Is a .eu domain worth getting?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Currently im working on a social networking site (connect-freely.tk) but i hate the .tk because it looks tacky. A .eu domain is only €1.99 on register365 at the moment.

Is it worth purchasing it ???

Creamy Goodness

nope, buy a coffee instead. seriously it's the price of an app, you'd drop 1.99 on a bottle of coke that you'd drink in 10 minutes, yet you question buying something for your project?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

nope, buy a coffee instead. seriously it's the price of an app, you'd drop 1.99 on a bottle of coke that you'd drink in 10 minutes, yet you question buying something for your project?

Not sure what you mean by that ??

Creamy Goodness

ultimately, for a social network site to succeed you want people to use it right? that takes a hell of a lot of work, work that will costs thousands of euro in your time and effort.

my point is, you wouldn't think twice about buying a coffee/an app for your phone or a bottle of coke or whatever (kind of a tired analogy in software development worth but it's true), yet you're wondering is 1.99 worth it for a domain.

rovoagho

That's a special offer or introductory price. Always check the renewal price.

Your domain should reflect your target audience or market, or your location. If your target is Europe, then EU is perfect, but if it's Ireland it should be IE. If you can't afford an IE then a COM, NET or ORG might work.

Most domains are €10 or €20 though, over a year. An IE is the equivalent of 4 pints. People seem to forget this when talking about domains, or hosting. I'll never understand it.

TK is not suitable if you want to be taken seriously. If it's just a starter site though, I suppose it's grand for the moment.

jmcc

sw33t_r3v3ng3 wrote: »

Currently im working on a social networking site (connect-freely.tk) but i hate the .tk because it looks tacky. A .eu domain is only €1.99 on register365 at the moment.

Is it worth purchasing it ???

Even a .eu is better than a .tk when it comes to credibility. However .ie (for an Irish market) or .com for a global market would be better. There are also some new gTLDs launching this year [1] that might work but they will take a while to get any end user recognition. The .eu has a very low utilisation in Ireland (and the EU) as most people and businesses concentrate on the ccTLD/com axis. That generally represents over 85% of the domain market in each EU country. Outside of this axis it is very hard to get widespread brand recognition. If you want to do some basic market research, ask someone who you think might be interested in your site to name the last three .eu websites they used. Then try it with .ie and .com.

Regards...jmcc
[1] http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/delegated-strings

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

ultimately, for a social network site to succeed you want people to use it right? that takes a hell of a lot of work, work that will costs thousands of euro in your time and effort.

my point is, you wouldn't think twice about buying a coffee/an app for your phone or a bottle of coke or whatever (kind of a tired analogy in software development worth but it's true), yet you're wondering is 1.99 worth it for a domain.

So basically your saying not to think twice about it, just do it because of the price ?

BrokenArrows

In my opinion you should be getting a .com unless your website has something which your aiming at a specific country or region.

.eu might be useful if your target audience is only going to be Europe.
.ie if you want to be identified as irish.

.com is the first thing that people think of when it comes to a domain.

And as previously said are you really going to argue with spending a few euros on a domain name?
And if your really serious you will buy the most comon domains .com, .eu, .co.uk, .net etc and redirect them all the a single domain.

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Could someone point me toward a cheap .com domain registrar. I need it to be cheap !!

Graham

Go and search google.ie for

cheap .com domain registration

One of the majors usually has an offer for a few €€€, it just took me about 4 seconds for find one for €2.49

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Found it Should it be registered as personal or business (i could think of putting advertising on it sometime)

Kavrocks

sw33t_r3v3ng3 wrote: »

Found it Should it be registered as personal or business (i could think of putting advertising on it sometime)

'Personal'. That doesn't stop you putting advertising on it.

sw33t_r3v3ng3

And what about an ssl certificate, Should i just get single domain name verification ?

Graham

I'd leave the SSL for now. When you are ready I'd probably choose a different provider than the one I think you have for your domain.

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Ok thanks for your help !!

sw33t_r3v3ng3

I see ssl certificates online for $4 !!

Graham

That's about $4 less than I normally pay when I'm looking for a cheap ssl cert. First thing that pops into my head is why so cheap?

You probably don't need an ssl cert while you're still developing but who's the ssl provider?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

Comodo PositiveSSL Certificate

Graham

Ahhh, I think we're probably looking at the same website to buy them. Are you sure that's not the price per year if you buy for 5+ years in advance?

sw33t_r3v3ng3

It says here $4.99 per year

Graham

Sounds like a bargain then, the one I'm looking at has small print:

with 5 year option, regular 1-year option price is 6.56€*

sw33t_r3v3ng3

the one i see is a 5 year option, at $3.99 per year. I dont see any small print

Graham

Ahh ok, so that's $19.95, switch to a 1 year and its $8 + change

sw33t_r3v3ng3

1 year @ $4.99 per year