Success Online.IN Success Secrets For Your Online Venture

Before I begin - I would like to state that many of these tips can be applied even in a situation when you are choosing a name for a new product or even a business. 

Choosing a domain name for your website or online venture can be fun and creative. The first and foremost thing you need to keep in mind is do not rush this process. If you think you have a good and clever name - let it roll in your mind for atleast 24 hours… but, if its a clever and catchy name and you think someone may just snap it up within 24 hours - give it atleast an hour to sink in and then make your final decision. Why do I recommend you do this? Well, one important reason is that what may sound cool and very appropriate, may indeed not fit in with your concept in retrospect - and may not be such an appropriate name in reality when thought about more deeply. This has happened to me countless times, until I finally realized that its better to take a deep breadth and think about the appropriateness of the name for 1 to 24  hours at the very least. What one thinks of - and derives out of usually comes from a series of questions you ask yourself. Asking the right questions is important and will lead you to a good name. Some of these questions are -

1. Does the name reflect the main angle of the business?

2. Is the name easy for first timers to remember? That is, does it have high retention? Will it stick in people’s mind easily?

3. Is the name too long and does it use complicated words?

4. Is there a dash “-”in the domain name, and if there is … is it essential? I prefer names WITHOUT a dash / hyphen in most cases, unless absolutely necessary. Why? Because a dash inside a domain name is difficult to coomunicate to people… telling them verbally to visit for example: “”garden dash furnitute dot com” is more complicated that”just “garden furniture dot com” . And people will most probably remember the latter (the one without the dash) and end up visiting that website. You may remember it, but I guarantee you people in general may not. 

5. 99% of the time you should choose the dot com extension unless you have a non-porfit venture and you like the .org or .net and the name you choose is very good but the .com extension is taken and the .net or .org extension is still up for grabs.

6. All single letter dot com english words are probably all taken and I can bet you big bucks that every word in the english dictionary with dot com has been booked. You’d be really really lucky if you find an english word that matches your venture available. If you do - dont wasted a single second - just get out there quickly and grab it. Its quite possible that the owner didnt renew it or wasnt interested in it anymore, so go out and grab it fast before someone else does.

7. If you are located in a region or country that has its own local or national regional language(s) - you can think of booking those words spelled out in english with the dot com extension.

8. If you cannot find single word domains you should try two word combinations. For this method, I often pull out an unruled blank piece of A4 paper and start filling it up with single words at random spots all over the paper. I make sure my words are spread apart from each other as I start writing them down. These words are basically related words that could be used for my venture or are connected in some way to it. They are in English and if I am catering to a regional audience, then they can be regional language words too that are related. See the image below as an example of how you could go about this. Once the paper starts filling up and is getting dense with words, start trying to randomly pick pairs in your mind and pairing them together to form your dot com name. Try swapping combinations around etc. Be creative and dont be afraid of coming up with totally random useless names. This is like a self brainstorming session and you should not be holding back any random names. Why? because, even the silliest sounding name or word could lead to another very clever name or word or combination words. Trust me, its happened a lot to me.

Other key tips to keep in mind are -

• You may also choose a single word name and start it with E as in Electronic or I as in Information or Internet. For example - ipaper.com or efurniture.com
• Try alternative spellings of english language words that sound catchy. For example - controversee.com - for a video site of controversial names.
• If appropriate, try funny names if you have a web2.0 concept and visit bullshitr.com
• Visit http://www.thesaurus.com/  to get other similar meaning words or form word clusters in your mind and on paper
• Try looking up names of some of your (potential) competitors and get ideas from them. Dont copy - just try and understand their strong and weak points in their names.
• You could also browse directory listings, local/global yellow pages, Yahoo directory, dmoz.org directory listings and other such areas to get an idea of other names in your category. 
• Ask friends and families for suggestions. On rare occasions they may give you the name you are looking for and many-a-time will you get a name you can ”extend” and build upont to hit on just the right name.
• Go for a long drive or walk and think of possible combinations while roaming in a new fresh environment… it helps at times.
• Take a break for some time - go play some video game or indulge in some other alternative activity .. and then start thinking again. Breaks help clear your mind and help you step öut-of-the-box at times … and you can come back and the words you had chosen somehow will look different and from a fresh perspective. 
• There are many other alternatives to .com that you may consider such as .info .ws .biz .co.uk .in .de etcetera. But remember that .com is the king. However, there are some situations where a .com is probably not as strong as a local domain like for your country or region for example .co.uk - and these should be used if appropriate (and definitely if you are only targetting customers / clients / people in your local country).
• Once you shortlist a few names (about 3 to 5) start asking yourself whats strong and weak in each of them and begin eliminating the ones which have obvious and apparant weaknesses.
• Even pretend as though your competitor woulkd come up with the final set of names - and what you would think of the name if you saw it written somewhere. This trick allows you to get an outsiders perspective.  
• Finally, go with a name that you are going to be happy with in  the long run and YOU are 100% satisfied with! You may ask friends what they think of your final name and get their valuable feedback - taking it constructively. But, remember the final decision of the name should be yours. Go with your instincts - if you are stuck! But, also listen to your reason! Balancing the two is an art!

And, remember - at all times … keep a pencil and paper in hand - just incase you hit upon a golden name. It may come anytime and you dont want to miss out on forgetting it for some reason. Keeping a pencil or dictaphone or mobile phone so you can SMS the name to yourself or make a note of it in your phone… as my good friend Jimmy often told me a long time ago - “a blunt pencil is worth two sharp minds”

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