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Killer names: domain name valuation
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What is
a good name? Be clever, not trite. Ask your friends,
but listen to your own judgment. Because your domain name will contain
content, you should ally it positively with your product or service.
It is desirable that you select a name which will be (or already is) the
trade name or service name for your business. Be careful to avoid
names that are already in use by another similar business, and totally avoid
the big names, the famous marks like McDonald's and Microsoft. Don't
even think about registering minisoft.com, swimwearRus.com, or disneydudes.com,
unless you like looking for an attorney.Which
names are best? You know your product or service, and hopefully
you have already given careful thought to distinguish yourself from other
similar businesses. Names can identify you, and good names can identify
you as being good at what you do. There are excellent books available
on trademark selection, and there are paid consultants who can help you
with focus groups and research. Really big successful names like Xerox
and Exxon were made up before the internet. Other names, such as Amazon.com,
were chosen to evoke powerful connotations. (And they didn't start
out as Amazon.com) Some whimsical names such as razorfish.com or bignosebird.com
are powerful because they use the names of animals, and they create a mental
picture, an easy way to remember the domain name. Having your trade
name the same as your web site domain name strengthens your company's reputation
in the marketplace. Lawyers call this "goodwill."What language
considerations are there? If you use a non-English word with
characters different from a-to-z, you've got a problem. There is no
such thing as piņon.com, so if you sell pine nuts to Spanish language people,
your domain name pinon.com will always remind them of the cultural imperialism
of the English language.What about
digits and hyphens? Avoid them. Usually. Unless
you have a domain 911.com or club57.com or love4u.com, in which the number
strengthens the name, without being too cutsey, avoid numbers. Same
for hyphens. People tend to forget to put them in.What
about trademark conflicts? For legal advice, hire a lawyer.
Trademarks are easily subject to potential litigation, thus if the trademark
owner showed that you had caused damages, you could have to pay damages,
or at the least, give up the domain name. Even if you did no wrong,
and you are sued frivolously by someone supposedly protecting their trademark,
and the case is later dismissed, you could still be in for some major legal
costs until it's all over with. Be advised. Don't mess with
trademarks, registered or not. Unfortunately, Network Solutions tends
to hand over disputed domain names to the first registered trademark owner
who shows up, regardless of whether it's your family name or legal trade
name. If it's not a registered trademark it doesn't get much respect
from Network Solutions.The choice
is yours, but . . . If you want some suggestions, write to
us and you are under no obligation to take our advice!Open Veld
P. O. Box 290067
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33329
954-236-8622 (Voice message and FAX)