Hunting For A Brandable Domain Name

Let’s call the following an observation:

I’ve been spending some time developing a name for a client and come to the realization that the .com age offers a lot more challenges in crafting a solution than several years ago. It was enough to choose names that meant something to the business. Perhaps we went for something that spoke to the main offering. Maybe we went for a name that was unique, you know, like Xerox.

My goal with this client is to develop an identity that speaks to something larger, something they can grow into. It used to be that the final step was to do a name search and off you go. Most of the time it worked out pretty good. Even if the name existed in the marketplace, if it was in a different category, it was perfectly fine to move forward. It could be legally protected in many jurisdictions. But the web has altered perception of ownership to a huge degree. Many clients I deal with prefer .com when choosing domains.

Now it doesn’t matter that similarname.com is in a different category, it owns that domain. Even if similarname has no copyright, the fact that they own the domain takes precedence. Sure, you could add something like SimilarNameInc.com but that really diminishes it. A client’s first choice is always .com.

I had ‘Go Daddy’ open while developing names and searched each one under .com. Wow, hard to believe that even in one case random letters were already a .com. Even this: T3am was taken. The odder the combination that was taken, the more intrigued I was to challenge the possibilities. It took longer than anticipated but my first submissions to my client were 10 .com ready names. The naming process continues, but I was so surprised by how much .com limited my suggestions that I got fixated on what combinations were available. And then the result from that effort fueled my awareness of .com’s domination over Â®.

For the lawyers reading this – isn’t it kind of funny that .com domains that can cost you as little as $2.99, can deter copy cats quicker than a registered trademark costing thousands of dollars?

P.S. On a final note, the heading to this article is even taken.

Ed Roach

There is no shortage in resources out there. I wonder though, when they come up with the name is it also legally available to register?

Thanks Joe.

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Joe

Here is another site offering domain name service, also risk-free. For only $50 they will come up with a great .com domain name.

Visit http://PowerNamer.com

Danielle

For anyone hunting for a brandable domain name (and tearing your hair out trying to come up with ideas!), I just came across a really cool site called www.PickyDomains.com - For a small fee these guys will come up with a variety of names for you, and you just pick the one you like. If don't like any of their suggestions they refund your money in full.

They also offer a freebie to blog owners in return for a mention.

What a great service. Having gone through the process of picking names myself, I know how valuable it is to have input from others.

P.S. Ripper headline Ed! :D

Yaro

I haven't split tested blog article headings but I have definitely experienced the impact of a bad heading.

I published an article to my blog once at the same time another blogger published an article on the same topic (it was a link to a piece of news).

The other blogger used a much more compelling headline than I did to describe basically the same thing. He pulled in an extra 3000 visitors and lots of new incoming links while I really didn't notice a spike in traffic at all.

It's hard to be conclusive of course, and certainly if you are really serious you can do split tests.

In this case I think it's too late to tell since this article has dropped from the top spot. You really need to hold variables like that constant if you want to conduct a heading split test.

Though I do *like* this one better Ed :)

It is not only the irritant of finding available domains, but the simple fact that a person can "own" a domain name, without any copyright ownership of the name part. If they want to start a company 6 months later using the same name and it's already registered to me then they are out of luck. But I also lose because I don't own the .com designation.

So when I'm trying to develop names and the client's preferred designation is .com and every example I try is taken - domain trumps legal - as far as the reason the move forward or not goes. I guess I wish that when this all started years ago, if you got a domain name you ALSO had to legally register the name as well, to tie up the loose end. I recognize that you can to buy the domain off the person, but in development the whole dynamic has changed from years gone by, when we did a copyright name search FIRST. Now it is second after the domain search and that just bugs me.

Yaro, since you and David have vastly more experience than I in writing for blogs, let's try your suggestion of "Hunting For A Brandable Domain Name".
I just went in and edited it.

Can we see stats on readers of an article? - or are comments our only judgement of readership? I'm assuming you can tell simply because the whole article is contained to it's own page.

Thanks guys, I'm sure I'll get better at headlines.

I really like Andy's headline this week. Although I have a thing about using the word guarantee without an explanation of what the guarantee is if it fails. I won't use the word simply as a hook based on it's power.
BUT - I did read the article - it pulled me in.

Yaro, have you ever changed a headline every few days to see if one pulled better than the others? I imagine it would be an exercise for junior psychologists out there.

TOMAS

Ed,

You might be able to save yourself some time by using AjaxWhoIs. Although there is no recommendation function, the instant "results as you type" might come in handy when you know what you're looking for.

BTW, I kind of like the unique title. Yaro has a point, but feed readers couldn't care less about SEO friendly blog titles.

Feed readers might not care about SEO friendly titles, but they do respond better to compelling titles (copywriting style) and I argue this is too ambiguous to be broadly compelling.

If you are a scanner - like me - I would glance over this and go "huh" and quickly move on. I need at least *something* to trigger a read of the first sentence.

David Airey :: Creative Design ::

I'm with Yaro on this one, Ed.

You write some great articles and I think this title is doing you a disservice (sp?).

Thankfully my name is unique enough to have allowed me the .com domain for it. Although if I had've waited until now to register I think I would've been disappointed. When I go to register at new sites I find that another David Airey has already snapped up my preferred login.

All 4 letter domain names were snapped up many years ago weren't they?

Robert Kingston

I'd say so, but that doesn't stop them from expiring - you can find a lot of mediocre 4 letter domains pop up here and now on www.sitepoint.com and a few other domain marketplaces which I can't remember at the moment.

I've heard good things about those services.

Apparently, if you're lucky you can get ones which are already well ranked in Google. Unfortunately, if your'e not so lucky, the domain could have been previously owned by a dodgy site hosting, porn or illegal content. You can check it out before you buy it at the internet Wayback archive over at:

http://www.archive.org/index.php

You might find it interesting to checkout how websites have progressed since the 90's too.

I heard of a site the other day called www.snapnames.com where you can register your interest in a domain name (i.e., one that's already taken). If and when it becomes available, you can snap it up!

It's really tough isn't it? My name is even taken! It's hard to believe I have to compete with several Robert Kingstons in the search engines but I couldn't imagine what it'd be like for some companies looking to buy a four character domain name.

Some of them sell for thousands of dollars a pop. Entire communities exist to buy and sell them. After dabbling in the market for a domain name myself, I've found it to be next to impossible to get the one you want first off. Luckily, you can find some good tools out there to help you in your search. Dynadot.com has a suggestion tool which I've used many times before when buying a domain.

If it's really necessary to use a short domain name though, you can always get one with an obscure TLD like .tk, .tv .org, .bz, .org, .cc and .us. I visit sites with these TLDs all the time and can remember their names quite well. The trick is all in the way you brand the site I guess.