Hi,
I am launching a new company in tourism. My offer is bring mainly West
European tourists in Eastern Europe and propose them a large choice of
sport experiences. So there is no clear relationship with an
individual country ? my company has to be international.

I already found the future company name, and now have to register the
WEB site. The name is composite of two words, say it for this example
?Home Troter?.

The problem is that the site ?www.hometrotter.com? is already taken by
a company not in the tourist industry. Now I have two options, as I
don?t want to change the name:

1. Name the company ?HomeTrotter?, and the web site
?www.hometrotter.biz? or .net ? Google returns only 29 references for
that name. But I believe that ?.com? is important for easier search
and to convey trust.

2. Name the company ?Home Trotter?, and the web site
?www.home-trotter.com? ? however Google returns 180'000 references ?
not easy to find it there !!

Could you please advise me on the utilisation of .com via .biz or .net
and the use of hyphens in site naming.

Thanks in advance
Dimitar

---

Clarification of Question by dimid-ga on 27 Aug 2004 09:49 PDT

The ?Home Trotter? is just an example that is close enough to the real
name that I would like to use (sorry but I would like to keep it
confidential because too many people have access to this question).

So, I don?t want to change the name, but ask what are the general
considerations when choosing between ?.com" via ".biz or .net"  & the
use of ?Hyphens? in the site naming.

Thanks

Have you thought about using "Homes Trotter" as your company name? 

Homestrotter.com is available as a domain name.

Dear Dimid

As a rule, people, without even thinking, will enter the .com of
a URL. So, if you plan to use a URL.biz or .anything else, know that 
your costly advertising efforts will enrich your competitor at .com

Find another name that will work for you. And buy all the extensions
you want for that name - getting the dot com first. 

Trust me on this - it's like the classic case in Marketing 101, 
where a major furniture chain runs 8 page color-ads in the Sunday
paper, and radio and TV commercials to promote their big sales.

Then, some poor, but wise, competitor opens up a smaller shop
across the street - and pays for a great BIIIIIIIIG banner
over their storefront, reading FURNITURE SALE HERE TODAY, 
drawing away all their customers. 

It's the same thing - only in this case, you're doing it to yourself. 

Good luck. 

Your TaxMama-ga