Distribution of *.com domain names All names Meaningful (e.g., words) Name length Total Not registered Total Not registered   3 letters     18,000   < 200   1,000   0 ?   4 letters   460,000   400,000 25,000   0 ?   5 letters 12 million   10+ million   ?      ? Statistical estimates based on a random sampling by Open Veld (Oct 1998)

Location is a factor in marketing.  At the beginning of the 20th century, stores found it desirable to locate near Main Street and Broadway.   Central location brought steady traffic.  Mid-century, that seemed to change, with suburbs and the analog metaphor of today's internet, the shopping mall.

Location is actually more important than ever before, in the context of your domain name.   Your business on the internet has no physical location, thus your address can only be found electronically.  Customers will never see your internet presence without your electronic address, and since most will not remember or understand the numerical IP address, the domain name is an excellent way for them to find you.

Many customers will link to your business site through friendly referrals, such as links from search engines.  Once they have (hopefully) put your web site in their bookmarks or their favorites, they will not necessarily need your domain name again.  But unless you are satisfied with depending on electronic referrals only, your domain name is critical.  Potential new customers will see your name on a billboard, in the newspaper, or on a business card, and they will type it into their browser window and find your products and services.  The shorter and easier it is to remember, the better.

A domain name also provides an opportunity for brand recognition.  Businesses with meaningful domain names are the ones that convey seriousness and permanence.   Consumers who visit http://www.gate.net/~stars/dealer1432/cyberpunkrecordz/recordingslist.html may have the same feeling of security when they visit a repair shop in someone's backyard garage, like maybe they shouldn't have brought so much money in their billfold.

The problem with top-level domain names, e.g., http://coke.com, is that they are vanishing.  Try a "whois" search whois (http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois) for any meaningful 4, 5, or 6 letter word names, and you probably won't find any.  At Open Veld we conducted a whois search, the registrar of seven popular top-level domain names.  The results are presented in the Table above.

Our recommendation is that you try two-word combinations that evoke the nature of your business.