I've been vocal to my clients about domain names. No matter what, I tell them, don't buy a .biz or .net as your main address. Maybe in a few years, the trend for .com will shift, but we're not there yet.
It's second nature for us to look for a website with a .com, and if you're on a mac, you don't even need to type it in. It defaults to that address.
Case in point, I recently picked up some hand made soy candles. They're the best smelling things ever, and were reasonably priced. So today, I googled the name on the packaging. Which sent me to a company that also made the same product. Same name. Only difference was, I knew this wasn't the company. I recognized a different logo. (even the packaging had similar elements.) And while a designer would notice the difference, I don't think most people pay that close attention. To many similarities that it would have been easy to have gone to the competitor without realizing the mistake. The difference was the company I wanted had a .biz address.
Yes, it's getting more difficult to get the domain you want. Which means we as creatives need to be even more creative. But part of naming a business, a product, or service, and extending that marketing out to the public means being strategic. And thinking of all avenues that can be touched. Because you never want to send a potential client directly to your competitor. Let's make it easy. Even if that means taking a different path. In the end, you still want them to get there.
