Domain Name Secrets
Most people believe that the first thing they must do when naming a business is to make sure the domain name isn’t taken. Not true! If you have a great brand name, don’t give up if the domain has been acquired (unless it’s in use by a competitor). These days, no one expects companies to have the exact name of their business as their domain name. Here are some more thoughts on this and some tips on how to get a great domain name.
  • Enlighten yourself to the fact that even successful online businesses don’t always have the pure domain name. Millions of people use the project management website Basecamp and the file sharing website DropBox. You may have even used them yourself. Their respective websites are BasecampHQ.com and GetDropBox.com. These businesses get it – if you come up with a great business name, you can work around the dot com.
  • Add a modifier. Let’s say you are naming a store Fireworks – you sell candles. No one cares if you are Fireworks.com, FireworksCandles.com, FireworksFlickers.com or FireworksInTheBedroom.com. If someone can’t find your website by typing a URL in a browser, they won’t give up. They will Google you and find you that way. That’s what we do now. And that’s why we have bookmarks and browsers that auto-fill.
  • If you have a name with a hard-to-spell word in it (e.g. “mortgage”), buy the misspelled domain name and 301-redirect it to the “right” one. That way people will always get to the right place even if they misspell it. If you’re a .org or .net, if you can buy the .com and redirect it too, that’s always good.
  • Create a fun phrase. When we named Spoon Me, SpoonMe.com was parked. That means someone bought it and was sitting on it waiting for someone to come along and offer them a lot of money for it. Not a problem. Spoon Me had a lot of other options, all of which were free and clear on GoDaddy for $9.95…. LetsSpoon.com, JustSpoonMe.com, ILoveSpooning.com. Not only were these names free and clear, they all support the brand. They work harder than the name does on its own.
  • Try an empowering phrase. When we named an organization Watermark, Watermark.org was taken, so they got WeAreWatermark.org. Wavelength is the name we came up with for a company that serves the world’s top social entrepreneurs. They got the domain TheSameWavelength.com. Both of these domain names reinforce the brand, empower their members and are easy to remember because they are phrases.
  • Stop obsessing over having a dot com extension. Just like we ran out of 800 #s and moved to 888, 877 and 866, no one cares if you are a dot com, dot biz or dot net. Nearly every Fortune 100 company uses content sharing website Box.net.
  • Don’t get a domain name that is spelled differently than it sounds. The problem with having a domain name like Naymz, Takkle, Flickr, or Speesees is that you will forever have to tell people how to spell it because it isn’t spelled how people hear it. Every time you do this, you are essentially apologizing for your name. Resist the temptation of getting one of these domains just because it’s available on GoDaddy for $9.95. And do not put dots in your name like de.licio.us thinking that it’s spelled correctly. It’s not.
  • Make sure your domain name doesn’t spell something unfortunate. I’m sure Pen Island didn’t check this when they bought the domain penisland.com. Ferreth and Jobs also made this mistake: ferrethandjobs.com. Our all time favorite “Slurl,” is Mole Station Nursery, also known as molestationnursery.com.

    • Free Name Evaluation Test

    For more practical tips on naming your product and a free name evaluation, take our SMILE and SCRATCH Test, which is based on our philosophy that a name should make you smile, instead of scratch your head.

    Domain Naming Services

    At Eat My Words, we are experts at coming up with creative domain name solutions. If you’re pulling your hair out trying to do it yourself, we’d love to help you. Give us a shout at (415) 552-7741 or email info@eatmywords.com.