Friday, April 10, 2009

Start Up Tips #1: Picking the Right Domain Name

I'm always referencing this list when I do strategy consulting for Start Ups so I thought I'd repeat it here as both a tip and as a Friday Funny:

This list comes from Independent Sources:

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com

;)

15 comments:

laura lippay said...

Don't forget one near & dear to us, SEM In-House: www.seminhouse.com :)

Anonymous said...

Don't forget GoogleSEOExpert.com :)

Or GuysCryToo.com

Lee Gientke said...

another one is numbers versus written out numbers. A great burger joint is Five Guy's - their website is www.fiveguys.com but if you go to number 5 guys dot com, you end up on a porn site.

Simon said...

Hey Joseph,

Nice list, I love the Freudian slipperyness of No.1.

NB: sadly, not all of them are still operating.

Anonymous said...

Coil.com has a list of 4-letter .com domain names which have sold for over $100,000, the most recent being Toys.com for $5.1 Million last month.

The founders of Alice.com, recognized the value of starting off with the right name and acquired the Alice.com domain name for $250,000 which represented almost 5% of their initial funding.

Start-ups would be wise to follow the Alice.com example by thoughtfully choosing a premium domain name to begin building their company on.

Darin Carter said...

ha ha ha ... oh man ... thats great ... I gotta post this one on my blog!

Anonymous said...

Just like when Seattle names their new transit South Lake Union Transit and wanted to shorten it like the SF bay area BART - but, huh, SLUT! Unfortunately t-shirts were quickly out saying: "I ride the SLUT!"

Ann Evanston
www.zenawomen.com

Joseph Morin said...

Some of these other ones are just as funny too, perhaps its time for a new updated list since clearly some of these people got a clue when this first went around the Internet because they now re-direct to a better url or just don't work at all. Still the obvious benefit at the time was all of the link juice they got from being on that list in the first place. ;)

JS said...

There was another one for a law firm called Ferreth & Jobs - the domain was ferrethandjobs.com

They had a sense of humor about it and directed all the asenine comments to their webmaster, who suggested the name. LOL.

Khaled said...

You would have thought that at least one person would have had alarm bells ringing when discussing the domain name at planning stages. Still they are very amusing to say the least.

Mark Ress said...

Nice one, Joseph. These were domain names that would surely stick to the minds of people who try to visit it. While its true that some of these sites were not on the net this time am glad the ferrethandjobs.com were still up and running.

Joseph Morin said...

And when you want a proper logo to go along with that great domain: http://www.davidairey.com/is-your-logo-design-phallic/

Sheesh....

Anonymous said...
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Shannon Crawford said...

Joseph,
Eye popping information! Great advice to have a 2nd set of eyes to look at a potential domain name...

Thank you!

samantha janney said...

These are pretty fabulous and a great reminder of why you really need to think through what you name your company and how that name might be used in social media platforms. Thanks for sharing!