Welcome to our blog!
Our purpose is to empower you to make sound technology decisions.
We hope the dot-tech didn’t give you any trouble.
Dot-tech isn’t a standard top-level domain, we realize, and we’re willing to bet you haven’t seen as many dot-tech’s as you have dot-com’s, dot-gov’s and dot-edu’s.
So Why Would We Choose Such an Obscure Top-Level Domain?
Well, our domain, welovit.tech, reflects one of our core values, which is to embrace technological shifts. Although other top-level domain names have been around as long as the Internet, they haven’t really gained traction from businesses. Many businesses have reservations about choosing an obscure top-level domain name for their homepage. We believe this is an area that can actually empower businesses, especially those of the small and locally-owned variety.
The truth is you probably have more exposure to “obscure” domain names than you realize. For example, when you’ve put together a presentation for work, you may have shortened hyperlinks using Bitly. In case you’ve never had experience with Bitly, we plugged in our website and were given the URL http://bit.ly/28SSeBf. Notice, the top-level domain name is dot-ly.
Top-level domains are handles in a domain name system (DNS). The DNS is the Internet’s way of storing domain names and translating them into Internet Protocol addresses. Dot-com is a handle. So is dot-edu and dot-gov. We could go on, but there are literally thousands of handles, and they run the gamut: dot-us, dot-lawyer, dot-cancerresearch. They even have one for laughing out loud: dot-lol.
Here’s Where Your Business Fits In
When you build a website, you choose a handle, and your site becomes a subdomain of the handle. You can think of it like a house in a neighborhood. Or maybe like an office in a city. For example, Techs is located in St. Peters. It is one of hundreds of offices in St. Peters. To that end, dot-tech is the URL equivalent of St. Peters, and weloveit is the Techs office in St. Peters.
As more and more dot-com subdomains disappear, you may have a hard time finding a domain name that sounds natural. That happened to this person four years ago. Worse yet, a lot of these domain names aren’t even actually being used. They were bought by domain investors, who swept in and bought the domain names en masse, with the expectation that they could resell them at a premium.
Rather than settle for an unnatural-sounding dot-com name, though, you can use a new top-level domain name to communicate your niche. The reason dot-com is the largest top-level domain opened for unrestricted registration is com is short for commercial. It’s no wonder so many businesses have flocked to it.
But tech is short for technology. And, in the case of Techs, technology is our niche.
Think about what you can do with a different top-level domain. You have the opportunity to communicate what you do in the top-level domain, which frees up the subdomain for you to market a memorable brand name. That’s what we did at Techs. When we designed this website, we chose the top-level domain dot-tech, because it communicates what we do. We chose weloveit because that’s our niche.
However, because these top-level domains are so new, some companies have email systems that automatically reject an email that uses a new top-level domain. This could create a bottleneck in communication between your company and an affiliate, as your emails keep getting rejected. Likewise, the company’s’ email system wouldn’t allow for anybody there to contact you.
As a result, you might want to use a new top-level domain to promote yourself to potential clients, and use one of those unnatural-sounding dot-com options as a backup for email routing. At Techs, our dot-com backup option is techniciansevolved.com.
When you put together a company website, you want to look your best. Don’t let a clunky domain name hinder you. If you’re stuck, we’re available to help. Please ask us any questions, and we will do our best to answer them.
Otherwise, we hope you’ll continue reading. Please let us know how we can serve you.