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Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

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Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#1

Post by dvcoolster »

I believe large number of domains are taken, so even if you think of a creative name like 'shgdf.com' I randomly typed it, but even that's unavailable. My point is, in today's time thinking of a brand name, comes along with the task of finding available domain. So, inevitably I end up at instandomainsearch.com playing around with different combinations.

Is there a better place where we can buy domains easily for $200 odd bucks if someone's been holding good brandable domain names. Brandbucket etc. seem too pricy and are good for maybe companies, but let's say for my small project, web game, or a blog, what's the ideal place? Aren't a lot of good use case domains just parked with bullshit ads? Is this even a problem, has anyone else struggled with this ever?

Thank you

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#2

Post by codegeek »

Don't sweat it. Domain squatting is a business and a big one. There are plenty of people who are squatting on domains thinking it will make them a millionaire. They won't budge for"cheap" $200.

However, if you find a domain you like, it doesn't hurt to try and ask the owner. But don't hold your breath.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#4

Post by dvcoolster »

codegeek wrote: post #2

Don't sweat it. Domain squatting is a business and a big one. There are plenty of people who are squatting on domains thinking it will make them a millionaire. They won't budge for"cheap" $200. However, if you find a domain you like, it doesn't hurt to try and ask the owner. But don't hold your breath.

Don't you think this is massively inefficient. Nobody can buy all the brandable domains, and there would always be more coming up. A $100-200 profit on your $10 domain for someone who will build stuff over it, seems good for the formation of a sustainable community driven solution. Its just stupid to think that your domain will fetch you millions unless its a dictionary word with searches present. Any thoughts?

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#5

Post by abc8901234 »

dvcoolster wrote: post #4
codegeek wrote: post #2

Don't sweat it. Domain squatting is a business and a big one. There are plenty of people who are squatting on domains thinking it will make them a millionaire. They won't budge for"cheap" $200. However, if you find a domain you like, it doesn't hurt to try and ask the owner. But don't hold your breath.

Don't you think this is massively inefficient. Nobody can buy all the brandable domains, and there would always be more coming up. A $100-200 profit on your $10 domain for someone who will build stuff over it, seems good for the formation of a sustainable community driven solution. Its just stupid to think that your domain will fetch you millions unless its a dictionary word with searches present. Any thoughts?

What you think and the reality of it are two different things. Any intelligent person could see that cybersquatting is not a viable business model. These are not intelligent people you are dealing with. These are the people who think they could go back to 1997 and register google.com and hold them hostage years later for millions. Spend some time browsing on Sedo or Flippa and you'll see how stupid these people are.

My suggestion: don't give in to these people. Keep digging for a good name, or look into one of the new generic tlds.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#6

Post by dvcoolster »

abc8901234 wrote: post #5
dvcoolster wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you think this is massively inefficient. Nobody can buy all the brandable domains, and there would always be more coming up. A $100-200 profit on your $10 domain for someone who will build stuff over it, seems good for the formation of a sustainable community driven solution. Its just stupid to think that your domain will fetch you millions unless its a dictionary word with searches present. Any thoughts?

What you think and the reality of it are two different things. Any intelligent person could see that cybersquatting is not a viable business model. These are not intelligent people you are dealing with. These are the people who think they could go back to 1997 and register google.com and hold them hostage years later for millions. Spend some time browsing on Sedo or Flippa and you'll see how stupid these people are.…

That pretty much summarises how I felt about the stupidity of several people. These websites, Sedo/Flippa even they look damn old and confusing. Their UX seems shitty, and the whole offer wait for 7 days auction system is pretty tiresome as well.

Having less available domains for people and local businesses, forces people to use subdomains and social media to express their creativity, which is kind of not ideal. The whole barrier to get online is increased manifold by simply no domain availability. I am really surprised there's nothing easier, cleaner and simply better.

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#7

Post by jjoe »

Here's how I came up with mine. I was building a Varnish-as-a-Service platform then. But I didn't want to use the word Varnish in my fqdn because it's a trademark. But also because the sum of its parts is more than Varnish (you've got scaling, security, etc).

So I focused on the essence of the thing I was building, which is caching. I couldn't find any concise domain with the word "caching" in it. So I played around with syllables and settled on Cachoid.com. I'm happy with the outcome so far https://www.cachoid.com/

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#8

Post by bsvalley »

If I build hand made products from my garage and sell them online for example:

1- make up a new word based on a word that best describes your business (e.g. Maker = makr)

2- if taken, look for synonyms of that word and repeat step one (e.g. Craftsman = krafsman)

3- if taken, repeat 1 and 2 with a combination of 2 words (e.g. HomeMade = Homade, etc.)

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#9

Post by dvcoolster »

bsvalley wrote: post #8

If I build hand made products from my garage and sell them online for example: 1- make up a new word based on a word that best describes your business (e.g. Maker = makr) 2- if taken, look for synonyms of that word and repeat step one (e.g. Craftsman = krafsman) 3- if taken, repeat 1 and 2 with a combination of 2 words (e.g. HomeMade = Homade, etc.)

I usually do the same as well. It's just that it can take anywhere between 1 hour to a couple of days of fooling around. After a while, its gets all confusing, which one was better, you ask around, but everyone has different views. If you are in a group deciding to come up to the name, it becomes even more tiresome. I was just wondering for an easy to browse service of domain names, submitted by community where one can buy and share goes to the person who submitted and small part to the platform. Not sure, if people would like it though, it really needs a big community to support who believe domains need to be used for making websites and not hoarding for a future sale!

Re: Ask HN: How do you come up with a Brand or Project Name?

#10

Post by dvcoolster »

jjoe wrote: post #7

Here's how I came up with mine. I was building a Varnish-as-a-Service platform then. But I didn't want to use the word Varnish in my fqdn because it's a trademark. But also because the sum of its parts is more than Varnish (you've got scaling, security, etc). So I focused on the essence of the thing I was building, which is caching. I couldn't find any concise domain with the word "caching" in it. So I played around…

That's a great name for the service. That's precisely what I have been thinking, the more I think about it, I feel it can be a community driven solution. Say, in my spare time I challenge myself for a garage sale community and come up with domains which are available, buy and submit one on the platform. People can come vote, comment, and if anyone likes to use it can buy it for a flat fee, say $200. Doesn't hurt anyone, a good creative exercise for neurons to come up with a name, even budding designers can submit their design for a small share of the sale. But, it has to be much more altruistic from community perspective. Not sure, if it would work on scale to be a sustainable solution against the biggies out there ;)
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