Are .net domains even worth a damn?

[PRED]

the only time i consider them is when they're very good, one word, and very cheap

[Doc Com]

Originally Posted by PRED

...very cheap

You a tight biaatch.

Get up off that money.

just looked at my bodis stats from June (and this is pretty much the norm)

Top 10 revenue name extentions:

1. .us
2. .com
3. .net
4. .com
5. .com (with hyphen)
6. .net (with hyphen)
7. .com
8. .net
9. .net
10. .com

[gafadi]

well the domain i am talking about is VisitKathmandu.net

Kathmandu is Nepal's capital and Nepal is mostly a tourism based country , due to recent incidents and increase government tensions the tourism had decreased but still Kathmandu is one of the top tourism spot in Nepal with Historic temples and so on .
But does this domain has any value ?

[aZooZa]

The .net extension is 'de rigueur' for internet infrastructure and hosting etc. That was its original mandate IIRC.

[Acro]

You're right, Dale. E.g. Engineers.net - perfect TLD for its function.

[ecomindia]

extn - good only when talking about quality of the domain names

revenue is the potential when converted to a website which any other extn can achieve if the site is good.

although, i see a recent trend of users targeting more on .org then .net (that's my thinking & analysis) and various companies are promoting .net registrations at discounted prices

.com is far ahead although ! it's a benchmark

[aZooZa]

Originally Posted by Acro

You're right, Dale. E.g. Engineers.net - perfect TLD for its function.

Try racked.net...

Here's what I mean about infrastructure and .net domains: A simple traceroute from my computer to dnforum.com:

traceroute dnforum.com
traceroute to dnforum.com (208.79.80.234), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 *********** 18.928 ms 3.382 ms 30.235 ms
2 po1-1363-cr0.thn.uk.as6908.net (78.41.155.49) 36.249 ms 160.808 ms 0.710 ms
3 xe-7-1.r01.londen03.uk.ra.gin.ntt.net (213.130.48.101) 0.841 ms 1.041 ms 0.997 ms
4 xe-0.level3.londen03.uk.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.8.138) 1.308 ms 1.178 ms 0.839 ms
5 ae-34-52.ebr2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.97) 1.307 ms 1.263 ms 1.310 ms
6 ae-41-41.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.66) 70.316 ms 70.488 ms
ae-43-43.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.74) 70.376 ms
7 ae-3-3.ebr4.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.132.93) 82.949 ms 90.695 ms 77.199 ms
8 ae-94-94.csw4.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.190) 81.569 ms 76.231 ms 86.000 ms
9 ae-92-92.ebr2.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.157) 77.068 ms 76.594 ms 76.520 ms
10 ae-6-6.car2.Raleigh1.Level3.net (4.69.132.177) 218.828 ms 130.255 ms 216.571 ms
11 CWIE-LLC.car2.Raleigh1.Level3.net (4.71.162.14) 82.466 ms 88.088 ms 415.883 ms
12 208.79.83.2 (208.79.83.2) 393.801 ms 84.811 ms 83.513 ms
13 208.86.224.17 (208.86.224.17) 83.415 ms 83.631 ms 84.333 ms
14 cs-2-ge-0-1.dur.alwaysdedicated.net (208.86.226.205) 86.421 ms 86.603 ms 86.076 ms
15 as-4-ge-0-2.dur.alwaysdedicated.net (208.86.226.218) 90.219 ms 85.788 ms 84.548 ms

Few .net domains there eh?

[britishbulldog]

well for me its in this order:

.com
.co.uk
.net
.org
.info

[Domain Jedi]

The only .net that I own is a defensive registration.

There are some decent ones out there for sure however, if you are going to spend the time and money, just secure the .com.

Just my two cents.

[gopher2]

some useless statistics I ran on Alexa top 1 million sites list

top 100 sites
93	.com	93.00%
1	.net	1.00%
3	.org	3.00%
0	.info	0.00%
0	.biz	0.00%
0	.us	0.00%

top 1k sites
861	.com	86.10%
25	.net	2.50%
27	.org	2.70%
1	.info	0.10%
1	.biz	0.10%
8	.us	0.80%

top 10k sites
8113	.com	81.13%
450	.net	4.50%
474	.org	4.74%
41	.info	0.41%
17	.biz	0.17%
65	.us	0.65%

top 100k sites	
77492	.com	77.49%
5414	.net	5.41%
8513	.org	8.51%
762	.info	0.76%
223	.biz	0.22%
477	.us	0.48%

top 1M sites
749937	.com	74.99%
57874	.net	5.79%
101936	.org	10.19%
9875	.info	0.99%
3522	.biz	0.35%
6038	.us	0.60%

uselessly yours,
g

[JoshuaPz]

I've found two types of end-users to actually prefer .net over the .com equivalent: (1) high-tech companies (I'm also seeing ".it" in use among IT consulting services), and (2) southeast Asian-based companies, who often to associate .com with the USA.

While the .com version is most valuable most often, don't underestimate the significance of keyword-TLD fit.

[Doc Com]

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble,

But when I see Pornogram.net and WirelessMarket.net drop and I can pick these up for reg fee, you better believe I will.

[bmugford]

I have found the exact same thing. Many buyers in ASIA tend to prefer the .NET over the .COM

The stigma against .NET is mainly a domainer POV. Most end users I have dealt with would much rather have a GreatKeyword.net vs a MediocoreDomain.com

Brad

Originally Posted by JoshuaPz

I've found two types of end-users to actually prefer .net over the .com equivalent: (1) high-tech companies (I'm also seeing ".it" in use among IT consulting services), and (2) southeast Asian-based companies, who often to associate .com with the USA.

While the .com version is most valuable most often, don't underestimate the significance of keyword-TLD fit.

[Doc Com]

Originally Posted by bmugford

The stigma against .NET is mainly a domainer POV. Most end users I have dealt with would much rather have a GreatKeyword.net vs a MediocoreDomain.com

Brad

Very well stated.

[nameslave]

Originally Posted by bmugford

The stigma against .NET is mainly a domainer POV. Most end users I have dealt with would much rather have a GreatKeyword.net vs a MediocoreDomain.com

That's probably because those end-users are not well informed enough to make a smarter decision. It's like when people buy an LCD TV model KNOWN to industry insiders as having poor configurations. Many small business owners don't even know how to send an email with attachments.

On the contrary, .NET has long been overrated like I said, because of obvious bias coming from early adoptors of the Ineternet (a.k.a. geeks). To them, the world is technology-led, networked and computed. To the rest of the world, it's business as usual, on the phone, fax or face-to-face chat.

[Doc Com]

old rules no longer apply.

and when the release of all the new TLD's hit, then you are going to see an acceptance and an adoption of Brand TLD's and Special Interest TLD's.

Saying a .net is overrated is telling someone that using a .ca and .de over a .com is a mistake. Choosing a ccTLD over a .com or any other extension more or less personalizes the site and contents. Thus will be the same with .music, .eco, .london.

Old rules applies to domainers, not mass adoption.

[sdsinc]

Originally Posted by Doc Com

old rules no longer apply.

and when the release of all the new TLD's hit, then you are going to see an acceptance and an adoption of Brand TLD's and Special Interest TLD's.

Let's hope it won't be a remake of .aero .mobi .museum .pro .travel .coop etc
These TLDs were never truly embraced by their respective industries - it tells you something.

One aspect of .net is... well networking

[BidNo]

I regged my first .net domain (OrlandoRentalHome.net), with the view that keywords were strong and worked with the extension. I'll have a more informed opinion in 6-24 months.

[Doc Com]

Originally Posted by sdsinc

embraced by their respective industries - it tells you something

Not embraced by domainers. Industries? Hardly the case.

I am well aware that you and many others do not like .mobi. But to say it is not embraced? There will never be enough major sites offered up as evidence as adoption to satisfy many domainers. So it is not even worth mentioning.

People on this forum are still stuck in the mind set of the "old rules".

I mean, come on - there are still some people saying "nobody wants to type in 4 letters when 3 will do".

All I can say is look out.

No, I do not agree with all the new releases but that is not going to stop them. But no one can convince me that people will object to putting in .london or .berlin to get to a trusted site that is of that extension.

Many on here do not realize that the domain extension is the brand and the brand is the domain extension. And many on here do not grasp the notion that, yes - I will say it again - domainers do not control the internet.

Personal choice and preferences by domainers are not a factor in how someone gets to an internet site. If a domainer wants to horde abc.com for 1.5 million and the potential buyer opts for abc.net for 10K then that is business. If a company and a site are created around abc.net while abc.com remains parked then the .com is losing ground. Domainers on here think and argue just the opposite...oh, no. The .com steals their traffic.

Um, where did the traffic going to the .net suddenly appear from? It is either newly created traffic or traffic that was once diverted to the .com in landers. Yes, the .com will get some of the traffic created by the .net launch. But traffic is a two way street. Not a one lane, one way road.

People today are so brand conscious. And they are constantly bombarded with advertising driving that brand to be embedded in their consciousness. That is what advertising is all about.

So .net has great value and usage. And .com has great value and usage. And many others have their usage as well.

Arguing the points of who, what, where, when anymore is so useless. Everyone on this forum has their mind made up.

It is just like the thread currently running about why are Canadian companies using .com instead of .ca. See? Those same people in that thread (which is educational) that argue for .com are now wanting .ca to win over .com. How can you have it both ways?

Usage. It all boils down to usage.

That usage is what it means, what is says, what it implies, and how it is used. To me, having a domain WashingtonDC.ca is totally useless and meaningless - unless there is a place in Canada going by that name. It is like having the name Beijing.us. Someone will try their damnest to convince me and others of why it is good and will want me to see what they see in the name. What I see are two unrelated species being bred in a test tube to in attempt to create an entirely new species but it just fails.

[nameslave]

Originally Posted by Doc Com

Saying a .net is overrated is telling someone that using a .ca and .de over a .com is a mistake.

No. A relevant ccTLD (e.g. .CA for Canadians) is ALWAYS much better than a totally irrelevant gTLD, like .NET for a restaurant.

You are basically overrating .NET by comparing it to a relevant ccTLD.

Originally Posted by sdsinc

One aspect of .net is... well networking

One tricky thing about .NET is that *some* people tend to "interpret" it as about the Internet or as you said, (people) networking. So mylousyrestaurant.net could be justified as the Internet presence of my lousy restaurant, and parttimeeassassins.net a networking group for part-time assassins.