Choosing a domain - more obscure name with .com, or generic name with .co.uk / i.e?

CamillaRhodes

Hi there, I'm just getting started on an online business idea which, to begin with at least, will only be looking at the UK and Ireland. There isn't a direct competitor out there providing the exact same service as my site will for the UK and Ireland (sorry for being obscure on the details at this stage but I'm sure you understand), nor even really for the US (there are competitors but I don't rate them).

However, the 'generic' URLs for our service (e.g. "ouronlineservice.com") have all been purchased by holding companies, who want BIG money for the .com extensions of the broader, more generic domains I'd hoped for (such as "ouronlineservice.com"). We're talking $1,000 - $4,000. This is way more than I want to invest at this stage given that I don't even really know if our site will make much money, and I'm certainly not going to try to branch into the US yet.

I'm thinking Amazon don't own "books.com", for example. But Barnes and Noble do own books.com, and I'm no Amazon - if somebody started using the generic descriptor for my idea on the .com extension, I might be screwed.

I'm wondering if you were in this situation, would you:

* register a more obscure domain with the .com extension, and let the generic descriptor URLs go, i.e. rather than "ouronlineservice.com", try to find something that's not been bought by a holding company yet, and try to SEO the hell out of it (as well as all the PPC advertising we'd do) so the not-so-brilliant domain wouldn't impact me.

* register the generic descriptor URLs for .co.uk and .ie, given that these are my target markets for now. This feels like I'm limiting the potential of my business, but I need to be realistic about what I can achieve - this is a very-part-time endeavour by me, solo. But at least I'd own "ouronlineservice.co.uk" and "...ie", and having such a strong domain has to help a fledgling online business, right?

* cough up the money these holding companies want. Do they actually get the amounts of money they're talking about? Or if I made them an offer of a couple of hundred quid do you think I'd get it? I've found a few of the registrar sites offer a brokerage service of circa 70 blips + 10-15% commission on the sale price, if you've ever used one of these and would consider it worthwhile, it'd be super helpful.

Thanks!!

jmcc

Forget generic domain names for now. They are very hard to brand. Build a brand that people will remember. Register that brand in your target markets.

Regards...jmcc

CamillaRhodes

jmcc wrote: »

Build a brand that people will remember.

Ah, if only it were so easy, eh? Should I be concerned, though, that my service doesn't currently have any competitors, unlike say Amazon who already knew there were a ton of book sellers? Would you see these 'generic' domains as a potential threat to my site?

Although, I just checked another vertical - we all know "comparethemarket.com". "confused.com" (IMO) has not branded so successfully, despite offering the same service. But, interestingly (maybe!) "pricecomparison.com" is not registered! So I'll try to learn from this!

Any suggestions for sites or guides out there who advise on choosing a brand name? I know exactly the service my site will provide, and the look and feel I want, etc., but I'm not a natural creative and coming up with an effective name certainly isn't going to happen spontaneously!

jmcc

CamillaRhodes wrote: »

Ah, if only it were so easy, eh?

Surprisingly, it is easy.

Should I be concerned, though, that my service doesn't currently have any competitors, unlike say Amazon who already knew there were a ton of book sellers?

It could mean that nobody has been able to monetise the idea yet or that someone tried and failed to monetise it. If your service does become successful, it will have competition. Plan for it.

Would you see these 'generic' domains as a potential threat to my site?

It might be better to worry more about getting your service into operation and, to use Amazon's strategy, getting big quick. Success can be an amazing deterrent to some competitors because it raises the barriers to market entry.

Although, I just checked another vertical - we all know "comparethemarket.com". "confused.com" (IMO) has not branded so successfully, despite offering the same service. But, interestingly (maybe!) "pricecomparison.com" is not registered!

Look at the money these companies spend on advertising campaigns. The meerkat campaign is very effective but it is also very expensive.

Any suggestions for sites or guides out there who advise on choosing a brand name?

Well there's a lot of waffle from self-appointed experts who have never built any brands. It might be better to read some histories of large online brands and look for the reasons they chose the names that they did.

I know exactly the service my site will provide, and the look and feel I want, etc.,

This is the Wikipedia entry on brand name types:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand#Types_of_brand_names

If you look at the way that brand names function, three main formats tend to emerge:

Conceptual - big idea, unique and not descriptive. It might even be completely unrelated to the service or product. Amazon would be a good example of this type of brand name.

Descriptive - this type of brand contains the name of the service or product and the business name. This might work well in ccTLDs because people remember things differently in ccTLDs. (Think of the way that people remember the location of their favourite bar or shop.)

Combined - this is one of the trickiest things to get right. It combines the two above but takes fractions of the descriptive or functional word. Car brand names tend to be good examples of this approach.

but I'm not a natural creative and coming up with an effective name certainly isn't going to happen spontaneously!

It will. Write down the name of your site's service and then write down some synonyms and related words and play around with mixing them or fragments of them so that they make some sense but are easy to remember. Then ask people you know which of the list they like. Then, a few days later, ask them which ones they remember. It is brand naming on no budget.

Regards...jmcc

CamillaRhodes

jmcc, that is the most amazingly helpful response, thank you so, so much for taking the time to write!! Really appreciate it. Who says business is a dog-eat-dog world?