Advertisement

NEW CGI Directory

Home Guides Marketing Article

Wacky Domain Names And How To Avoid Making One Just Like Them

1.7/5.0 (3 votes total)
Rate:

James Helliwell
April 07, 2017


James Helliwell
James Helliwell has written 5 articles for DomainInformer.
View all articles by James Helliwell...

Coming up with an original and smart domain name that matches the theme of your business can be a difficult task. It’s even more difficult after you expend all your creative energy only to discover the name is taken.

But following the guide below should lead you towards eventually coming up with an original domain name that you can be proud of;

1. Make sure the name sounds like it has the potential to become a brand. A domain name likeTherapistfinder.comis going to have a hard time becoming a reputable brand simply because the name comes off sounding like a bad joke.

A name with branding potential won’t sound generic and it’ll likely not have numbers, hyphens and other special characters in it because that’d make it difficult to pronounce. Rather it’ll be simple and yet memorable. Think LinkedIn, or Yahoo.

2. Keep the name short. The longer it is, the likelier you are to morph it into something wrong like,Actionpaintballsac.comor Gooooooooooooooooogle.com, both of which actually exist and are functioning domains. Instead keep it simple and smart. I know this sounds difficult especially since almost every smart word has already been used in a domain, but that simply means it’s your cue to get creative with spelling. Just be careful your new spelling of an old word doesn’t turn into something unpronounceable.

Short domain names also have the added advantage of being easier to type and share, and are less likely to get shortened in search results or on social media platforms.

3. Stay away from names that in anyway infringe on another company’s. Making this mistake can lead to hefty legal fees. Especially if the court rules that you pay the offended company damages. But legal fees aren’t the only thing to worry about when your domain name infringes on another company’s. There’s also the problem of brand confusion.

If you come up with a domain name that sounds too much like another brand’s, you risk confusing your customers. And your customers in their confusion might end up patronizing the other brand instead of yours.

4. Be clever with your name creation especially if your primary name choice is unavailable. You can simply add a meaningful prefix or suffix to change up the name a bit. But while you’re being clever, don’t get too clever.

There are those who’ve registered domain names that they came up with while trying to be too clever. The names probably sounded good on paper, but they definitely turned out simply wacky when typed into the address bar.

We’ve looked at how to come up with a non-wacky domain name, but now let’s look at some examples of domain names that turned out all wacky and wrong.

  1. Penisland.net – The goal here was to merge Pen and Island, which is smart especially considering that the website specialises in pens. Sadly, the name came out sounding naughty rather than professional. It’s also possible the domain owner did this intentionally to make the name more memorable.
  2. Itscrap.com –The goal here was to merge IT and Scrap, but as you can see, that turned out completely wrong.
  3. Dicksonweb.com – This sounds like a porn site but that was not the intention of the owner. The goal here was to merge Dickson and Web.
  4. Nobjs.org – NOBJS is an acronym for North of Boston Jewish Singles. In this case, it’s not as much about the faulty domain name as it is about the faulty acronym.
  5. Masterbaitonline.com – I’m sure you can clearly see where this went wrong.

So be careful when coming up with your domain name and try to avoid creating one that either gets you sued, or mistaken for a joke.

               Hosting Bookmarks   


Submit Your Articles or Press ReleaseAdd comment (Comments: 0)  

Advertisement

Partners

Related Resources

Other Resources

arrow