I am considering a .net name

That was my plan, but unfortunately, the one I want is now owned by that website. I am already in phase 3 of Affiliate Bootcamp, and my business name is integrated with the website.

Do I suck it up and pick a new name AND change everything that states my business name in my content to the new one, or is it actually possible to purchase from sources like BuyDomains.com without getting scammed?

Like possibly purchase it with some kind of prepaid card with the exact amount so they don't have access to my bank account.

I'd just change the domain name slightly and move forward. In my case if my site name is Work From Your Laptop and WorkFromYourLaptop.com was taken, I'd consider .net, .org, and then if both of those are taken I'd just change the domain slightly like WorkFrom-YourLaptop.com or something along those lines and make the purchase here.

Ok, so instead of hyphenating the website that works with a .com, you would say that .net or .org is better?

The name is Homemade Success.

The one I was looking at, but taken, is homemadesuccess.com

So I should use:

homemadesuccess.net
homemadesuccess.org
homemade-success.com

That's totally and completely up to you. If you like homemade-success.com over homemadesuccess.net, then that's where you'll want to go with it. There's no real right or wrong with that, just personal choice.

I appreciate your input. Now, in terms of .com/.net/.org, what are the real differences in consumer preferences? Does it not really matter because they don't know? Or does it make an impact whether the consumer believes it is a legit website? I've always seen .com as informative, .net as sales oriented, and .org as an organization (which could be just a misinterpretation).

That choice is totally up to you. If .coms were that much better than .net or .org they'd be priced differently. Totally a personal preference.

Well I have seen that .com is typically priced at $14.95 and the others at $13.95. But then, I've seen some .net and .org priced at $15.95 as well. Do you know the reason for this?

The .net, .org, and available hyphenated versions are all $15.99/year here :) Take your pick! :)

Ok, let me go back to my original question real quick. I'm taking all of this in, and as my primary choice to purchase a domain of course would be through WA, but is not available, and if I can't get my original choice, is it unsafe to purchase from that website?

Why would you want to do that when you get all that comes with the domain like support, unlimited hosting, and everything else right here. My answer is to choose from the other available options here because they're identical. But it's completely up to you :) Take care, man.

Holy Cow! I just called those people on the original homemadesuccess.com domain that I wanted and they are selling it for $4,000. Apparently it was a high success domain name in the past and is valued like a classic car would be, LOL! He also explained to me that two word non hyphenated .com domains are highly valued, and names with the word success get a lot of attention. So as it stands, I think I may go with the .net name as I can't afford $4k for a domain. Thank you very much Eric, You have helped a lot. Now it's time to get my business rolling!