1. Number of Characters The shorter the better!
Why waste 10 letters when you can get the meaning across just fine with 3 or 4. It's much easier remembering a name such as Drugs.com than it is Drugstores.com. That's why a single word is more valuable. It's easier to
spell and communicate and thus carries more impact. 2. Number of Words The less words the better… And there's no better than just one. How many words does it take to get your message and name across? As in Number of Characters, the number of words
used increases and decreases the value of your name. This is because as one brainstorms about an object, product, etc., one remembers singulars as opposed to plurals. Ask.com comes before AskUs.com and YouAskUs.com.
Names fall in any of many ranks in a long list of variations. 3. Easily Spelled You don't want to lose customers because they misspelled your domain name. The ideal name is easily spelled and can be passed on by word of mouth. A good way of testing the value
of as name is saying it out loud. For example, if "Gifts-for-you-dot-com" was heard over a radio, the consumer would be faced with the challenge of translating the name into the correct URL address.
"Gifts-for-you-dot-com" can be:GiftsForYou.com
Gifts4You.com
GiftsForU.com
Gifts4U.com Words with double spellings don't help either. For example, Theater.com can be spelled as Theatre.com and Their.com
can be spelled as There.com. Words that are just plain hard to spell lose value as well. Colonel is the correct spelling for a word which refers to an Army officer, commonly misspelled as Kernel which refers to the
tasty seeds we eat from a corn stalk. 4. Easily Remembered Ask yourself this simple question… Does my name sound good? And there's your answer. If it sounds good, people will remember it. Another way of measuring it is if the name refers
to the product or service being offered. Who can argue the directness of Loans.com? 5. Easily Spoken Are people going to like saying your name? Is it fun? Is it catchy? Yahoo must have sounded ridiculous to most people before it became the Yahoo that it is today. Someone
early on recognized the value of the word and today we have commercials spouting that world known jingle… Y-a-h-o-o-o-o-o-o-o. 6. Language
The largest percentage of Internet users browse the web in English. Thus, English domain names hold a higher value than other
languages. But the Internet landscape is rapidly changing, and domain names in languages such as Spanish and French are rapidly gaining market value. 7. Variations You increase the value of your name if you own it's variations. For example, owning
Toys4You.com becomes more valuable if you also own ToysForYou.com and Toys4U.com. Because if Toys4You.com spent advertising money, they would also be advertising the other sites at no cost. This leads, of course, to the
loss of customers to these other sites. The sites with the variations of the original site own anywhere from 5%-25% of the original site's value. II Meaning-Based Value 1. Profitability The first factor in the value of your name is simply the industry in which you do business. Drugs.com is more valuable than Flowers.com because it's respective industry is much
larger and produces a greater revenue stream. 2. Name Type Generic names are the way to go. These names represent the obvious choice a consumer would type to reach a certain product or service. If a consumer was looking for a loan, chances
are he'll first come across Loans.com. Value can also be determined by the likelihood that a consumer will type in your site without initially knowing what your site offers. Sites such as Cars.com and Music.com will be
reached by many who are searching blindly for these products and services. 3. Obvious Names for Industry This is the most subjective of all categories because it refers to the most obvious name that refers to an industry and that is chosen on a person to person basis.
Loans.com refers to loans but the next question becomes… what type of loans. The same goes for Cars.com and Flowers.com but doesn't apply to ConvertibleCars.com. |
