In your opinion do you need a .com, .net, .org, or whatever to have a successful site?
Or is a .(site).com or .(extension) fine with you?
What are your opinions?
A TLD is never needed for success. Whether your forum or blog succeeds has little to do with having a TLD or not. There are many factors to a forum's or blog's success. For example, some of the factors would be the content and design of the forum or blog. A TLD isn't necessary for a successful forum or blog, it is just a bonus, and it may give your forum or blog an edge to become successful, but only an edge. I have seen many forums and blogs succeed without TLDs, and I have seen many forums and blogs succeed with TLDs.
A TLD gives a professional look to your site. Its true that a TLD is not a essential thing for a succesful site, but if you have it, you get better results.
A TLD gives a professional look to your site. Its true that a TLD is not a essential thing for a succesful site, but if you have it, you get better results.
Is a TLD needed for a successful site?
No. There are plenty of sites on a subdomain doing far better than their competition. Eg. The TutsPlus network: they are all on their own subdomain, yet doing far better than their direct competition.
I consider my blog a success and it does not have a tld. It really depends what you consider a success; just about every webmaster has a different view on it.
I consider a forum a success when the administration of it is having fun posting at their forum, there is a community (no matter how small) and people at the forum who just generally like being in each others company and being forum-peers with each other. So no, I do not not think a tld is needed for a successful site. Is it helpful in making a successful site? Many times, yes. Other times, no.
In my opinion, I absolutely believe so. In today's Internet, I can't see a new site with a free or subdomain getting too far. It also depends on what a person may consider "successful". A forum with 5,000 posts may be considered nothing to me, but may also be considered successful in the eyes of another person.
My honest opinion, I've been on a few forums in my time that don't have TLD's but that's never bothered me any. I wouldn't say TLD's are mandatory but they are good for getting your site on search engines quicker though, as search engines seem to index shorter domains than longer ones.
Domains are not the #1 thing for a site. A site can have a TLD domain and have crappy content..versus a site with a subdomain and have great content and be way better.
My specialty is the gaming world, and whenever I come across a clan or guild that's running off of a free forum/subdomain or a lot of times even guildlaunch (etc) I don't take them seriously at all.
A 'TLD' isn't needed for a site to get successful. Yeah .com is the main one but for example a Runescape help site, the biggest one around use the .It extension (originally for italian websites). Also it has a really good name technique using the extension as part of the word; "Tip.It". Also ImageShack, the image hosting site that is very widely used, uses the .Us extension for United States. Website don't need a TLD like .Com, or .Org etc to be successful.
Continuing off from Dan, the delicious.com domain started with del.icio.us which is a SLD, with a .us ccTLD, and it had major success amongst its competition when it was on its SLD.
^^yeah and now it is popular site . I don't think TLD does anything .do you expect if there is an TLD the owner is rich and would give you money for free .AH also started without TLD and is an great sucess .even forummansion .
^^yeah and now it is popular site . I don't think TLD does anything .do you expect if there is an TLD the owner is rich and would give you money for free .AH also started without TLD and is an great sucess .even forummansion .
Well, I thought I read somewhere that sites get indexed a lot easier if there is a TLD involved, as those are easier to remember But like I said, I've been on some forums that don't have TLD's, even ones that have been without one for many years and they still seem to do quite well. Content and a nice looking site matter more than the domain, in my opinion.
