Finding a URL and Company Name
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There are three ways to get a great URL. The first is with magical inspiration: that perfect and available name comes to you in the shower. The second is with a ton of money, by buying an existing domain. The third (if inspiration and money are lacking) is with the process outlined below, which may yield a workable name. These days, you start with the URL and then check that some variation of the company name is available (for registration purposes). That part is relatively easy.
Relax (But Avoid Really Horrible Ones)
URLs matter a lot less than it would seem when you are starting out. One can think of plenty of terrible names that did great and vice versa. We are now moving away from destination sites. Search engines and browser capabilities, such as Firefox's awesome bar, will help people find you.
If you are relying on a great name to build traffic... don't. Unless you have a lot of money to buy an existing domain -- and that is probably not a good use of your cash -- there are cheaper ways to build traffic.
So then, "okay" is good enough. Don't obsess over the URL. Save your obsessing for usability design. But avoid the real stinkers, the names that make people laugh at you and then ignore you. We live in a global world, too, so do check that your great URL does not mean "Your mother is a mangy dog" in Chinese, French, or whatever.
Process for Getting a Great URL
Here is the three-step process:
- Go for a run (or whatever exercise you enjoy doing).
- Have a double espresso.
- Do something totally relaxing, like petting your cat, to clear your mind and let inspiration set in.
Did that do the trick?
No? Try the longer process:
- Choose some "themes" that relate to your biz.
- Brainstorm with some pals to come up with a really long list of words that vaguely relate to those themes.
- Use bulk registration to test a lot of them. Make a shorter list of what is available with .com.
- Check that shorter list against:
- a trademark search on uspto.gov,
- some people who will give you an honest response,
- a few major languages for the "mangy dog" test.
- If that cut leaves you short, go back to some of the names you like and try them out with .net. In some cases .net is okay, particularly if the .com name is owned by someone small and non-competitive whom you can buy out later.
- Still coming up short? Try country extensions. For example, if you want rabbit.com, try rabb.it (Italy). This is risky. It sounds clever and occasionally works, but mostly confuses people.
- Once you get a viable list of three that check out, buy all three and then test, test, test. And test with as broad a community as you can get. Use Twitter, your blog, whatever connects you to your network quickly. And go outside your network.
- If all three fall short of this last hurdle, start from the top: go for a run, double espresso, etc. Allow time for this. The best ideas come at the oddest times and usually when you are thinking of something else.
- When you find your chosen one:
- Register the trademark at uspto.gov.
- Protect major country extensions, .net, .info, and other extensions that a squatter or competitor may try to take if they see you get traction.
- Create a logo that works.
- Ensure the company name is available. In the worst case, CoolSite.com could be run by Boring Company LLC doing business as (DBA) CoolSite.com.
- Go, baby, go!
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Its funny, but we changed our company name based on the URL we were able to obtain. After having a metropolisdesign.net, and metropolis.bz, we were finally able to get metropoliscretive.com. So we changed our name to Metropolis Creative. The .com extension is just easier for everyone to understand.
Also - I recommend to people that if they find a URL that they want and it's available - they should get it. I have seen somewhat obscure names get snatched up in a matter of a couple of weeks because the company delayed in acquiring the name.
Its funny, but we changed our company name based on the URL we were able to obtain. After having a metropolisdesign.net, and metropolis.bz, we were finally able to get metropoliscretive.com. So we changed our name to Metropolis Creative. The .com extension is just easier for everyone to understand.
Yes you are right.
URLs matter a lot less than it would seem when you are starting out. One can think of plenty of terrible names that did great and vice versa. We are now moving away from destination sites. Search engines and browser capabilities, such as Firefox's awesome bar, will help people find you.
I dont think many people like to add a firefox bar in his firefox.
This website has some great articles about choosing a good name, we used their Excel sheet to evaluate our options. Check it out, was a great resource to us.
http://www.brandbucket.com/blog/archives/choosing-name/
Check it out as a major source of choice for almost all companies with good ideas and good ideas a construction
Excellent post! As an American entrepreneur and blogger (Web Worker Daily) living in Paris, I have lots of opportunities to discuss this topic with startup founders.
Generally I give the same advice. Lots of these startups ask me for feedback on how their names would fare in an anglophone environment (to avoid the mangy dog issue, among other things).
It seems like the names of so many these days sound like aliens from The 5th Element! It is a real challenge for these young companies who were in junior high when everybody was squatting all the "good" names. But constraints can also be good for creativity!
http://lipstickgeek.com/2009/02/06/your-startups-called-what/
For finding cool domain names, I can't recommend enough: http://www.bustaname.com/
People are often quizzical about the name of my company - Palmettobug Digital. It makes sense to those who are local, and those people are my customers. Plus, no one ever forgets is and the name alone often starts conversations.
If I might add another suggestion: try thinking of your theme in other contexts. For example: SlideSix.com is obviously related to slides and presentations - but the 'six' came into play when I thought about the OSI model - the sixth layer of which is the 'presentation' layer. SlideSix is catchy and is easy to remember, so I ran with it.
I would also add http://domai.nr/ to the list!
I envy people that are talented enough to come up with good site names quickly! I spent nearly a month coming up with mine because I just wasn't happy with anything I came up with.
@Todd, nice use of the OSI model :D
I came up with this great domain "YODspica", quite original.
my firm name is Foto Veysel, is fotoveysel.com.tr suitable for my firm name?
Thanx admin very nice
Very good post. Perfect post thank you very much.
Thanx admin very nice
Very good post. Perfect post thank you very much.
We chose the company name for our startup just because we wanted something short that was phonetic and wanted the dot com and the dot co do uk domain names. After trawling available domains that weren't being squatted for three days we came up with http://www.ogbit.com
It has worked brilliantly for us so far!
Thanks admin so mush[url=http://i-sport-e2c.blogspot.com//]sport[/url]
Thanks
http://i-sport-e2c.blogspot.com
the naming/branding gurus over at onthebutton have a post up about how to name a product or service. it's helpful and funny. worth a read: http://onthebutton.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/10-ways-name-your-company-product/
Some of it of course is blind luck. One URL I bought was just horrible, another URL I bought has been getting natural search traffic from day one. Not a lot, but 5-6 hits a day from google alone. Shows up on the first page. And this is from a treasury guy, not an SEO guy.
Before committing to your domain name, consider contacting an SEO consultant. After all, a search-engine-friendly domain name can go a long way in helping your site to be found by potential customers in the search engine results.
Will people ever stop pushing version rap numbers on the web!
http://www.hiphopalemi.net/Sohbet.asp ...a
it's not all about finding a short .com domain name: i found a more in depth article on finding an available url here: http://onthebutton.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/finding-a-url/
News sites sorguncenter.com
your are rigth find name for a Website or a society today became really "funny", you just have to look at the new 2.0, twitter, technorati,...
it's more and more difficult to find a name that google does'nt have.
thank for the Post, Eric
Check it out as a major source of choice for almost all companies with good ideas and good ideas a construction
are you very well
are you very well
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You site and the topics you've posted about are very informative things..It is really hard to find sites like this on the internet..I wish you luck on the road you're headed..thanks..
Thanks. Are you very well
abicim buralarda türkçe yazsak anlayan varmı sadece ingiliççee mi?
We find some people really struggle with their name. Others know exactly what they want. Different folk, different strokes.
Always a hard thing to feel 100% confident about as, similar to child-birth, the business has not emerged so its hard to shape its personality.
Thanks a lot for the article! Just reminded me about filing a trademark application. Took 3 hours to figure everything out and send it off. Made a visual guide on how to register a trademark – maybe will be helpful for some people: http://thisislike.com/how-to-register-a-trademark/similar
thanks.
Really Nice Post. More and more businesses are indulge with online presence, it is costly if you find a wrong company to do your job
I like your post. No matter what amount of debt a person has, willingness to retire is the first step
are you very well
are you very well
Really Nice Post. More and more businesses are indulge with online presence, it is costly if you find a wrong company to do your job
Thank you very much for sharing information about an important issue You have
Thanks. this stuff doesnt work any more dudes..
can smebody suggest smething else…
thanx very much admın
Thanks, this information is very useful for us. Keep going. Best regards
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Check it out as a major source of choice for almost all companies with good ideas and good ideas a construction
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A few weeks ago, I was
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At first I thought you told Google to call the library, and it did, and that blew my mind.
Then I realized that you actually called the library, and my mind became unblown.
I'll get back to work...
If you ask my opinion about this topic I really like. Thank you for sharing your friends. Hope to see you another day.
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