Should you bother registering other domain extensions?

If you are a business that operates primarily in Canada, registering the .CA of your business name is critical. And yes, it may be all you need to get your business online, especially if your customer base is primarily Canadian. While you can certainly make do with only a .CA, there are many compelling reasons to consider registering other extensions or, as important, other variations of your primary name.
As you likely already know, .COM is the unrestricted domain extension for companies or commercial enterprises and, of course, it is also the most recognized TLD (top level domain) on the Web. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to register memorable, concise or conceptual (ie. words conveying a concept or idea) .COM domains. Indeed, if securing the .COM of your name is possible by prebooking when it’s set to expire or acquiring it from the owner or a brokerage service at a price you are willing to pay, then do it. Remember, a portion of your potential customers will always attempt to find your website via direct navigation – ie. by typing your business name directly into their browser – and, generally, when this occurs the .COM extension is used.
It is important to note, however, that .COM’s are not everything. If the corresponding .COM to your business name is off the market, you should still register the other major extensions (. ORG, .NET. .INFO, .BIZ) if they are available. If this seems like overkill, consider for a moment how frustrating it would be to have other extensions capture traffic intended for your business or if one of these extensions pointed to an offensive website. For the minimal effort and cost involved, it’s good business practice to preempt such possibilities. If your website is, or will be compatible with mobile devices and you meet the registrant requirements you should also consider obtaining a .mobi.
Let’s move along from domain extensions to domain variations. If your domain name is easily misspelled or mistyped – for example, a common typo of www.webnames.ca is www.webmanes.ca – register the misspelling and save your visitors time by redirecting it to your homepage. Consider protective registrations too. If you’re in a cutthroat industry, susceptible to negative publicity or customer ire, register negative variations such as www.mydomainsucks.ca/.com/.org, etc. and you’ll avoid the fate of www.icbcsucks.com. Lastly, if your name contains multiple words, make sure you register the transposing variations, for example www.spaserenity.com and www.serenityspa.com.
Don’t forget to register the hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of your name in at least the .CA and .COM and in applicable cases, the plural and singular versions as well.
As a rule of thumb, research and expect to register 5-10 alternate extensions or variations for every domain name you intend to actively market, be it a business, product, trademark, or blog.
For more information about the top level domains (TLD’s), Country Codes (ccTLD’s) and start-up and proposed extensions, see the following Wikipedia entry on Domain Names.