruce Marler, owner of Missouri.me. He went out and purchased MissouriME.com to secure his brand.
PS – You could take this advice as a domain investor and go out and purchase any names that may be getting type in traffic from developed sites.
Along these lines, I have a two-word .Com domain I registered a couple years ago. It was getting 5-10 visitors a month and I had it priced at $250 a month ago. Several months ago a company registered the plural version of my domain and developed it into a commercial site just recently. Apparently I am getting typo traffic as the singular version makes more sense than the plural version which they probably acquired reg fee. It looks like this domain will make close to $40 in parking this month! Let’s hope they continue to grow their business
Good point. I don’t know what people are thinking not registering both the singular and plural versions of a domain name. Especially if it’s going to be a high end sale or development project.
This has been something I’ve been doing for quite some time. I would not buy the .tv name without the —–tv.com name version. BUT, I’ve always bought —–tv.com names without the .tv version…
IMHO —–tv.com names are more valuable then the .tv version. My suggestion would be to always forward .tv to your —-tv.com name.
John
unplain
John … I agree … TV.com should continue to grow making
keywordTV.coms more valuable with time.
Anthony
Forgot to add– I’ve done the same for .me’s and others as well…
Great point, I agree 100% you don’t want to work so hard just to loose traffic to another site.
What amazes me is when people register the singular (or the plural) without getting the other one. Common typos are another one to watch out for.
“Domain stacking” or buying all extensions such as .net, .org, .info, etc… is a bit much unless you it’s your brand or you have significant development plans. IMO though this addresses a different issue, which is when the suffix of a domain matches another extension for which I totally agree buying the other version of, especially if you plan to develop the non .com. That said I partially agree with John Bomhardt about developing the .com and forwarding the other; however, .tv’s do well in the SERPs, so I don’t see an issue with this one.
I think this trend will become less of a problem in the future for developed sites in other extension. People are becoming more aware of the many extension such as .org, net, .tv, etc. so they would know where to go.
Justin.TV and similar sites should put more emphasis on .tv extension so their visitors don’t go to the wrong address.
I wonder why do people type JUSTINTV.com instead of Justin.TV which is easier? .com is powerful, but not for so long.
I own TVTampa.com and can make your life misreable by developing it
What am I supposed to say to a comment like this? Do whatever floats your boat Bob.