Creating your startup from scratch.
Part 1 – Choosing a domain name
In the last ten years I’ve been involved in the making of many web projects, some of them big sites involving a large team of developers and high loads of traffic. Even though I started writing HTML inside the PHP files (I know, I was young, I needed the money…), I have learned a lot since then, and it’s time for me to share this knowledge and write down the process to create a brand new startup. I hope it’s useful for some of you. Anyway I know I will learn a lot writing these posts.
Part 1 – Choosing a domain name
Maybe the hardest part. If you are reading this probably you had a good idea, but when tried to register the domain name for your idea that name was already registered. Even some variations on your idea were not available also. I won’t talk here about domainers and how they kill the initiative of most entrepreneurs, but I’ll try to help you find the right domain for your startup.
First of all some tips about the domain name:
- Choose 5 keywords of your business to generate the domain name
- The domain name must be unique (no other business with the same name or similar)
- Your Brand should be your domain name (change your brand if necessary & possible)
- Try to make it short. It must be easy to spell, remember and type
- Only Choose Dot-Com Available Domains (not if you run a local business)
- Reject Hyphens and Numbers
- Be careful with phonetically similar names (and register them also if possible)
- Forget about 2.0 names (unless you have big money for marketing)
Find your keywords
There are a few free keyword suggestion tools base on search results
- https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
- https://account.uk.miva.com/advertiser/Account/Popups/KeywordGenBox.asp
- http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
- http://www.selfseo.com/keyword_suggestion_tool.php
Keyword based Domain name generators
You can find several tools to help choose a domain name based on your keywords:
- http://www.makewords.com
- http://www.nameboy.com
- http://www.dotomator.com
- http://www.bustaname.com
- http://www.123finder.com
- http://www.rwm.net/wizard.htm
- http://www.eyeondomain.com/search.html
Choosing the right domain name
At this point you may have at least 10 possible available domain names, now you should let other people help you. Never do this alone, make a poll between people you know (friends, family…. ). The more people involved the better will be the domain name (always include a SEO in this stage of the project)
Final notes
Do your best to avoid buying an existing domain, be creative and make up your own brand. This is just the first step and can be really hard sometimes. Don’t give up, it’s just the beginning and the best is yet to come.
Take your time, if everything goes fine this domain name will be with you for a long time.
Take a look at your competence, they can give you great ideas.
Think about the evolution of your business, Are you going international? Does your domain name suits the new market needs? Can be translated?
Part 1 – Choosing a domain name
Part 2 – Language, Framework & CMS
Part 3 – Design, resources & Inspiration
Part 4 – Database selection
Part 5 – Hosting or Dedicated Server?
Part 6 – Control Version System
Part 7 – CSS Structure
Part 8 – JS Structure and Framework
Part 9 – URLs & SEO
Part 10 – Testing tools
Part 11 – Promoting your Startup
Comments
Some good suggestions on how to choose a domain name.
Another domain name strategy to consider is to acquire a premium name in the aftermarket. Premium domain names are assets which can be resold even if the underlying business may fail. Last month for example the domain name Toys.com sold for $5.1 Million at bankruptcy auction. While many other asset classes like real estate and stocks have declined significantly in value over the last year, premium domain names have shown surprising strength.
In December, TechCrunch reported that AT&T acquired the domain name YP.com for $3.85 Million in cash for their YellowPages.com brand. With the rapid growth in mobile sites, short and intuitive names will continue to rise in value so it would be wise for start-ups to take a deeper look into the benefits of acquiring a strong domain name right from the start.
Coil.com has a list of published 4-letter .com domain names which have been sold for over $100,000 along with a post by the founders of Alice.com and the reasoning behind their $250,000 acquisition of the Alice.com domain name.
http://Coil.com/
Coil.com
April 14th, 2009
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this topic,so thanks for sharing. I’ll definitely be coming back to your blog.
How I Lost Thirty Pounds in Thirty Days
May 4th, 2009
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
ApplyCreditCards
May 28th, 2009
I really liked this post. Can I copy it to my site? Thank you in advance.
KrisBelucci
June 2nd, 2009
Great post! Just wanted to let you know you have a new subscriber- me!
AndrewBoldman
June 4th, 2009
Of course, no problem, just rememer to mention my blog.
Alex Puig
June 5th, 2009
It’s a pity that people don’t realize the importance of this information. Thanks for posing it.
CrisBetewsky
July 6th, 2009
Hi. I like the way you write. Will you post some more articles?
KonstantinMiller
July 6th, 2009
Yes, I’m working on the next on the serie. I think I can have it ready for the next week. Thanks for the support!
Alex Puig
July 6th, 2009