• Elizabeth Alexander said 1 year, 4 months ago:

  I’d like to get people’s thoughts on using a .ORG TLD for a commercial business.

  I’ve noticed a good number of commercial businesses using a .ORG domain name. When .ORG was launched, it was generally well known that it was only supposed to be used for not-for-profits (why they didn’t verify like .EDU or .GOV, I do not know).

  For example, there is a SEO (search engine optimization) software company called SEOmoz that uses the domain name SEOmoz.org.

  Is it considered un-professional to use a .ORG when you’re a for-profit?

  Do people (other than myself) notice and care about this?

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• Chuck Wallant said 1 year, 4 months ago:

  No one will argue that the .com domain is the best TLD for a business. It’s the easiest to remember, rolls off the tongue (and fingers) much easier than any other extensions, and looks more professional to customers of the business.

  However, the real-world results of domainers and speculators has basically forced many businesses to forgo the .com TLD due to cost. Many simply cannot pay the thousands of dollars that many domainers expect to receive for a domain name today.

  As a result, many business owners opt for the .net or .org extensions instead.

  In my personal opinion, the .org TLD conveys a sense of trust and makes me think it is an “authoritative source.” Think Wikipedia.org. Many (if not most) not-for-profits use .org and we have come to trust much of the information they provide. I think SEOmoz.org is similar to this — while they are a for-profit business, many have come to trust their advice and they provide a lot of it for free on their blog.

  What you trade off for authority and trust by buying a .org domain name is the number of people that mistakenly type in .com as the extension. If you don’t own the .com extension as well, you may be losing customers.

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• Naeem Mobashar said 1 year, 4 months ago:

  I agree fully with @chuckie‘s comments above.

  I would add that there is a clear necessity for people to purchase .ORG’s because there simply aren’t enough domains to go around.

  I would also say that as the Internet continues to develop and mature, that consumers are becoming more aware that domain name traditions in the past are no longer the norm. For example, since .ORG doesn’t require you to be a not-for-profit I think you may start to see more and more websites that offer free information start to use the .ORG TLD. Case in point, the domainer Morgan Linton’s website on kayaking (kayaking.org) uses a .ORG and provides a lot of free and useful information. Yes, he sells advertising on the website but one might assume that it’s more authoritative because he gives away information.

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• Trev Alex said 1 year, 4 months ago:

  Need I remind everyone that .COM was originally developed to be used by COMMERCIAL entities? Nowadays, everyone uses .COM for anything they desire: personal blog, family website, picture gallery, etc.

  If mixing up the use cases is good enough for .COM (using them for not-for-profit entitles), I think it’s fine to use a .ORG for commercial entities.

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• Vicki Lopez said 1 year, 3 months ago:

  I’ve always associated .org with not-for-profit or non-commerical entities but never considered it deceptive to find a for-profit company behind the domain. I have a friend who tried to register a domain name in his name, for example, but it was taken so he used the .org. He does writing and editing for a living. What can you do when your preferred domain name is taken but you want the branding of your own name?

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• Domain Lords said 11 months, 2 weeks ago:

  GOOG’s algorithm will actually place a .org above a .com

  For what its worth

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