The document discusses the importance of owning a .com domain name for radio and offline advertising. In a case study, the author advertised their .ca website on local radio but saw more traffic to their also-owned .com site. People assumed the domain was .com even when the .ca suffix was advertised, as .com has become the default assumption. The lesson is that for offline advertising like radio, newspapers or magazines, a .com domain is essential to receive traffic from potential customers, as they will often type .com despite any other suffix advertised.

1. .com Is Critical For Radio Advertising
If you're considering advertising your website on the radio, in newspapers, or any other offline
advertising media, owning a .com website address (URL) is not an option, it’s a necessity. Leave
the .net, .org, .name, .tv and all the other dot suffixes for someone else. In a recent radio
marketing campaign, the importance of a .com URL became very apparent. This was a very eye
opening experience.
Here’s the story. I own iClickAcademy.com and iClickAcademy.ca. Recently, I decided to try
radio advertising for the Canadian website (.ca), but not the international one (.com). I chose a
local radio station so I could test the market and the medium. It also allowed me to hear my ad
and monitor the frequency it was being played.
The radio ad was written and produced by the radio station in my test market and ran for three
weeks. At the end of the campaign, the statistics were shocking. The .ca website had received 45
hits and the.com site had received 47.
If we look at the results and ignore the fact that the radio campaign was a flop, you’ll notice that
the .com site got more hits than the .ca site, even though the .com site was not being advertised.
this was shocking for this newbie offline advertiser.
Why did this happen?
When people hear a domain name on the radio, they have to write it down or remember it. Either
way, half the people get it wrong and assume they heard .com. This was a frightening statistic
that I hadn't considered when I started the advertising campaign, but a very good lesson in offline
advertising and psychology. After doing some research, it turns out that even if you advertise a
.ca or other suffix in a newspaper, magazine or other print media, people still type in the .com
address, simply because it's the "default" suffix.
In short, if you own a domain that’s not a .com and you’re promoting on the radio, in
newspapers, magazines, or any other offline media, you’re sending the .com domain owner lots
of free traffic. That’s great for the other guy…not good for you.