TLD Overview for December 04, 2012
| All | New | Deleted | Transferred | TLD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 142,818,852 | 144,115 | 110,400 | 144,700 | All TLDs |
| 106,130,937 | 111,523 | 76,076 | 111,364 | .COM |
| 14,942,931 | 13,559 | 11,328 | 13,334 | .NET |
| 10,120,990 | 3,677 | 4,904 | 4,531 | .ORG |
| 7,550,595 | 10,792 | 14,875 | 10,845 | .INFO |
| 2,280,241 | 2,958 | 1,791 | 1,869 | .BIZ |
| 1,793,158 | 1,606 | 1,426 | 2,757 | .US |
You can see domains like .pro and .me are not even listed. They are to niche and even though they have more registration than .us they are not listed as the norm. The question is if it’s better to use a unique TLD for the sake of it’s exclusiveness and availability or will it take away from your customers trust. We think it can do both, but most important a TLD that is not popular needs to be very specific or it will cancel itself out.
For example a personal blog that ends with .me would work perfect for example mikevest.me. But lahiking.me would be counter productive. You could do lahiker.me which means the owner is a hiker in LA. still the word and TLD should almost flow as a sentence.
When we decided to make webhost.pro the new name for DWHS inc. we factored the integrity of the TLD, the ability to remember it, and most of all the feeling. With several unconnected test groups, they all could remember it perfectly, though it was professional, and felt good about it.
With your TLD you should ask these three questions to potential or existing customers before choosing your domain name:
1. Can you remember the domain? This is best done by saying the name, then changing the subject for 30 minutes or more without telling them, then asking what the name was.
2. Does it make since, meaning does the domain mean something to the customer when they hear it. For example DWHS could mean anything, this will hurt your domains relevance in the long run if the name does not actually have the words describing your website in it.
3. How does the customer feel? For example www.paymecashplease.us does not sound very professional. It has too many words, has no specific words to what it is, and it uses an unpopular tld that is not relevant to the domain name.
There is lot’s of factors like catchyness and cost but hopefully these tips will get your started on an awesome domain name to represent your website.