What about people too lazy to go to Google, you ask? People looking for candles don’t randomly type “Fireworks” into their web browser. (Just as people looking for naming services don’t randomly type in EatMyWords.com.)
If you want strangers to find you on Google, make sure your website is rich in real content (as opposed to unnaturally cluttered with keywords), so you are attractive to search engines. A good copywriter, SEO (search engine optimization) pro, or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) expert can be of tremendous value here.
The customers who want to do business with you already know your name. Maybe they read about your candles in a magazine, enjoyed them in the home of a friend, or saw them in a shop while on vacation and didn’t want to lug them back on the plane to Poughkeepsie.
In this case, an obvious domain name to get would be Fire worksCandles.com. Not only does adding a descriptive word reinforce what your business is, the descriptive modifier will help search engines find you.
What if FireworksCandles.com is parked by someone who is selling it for $5000? Unless you have money to burn, don’t do it! Just try some different words with it, such as FireworksShop.com, FireworksStore.com, or BuyFireworks.com. Those domain names don’t sound like company names, and no one will think your business is named Buy Fireworks. But they will know how to find you online.
To turn your domain name into a call to action, try using a verb in front of your name (e.g., EnjoyCoke.com, GetDropbox.com, or GoIncase.com). Here are some verbs and short words you can use to help find an available domain name:
Buy ____
My ____
____ Co
Drink ____
The ____
____ Global
Drive ____
Try ____
____ Group
Eat ____
Shop ____
____ Inc
Enjoy ____
WeAre ____
____ Online
Get ____
Your ____
____ Store
Go ____
____ App
____ Tech
Strategy #2: Use a Creative Phrase
A creative phrase as a domain name can reinforce your brand, aid in SEO, and make people smile.
When I named a frozen yogurt store Rehab, the client got the domain name, GetMeToRehab.com. Not only is it a fun call to action, teens love to say it, and the URL doesn’t clutter up the T-shirts—it makes people want to wear them.
As demonstrated with the candle store, it’s easy to find an available URL simply by adding a word to your name. While that’s perfectly acceptable, a more creative technique would be to use a catchy phrase instead. In the case of Fireworks candles, I would suggest one with a little romantic spark. For instance:
FireworksInTheBedroom.com
FireworksHappen.com
ISmellFireworks.com
LightMyFireworks.com
Again, these domain names will not be confused with your company name. They will make people smile, reinforce your brand, and make your URL super sticky.
Speaking of unforgettable URLs, every January I attend the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. For two and a half days, I meander up and down the aisles, grazing on cookies, chocolate, crackers, candy, cheese, and countless carbs and calories. While the dizzying displays of deliciousness are certainly memorable, most of the names are not. But I will never forget what I saw in 2012, emblazoned on a banner at the Peanut Butter & Co. booth:
www.ILovePeanutButter.com
That sign stopped me in my tracks. I loved it so much I took a picture. But I didn’t need to. ILovePeanutButter.com is forever etched in my brain. That’s the power of using a catchy phrase for your domain name. Again, Peanut Butter & Co. is the company name. And they have that domain name, peanutbutterandco.com, too. But which is easier and more fun for them to say when they tell people their website and email addresses? Which is more of a conversation starter on their business cards? Which is easier for people to remember? Which one makes people smile? Clearly the company knows, because if you type www.PeanutButterAndCo.com into your browser, it automatically redirects to www.ILovePeanutButter.com.
Strategy #3: Get a .net or .biz Extension
While a .com extension is the most desirable one for business, don’t automatically rule out alternate extensions such as .net or .biz. Just as we ran out of 800 numbers and transitioned to 888, 877, and 866 without batting an eye, no one will think your business is untrustworthy if you have a .biz or .net name.
When I started Eat My Words nearly ten years ago, the .com domain wasn’t available, so I bought EatMyWords.biz. I had hundreds of expensive business cards printed with the .biz URL. (I put the .biz part of the URL in hot pink ink to make it pop.) Six weeks later, EatMyWords.com became available. I snatched it up for $1200, but I kept the old business cards and still use them without apology. No one has ever commented on it.
5 Domain Name Secrets
Here are some secrets I’ve learned after years of dreaming up domain names for my clients.
Secret #1: Not All Names Are Taken
My clients have secured these exact match domain names and many others for $9.95:
BreedTrust.com (pet services review site)
BoldMatters.com (personal development)
RickshawRepublic.com (restaurant)
IHaveABean.com (specialty grade coffee)
GardenConfetti.com (microgreen shakers)
Secret #2: Make a Lowball Offer
If your dream domain name is parked or listed for sale, it doesn’t hurt to inquire about the price and make a lower offer. Our urban storage client, Boxbee, negotiated its domain for a few hundred bucks.
Secret #3: Buy the Misspellings
If you have a word in your name that people often misspell (e.g., mortgage, vacuum, library), in addition to the correct spelling of your domain, buy common misspellings of it. You can simply have those incorrect URLs automatically redirected it to the correct one. That way, people will get to your website even if they misspell your URL. And they will be none the wiser. Really.
Secret #4: URLs Don’t Need Keywords
Google no longer favors keyword-rich domain names (e.g., best-spas.com, cheapinkcartridges.com, travelbargains.com). These kinds of names are very hard to trademark because as descriptive phrases they don’t identify the source of the goods or services. If a catchy brand name or domain name has the right SEO, contains relevant content-rich text, and is lightly peppered with targeted keywords that blend into your copy naturally, it can easily top Google results. Content should be written for customers first and search engines second. For best results, hire an SEO expert and a crafty copywriter.
Secret #5: Longer Names Are OK
The popular belief is that a short domain name is better than a long one because it will be easier to remember. That’s not always true. According to a recent article in Forbes, DollarShaveClub.com has net sales of around $1.1 million each month. And how can anyone forget the fabulous name of the online furnishings store PreviouslyOwnedByAGayMan.com?
If a longer name is more descriptive and easier to comprehend, it will be more memorable than a short, meaningless name. For example, rcbn.com is short but completely meaningless. It won’t mean anything to potential customers or a search engine because there are no real words in it. However, if that is an acronym for a business named Rapid City Book Nook, then RapidCityBookNook.com would have meaning for human eyes and search engines. So short isn’t always better.
Short names became popular for .coms, giving everyone the false impression that a short domain name was essential. While it may have been good to have a short name years ago, now it’s not important because web browsers magically auto-fill addresses while we type them. And what good is a short name if it’s completely meaningless, hard to spell, and impossible to pronounce?
A recent check of a secondary domain name seller revealed many four- and five-letter domain names for sale. How many can you pronounce?
How many would be spelled correctly with voice recognition software?
Aacax
Jouee
Teliq
Akke
Joxly
Tuova
Azrio
Kryse
Umiro
Bhib
Oivo
Vius
Calq
Ooay
Xaca
Duqa
Paxxt
Ziavo
Exoot
Takaj
Mozid
All of the above empty-vessel names are listed for sale for thousands of dollars. Whoever buys them will have to spend even more money making them actually mean something.
5 Silly Ideas to Steer Clear Of
Here are some amateur mistakes to watch out for.
Silly Idea #1: Spell It Creatively
While I covered this in SCRATCH, I must drill this into your head because it’s by far the biggest mistake people make when naming their company. The problem with having a brand name like Naymz, Takkle, Flickr, or Speesees is that you will forever have to spell it when you say it because it isn’t spelled how people hear it. And voice recognition software won’t understand it either.
If you and your employees have to spell your name out loud for people, you are wasting everyone’s time and apologizing for it over and over and over again. Resist the temptation of getting one of these domains just because it’s available for $9.95.
Sil.ly Idea #2: Use an Obscure Domain Extension to Spell Your Name
While it’s tempting to create a domain name using a country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) extension such as .me for Montenegro, .it for Italy, .us for United States, and .io for Indian Ocean Territory, those names are tru.ly troubleso.me. In addition to being difficult to spell, ccTLD domain names can be hard to pronounce, especially when unaided by a visual identity. How do you pronounce Copio.us? Is it “Copio dot U S” or “Copious”? Equally troublesome is that the human eye is trained to stop when it reads a period. So a name like Copio.us causes people to stop reading. For all the wrong reasons.
A few years ago, rather quietly, the social bookmarking web service del.icio.us renamed itself Delicious because the domain name was so problematic to spell. The company explained the name change this way: “We’ve seen a zillion different confusions and misspellings of ‘del.icio.us’ over the years (for example, ‘de.licio.us’, ‘del.icio.us.com’, and ‘del.licio.us’), so moving to delicious.com will make it easier for people to find the site and share it with their friends.”
One final word of caution about getting cute with a ccTLD: You run the risk of your website getting shut down if the government finds your content offensive. In 2010, vb.ly was seized by NIC.ly (the domain registry and controlling body for the Libyan domain space) because the content of the website was in violation of Libyan Islamic/Sharia Law. Now if they would only shut down Grammar.ly.
Silly Idea #3: Use .org For a For-Profit Business
I personally find it unethical for companies to use the .org domain extension, as I believe those should be available only for nonprofit organizations and NGOs. Using or squatting on a .org name is the bad-etiquette equivalent of illegally parking in a disabled parking space. Unfortunately, there are no restrictions on who can buy a .org domain.
Silly Idea #4: Domain Name = Trademark
Just because you own a domain name does not mean you own the trademark. The two are unrelated. I recently consulted for a client who spent $45,000 on a domain name only to find out later he could not legally call his company that name. Ouch! You should never purchase a domain name without first investigating if it is identical or similar to an existing trademark or service mark. Consult with a trademark attorney before you go too far in the domain process.
While researching trademarks for a client, I discovered the data analytics firm Company X, who bought its domain name in 2012, raised $9.3 million in funding, hired a few dozen employees, yet never bothered to trademark the name. Company X is a common name, and I’m not even sure it could get the trademark. That’s incredibly foolish and naive. One day the company may receive a certified letter from the lawyer for a previously established Company X that claims that the domain name infringes on that company’s federally registered trademark. It may issue an immediate cease-and-desist order prohibiting the use of the domain name and all references to the trademark. And it could insist that the company transfer the offending domain name to the original Company X and pay damages equal to all profits to date. Unfortunately, the above scenario is not uncommon. A third of the new business calls we get are from companies facing trademark infringement who are being forced to change their name—not to mention all of their branding—on everything from business cards to building signage.
Silly Idea #5: Don’t Look before You Leap
Before you pounce on a domain name, make sure the words mashed together don’t spell something unintentional, which is called a SLURL—a clever portmanteau of Slur + URL.
The dating website PlentyOfFish should have looked at their domain name more closely, as it also spells PlentyOffish, which is what some of my girlfriends refer to it as because of how off-putting some of the men can be in their messages.
Law firm Ferreth and Jobs didn’t think this through when they bought ferrethandjobs.com. A few other mistakes:
penisland.com (PenIsland)
molestationnursery.com (MoleStationNursery)
therapistfinder.com (TherapistFinder)
michaelspornanimation (MichaelSpornAnimation)
lumbermansexchange (LumbermansExchange)
You’ll find many more at slurls.com.
Domain names are important but should never be your primary focus when naming your company. Work on creating a memorable brand name, then start looking for a domain name. With the above tips, there’s no reason why you can’t have both.
CHAPTER 4
Your Brand Name Road Map
Creativity can’t occur in a vacuum. Before you jump into the fun part—brainstorming names—it’s essential to complete what’s known as a creative brief. Think of it as the ingredients list of everything you need to cook up the perfect name: company/product history, information on your target audience, consumer insights, desired brand positioning, competitors’ names, words to explore and avoid, and more. It may take a few days to complete the brief, but I promise that you’ll be happy you put time into it. So will anyone who is helping come up with names. I will never start a project without one and absolutely insist that my clients complete one. The few times I’ve worked on projects without a brief, the names have been off strategy because I didn’t have all the information.
The creative brief will help you define exactly what your brand is and what you want the name to communicate. Just as important, it will help you stay focused and prevent you from choosing the wrong name.
Keep in mind that you may write hundreds of words in your brief, but your name will be only one to three words and can’t say everything.
I’m sharing the exact same brief with you that we give to our clients at Eat My Words. To help you get a better understanding of the kind of information you should write, the brief is filled out for a fictitious client, Cartwheel Kitchens. Study the questions and answers, and then recreate it for yourself with information about your own brand.
If you have multiple people involved in the naming process, make sure everyone agrees on what you write in your brief before you dive into naming. Getting all of the decision makers involved from the start is key to getting everyone to agree on a name.
Sample Creative Brief
Client: Cartwheel Kitchens
Project: Kids’ Food Company Name
GOAL OF ASSIGNMENT
What do you want to accomplish?
Develop a brand name for a new snack food company that is better for you / better for the Earth. (Code name is Cartwheel Kitchens.)
IN A NUTSHELL
Sum it up it in 140 characters or
less.
Cartwheel Kitchens creates fun, better-for-you snacks that appeal both to health-conscious parents and kids with a taste for yummy treats.
BRAND POSITIONING
How do you want your brand to be positioned in the marketplace?
Cartwheel Kitchens is the preferred choice for moms seeking healthier and earth-friendly snacking options for their kids four to twelve years old because these snacks combine healthy ingredients with fresh-baked goodness and come in fun shapes and flavors that both moms and kids love.
CONSUMER INSIGHTS
Consumer insights reveal people’s behaviors, as opposed to preferences. For instance, when naming an herbal tea brand, it helps to think beyond what tea drinkers like about herbal tea (e.g., flavor, fragrance, health benefits) and consider what circumstances lead them to enjoy their tea. It could be getting home after a long commute, relaxing with a book in their favorite chair, or sipping a cup before bedtime to help them get a restful sleep.
Although eating healthier snacks in front of peers at or after school has gotten more acceptable (e.g., edamame), it is still not seen as cool by most kids.
Most kids do not want to try anything that sounds healthy.
Hello, My Name is Awesome Page 5
