I own the .org and just "won" the .com..

[draggar]

There has been a long battle against a friend of mine and the owner of hisname.com (not the real domain). For him, I registered the .org, .net, and .info of his real name and put up a site on the .org and 301'd the others to the .org (along with nickname.org / .net, and a few others).

The .com was owned by someone who stole a lot of money from my friend and sold illegal copies of his book (he was out of the US). Neither my friend nor I had the money for a WIPO case (IMO it was a clear cut case).

Well, this other person didn't renew the domain, it went to NameJet and I got it (and they're taking their time getting it to me). My plans are to 301 the .com to the .org since we've has a long campaign telling people about the .com and how it wasn't him. We also have cards that show the .org on them.

My main question is, eventually, would it be worthwhile to make the .com the actual site and forward the other TLDs to it or just keep it as the .org? (A .com would be appropriate for him).

I don't think Google looks at the TLDs any different from each other.

[katherine]

I would do a 301 from the .org to the .com instead, if the .com fits as "main" domain. This will leave plenty of time to clients etc to get used to the newly acquired .com.
For the purpose of SEO the extension is not critical but for the purpose of type-in .com is preferable

[dominator]

For the purpose of SEO the extension is not critical but for the purpose of type-in .com is preferable

how?

if they both point to the same site?

[thedomainster]

I would do a 301 from the .org to the .com instead, if the .com fits as "main" domain. This will leave plenty of time to clients etc to get used to the newly acquired .com.
For the purpose of SEO the extension is not critical but for the purpose of type-in .com is preferable

I completely agree. .com is almost always preferable for a business, and gives you more credibility.

If the .com/.org issue was known by your customers, you may want to post something on the homepage for the time being to clearify that the owners of yourname.org have gotten back their .com name and can be found here from now on.

Best of luck!

[hugegrowth]

It almost doesn't matter what you use, since you own both. If you could start over and have both options which would you have choosed? Go with that one and make the necessary changes.

[dominator]

I completely agree. .com is almost always preferable for a business, and gives you more credibility.

everybody can register .com domains
it usually costs less than $10

any scammer can register a .com...

if this credibility can be bought, is it really credible?

[draggar]

Right now he and I are keeping the whole thing quiet since we don't want the other person to know (the person who had the .com).

When all is said and done we plan on having a big press release done and a headline on the splash page of the site.

My friend is quite happy over all this despite what he went though with the other person.

everybody can register .com domains
it usually costs less than $10

any scammer can register a .com...

if this credibility can be bought, is it really credible?

See, and the other person did. If you do a search on backlinks to the .com and .org the .com outnumbers my (legit) site almost 10:1. So, I can also get that traffic in with the .com (pointed to the .org).

I just don't want people to think the other way around happened.

Edit: On a side note, they are taking their time to get the domain to me. The WhoIs has changed from the previous owner to "privacy" and it is still parked (and I was charged for it, I checked w/ my credit card). 48 hours since I "won" the domain...