I’m starting an online cigar shop with a buddy of mine and am in the process of figuring out what to call it. This is a fairly nuts and bolts question, but I thought I’d ask here and see what your thoughts are. I can’t post the company name yet because we’re still in development, so let’s say we’re called ‘smoke’. The question is, should I go for a .com domain ending or use one of the new top level domains, such as .cigar? Without the .com, the web address would be www.smoke.cigar. This is the page where I’ve been looking at new TLDs if you want to read more about them. Would that make the website more memorable for you, or would you prefer to see the .com? Thanks in advance for your time, everyone.

Henry
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What about a .biz? And, are you open to suggestions as far as the actual name? I'm sure the people here could give you some really good ideas. Just a thought. See, you want to make the name really stand out in a person's mind.
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I would certainly be open to suggestions! We're still bouncing ideas around. If we have a good name, then we might not care about the domain ending. Really like the store name Noblego (from Germany), for instance. It reminds me of the latin word for cloud 'nebula' and the Spanish 'niebla', also for clouds.

Seems like a good idea to have something that is related, but not too literal. So my 'smoke.com' idea is out!
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I would start reserving domain names regardless if you use them or not. Cheaper to just reserve them and then poll to see what makes the best sense.
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I'd fly with a .com, regardless of the name.
thesmokestoreonline.com and thecigarshoponline.com are both open (free) and waiting, each easy to remember, and explain what your store will be exactly.
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Do you have a web marketing strategy? There's a lot of competition and takes some serious coding to get you a good ranking without pay-per-click.

How is your pricing compared to the leading online retailers? Do you offer anything unique or seperates you from the JR's, Holts, etc...?
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