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Comment by andrewhillman | Hacker News Reader

It depends. There are a bunch a good tlds besides .com but .com is obviously ideal. I'd start with whatever you can snag then when you gain some traction spend some money for the .com

In terms of cost... It depends how many letters or if its a dictionary domain. 3 letter domains are not cheap. Look for comparable sales.

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If you want the .com and it is available then I would suggest getting it while you can, otherwise some low life company will acquire and squat on it wanting about $1000.

if this puts things into perspective, after some negotiation the asking price is $7500

You might lose some of your traffic to the .com name. So it all depends on who your target audience is and how much each lost visitor would cost you.

- If they are older people, most of them would by default type in .com when they hear a business name. (eg - google.com). So go for the .com

- If they are from a particular country that has a strong ctld (uk, .de etc), then don't go for the .com, but go for the tld.

- If they are young and tech savvy. Ignore the .com. Any domain name would be ok as most of them would search and find.

EDIT - And also take into consideration what type of business you are running. If offline business with more offline marketing, then go for the .com. Online marketing, people would click links, so any domain would be ok.

All I can say to you is that you need to consult your business plan. Who is the target audience? As people here have noted, anyone tech savvied does not really care yet other do. How is the website going to be used now and in the future? Is it just after sales support for example. What is the projected turnover for the company? What amount of sales will be driven by the website. Is the website part of the company image? Will the .com domain effect your company? You may also look into your countries laws and if you can claim the domain, for example due to registered trademark.

After you have those answers you will be in a better position to think about what I first said, the only difference is the money wanted. If the company is successful and at a later point you still want the domain, it is going to be more expensive.

If you want the .com and it is available then I would suggest getting it while you can.

When negotiating a domain purchase, it's best to use a third party that isn't connected to the project in any way. This prevents the seller from seeing that you're a developer and jumping to conclusions, thus jacking the price.

$7500 isn't the worst - -

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