.com, .net, or .co.uk?

[GUA]

I am developing a website, and focussing significant resources on the development.

My thinking was to buy all the .com search terms which I will be using with adwords and redirect them to my site.

This way I am taking the domains away from competitors, perhaps getting type ins, and either way improving rankings.

This process is an expensive one

Anyway.. my site focuses on the UK market. As a domainer it is always .com - hence why I am going after the .coms. I was just curious as to thoughts on .net and .co.uk

If I buy keyworddomain.com a competitor could very easily buy keyworddomain.co.uk or keyworddomain.net. For some of the terms, the .co.uk/.net are available.

Im just curious as to peoples views on this approach.
To me, .net is just an expense. It will never be .com, i'd rather have nothing than .net

.co.uk .. it is an english directed site, but everyone uses .com... .com is the best right? independent of target, and again an extra expense that i could do without BUT of course.. if $8 now is going to save me $800 in a year

Thoughts appreciated
Thanks

[PRED]

forget .net
trash

but in uk market, i personally would rather have com always but u really need .co.uk also

has extra trust built in, does at least as well as com on google, plus stop competitors as they will go to reg .co.uk first and often leave com, even if free, which is rare

so, get .com and .co.uk
even if you have 100 domains of all search terms. is only £800 a year

an average domain will cost that to buy on secondary market, and competitors wont ever be selling if they beat you to it

save money by ignoring the nets
it'll bankrupt you if you go after net, eu, info etc

[GUA]

Many Thanks for the contribution.

You make a very good point ! But this raises a seperate question How does one contact a .co.uk owner?

A .co.uk whois query only yields an address - they dont display emails - I have no interest in sending 100 hand written letters

Cheers

[PRED]

i thought u were handregistering?

you want to try to buy some .co.uk off owners?

well, if it is being used for commercial useage, even parking, they cant keep whois private
an email to nominet would sort that, if you were so inclined

write to them at their postal address as a last resort. or google name and address and see if their email is spidered anywhere or if they turn up on forums or linkedin, facebook etc

check archive.org and see if on an old page few years back there was an email contact, phone number etc

failing that, check whois again. if its a mainstream tag, 123-reg etc, its a lot harder

if theyre a private tagholder, eg GUA-DOMAINS as tag for example
chances are me, or someone over at acorndomains will know them
there are contact details at nominet for all tagholders

also if thats their tag, theres a very good chance their domain site/website etc is at guadomains.co.uk for example

you can find them

when it gets hard is if a domain is regged in 96 by joe bloggs, using nominet or a mainstream registrar

domain doesnt resolve, private whois and name is j smith

then, it gets tricky lol

good luck

you owe me a beer as i am actually very busy, but as you're a Brit

[GUA]

Many Thanks Pred.

Well, I am going to hand register, and attempt to buy some names as well. As is logical, a lot of the best ones are already taken.

Having looked/read the Nominet website, it seems Nominet simply do not provide emails in whois for spam purposes.
None the less, your suggestions do seem the most logical course of action - albeit a very time consuming one.

Once I'm done, Ill buy you a drink - perhaps at a free UK domainers meet up (which is long overdue).

Cheers