You're ready to start your new business idea. Ten great ideas for your .com domain name pop up in your mind. You start to look them up and see all these names are taken. You try as many more names as you can think of, only to find they are all taken as well! At this point you may consider registering your site on an alternative top-level-domain (.tech .ai .online, etc.) because there are a lot more of these available.

After reading this article, you will have:

A fundamental understanding of top-level-domans (TLDs) and the different categories of TLDs

A better idea about which TLDs would be a good fit for your company

Knowledge about how TLDs affect search engine rankings.

 Top-level-domain or TLD is the last part of a web address after the "dot" symbol.  

All TLDs are managed by ICANN, which stands for "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers." ICANN is an American nonprofit organization that manages all TLDs, either directly or by designating them to a country or organization.

There two general types of TLDs: generic and country code TLDs. Here we will look a little deeper into each.

From 1998 until 2013, ICANN only released a couple of generic TLDs. These TLDs are by far the best-known, and they are managed by ICANN without the involvement of any other country or for-profit organization. The most popular ones are: 

Country code TLDs, also know as "ccTLDs" are, as the name describes, reserved for countries, sovereign states, or dependant teritories. Most of these TLDs are managed by an organization that was assigned by that specific country. Here are the top 5 ccTLDs.

After available web addresses on the most popular ".com" became more scarce, people started to look for alternatives. Some people started to register domain names on TLDs that were originally meant to be ccTLDs. The use of ccTLDs this way became known as "gccTLD."To increase the visibility of these sites outside of the original geographic area, Google processes these domain names as generic instead of regional. 

The use of these TLDs for generic sites has been a win-win, as it has opened many opportunities for web developers and has become a sizable source of income for these small countries. For example, Tuvalu, a small British Commonwealth Island with a population of 11,000 recieves around $5 Million annually for the right to administration of their ".tv" domain name. 

 Here are some examples of popular gccTLDs:

.tv – originally intended for Tuvalu but now mostly being used for television or video-related sites

.io – originally intended for the British Indian Ocean Territory but now mostly being used for tech-related websites

.ai – originally intended for Anguilla but now mostly being used for AI(artificial inteligence)-related websites.

.fm – originally intended for the Federated States of Micronesia but now mostly being used for FM radio stations and streaming audio websites

We took advantage of this option for our tech-related projects OpenBook, WhitePaper and CloudPDF.

As internet growth continued to explode, even with the creative use of ccTLDs it became harder and harder to find available domain names. Even if they were not developed, most web addresses were registered by domain name resellers, people who essentially "flipped" them to make a profit. There was a real need new top-level-domain options to catch up with demand.

In 2013, ICANN announced the introduction of new TLDs known as "TLD strings" - generic use TLDs whose names tend to say what use they are for. ICANN delegated the administration of these TLDs to third-party organizations under very strict terms. This really opened up the industry and gave us a lot more possibilities in choosing a domain name. Here are the most popular TLD strings that became available after 2013: 

How to choose the right TLD for your website

Now that you are updated on the top-level-domain fundementals, we want to help you apply this knowledge and choose the right TLD for your website. 

Most of us would prefer a .com address, knowing the .com domain names are the most popular and sought-after. Of course, because of their scarcity it is also really hard to find names that are available.

Answer the following questions to find out if an alternative TLD is suitable for your new website.

Are you targeting an audience in a specific region? If so, consider choosing the country code TLD for that region. For example, let's say you want to build a website for French car enthusiasts: then a local ".fr" domain name would be a great choice. Using the specified TLD will increase your credibility with the audience, and your exposure with people searching in that region. 

We purchased several local domain names for our project usermanual.com to provide manuals in different languages targeting specific regions. We experience that our local TLDs score higher in search engine rankings in those regions than the generic usermanual.com site.

Are you mainly targeting traffic from SEO?

If your initial idea for a .com domain name is not avialable and brand recognizion is not that important to you, an alternative TLD might be a good option. Put another way, if people visiting your site depends heavily on inbound links and search engine rankings and not necessarily on them remembering your web address, alternative TLDs like .online, .tech, or .art can be a good solution.

The reason to avoid the alternative TLDs (at least for now) if you are building a brand is simply that people are not used to them yet. For example, my business partner and I have a web agency called With Love Internet. We used to own the domain name "with.love" and we constantly had to explain to people that they indeed could really type .love in their address bar. They would say, "No - you mean with.love.com, right?" and we would assure them, "No, really you can type just "with.love." In the end we chose to change the domain name to "withloveinternet.com" and that removed the confusion.

Before choosing an alternative TLD you should be aware that some of them, like .tk, .biz, .info, .ws, .name, are heavily used by spam websites. Because of this, the impact on search engine ranking for these specific TLDs can be negative. You will need to be a much more established website to be taken seriously by search engines if you choose one of these TLDs. Don't let the bad reputation of some scare you away from this wide-open option though - there are literally hundreds of other alternative TLDs available. 

Click here for a complete list of all available TLDs, including all of the alternative TLD options

Sometimes, the .com option is worth the investment or the wait. If you are trying to build a website targeting a very wide audience and your aim is that people will remember your brand and come directly to your site, we highly suggest that you buy a .com domain name. 

If this is the case, there is a high chance that all the domain names you have in mind are already registered or held by resellers who demand a high price. We suggest that you begin by first proving your business model with an available domain. During this period, put some budget aside for a future investment in a .com name. This will allow you to start growing now and transition to a domain that people will remember at the right time. 

Below a couple of .com domain names that we bought for OpenBook projects

We hope this article has given you more understanding about top level domains and some ideas about how to best use them for your goals. We have certainly seen ourselves how much the right domain can help build your project and we hope you will find the best option!

With all these new top-level-domains, it can be hard to know which one is right for your start-up company. In this article we will discuss the fundamentals of top-level-domains to help you choose the right one for your start-up.

What is the right top-level-domain for my website?

If you have an idea for a product or service you believe can really succeed, budget is sure to be one of your first considerations in getting it off the ground. We have all heard the saying "it takes money to make money," and you may assume you need a great deal of capital to launch your startup. However, you have probably also heard about the unicorn startups that built their empires from nothing - like Mailchimp, who have reached a valuation of $4.2 Billion without any external funding. While the scale of their success may be rare, launching a startup without raising capital - known as "bootstrapping" - is possible if you have the right tools and the right outlook. If you want to learn more about the possibility of developing your idea without losing time and equity in the process of funding it, read on to learn more about the requirements and rewards of bootstraping your startup.

Skills: What you will need to make it work

To succeed in building your startup without external funding, you will need a skilled, well-rounded founding team. When working with investors or accelerators, many times their funding comes with expectations, but also support and networking opportunities. Boostrapping requires you and your founding team to determine the vision and course of the company, solve problems and find connections yourselves. 

Due to the diversity in the skills needed and the sheer amount of work it takes to get a startup off the ground, most startups will need more than one person to create a succesful founding team. Of course, if you do have all the necessary skills it wouldn't be unthinkable to start out by yourself. These are the skills I believe are critical in the earliest stages of development:

In this list I did not address management skills because those are not quite in the picture yet when working as founding partners. However, strong management skills will become essential as the startup grows and you begin to recruit talent for the company. 

Working at a minimum: What you won't need to make it work

Just like living on a personal budget makes you re-evaluate what you need and what you don't, launching a startup without external funding challenges you to determine what the real priorities are and how to use your limited capital to meet your goals. The more unnecessary spending you can avoid the better, since the lion share of the profits in the first years will need to be reinvested into the company. 

There are many key performance indicators (KPIs) startups track to measure their progress, each providing part of the picture of the company's performance and efficiency. Startups who launch with external funding can often dedicate a considerable period of time to refining their product, business plan, and marketing strategy before switching gears to assessment. If you launch your startup supported only by your own funding and resources, you must immediately focus on revenue to stay afloat. This means you will need to get a basic but high quality version of your product on the market as quickly as possible. The work done in the first year to improve the product itself, the market fit and the marketing strategy lay the foundation for scaling the business in the future. For OpenBook, a subscription-based startup, I have set the goal of reaching $10.000 monthly recurring revenue in the first year. I believe this is an attainable level of performance to acheive and a reasonable goal for most bootstrapped startups.

Aside from the satisfaction of seeing your hard work bear fruit, one of the most attractive benefits of bootstrapping is that you (as an individual or as founding partners) retain complete ownership and autonomy in the business. If you choose to launch your startup without external funding, you have the freedom to determine the vision of the company and pursue it the way you think is best, whatever unanticipated changes that may include. Investors often require a seat on the board or apply pressure on you to make an exit or go public. If you have a vision and are up for the adventure of finding the path to success, the flexibility of maintaining full equity is a major asset. 

Bootstrapping was a natural choice for me. In the American startup culture, it seems looking for funding is so normal it is often assumed that if you launch a start-up you are searching for investors. Having grown up in the Netherlands, I tend to naturally take the more conservative aproach to building businesses that is common in the Dutch culture. You start with nothing and  find a way to create value. From there you scale your company. 

 If you can put together a strong founding team, have a clear vision and are dedicated to the work of building your startup, bootsrapping can allow you to launch and become profitable faster while also maintaining full autonomy of your company. You may still choose to seek external funding at a later stage in development to support scaling, an exit or going public. Approaching investors after growing your company to a level of success will open many more doors to these partnerships.

Venture capital money seems to be a popular choice when starting your idea. In this article we talk about why we made the choice to self-fund our start-up.

Why to bootstrap (self-fund) your tech startup

Are you curious about starting in internet entrepreneurship but not sure how to begin? 

If you have a product, service or information you want to sell online, or you want to monetize your content, you may find the variety of internet business models raises questions about just how to do that. 

In this article, we will break down the most popular business models used by each of the three big categories of e-commerce: Advertising, Product and Service -based internet businesses.

If you are a content creator with a blog or a vlog, advertising is one of the most natural fits for monetizing your work. Two of the big strategies for integrating advertising in your posts are Affiliate Marketing and Display Advertising. Lets examine each of these: 

The fundamental concept of affiliate marketing is that your opinion is valued by the people who follow your content and they will likely take your recommendations to heart. “Sponsored” posts or ones that contain “affiliate links” are the hallmarks of this strategy. The most effective way to create value through an affiliate marketing program is to share products you can personally recommend and that are relevant to your audience. 

One of the largest affiliate marketing programs is Amazon Associates. When you join the program, Amazon provides you personalized links for their products you share in your posts. Every time your link is used to purchase an item, you receive a portion of the sale. Amazon has recently introduced a new level of affiliate marketing with the “Amazon Influencer” program. This new program raises the stakes for influencer-status social media accounts, with a specialized Amazon homepage for your recommended products, so you can share them on social media platforms where adding links is not possible. 

Display advertising is the technical name for all the banner ads displayed (or blocked!) on the pages you visit. This business model can position your site to generate passive income, as opposed to the work involved with each recommendation in an affiliate program. However, your site will need to meet the specific criteria of the advertising network you partner with. 

Google Adsense is one of the best-known display advertising partnership opportunities. With Google’s program, once your site is accepted you add code designating where ads can be placed, and Google identifies ads that fit the content and audience of your site. The highest bidding of these ads gets the spot on your website. Earnings are based on the number of visitors to your site per month. To get an idea of how profitable this could be for you, Google made a calculator you can find here.  

While Google Adsense is one of the biggest and best known display advertising platforms, it is not the only one. If you are interested in this model it is a good idea to look into alternative platforms as well to optimize your chances of success.

If your idea for an internet business is centered around a product - whether it be physical, digital or informational - one of these models is likely the best fit for you. 

While it was not our intention for Amazon to figure so prominently in this overview, there is no debating the fact that they have developed some of the most popular internet business models for selling physical products. If you are interested in selling merchandise that you yourself produce or acting as a reseller, the following models are available to help realize your vision: 

Amazon FBA (filled by Amazon) is the most popular method of selling through Amazon. In this model, you store your merchandise in an Amazon fulfillment center and Amazon is responsible for packing, shipping, and providing customer service for all sales. To keep storage and service costs low, this service is best for merchandise that is small, lightweight, and sells quickly. According to Amazon, some of the best-performing categories in use the FBA program include books, baby items, exercise clothes, and small electronics. 

With the FBM or Filled by Merchant model, sellers essentially use Amazon as a storefront, maintaining control of customer service and the physical aspects of fulfilling orders themselves. This option is better for companies who have existing logistics and customer service functionality, or whose oversized, heavy or slow-selling merchandise would drive up the cost of the FBA option.

In the drop shipping business model, the internet entrepreneur builds a web store to sell products but does not own any merchandise or prepare any shipments. Rather, as a drop shipping seller, when someone purchases an item from your shop, you order it from the merchant (usually a wholesaler or manufacturer) and have it shipped to them. This is one of the easiest and lowest-cost methods of starting a web shop. Although it reduces control over stock and customer service, it provides an opportunity to “test the waters” with different products and types of merchandise without the need to buy a full inventory. One of the largest platforms for this model is Shopify.  

These niche business models open the door for people with a story to tell or who create digital designs for shirts and hoodies. 

Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon’s self-publishing platform. It includes both the digital option of publishing to Kindle as suggested in the name, and also the option of printing books. Printed books can be sold on Amazon from the same account.

Amazon Merch is a print-on-demand service for t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies. Designs are only accepted from approved creators, and royalties are paid monthly. Amazon retains all control of the printing and pricing of the garments, but this free option can be an avenue for gaining exposure.  

Any purchase made online that the buyer downloads instead of receiving in the mail can be considered a digital or information product. These goods are produced once and available for sale in unlimited quantities (unless intentionally limited). Common digital products include software, music, e-books, photography, graphics such as fonts and templates, and digital art. Information products are frequently formatted as videos or e-courses. Both digital and information products can be sold through web shops as physical products are, or through applications.

For many companies that provide a service, web shops or applications are critical in building the business and managing administration and client accounts. 

The productized service business model aims to facilitate growth through scalability and reducing the amount of time spent on each client. Rather than conducting an intake and building a customized proposal for each client, services are offered in very specific packages on either a one-time, recurring or subscription basis. This model is particularly well suited to entrepreneurs offering design, content creation, coaching, training, consulting and marketing services. 

This model is all about connecting businesses with interested potential clients. When these networking services are directed toward recruiting other organizations as clients, it is known as B2B (business to business) lead generation; recruitment of individual customers is known as B2C (business to customer) lead generation.

Common lead generation strategies include marketing, email automation and advertising in order to identify and engage potential clients. According to the Hubspot Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2020, 49% of companies report that increasing customer acquisition is their primary objective, and the mean cost per lead is just under $200. If you have the creativity and persistence to offer this service, it can be a very lucrative business model.

SaaS is the cloud-based alternative to marketing software as a digital product. Access to the software is sold as a subscription and provided through a web browser. The SaaS market is one of the fastest growing sectors of internet business today, valued at USD158.2 Billion in 2020 and projected to reach USD 307.3 Billion by 2026. 

This model maximizes market reach as it can be run on any operating system and offers a lower cost than licensing or selling the software, making it accessible to small business and individuals. It requires no hardware investments, and is easily updated in the cloud. Giants of the SaaS world include Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Google Apps, Amazon Web Services, Dropbox and Slack.

As an internet entrepreneur, whether your idea centers around a product or a service, or you are a content creator looking to monetize your site, we hope this guide has helped you get a clearer picture of how the most popular internet business models function. Which do you think might help you reach your goals?  

What are the most successful online business models?

When choosing a payment gateway for your startup you should ideally find one that is easy to integrate and will support the payment methods you want to accept. Of course, the pricing of a payment infastructure is also important, especially since this will likely be a long-term relationship throughout the course of the company. 

We found Stripe offers the best intersection of these qualities for us as a cloud-based Saas company. They specialize in subscription-based structures and we found their processes for registration, upgrading and cancelation very straightforward.

We are sharing our Stripe fee calculator for your use as you weigh the payment gateway options. You can also use it to compare the fees for Braintree and Bluesnap.

stripeFee

Calculate your projected cost and earnings using Stripe and compare with other payment gateways. The calculator also includes Braintree and Bluesnap.

Stripe Fee Calculator

Why to bootstrap (self-fund) your tech startup

What are the most successful online business models?

What is the right top-level-domain for my website?