Mutable Suggestions For Naming A Startup
onstartups.com
onstartups.com
Finally I said screw it and registered a one word .io domain that describes my product perfectly, as well as the [word]io.com domain. I hate to be too trendy, do you think users could learn to use a .io domain?
I ended up with [word].io, but I was deciding between that and [word][obscure animal].com . I think I made the right choice.
Fortunately, most of the traffic to my site will be from links and not casual mentions/word of mouth, so the tld shouldn't be a big problem.
Ultimately, I think the system is very flawed and domain squatting needs to be tackled as a priority. But where's the motivation for the registrars when they collect the same cash regardless of the use of the domain?
Finding a domain that's available at any price seems harder to do these days. Squatters are just sitting now, waiting it out or waiting for a crazy offer they can't refuse.
The logo I made for Joystickers is all in lowercase precisely because it stands out. Had I used a capital J, it would have looked pretty plain. The lowercase j along with some GIMP magic make it a little more interesting.
Amazon, Google and Facebook all use an upper-case letter to start their "official" name (if you see it in text anywhere).
But, there are reasons other than twitter for shorter being better.
I believe that a name is very important. It is how people identify with your business. If it is difficult to remember your business will have a hard time capturing that very valuable "word of mouth".
I would always suggest putting the money into trademarking your name because then you have a leg to stand on if you want to go after someone sitting on your useful domain.
But, as the author states, the Libyan domain names are in vogue now: bit.ly, letter.ly, etc.
OK, that was quite bitter. For some reason I have a perhaps unusual emotional response to certain patterns of syllables, like a useless sort of synesthesia.