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I have found a good domain name I like for a project of mine. Should I buy just the .com or do you think it is a good idea to buy all the available TLD's? Like .net, .org, .info etc

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  • all of them?
    – wnrph
    Dec 5, 2011 at 12:45

8 Answers 8

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It really depends on what you are using the domain for. If brand is really important to you, then you may want to get all of them so that you control that name across all the tlds. If you don't really care then just get what you need.

If it is something commercial, it is probably a good idea. If it is personal, it might not matter.

Also, keep in mind that someone will likely buy the ones you don't and then attempt to sell them to you.

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  • I wish someone would sell me the one's I want :) Aug 25, 2009 at 13:13
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    I wish I could have all the money back that I spent on domain names that I later got bored of.
    – grenade
    Aug 25, 2009 at 16:44
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I can't believe no one's said this:
TLDs have rules. You must follow these rules. For some countries you need to either be from that country, or have a registered entity in that country. For others (.edu, .va) it's just not possible.

Not all domains are cheap. Try looking at some places like .ch. Not all TLDs can be registered from the same registrar. Your maintenance is going to be a real pain.

In short, ALL TLDs?! It's not worth the expense.

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Considering it only costs about $8.00 to squat on a domain, why not? If you think the site is going to be very successful, I would definitely do it, and I would also get *yourdomainname***sucks**.com before someone else who wants to mess with you does.

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    For me the term "squatting" implies bad intent. I don't think the question asker has such bad intent, but I dislike domain squatting. A lot.
    – Arjan
    Aug 25, 2009 at 12:54
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    If you head down the road of <domai>sucks.<tld> you could be registering hundreds of domains for each one. If you get "sucks", what about "blows"? Or "iscrap"? Or what-ever the next cool-speak phrase for negativity is? The same with trying to protect yourself against typosquatting (though there is a case there for covering very common mistakes if your domain is based on a commonly misspelt/mistyped word as it may help your users). Aug 25, 2009 at 13:10
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    Register all possible negative combinations you can think of, last thing you want is someone making fun of you on the internet ;) </sarcasm> Aug 25, 2009 at 13:14
  • @Arjan: I agree, perhaps that was the best choice of words. If I were to register arjanvanbentem.com just to hold it for ransom from you, that would be bad intent. For me to register raven.com, raven.org, raven.net, etc., even if I only use raven.com, would not be. I am just protecting my "brand" and I think that is a legitimate reason to "squat" on a domain(s).
    – raven
    Aug 25, 2009 at 14:15
  • @David & Nick: I know it's unfeasible to register all those permutations, but I think it might make sense to grab some of the more obvious ones if you think the potential popularity of the site warrants it.
    – raven
    Aug 25, 2009 at 14:16
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Points to help your TLD buying decision.

  • Are the other TLDs relevant to your project?
  • Do you fear a future competition taking up the other TLDs
    • and trying to sell them to you maybe
    • or, hosting their sites with hopes of stealing your brand-value
      which assumes you will create sufficient value on the primary TLD you are hosting from
  • Is your project multi-national which might use country based TLD registrations?
    • there are other ways to get past that hurdle (w/o acquiring country based TLDs)
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In my experience domain names are often registered by domain squatters when you release them. I've seen the oddest names being registered by domain squatters after the original registration expired and were released because the administrative contact messed up (or the contact details were wrong). I don't know where the squatters get their information, but it seems they know.

So: when registering multiple domains, make sure you can afford to maintain them. If not, then let sleeping dogs lie.

(And as for the "all" in your question: that's not doable.)

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It would depend on how tightly you want to control your brand/identity.

They're so cheap, so I usually add the ".net". I wouldn't bother with anything other than the "big three" .com, .net and .org.

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There might be some restrictions on some of the domains. .org should be restricted to non-commercial organisations (like charities, for example), so you might not be able to get them all.

What will your users expect to enter? Are they likely to type "domain.info" instead of "domain.com"?

However, you should get all you can afford. You don't want someone buying one you don't own with the aim of redirecting traffic away from your site.

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  • There is zero control and many for-profit corporations register a .ORG.
    – bortzmeyer
    Sep 1, 2009 at 8:04
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If you have registered multiple domains (with only the TLD differing), it would be good to redirect those requests to your main domain. If you have multiple domains, duplicating content, then you may receive the Google penalty for duplicated content. If you have a redirect on it, you will direct all that nice page rank to your main domain.

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