Reader Poll that has Nothing to Do with this Blog
Okay, time to get your opinions ready…
Need some help picking out a domain name to use for a site that hopefully some of you will be using.
Here are the choices:
A) mysitename.com
B) sitename.net
No, I’m not giving you the sitename just yet. I already have that picked out. And, since it is the same in both options, it’s not highly relevant to the poll.
Anyway, which would you find easier to remember and use? Mind you, you may bookmark it, but what happens when you need to type in the domain name? Are you more likely to remember A or B?
Thanks!
Dan - that’s a rough one to answer without seeing the domains. On one hand .com is easier to remember than .net
But MYsitename in lieu of sitename? Sitename is easier to remember, but it won’t give your viewers the same sense of relating to a real person as MYsitename does.
As you can see, I went for Salssecretesrevealed.com instead of just secretsrevealed.com and in the longrun? I don’t think it’s making a bling of difference either way. Toss a coin.
Thanks. It’s a tough one even knowing the domains.
On the one hand, mysitename sounds almost childish, but maybe that’s because of the way myspace has gone…
On the other hand, it will be a community site, so a sense of being personal may help.
And, for clarification, I do literally mean the word “my” here and not “Dan’s”.
And, on the third hand, sitename sounds more professional and since a good portion of the user base will be professionals, that’s a point in its favor, even being a .net.
Hi Dan,
It really doesn’t matter with Social sites as once they are created and you begin to brand them, The members will remember the sites name if the site is sticky. I would choose the sitename.net as it would be more professional and easier to remember. Just remember in the logo on the site to make sure that the “.net” stands out so members see it.
Just my .02
Have a Great Day!
Michael
Thanks! I think the name will be mostly easy to remember. It’s a name I’ve used for a while. Some people confuse it with something completely different but, fortunately, not too many!
Ah - I thought you were saying “My” as in “Dan” or “DCR” — Now I have an opinion.
I don’t like “My”. I didn’t like MYspace either. That is a personal preference, but probably a decent amount of people would agree with me. Site name would be just as easy to remember and won’t belittle the business aspects of the social networking.
I used to have a my.keyword.com site, but I can’t say that I ever really liked it. I liked the logo, but the name never really, completely grew on me. I always thought of it as a bit of a transitional name…
Dear Akismet,
What’s up with tossing my own comment on my own blog into the spam bin? What up, Akismet?
Regards,
dcr
It appears as though this post has run its course, so I’ll update it with the “results.”
First, thanks all!
I solicited opinions on this both here and on the WF.
There were five people that picked .net while two picked the my .com option. While not a statistically valid sampling, .net is the clear favorite here.
So, .net is the one that I am going to go with.
That decision is made even easier by some information I left out. I didn’t mention these things because I wanted opinions based on the domain names themselves and not on these other factors.
First, I own the keyword.com domain name too. I am not going to use it for this specific project for other reasons, but that certainly gives me an advantage in that I can put up a link on that site “Were you looking for…?” with a link to the .net site in case people go to the .com rather than the .net.
Second, the .net is already an established site with related content. It is 12+ years old and currently has a PR3 ranking. For a number of search terms, it is on the first page of Google and other search engines.
By comparison, the my .com is a one year old site with no content, no backlinks and a PR0.
Third, the .net site already pulls in several thousand unique visitors a month, which I think is pretty good since I haven’t promoted it in five years and, according to Google, it only has one backlink.
Overall, I think that here the .net is a pretty clear winner. And, thus, that will be what I will use.
Thanks again!
You little sh*t you’ve done it now I hope they through away the key you…lol
Dan,
I assumed (I know, I know “Ass-u-me”) you didn’t have the keyword.com name option.
I was going to go into how you could dominate the .com but didn’t have the time when I posted…
Now I’m glad I didn’t. <- WSO coming soon…lol
Oh, that brings up another thought. The more I think about it the more I think Wild would work better that Weekly What do you think? I’m talking about the WGold site.
Have a Great Day!
Michael
Well, I didn’t want feedback based on whether I had the .com. For one thing, I know on WF I’d probably get a bunch of people asking why I didn’t use that rather than answering the question. Plus, I really didn’t want that info to influence opinions. I wanted opinions based on the merits of the domain names themselves, without consideration of the keyword.com domain.
Wild again? Didn’t I vote for Wild way back when? I guess it really depends on how frequently the offers will appear. If weekly, go with Weekly. If there’s no fixed schedule, Wild would be better.
LOL…
No, The orginal name of the sit started with Wild.
You were the one that brained stormed with me for 3 hours and suggested suggested Weekly.
You said that Wild sounded a little… well, Wild and might lead people to think… Never mind.
j/k
(Adding the answer to the WSO above)…lol Maybe I’ll at least have one sale!
Have a Great Day!
Michael
That sounds familiar now. Hmm. Now I’m not sure whether I disagree with myself.
Oh, here’s the “e” I left out of my last post. Had to borrow it from someone because I ran out.
Why would you want to redirect the .com to the .net?
A) Because the .com is established and has PR?
Look, if you must do what you are doing and redirect from the .com to the .net then at least follow
the directions of someone that has the real answer.
Here is a link to the answer, Use it wisely Luke, Um, I mean Dan!
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-discussing-302-redirects/
May the Force be with you!
I once again I “Assume” that you know this guy?
Have a Great Day!
Michael
The keyword.com site is several years old. The mykeyword.com site is one year old. The keyword.net site is 12 years old.
The .net site has the highest PR of any of them.
I wouldn’t redirect from the keyword.com site to the keyword.net site. The keyword.com site would remain as-is, but I could put links to the keyword.net site so that if people go to the .com by mistake, they can still end up where they wanted to go.
If that all makes sense.
BTW, you also left out an “i” in that comment where you also left out the “e”. I guess you were running low on vowels.