Is Men.com a good domain name? How about Furniture.com? Or what about Cars.com? The market place seems to think these are valuable. Men.com sold for 1.3 million. But is it? Are any of these really brands? Has anyone ever said to you “Dude you gotta check out www.furniture.com, it rocks!” or “I just love Men.com…what a great place to go for like, uh, men and stuff!”
How in the world would you market these names and how would you distinguish yourself from the thousands of variants, copycats and hucksters that will inevitably pop up. You can’t trademark a generic word, so forget about taking your competitors to court. You could spend millions advertising the domain only to have people walk away wondering if they were supposed to check out Man.com or Men.com. These generic literal names also carry another layer of baggage and that is in their meaning, or lack of meaning. Is Men.com about the concept of men like in gender studies. Is it about men from a biological point of view? Is it for women looking to find men? Is it for gay men or straight men? Fashion? Sports? Who knows, the name tells us nothing.
Multi-Word Generic Domains Are Often Worse.
Are you looking for health insurance? Do you know the difference between Ehealthinsurance.com, Healthinsurance.org, Healthinsurance.com, Healthinsurancefinders.com, Healthinsuranceinfo.net, Usinsuranceonline.com, Healthinsurancesort.com, Healthinsurance.net, Healthinsurancebrokeronline.com, Reliablehealthinsurance.net, Findhealthinsurancequotes.net, Healthinsuranceall.com, Newhealthinsurance.com, Healthinsurance.info, 1sthealthinsurancequotes.com, and Healthinsurancebible.com? Do you care? Probably not. And you’re definitely not interested in spending the next fours hours trying to find out. However you do know that Blue Cross and Blue Shield sell insurance. Sounds like a safer bet.
Ah-ha, you say, Google has the same problem. There’s Googlewatch.org , Googlefight.com, and Googlesux.com just to name a few. Well, it may look like the same problem but it’s not. Google variants are different. Google is a unique and proper name. It stands for something and there is only one Google. They basically own the public mind space for the word “search” just as surely Kleenex own “tissues” and Xerox owns “copies”. So much so that all three of these companies names have also become a common shorthand for anything in their category. So for Google, any derivative reference used by competitors, critics and jokesters just reinforces the Google brand. Even a shirt that says “Google Sucks Ass’ enhances the Google brand.
This is not the same for Furniture.com. Variants of the word furniture just dilute the Furniture.com brand, not enhance it. That’s because furniture is a generic word. It doesn’t reference anything but the literal meaning of the word. And a boring word at that. Say it ten times and you’ll probably start to doze off.
No matter how many times someone uses the word furniture it will do nothing to enhance Furniture.com. It is not a brand and never will be. In fact, if someone were to ask you where they should look online to buy furniture, I bet you’d say something like Ikea, Amazon, Ebay or even Craisglist. But not Furniture.com.
The Proof is in The Branding
Here’s a list of the highest priced domains of all time ( list provided by Fka200.com). How many of these own their category or are even a market leader? Almost none. When’s the last time someone sent you a link to one of these sites telling you gotta check it out? You probably can’t remember. Read each name and tell me the first thing that pops in your head. Except for AsSeenOnTV.com, HolidayInn.com, and iPhone.com which were already established brands, I bet the domain in question isn’t even in the top ten URLs you think of.
Insure.com – Sold for $16,000,000 (16 million dollars) in October 2009 to QuinStreet
Sex.com – Sold for: $14 million on January 19th, 2006
Fund.com – $9,999,950 – Sold in 2008
Porn.com – Sold for $9,000,000 sometime in 2007
Business.com – Sold for $7,500,000 in 1999 (This was pretty much a “business” sale with a developed name)
Diamonds.com – Sold for $7,500,000
Beer.com – Sold for $7,000,000
Casino.com – $5,500,000 – Sold to a private company in 2003
Toys.com $5.1M sold to Toys R Us
AsSeenOnTV.com – Sold for $5,100,000 in January of 2000
Korea.com – $5,000,000 – Sold in January of 2000
SEO.com – $5,000,000 – Sold in 2007
FreePorn.com – $4,000,000 – Sold in February 2008
YP.com – $3,850,000 – Sold to YellowPages.com
Shop.com – Sold for $3,500,000 in 2001
WorldWideWeb.com – $3,500,000 in 1996
AltaVista.com – $3,250,000
Software.com – $3,200,000
Candy.com – $3,000,000 Sold in March 2009 by Rich Schwartz. Deal was $3M + % sales.
CreditCheck.com – $3,000,000 -Sold in June 2007
Loans.com – $3,000,000
eShow.com – $3,000,000
Vodka.com – $3,000,000 Sold December 2006
HolidayInn.com – $3,000,000 Sold in 1995
Wine.com – Sold for $2,900,000 in September of 1999
Wines.com – $2,900,000
CreditCards.com – Sold for $2,750,000 in July 2004
Pizza.com – $2,605,000 April 3, 2008
Tom.com – $2,500,000
Dotnology.com – $2.5 million (2000)
Autos.com – $2,200,000
Computer.com – $2,200,000
Coupons.com – $2,200,000
England.com – $2,000,000
Celebrities.com – $2.0 million (1999)
Telephone.com – $2,000,000
Express.com – $2,000,000
Savings.com – $1,900,000
Mortgage.com – $1,800,000
Seniors.com – $1.8 million (2007)
DataRecovery.com – $1,659,000 Sold in 2008
Branson.com – $1,600,000
SolarEnergy.com – $1,600,000
Cameras.com – $1,500,000
TandBerg.com – $1,500,000
MarketingToday.com – $1,500,000
Deposit.com – $1,500,000
Russia.com – $1,500,000 November 26, 2009
Fly.com – $1,500,000 – RESOLD FOR $1,800,000 (January 2009)
VIP.com – Sold for $1,400,000 in September of 2005
Ad.com – Sold for $1,400,000 April 29, 2009 in TRAFFIC auction
Men.com – $1,320,000
Vista.com – $1,250,000
Ticket.com – Sold for $1,525,000 on Afternic
Feedback.com – $1,230,000
Phone.com – $1,200,000
Find.com – $1,200,000
Scores.com – $1.2 million (2007)
Kredit.de – $1,169,175
Call.com – $1,100,000 – Sold on August 31, 2009
Bingo.com – $1,100,000
Mercury.com – $1,100,000
Cruises.co.uk – $1,099,798 Sold in 2008
Chinese.com – $1,090,504 – Sold July 2007
WallStreet.com – $1,030,000
Rock.com – $1.03 million
Invest.com – $1,015,000 Sold in 2008
WebCam.com – $1,020,000 Sold April 2009 in Rick Latona auction
Vibrators.com – $1,000,000 Sold in 2008
Britain.com – $1,000,000
Fish.com – $1,000,000
Topix.com – $1,000,000
Sky.com – $1,000,000
If.com – $1,000,000
iPhone.com – $1.0 million (2007)
CyberWorks.com – $1.0 million
WhiteHouseCrisis.com – $1.0 million
eFlowers.com – $1.0 million
Beauty.cc – $1.0 million
Most of these names are so dull, so forgettable, so uninspired, that it’s hard to believe they fetch the money they do. Sure, some were high traffic profitable sites when they sold, but many of these were simply parked domains with nothing but a coming soon page.
Another Perspective on Domain Names
Now let’s do another exercise. Here’s a list of categories and you pick the domain that best matches your perceptions as the proper place to go to.
Buy Books
A. www.buybooksontheweb.com
B. www.cheapbooks.com
C. www.amazon.com
Online Classifieds
A. www.onlineclassifieds.com
B. www.bestwayclassifieds.com
C. www.craigslist.com
Office Supplies
A. www.cheapofficesupplies.com
B. www.discountedofficesupply.com
C. www.staples.com
So was my test fair? Not really. I was obviously highly selective in the categories I used and the samples I picked. I did this to make a dramatic point about generic domains. Even if there were no Amazon, Borders or Powells on the web, do you think there’s any chance that www.buybooksontheweb.com could ever be a category leader? Of course not. Their completely literal, generic, keyword-rich domain name doomed them to an also ran from the get go. They could never be the leading online book seller under any circumstances. Not with a name like that.
Now how about the market leaders, are their names really so brilliant. Not necessarily brilliant, but most definitely better. Staples is a double meaning (staples as in a stapler and staples as in a basic supply). Craigslist is a proper name and highly relevant to its origins (it really was Craig’s List). Amazon was the riskiest name as it was already loaded with meaning. But it was also an exotic abstraction. The Amazon is big and holds the widest variety of plants and animals on the planet. To Americans, who don’t live near it and will probably never visit it in person, it’s mystical place far, far, away.
Could they have succeeded if they picked “Grand Canyon” or “Lake Tahoe” instead? Probably not. Those are very literal and require too great of a cognitive leap to map the idea “Grand Canyon” or “Lake Tahoe” to the biggest selection of books in the world. Amazon was a risky choice but exponentially better and far more brandable than say Buybooksontheweb.com.
The 4 Exceptions to The “No Generic Keyword” Domain Name Rule
Making a Unique Name by Combining Two Generics
This first exception must be done with intelligence and an ear for the poetic. It’s highly effective and some of the best named and well branded web companies have used this naming device. And that is to combine two generic words in a way that is startling, evocative and original. Photobucket.com is a good example. By themselves the word photo and the word bucket are about as dull and generic as can be. Ah, but put them together and we not only have an original name now, but one that creates a deeper meaning. It immediately engages the mind as you envision first a literal bucket filled with photos and secondly the abstraction of a bucket of photos. On a symbolic level Photobucket is an easy way to gather all your photos. YouTube is a classic example. By themselves the words you and tube are nearly meaningless. Put them together and it not only has a great rhyming quality but it creates an instantly understandable, relatable word pairing loaded with meaning. It’s you (as in the everyday person, joe average) on the tube (television). Television that is about you. Brilliant. Other good examples are LinkedIn, StubHub, FeedBurner and FaceBook. All pairings of generic words that take on a new meaning when combined.
Your Real Business Name is Already Generic So You’re Stuck With It
The second exception is that your brand name really is a generic. If your business really is called AAA Electrical then by all means, grab that domain if you can. Always get your business name when possible even if your business name is painfully generic. It would have been better if you never called yourself AAA Electrical in the first place, but the damage is done so you might as well go with it.
You’re a First Mover or Occupy an Obscure Niche Market
The third exception is being a first mover. If you invented something that didn’t exist before, something that people would probably like but don’t know it’s available, a generic may be a good strategy. A new client of mine invented or at least perfected the gopher basket. When people go to a garden shop they ask for gopher baskets. They don’t know who the market leader is and they don’t care. They just don’t want gophers killing their plants. His company name is actually Diggers and his unique design is called Root Guard. He’s an industry leader and I bought and used his product years before meeting him. However his website is GopherBasket.com. It works because it’s a niche market, you may only purchase these once in a lifetime, and his brand name will probably never own the public mind space for that term. It’s just too oddball of a product. However, doing this with orange juice would be a mistake. People buy orange juice weekly. We’re surrounded by it. It’s almost a staple, everyone has an opinion about it, and it’s a highly contested field. So if your company is Minute Maid (a good name with a clever pun) then you should own and market MinuteMaid.com, not OrangeJuice.com which is completely useless and unbrandable but available for only $65,000.
You Don’t Have or Even Want a Brand Because You’re Just Trying Sell Commodities in a Saturated Market
The fourth exception is for the serial entrepreneur. Some people just don’t care. They just want to sell stuff and make money. Anything really. It doesn’t matter. If it doesn’t work out, they’ll just close shop and sell something else. If this is you then by all means go get a really long keyword rich domain. It will give you a little boost in the search engines and anyone who links to your URL is also simultaneously using your keywords in the anchor text. But if you have any aspirations to being a market leader, then skip the generic keyword domain.
File Under: Picking a Good Domain Name – Avoiding Generic Keyword Domain Names – Domain Naming Tips – Why Keyword Rich Domain Names Should be Avoided – Keyword Domain Names Suck
Dave
1 year ago
Great article, one of the best I’ve read in weeks – thanks! I’d like to ask you if you could elaborate on the above when it comes to registering a domain name in the SEO niche. If you can, from the perspective of the non business owner who registers the seo related domain and plans to register the business later.
Janay
1 year ago
What a wonderful, in-depth, funny, thought-provoking article! I was thinking about purchasing a domain name with generic keywords about customer service when I saw a link to this post from http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-choose-the-right-domain-name.
I already own 10 domains (and most are in my niche): greeting cards in Spanish, bilingual greeting cards, and Latino greeting cards. However, my first and main domain is not rich with keywords; it is my name: http://www.janaygreen.com, where I sell greeting cards and handmade earrings.
I think that everyone should own their name as their domains if available. Even if you don’t do anything with it, yet. I agree with The Naming Dude: Start small, but think big.
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
Thanks Janay. I totally agree. Everyone should own their name. I even got one for my mom so she could have a decent email address (yourname@yourname.com) and I registered two for my six year old daughter as soon as she was born. She’ll thank me when she’s older and understands the significance of owning your own name.
morestar
1 year ago
Interesting, I did the very same for my daughter two weeks ago, she’s 13. I through up a blog for her too – she’s exited to an extent but when she’s older she’ll appreciate it.
.-= morestar´s last blog ..Amazon Kindle Secrets–Things You Need to Know =-.
Janay
1 year ago
I haven’t told my mom, but I bought her domain. I’m trying to decide what to put on it. I was thinking about putting her resume up and a portfolio of work she’s done like tutoring for children. Besides e-commerce sites and blogs, I’m not sure what to do with it.
I love the domain of this blog. The domain is the joke and punchline. Clever.
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
Thanks. And I think technically it has the most characters allowed in a domain as well. For my mom’s website (http://carolebutler.org/) I just put up a photo, a brief bio and her email address. I used a javascipt trick to make the email invisible to harvester bots. She’s had old friends from high school find her by searching for her on Google plus she’s got a kick-ass email address instead of some dumb Hotmail account so it’s worked well.
Ryan Butt
9 months ago
Hey how did u use/apply Java trick on email address??
The Naming Dude
9 months ago
It basically converts an email address in the code to a something unreadable (like a hex value) so it can’t be harvested by bot.
This site has a selection of methods to choose from
http://csarven.ca/hiding-email-addresses
Living On Dividends
1 year ago
Your URL cracks me up dude! I definitely agree. People trust branded domains far more than generics.
I’m glad you included the gopherbasket.com example. What I’m still trying to figure out is if it’s better for a small start up to build on the generic (like gopherbasket.com), or to create some sort of entry page or landing page on such a generic for SEO benefits that funnels prospects to the branded domain.
.-= Living On Dividends´s last blog ..How to Run a National TV Ad for $100 (VIDEO!) =-.
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
That’s a tough call but it can’t hurt to do both. I’ve seen people work the multiple domains successfully and capture 2 or 3 of the top ten spots on the SERPs. Of course, these are niche markets. You’ll never put that off with a broad generic term.
HG
1 year ago
Nice article but your argument presupposes one has the financial resources to brand a unique name. If you don’t then you’ll probably get more mileage from a generic. Of course having both would be optimal.
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
Yes, it’s best to get both but it actually doesn’t take a lot of money to build a brand. All big brands started out small with no budget. At one point Nike had zero funds. He sold sneakers out of his car. He paid $60 to a young designer to create the Nike swoosh logo. McDonald’s started out with one restaurant. Google was totally broke in the beginning. Same with Yahoo and Microsoft. Microsoft was just two ambitious guys with a lot of schutzpa, a lot of talent, and not much else. Their first product was the classic vaporware situation. It’s a myth that you build brands with money. Brands are built with PR, buzz and word of mouth. These are virtually free. Big budget advertising is used to defend a brand once it’s established. It’s used to create a high barrier to entry. The catch is, a generic name may get you a few bonus points on Google for keyword matching, but it virtually guarantees you won’t be a market leader. For many that doesn’t matter. If just you’re looking for little slice of the online pie, a keyword generic may work really well. However I think the smart money is on building a brand or at least trying to.It gives the greatest potential for super growth. The most recent example of this is “Shit My Dad Says“. Great name and a great brand story. It’s ballsy, super catchy, memorable, and makes you smile. It’s now a New York Times best selling book and a new television series staring William Shatner.
His content is superb, but there is no denying the viral and brand potential of his name. Much better than say, Interesting and Humorous Expressions My Father Uses When Speaking to Me, which would be the generic keyword rich version, but a terrible brand name.
I think the name of this blog is a good example of having it both ways. I picked a name that was both a ridiculous keyword rich name as well as a parody of that strategy. It’s so horribly bad that it works for its intended purpose. By going overboard I actually created a unique brandable name. Of course, it’s impossible to type, which is both suicidal and also the intent. I can’t even type it correctly.
But other than the needing money to brand part, I agree with you 100%
Mike
1 year ago
For several days I’ve been reading a few other “url naming” articles, and for several weeks I’ve made a list of about 200 names yet none of them have made a score with me (thus I’ve turned to reading about it). Reading your article has given me something new to think about!
Mike
1 year ago
Sorry, forgot to add one other thing I was thinking of. It looks like your url name is actually a play on uniqueness even if it has a lot of normal words in it. It’s visually extra long, and also plays on the sympathies of frustration people all know about that many urls are taken, which makes it both funny and eye catching to the extent the visitor slowly reads over the name two or three times. Seems sort of like a tactic in itself. I wonder if there will ever be a day in the future when really long urls become popular.
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
Yeah, my name is packed with generic keywords but in the process it makes a unique by virtue of it’s length and the combined meaning of the words. I know length is becoming less of an issue as most of us find sites by searches. However, shorter will always be the better bet. In the case of this blog the unusually long name was part of the blogs brand and message. So it’s fine for that. However, if I was starting a real company I wouldn’t have gone that route. The dashes alone make it something that’s nearly impossible to convey verbally or type, which was the point. So mission accomplished.
Mark
1 year ago
It is a frustrating process when you have a great business idea, and then you go to register a domain, only to find out that every possible scenario is taken, including all misspellings of the keywords.
.-= Mark´s last blog ..Loans For People With Bad Credit =-.
Doodlebug
1 year ago
Is the-name-i-wanted-was-already-taken-so-i-used-a-lot-of-dashes.com evergoing to be a market leader for domain advice I would say NO.
Is it something I would say to my mate as in go check this site I would say NO because I can’t remember the URL ???
Should you (webmaster) learn more about domains before offering advice I say YES, it’s not a dash its called a hyphen.
What a load of b*llocks about generics, why don’t I use a generic as way of proving genrics are no good by saying Amazon is better, duh that is generic, it’s a geo domain.
Wise up !
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
Amazon is a proper name. Period. It’s a specific place. Rainforest would be a generic. The name of the blog is intentionally bad to make a point, which was completely lost on you. No one calls them hyphens. Does anyone say go to name hyphen name dot com? No, the say go to name dash name dot com. That’s why I used the common vernacular for my domain. Dashes is also easier to say. It has a poetic ring to it where hyphen is harsh. No fun to say. Go ahead, say hyphen three times out loud. You’ll sound like a cat coughing up a hairball.
My advice is spot on. Go find all the generics that are market leaders. Go ahead, find the big list. You can’t because it doesn’t exist. You should learn the basics of of branding first and while you’re at it look up irony.
Christy Phillips
1 year ago
Ha ha, nice come back Naming Dude! Now, I’m having trouble coming up with my business and domain name because I think I might be ‘a first mover’, exeption #2, but it’s not my invention…I started teaching a philosophy and method of birthing that isn’t mainstream yet but could catch on. I’m in a smallish town, population just over 100,000 and the name for the technique is branded and there’s only one other woman in town teaching it (we did the Practitioners course together) The technique is HypnoBirthing (insert Registered trademark symbol), by the way. Now, I need local pregnant couples to be able to find me and if they’ve heard of the technique before using MytownHypnobirthing.com would work but then if it catches on and there’s 10 people in town is that going to make me sound impersonal? Because I do have a catchy unique name I love (consisting of 3 words easy to say) that doesn’t translate to Hypnobirthing but it does have the word birth in it, and it’s available as a .ca …ANd then I could just be sure I use/pay for the right keywords including hypnobirthing, right? What’s your opinion please?! Thanks!
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
I would go for the better branded name. Keyword rich names help in the search engines, but in my opinion, not enough to sacrifice a brand or a good name for.
I would still register MytownHypnobirthing.com, and then set up a redirect to the better domain. Not so much for typed in traffic, but mainly to block competitors from using it.
What’s more important for ranking in search engines than keyword domains are great title tags, great body copy, good architecture (your websites linking and navigational structure) and keyword rich inbound links.
Check out my SEO Tutorial
Follow these guidelines and you won’t have to worry that hypnobirthing isn’t in your domain. I would also grab the .com versions of both if they are available.
Christy Phillips
1 year ago
Thanks for your advice. Another question about your suggestion of grabbing the .com…it’s only available if I submit an offer on it and it advises if my offer is too low an agent will contact me suggesting a more appropriate price. I’m not sure I want to go to the trouble…the terms and conditions were confusing and it sounded like they’d still own the site or something. How much will having a .ca affect business, or is it maybe good advertising because canadians like canadian things?
Thanks again.
The Naming Dude
1 year ago
I’d make an offer if you’ll really own it (not just renting it). If it’s a one time price, you’re buyng it. A yearly price is probably renting.
I picked up a killer domain for only $97 one time. All they can say is no. What makes dot com’s so good is that your browser defaults to that when typing in the address if you leave off the suffix. Also, it’s still a dot com world and will probably be that way for a very, very, long time. So dot com’s have an advantage. You don’t really have to say “check out mysite dot com”. You can just say “check out my site” and the assumption is that it’s a dot com. That’s not the case with any other suffixes.No one ever assumes .biz,.info,.org, .net unless you tell them specifically. And even then they will forget.
However, I’m not Canadian so I have no idea how strong the cache is for a dot ca name is.
Leonard Britt
1 year ago
Sounds like someone couldn’t find the domain they wanted. Sorry to hear that as many domain registrants even with only so-so domains have unrealistic price expectations. Yes, many companies prefer to invest in branding a non-generic term. But website development, SEO, link-building and online advertising such as Google Adwords come at a significant cost – often more than the cost of a decent domain though not necessarily a one-word .COM. A long and hyphenated domain screams of a spam site just like one’s first impression upon entering a restaurant is an indication of what to expect as a customer.
Amazon.com went many years before they even broke even and yet investors had hundreds of millions invested in the company.
One reason the one-word .COM domains often don’t have a significant following is that they are making boatloads of money in parking so the registrants have little incentive to develop the domain into a business. If you own property in downtown of a major city and just use it as a parking lot, well someone may eventually want to build a condo or hotel there but as long as you can collect $10/day per car, there is no rush to sell the property. Now, if you want to open a new restaurant or fashion retail outlet, are you going to open in a drug-infested slum or at least near the local mall? Budget will limit the type of space a new business can lease but one’s location will be a factor in its success. A prime generic domain is not a requirement for a successful online business. But a good domain can give one an advantage. Given what a company will spend on developing and promoting its business over the next five to ten years, why not start with a good location?
ann
1 year ago
Just blogged on the same topic as I was just going bonkers with what the SEO experts and Professors tell you about “Keyword in the Domain”. It really sucks. Your creativity for Branding or giving a personality in peoples mind about your services or products, all stands no chance of expression as you get limited by “generic names” for “SEO”.
I was still continuing to read and am glad that I found your article. Very well advised. I should share this.
http://www.coffeebeanglobal.com/blog/archives/51/keyword-in-the-domain-name-is-important-but-not-so-much/
Ryan Butt
9 months ago
Hi i bought a domain last year,which is a common word in many South Asian & Eastern languages, but i spelled it in English :
MyDomain.Com
But should i buy MyDomain.Net as well??
The Naming Dude
9 months ago
Always buy the .net and .org versions of any important domain. The reason is to protect your intellectual property from squatters, scammers, and competitors.
Ryan Butt
9 months ago
thnx for the quick reply.
my one word website ranks 1st on google, yahoo & bing…
is this a good sign???
and should i buy .in & .pk domains also??
my my side is related to south asia mostly (Pakistan India & middle east)
The Naming Dude
9 months ago
It’s a very good sign but it probably means it’s so unique that it has no competition either. This isn’t a bad thing though. I’m sure Google came up as number one in all search engines for the word Google the first day it went up because it was a made up word. So your advantage here is that the word is so unique that you rank number one right out of the gate. It also means that in the future, as your site gains momentum in the marketplace, a very large number of the search engine matches will be people talking about your company.
Other domain suffixes? Yes, if it doesn’t break the bank might as well grab the IN and PK versions. If you plan on marketing there I would definitely get them.
Ryan Butt
9 months ago
basically its just our company site to show my company portfolio only.
we are group of artists who work together(painters, sculptures, Film & Tv productions)…
its FOR EXAMPLE is like “Gothic Arts Production”
so my domain is now like
Gothic.Com …
As our intention is only to upload our Portfolios on this site & link it to our fan page on facebook for our costumers. And our Contact info.
so still .Net .org .in .pk are worth it??
The Naming Dude
9 months ago
Nah, just get the .net and .org. That will be good enough.
Ryan Butt
9 months ago
Thankx man.
Ill but .net right away
.org ill buy next month
Ryan Butt
9 months ago
hey i just bought the .Net domain…
So now How i re-direct to to my original .Com domain?
The Naming Dude
9 months ago
Two methods, Your domain registrar may allow you to set it up in your admin panel or you can host it and set up a permanent 301 redirect. This too is either done in the Cpanle or you do it by hand with an .htaccess file.
However, I wouldn’t even bother. You just don’t want anyone else to use it. No one’s going to type in the .net version, and you have no links pointing to the .net, so there is no traffic to redirect. Owning these is just to prevent problems down the road by others.
Michael Sage
2 months ago
Hi,
I really enjoyed this article, I think I have thought of another exception thou!
Reselling, if you offer a reselling option, surely a generic domain is best? Let’s say you sell a service, let’s say broadband/cable, and you sign up resellers, they can give their customers a user name of getonline.com or similar, that way they don’t know that they are actually buying a resold service…
Or am I missing the point?
Vin
4 weeks ago
Great article. I also ran into a stumbling block trying to name my ecommerce business. I don’t consider myself a serial entrepreneur, but it seems that I might end up being one. The thing is I am trying to sell cleaning equipment (such as carpet/floor extractors, vacuums, and a load of other products most people not in the business have not heard of) online. Yes, there are a few of them already doing that online, but none of them are doing it well. I cannot figure out if I should have a generic name or not since this business is very targeted to cleaning companies, contractors, auto detailing etc.
Few examples of competitors include cleanfreak/steam-brite. My business name is not generic, but the DBA or website name is/should be different for me for several reasons. What do you recommend for a domain name? CleaningEquipmentDirect.com? What about CleanVerse.com (since cleanuniverse is taken)? Are they bad? I have other names too but I already am pushing my character limit here
The Naming Dude
4 weeks ago
I like CleaningEquipmentDirect.com. Is it taken? Best grab it now. What I like about it is that even though it’s a generic it also feels like a brand. Same with CleaningEquipmentWarehouse.com. They both have a nice feel to them and sound like big stable businesses.
I’d skip cleanverse though. It sounds like a site where they do copy editing.
erik
2 weeks ago
great article, glad I stumbled across it.
I’m currently in the start-up phase – moonlighting around my full-time job. If my start-up places a focus on my region of residence (MD/DC/VA) would you recommend registering a domain name that distinguishes my service to this region or not worry about it?
I plan on looking into the non generic domain names for future business growth but at the current moment I see the biz as remaining local for the next 2-3 years.
Thanks
Nicole
1 week ago
This is very interesting-thanks for the article! How does this apply to sites where there is no ‘product’ per se, such a blog. Is it still important to have a domain that is ‘original’ and catchy, or is it ok to just have a generic which tells you what the blog is about, such as JewishMom.com?