Free eBook: Business Domain Names Written by Steve Baba
Since every website needs a name, Dr. Steve Baba has written a free ebook that will help you obtain a brandable, memorable domain name at a reasonable cost, which will contribute to your brand equity and profits. The ebook, downloadable from Seemly.com, explains how to select and buy an elite domain name. You will be able to obtain a better name than your competitors have. There are at least 10,000 words in a dictionary that would make great domain names plus at least 10,000 proper names and 10,000 great short coined-words. With a supply of 30,000 great names and millions of good names, obtaining a good name is easy. There is no need to pay more than a few thousand dollars for a great one-word domain name, and many good domain names are available for free. This book provides you with information needed to beat domain name speculators at their games. Both naming methodology to identify great domain names and negotiating/purchasing methods to obtain great domain names at low prices are covered. After a couple of introductory sections, book starts with domain naming goals or criteria for choosing a great domain name: image, memorability, trademark-legal, and price. Then quality domain naming strategies are discussed. Inferior domain naming styles, which you want to avoid, are then discussed. The second half of this book explains how to buy a great domain name. Auctions, expired domains, speculators, and other sources are discussed. Finally, many other topics are expanded on. Steve Baba has a Ph.D. in Economics and ebusiness experience. The ebook on domain names is available at www.seemly.com, for free. No registration is required. The ebook is a PDF file of approximately 250K. The free ebook is advertising supported. The following paragraphs are book excerpts. Generic names, arbitrary dictionary words, coined or made-up words, modified generic names (generic plus) and unrelated two-word names are quality domain naming strategies. But, each quality strategy has strengths and weaknesses. There is no such thing as a perfect name. Generic names are highly controversial and expensive. Examples of generic names are Hotels.com, Shoes.com and Furniture.com. The generic name strategy was always controversial and peaked during dotcom bubble. The generic naming strategy is virtually never used offline, but a very few small stores do business under generic names such as “Mattress Store” in Annapolis, Maryland. Offline, anyone can use same generic name and open a store name “Mattress Store.” Online, ownership of domain name MattressStore.com can only prevent competitors from using same exact domain name. Since, generic names cannot be trademarked, competitors can use Hotels.NET, Rooms.com, Hotelrooms.com, Motels.com, Hotel.com (singular), Inns.com Hotels.us, and so on. Often, there are a half dozen simple generic names for each industry not to mention generic names with a prefix (e, i) or suffix such as eHotels.com. Since competitors can use similar generic names, developing a distinct, memorable brand is difficult. Memorability or need to spend less on advertising is often an argument for high domain name prices – but this argument is only half true. At same time, with only a few first-rate generic names in each industry, generic domain names may be unavailable or overpriced, and are rarely bargain-priced. A generic name also hampers brand extension beyond generic category – Hotels.com selling plane tickets? Another quality strategy is unrelated, arbitrary dictionary words. Examples of unrelated dictionary word names include Amazon.com Yahoo.com, Google.com, Target and Staples. Both words yahoo and google are in Oxford dictionary, but were rarely used prior to becoming famous brands. Compared to generic names, it was not immediately obvious what business Amazon, Yahoo or Google was in. On other hand, Yahoo can legally prevent competitors from using similar names such as FreeHoo via trademark laws. SearchEngine.com would be generic name for Google. “Fast” and “All The Web” are used as trademarks by another search engine. But “fast” and “all web” are not unrelated or arbitrary. Other search engines can also claim to be fast, speedy, quick, entire web, or something similar.
| | 8 Tips for Choosing a Domain NameWritten by David Cooper
If you're just starting out on Internet choosing a domain name is one of first major decisions you will have to make. I won't say that choosing a name for your site will determine overall success or failure of your online business. It will, however, affect almost every aspect of your business. Finding a good domain name requires extensive planning.I would like to offer some tips for successfully choosing a domain name: 1) Use .COM extension. This is still number one choice for majority of online businesses. While, .NET, .ORG,.INFO,.BIZ, and .US are viable alternatives they are not as widely recognized as .COM. The .COM extension will immediately give you and your business more credibility. Also, because we are creatures of habit many people automatically include .COM when typing in almost any web address, so why not capitalize on human nature? 2) Keep it Short. Whenever possible your domain name should not be longer than 13-15 characters, numbers, or hyphens. It is much more difficult for average person to remember longer variations of a web address. 3) Make it Sticky. You want your domain name to be easy to remember. Make it stick out in people's minds. Be creative. Be Unique. 4) Minimize Confusion. You should never lose a prospective customer because they misspelled your domain name, or they used wrong extension. If you can afford it, register other variations of your domain name and have them redirect to your main site. 5) Include Keywords in Your Domain Name. Try to include at least 1 and if possible 2 keywords in your domain name. Many of experts believe this can help with way some of search engines index and rank your site. 6) Be Descriptive. Your domain name should have something to do with your business. Make it descriptive of your site, your product offerings, or your service.
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