Is a .co domain a bad idea?
The .com for a name I'd like to use is taken, and there in't really a good way to change the name (ex: the way @sergio appended 'get' to makerlog)
Google this topic and you're spun around by a million opinions/viewsโฆall of them seemingly valid.
What does everyone here think? Say f*ck it and use a .co? Stay away from a .co?
It's what you do with the name aka product, business or project that matters. Pick whatever will help your end user and customer for now. You can always buy the .com, .co, or .WTHhowManyTLDsDoWeReallyNeed at a later date when you, and your wallet get big and strong. ;-)
Fyiโฆ I started w/ getmindfully then switched when I realized folks couldn't remember the name or domain. Or confused the name w/ getmindfully or mindfully.
I think it depends, is the .com a competitor or is it simply a name conflict? If they are a competitor then I'd not use the .co and pick a different name.
If it's just a good name and the .com isn't a competitor then I'd say go for it. Think about how people get to your site the first few times, 99% of the time they will be clicking on a link. After that they will know it's a .co and never think about it again when they type it into an address bar to jump to it directly.
There's no competitor - I think the domain is just parked, or being held for sale by a third party broker. I was thinking the same thing, that is, people would usually just be clicking through to the site, so it might not be such a big deal. And, exactly, if they know it's a .co, also not a big deal.
I agree with Micah here, name conflicts are annoying but can be dealt with. Competitors with the same [ or even just slightly-similar ] name is a no-go.
I, personally, love all the wild Top-Level-Domains there are out there. .gg, .io, .xyz, .tv, .wtf, .lol, .party, .sucks, I want them all!
@stuffbyspencer I like all the crazy TLDs too, but I'm admittedly pretty impressionable. That is, I read one article about WHY YOU SHOULD ONLY USE .COM and I lose all momentum and confidence and become a scared wantrepreneur, haha.
But I agree. The .co name in question doesn't have a .com equivalent. There are however accounts on social media that took the name, but those accounts haven't been active for at least a year or so. In other words, there's no establish brand with the name.
@alex oh yeah, definitely don't listen to that bullshit article. The people who warn you against using other TLDs usually speak from a place of semi-pseudoscience. They think that any foreign TLD will scare of new customers and, while that may have been true in the older days, the new generation on the internet now is tech-savvy enough where they are comfortable typing in .co and not freaking out about it.
.com's should end. Not literally, they're still useful for some stuff, but on the grand scheme of things we should expand more imo.
@stuffbyspencer Yeah, those articles do usually reek of a kind of traditionalism. As it is with a lot of things, everyone likes a black and white answer, not the grey reality, so you get garbage articles, haha.
Sometimes I think .com's almost look a bit antiquated. At any rate I share the sentiment because, well, why not have more diversity?
I was thinking a bunch about this sort of stuff today because I was listening to this artist's musicโฆ.and there's no f*cking way anyone is typing his name in ๐ https://open.spotify.com/artist/1TIbqr0x8HoKzKBNtNN8wf?si=c033A7mdTCymIwZ3pc_ZFg
I wanted to buy .com But is taken I ended up with .co so i use it for main company
I do think it can cause confusion - .co and .com seem very confusing to the average 40+ age range.
um not so, lol. It really depends on the user/customers' dependency on the internet, (e.g. casual user: pay my bills, entertainment, education, work/business only or superuser, etc). A lot of 40+ are superusers of the internet and know the difference btw .com/.co.
You got to remember when you group older demos together you neglect that the gen X (40-50s) folks were already playing and getting familiar w/ various TLDs esp the top-level ones. .Com & .Co been in the game for quite some time for most demographics to get acquainted with.
I get more headaches from ALL demos when I say to use .email and not .com. I couldn't even complete an application yesterday because the site says it's an invalid email lol
lol no, is ok sergio. CO means company COM means commercialize. They should understand
I had a similar thought, not so much in relation to demographic, but in the unknown number of cases wherein someone might be typing the whole URL. But it might be premature for me to worry about this.
@helengriffinjr mis-aged then - let's keep at 50-60+ age range :) depends on which demographic you're targeting. I know people that type .com for pretty much every name
carrd.co seems to be doing pretty well with a .co and weird spelling, so I wouldn't worry about it too much if you really like the domain.
My two sense is that .co is the best and cheapest way to launch new projects quickly. I've looked into buying more expensive domains and I've bought many over the years only to lose interest in them. Speed and agility is your best friend in this case.
I do however when coming up with names spend at least 4 weeks writing down new ideas, usually jotting down a couple each day, using domainr to validate their availability and eventually shortlist up to 10 including slogans. In that time I'll have favourites and go off them after a couple weeks once I come up with something better. I then share these around with friends and family for votes.
Thats my process. I try not to let domains hold me back too much. Plus plenty of valuable companies now use .co, .io and .ai etc.
I use .co for my project createcamp.co. If cheap and you can get the name you want I think it ok. you can always get the .com after you successfully build a product. My advice is don't overthink about that. This will not be the reason for failing
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