How to pick a GREAT domain
name!
Follow these rules and you won't have a choice but to get
a great name. After reading this you'll know why we changed
our name from "ImagEngineering.com" (note the
shared E in the middle) to "AcornCreative.com".
[Tip: Do your searching and purchasing
from www.DirectNIC.com]
Have I made my point? Let's say you tell your name to
a little old lady (who's never used the Internet) in a
grocery store. When she gets home (2 hours later), she'll
STILL remember your name. It should be THAT clear!!! If
you have to explain ANYTHING at all in any way, shape
or form, don't use it. This also excludes
the use of funky characters; hypens, underscores, periods
(subdomains), template website domains, free hosting domains,
getting a cute name (like Imagengineering), etc.
Things that are easy to visualize are easy to remember
for most people.
This one's obvious. However, I have had one person ask
how to spell Acorn. ;-)
You're allowed up to 57 characters before the ".com"
but you should try to keep it to 12 to 14 (or fewer).
You can go longer if you don't think you're breaking the
first five rules.
Three word names need to be REALLY clear and obvious
to be considered "good". Four word domains rarely
work.
Domains with "mega", "super", "A1",
"Best", "All", etc., lose credibility
before the person even clicks.
Taking a great name and adding another word rarely results
in another great domain. For example, don't take "GreatDomain.com"
and create "GreatDomainWizard.com". You can
see scads of these suggested by DirectNIC.com when you
do a search .... just scroll down a bit after they show
the availability of your current search. There's a reason
why all those names are available.
If you haven't found the perfect ".com" (you'll
know it when you you find it) then DON'T just settle for
the .net just because you're tired of lookin' at the DirectNic.com
site (been there, done that). This is THE most important
thing that you can do to ensure your Web site's success
... if it takes two whole days to find the perfect name,
then it's time well spent.
Note: If you choose something like 1stadvantageAAAblah.com
then you'd have to explain that it's "the number
1 and then ST" rather than "F.I.R.S.T."
(breaking rule #1). Also note that "AYadaYadaBlaBlah.com"
or "AnYadaYadaBlaBlah.com"
are usually put under the Ys as "YadaBlahblah, A".
Note: This rule can be broken IF all the other
rules apply.
All the above rules apply for domains that you would
buy immediately through domain name registrars like DirectNIC.com
(my favoriate), GoDaddy.com
or Register.com.
We recommend NOT using NetworkSolutions/Verisign. Over
the course of 12 years and registering many hundreds of
names, we've got story after story of how bad customer
service and a poor interface can really mess with your
business. AND, NetworkSolutions is twice as expensive
as the registrars that I've linked to above.
Another option is to check out auction sites. You'll
find names in these sites that are being sold for between
$500 and $50,000+. Personally, I'd rather pay $500 to
someone for a killer name than spend two days on the DirectNIC
site. Here are some domain name auction sites to check
out:
• http://www.sedo.com
• http://www.afternic.com
• http://www.greatdomains.com
Back to our name ... before, we broke
ALL the rules and now we follow them all. It was the best
change we ever made, bar none!!!!
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Sometimes it takes a good whack in the head to get those
creative juices flowing. Most people, when looking for new
domain names, restrict their thinking to the "too obvious"
or ideas that are "too direct".
To get a great name, you REALLY have to think out of the
box.
Here are some resources to help you:
• JustDropped.com
A FABULOUS way to come up with creative domain names that
you wouldn't think of on your own. Put in a keyword or two
and the site will tell you all available domain names that
have recently come back onto the market.
Hint: Set character length from 10 to
40, set availability out 30 to 90 days and UNCHECK all but
".com".
• DomainsBot.com
Provide a handful of words and the site
will recombine them (including synonyms) to tell you optional/available
domains.
• DisLexicon
Make up Words! This site allows you to input a word and
it will add prefixes and suffixes (with their meanings)
to come up with made up, non-real (but real sounding) words.
Ever wonder where companies like "Spherion" ,
"Xerox" or "Verizon" get their names?
• Word
Mixer
Does roughly the same thing but just mixes up parts of
words you provide.
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