Are you giving enough attention to the importance of a good domain name?
You may be one of those people who thinks it’s not worth spending money for a decent name. If so, stop and think about it first. Before you decide to save money by getting a low quality domain name, consider the value of getting a good domain name. A good domain name will distinguish your business, build your brand and will be central to much of your marketing.
Is is wise to skimp on something so critical to your business?
It’s normal for a new or small business owner to want to keep their costs down. It’s not unusual to think you should be able to get a decent domain for 10 bucks. But the reality is you’re not likely to find anything good for that price. And if you get a low quality name for ten bucks, you will be crippling your brand and undercutting your marketing efforts from day-one. Using a crappy domain name is as bad or worse than using a free business card or using clip-art for your business logo. It creates an unprofessional appearance. More importantly a poor quality domain can drag-down all of your marketing efforts for years to come.
How much should you spend on a domain for your business, product or service?
It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to hand-register a suitable domain name for 10 dollars. Decent domain names can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Great domain names can cost 5 figures. Top domain names in high value business categories sell for upwards of 6 and 7 figures. However there’s a good chance that you’ll find a decent name for your business for under a few thousand dollars. You may even find something decent for a few hundred dollars, depending on your needs. It depends what type of name you decide you want to have for your business.
So what makes a domain good for your business?
There are many ideas about what makes a good name. In general good business domain names tend to be names that can be build into brands. It should feel right to you. It should feel right to your customers, business partners, the press and anybody you want to engage with in some way. This sometimes means having a bankable word or combination of words that is easy to pronounce, easy to spell and feels like a fit for your business.
Alternately people select generic keywords for their business because they clearly define the business from the outset and they can aid in getting web traffic. The down-side of generic keyword domains is that they can be difficult or impossible to protect with trademarks. They tend to not be distinctive or memorable, unless you have the top generic keyword for the category such as Dating.com or Photo.com.
If you expect to get a generic keyword name of this quality, keep in mind that Dating.com sold for $1,750,00 and Photo.com sold for $1,250,000, both in 2010.
Don’t panic…. You can find a decent domain within your budget. But you will need to set aside some money to get that domain name. You will also have to go through the process of looking for good domains and visualizing how they would fit with your business plans.
Your domain name should be memorable, unique and should be easy to say and type.
It should be memorable, because no matter how much you spend on marketing if people can remember your domain name, you have to spend much more on marketing every month… forever. A good domain should be unique, because that is how you distinguish your company and begin to build your brand. It should also be easy to pronounce and easy to type. It would be huge waste of effort to get your message to somebody, only to have they mispronounce is or, even worse, type-in the wrong domain!
There are, in general, three types of domain names:
Generic keyword domains: These can help to generate traffic but they are also costly. Even worse, they can be difficult or impossible to build into memorable brands. Generic domains are not distinct, they can’t easily be used to confer brand values a feeling behind the word. More importantly generic word are usually prohibited from trademark protection. This is why Kleenex® is a brand name but Tissues is not. The domain name business is obsessed with keyword domains, because they are easier to understand and value. Some companies will build their brand with a brandable domain name first and later add generic domains to help drive traffic.
Brandable domains: These serve to create a unique identity for your business that will grow over time. These are either made-up words, unique word combinations or use existing words in new contexts. Examples of brandable domains include: Twitter.com, Facebook.com, Yahoo.com, Google.com, Ebay.com, and Amazon.com. In fact most of the top brands use made-up names or names used in a new context.
Purely made-up names can be a bit harder to market at first because you have to get the name imprinted into the minds of customers. Importantly not all made-up names are of the same quality. Some names are hard on the ears, long, hard to remember and impossible to spell. Other names are short, sound good, are easy to remember and spell. Good examples on NameBrandable include Lemonado.com, Fridgeo.com, Geldy.com, uDexo.com, Twesire.com, Raola.com, Pliso.com, Nowtella.com, Ziphy.com and others. These are distinctive, memorable and can be built into great brands.
Brandable-Keyword Hybrid Names: Many companies choose hybrid names that includes one or more keywords combined in ways that are unique and memorable. For a business related to deals or coupons, combine the word “deal,” “coupon” or a similar word with another word to create the hybrid. For example these domains are available on NameBrandable: DealFresh.com, DealSpeedy.com, CosmicDeal.com, CouponHello.com, DiscountZoom.com and others. These names each combine a great relevant keyword with another word. Together they become memorable and highly brandable domains.
How do you decide?
You could just think of good domains and search for them. Likely you’ve tried this. If you like a domain, you will have to contact the owner of the domain cold and try to negotiate a deal. When this happens, much of the time the domain owner will not even respond because they are not selling. If they do respond, they could assume you to be desperate for this domain and will give you an unrealistically high price. Going through this for a bunch of domains could take weeks or months and take critical energy and focus away from other parts of your business.
You could look on big domain market sites for domains. But there’s mostly crappy over-priced names on these big sites. Much of the names you’ll find on big sites are note at all good for building a business or a brand.
An easier or more productive option is to search on sites like NameBrandable for high quality pre-selected domains that are already listed for sale. It’s much easier to find and purchase a domain in a selective marketplace than trying to find a domain out in the wild or on a monster-megasite.
What are the options?
So you may not be able to afford Dating.com or Photo.com, but there are great alternatives available. You can find these keywords and related combined with other words for a lot less. For example SearchDating.com, LinkDating.com, AltDating.com and PhotoStylo.com are all available for sale on NameBrandable for significantly less than the 7 figures of the single word domains, above. All of these names have great keywords but also could be built into good brands.
You could also look at related keywords. For dating you could consider related words like “date,” “romance,” “love,” “hookup,” “pickup,” etc. NameBrandable has great domains with these keywords, such as RomanceLove.com, iFastDate.com, LoveBrat.com, HookupClick.com, PickupRoulette.com, ForeignDate.com and others.
For alternatives to “photo” you could consider “picture,” “image” or “photography”. We have to domain PictureHill.com and ImageEd.com for sale. Taking things a step further by going to a short alternate word like pix.” You could build a great photo related brand with a domain containing the word “pix”. On NameBrandable you can find Pixora.com, Pixeu.com, ScourPix.com, MyFlyPix.com or mPixa.com. Any of these domains could be used for a site about photography, photo sharing, a camera or another digital imaging product.
It’s a big decision.
Your domain name is critical for building your business, extending your brand and serving your marketing efforts. It’s worth the additional cost and effort. Many business owners will spend big money on logo design, advertising and PR, but refuse to spend money on a good domain name. This is a mistake that they will eventually regret. Changing domains down the line as your business grows will be painful and costly.
It’s important to understand the value of a good domain name for your business. Set aside the budget, do your research and get the killer name. You wont regret it. If you find a domain on NameBrandable that you like, please let us know. We’re here to help. Good luck!
Domains may be purchased via our contact page.
