I feel like a blindfolded cow in a closet full of web marketing professionals. (I’ll come back to this in a sec.) The learning curve ahead of me is steep. I know that. I feel that. Among everything else I need to find a name for my business. I’ve polled family, friends and everyone else. I’ve gotten some good suggestions. Ones I’ve winked at, flirted with, taken to my birthday party and even spent the night with, but sadly, ultimately, we had to breakup.
I like the roots of some offerings and the prefixes of others: ‘share’, ‘works’ and ‘good’ are all solid and easy to spell, even if they lack pizzazz. I really liked Mixed Greens, until everyone said they’d be looking for me in the produce aisle.
A lot of people have suggested using ‘green’, but out of the salad context, isn’t it really the latest in a long line of a buzzwords? Choose it and it’s like putting a time stamp on a photo. I don’t want to be that girl walking around town wearing a sateen jacket, leg warmers and a side ponytail in 2020.
Ironically, as someone who likes to write, I rarely struggle to find a decent title for my work– they just pop right into my head. I got the slogan without a conscious thought, 'Volunteer Vacations for Special Occasions', and was hoping for the same result with an instant perfect name. Nope, this is a lot more complicated than titling an essay. Not only are there certain criteria that branding experts tell me I should follow, there’s also the game of web marketing….
First up, the experts dictate these Rules:
1. 2 or 3 syllables, definitely no more than 4
2. Catchy, easy to remember
3. Capture the essence of the business
4. Can grow with the company, not too defining
5. Has personality (okay, I made that one up… but it would be nice.)
Now let’s mix in the Internet effect. For example, I like the name Good Works. We’ve dated, separated and are now back on speaking terms. It meets the criteria above, but guess what? It’s married! Somebody already owns goodworks.com and goodworkstravel.com was nabbed by some flighty travel agent out in Iowa! Disheartening. I guess I could use ‘.net’ or ‘.biz’ but it always feels second-rate when I’m stumble on those sites. Sooooo…. try again.
I’m also learning the value of buying a pre-existing web domain, but this is where I don the aforementioned cow suit. The workings are complicated and boring, but buying a pre-existing name means I’ll pop up higher in search results = greater visibility, more traffic, better potential for business. Starting out with a new name could take six months to a year, plus lots of effort to achieve the same effect. Think about it – how many times do you ever get past page two when you Google something? How many times do you even get to page two??
My head is spinning with all this, but what it means is the name of my company could be dictated more by domain availability and web ranking/optimization than by me picking a pretty name out of the air – I guess if I want to do that I should buy a goldfish.
So, how do I know all this? Well, I haven't really touched on how lucky I’ve been with contacts and connections- that’s a whole other blog entry. I will say I’ve had some great advice from a couple friends and then there’s the son of a friend of mine who lives in California. He been a really great help, but even so, with all I’ve learnt, I still feel like a blindfolded cow.
I learned from Ben, my new friend in California, that the cost of web domains can vary from $200 to $25,000+. Microsoft paid $1 million for iphone.com a month before it launched the product. Although goodworks.com and goodlinks.com, another married favourite, are both ‘taken’ neither is actually a working site. Ben kindly did some research for me and suggested ‘goodworks’ would be worth around $500 and ‘goodlinks’ wasn’t worth a dime.
I take what he says and think ‘buyers market’. Then send an-email to the owner of the ‘goodlinks’ domain asking if he’d sell.
He writes back the next day: “Sure, I’d be open to offers.”
Alright, I think, the domain isn’t worth much. So I put on my blindfold, moo like a head of cattle and reply: “How about $50?”
“I feel it’s worth more,” the owner responds, “try $6,000.”
Ouch. Honeyteer!! (See, you can ad lib it as an expression too.) I think this breakup is the last.
At least he was polite, but I still need a name….
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