The search for a suitable name for your own business can take at minimum months sometimes longer, and there is a lot riding on selecting the right one.
After all, your web address’ URL is everywhere: it appears on the entrance of your office, on your business cards, letterhead, and in every advertising campaign you ever run, whether on or offline. As is so often the case, first impressions count, which is why we assert that the name chosen must be a perfect fit for you and for those trying to find you. It also should be easily understood, accessible and get you noticed. Even at this stage, mistakes are often made, especially with young new companies who often select names that contain puns attempting to appear unique, sassy and smart.
Newslinn is an online platform that supports local communities abroad to safely share news with journalists. In its infancy they went live with the all too quirky and hard-to-communicate URL: on.thespot.photos. Then they shifted to the short lived and very cumbersome: www. thisisonthespot.com. As the forum grew, these hard learned lessons of what makes a great name led to the much more succinct: newslinn.com.
Herein lies the problem with trying to be funny or overly trendy: the name usually requires expensive, aggressive marketing or even an explanation to go with it for it to be even the least bit understandable and memorable. The worst case scenario would be potential customers will never find the website again and will revert to competitors whom they already know.
How can you prevent that? With the tried and true KISS rule: keep it simple, stupid! The shorter and simpler the name, the easier it is to remember.
The overview of the full article about the 10 Golden Rules can be found here.