Originally posted by interactive
looks like a good name...are .us's ok though?
It totally depends on your goals and what you are trying to accomplish. The majority of people here are domain name sellers. They want to buy a name at a good price, then hopefully resell it for more. If that is your primary interest, then no - .US is not OK for you. .Com is where the action is today. You can also make smaller amounts of money on .net and .org if you choose very carefully. .Info has even had some respectable sales lately though it has only been on the scene for a short time.
There is another group who are primarily site developers. These guys can do well with .US and any of the other major extensions. They are good at search engine placement which when done well can drive traffic to your site regardless of the extension.
Then there are a few jack-of-all-trades which is what I would call myself. I try to play every position. I have finally learned that the only way to get good .coms is to identify names before they drop, hire good drop catching services (unless you have your own powerful scripts and hardware) and cross your fingers. This can get expensive, so if you can't ante up you might as well forget the .coms.
I will also take .nets and .orgs (I have sold both and you can make some money on both today, though prices are much lower than comparable .coms) Also, there are far more good root terms available in those extensions and these can sometimes still be had for a reg fee. However you need a service like Exody so you can see the names as soon as possible after they drop. The info you get from Deleted Domains is usually too late to do you any good.
Finally, unlike the vast majority I am also interested in .info and .us. I also develop sites of my own and there are some great names still available in those extensions, especially .US. I am betting on these domains for the future - probably at least 5 years out - when I think the public will be using them widely.
Most people don't look that far ahead - and that's fine - if you don't then don't bother with them. One thing to remember though is that the people who got the great .coms got them in the early days when everyone else thought they were crazy to buy them. By the time you realize .US and .Info have caught on it will be too late to get any decent names in those extensions.
I didn't mention .BIZ only because they don't appeal much to me personally. Others view them just as I view .info and .us above and may do fine with them. I only own two out of the 150 domains I have. One major drawback is that you cannot freely buy and sell .BIZ names due to registry restrictions, so if you buy one you better plan on building on it.
How's that for a long winded answer to a short question?
P.S. Now that I have divulged all of the industry's secrets they will have to have me killed. I hope you're happy!
