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Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

deepsouthventures.com

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Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

#91

Post by louprado »

eightturn wrote: post #9
vtlynch wrote: post #3

>I immediately gravitate towards the keyword descriptive dotCOM. It instantly exudes trust & authority Strongly disagree. As a result of this type of thinking, I find that the majority of "keyword descriptive dotCOM" domains are usually click-bait or shady content marketing. Sites like "VacuumReviews.com" are almost always full of content focused on SEO not quality, and questionable financial motivations. But I guess…

I can see your point of view.. What I was trying to convey - albeit poorly - was a more holistic view of the domain, ie. the domain on the side of a truck. The domain on a tablecloth. The domain on a bumpersticker. If I saw a plumber driving around Atlanta with www.AtlantaPlumber.com on his truck, #1 - it'd be easy for me to remember, and #2 it'd be a more positive than negative perception of that business.

This is even more important if your business uses e-mail to communicate with customers.

I used to own a print business with a .net domain name. We'd often tell a new customer our e-mail address at the end of our first phone call. But too many times customers would just type .com in the e-mail address and then assume that our business has lousy service.

After a few months I paid a cyber-squatter (if that is still the appropriate term) $1600 for the .com version of our name and I never regretted that decision.

Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

#92

Post by emsy »

vtlynch wrote: post #3

>I immediately gravitate towards the keyword descriptive dotCOM. It instantly exudes trust & authority Strongly disagree. As a result of this type of thinking, I find that the majority of "keyword descriptive dotCOM" domains are usually click-bait or shady content marketing. Sites like "VacuumReviews.com" are almost always full of content focused on SEO not quality, and questionable financial motivations. But I guess…

I think that's the Not-a-casual-user fallacy :P

Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

#93

Post by marcosdumay »

rcymerys wrote: post #11

Personally, I think of buying a domain as a form of procrastination rather than the first step of starting a business. It gives a feeling of achievement while staying in your comfort zone (seriously, it's just choosing a name and paying ten bucks, how difficult is that?). What I noticed to work is reaching out to people, telling them about your business or project and getting their interest. Getting the first clients…

At my current top-side-project, I accumulated so many placeholders of "whatever I'll call it", "demain name comes here", "$DOMAIN", etc, that I had to quit coding for a while until I settled down on a name and brought it.

But yes, even getting a no from a potential customer will push you much more than getting a domain.

Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

#94

Post by pryelluw »

eightturn wrote: post #30
solutionyogi wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you the author of this post? Is there any way to contact you?

oop.. I guess I should mentioned that I'm the author.. you can ping me on twitter if that works.. or here : )

Please add your twitter handle to your profile. :)

Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

#97

Post by df3 »

eightturn wrote: post #9
vtlynch wrote: post #3

>I immediately gravitate towards the keyword descriptive dotCOM. It instantly exudes trust & authority Strongly disagree. As a result of this type of thinking, I find that the majority of "keyword descriptive dotCOM" domains are usually click-bait or shady content marketing. Sites like "VacuumReviews.com" are almost always full of content focused on SEO not quality, and questionable financial motivations. But I guess…

I can see your point of view.. What I was trying to convey - albeit poorly - was a more holistic view of the domain, ie. the domain on the side of a truck. The domain on a tablecloth. The domain on a bumpersticker. If I saw a plumber driving around Atlanta with www.AtlantaPlumber.com on his truck, #1 - it'd be easy for me to remember, and #2 it'd be a more positive than negative perception of that business.

People click strong and authoritative names. Generic domains often are strong and authoritative, but they aren't the only example of strong and authoritative names. I think your article misses this point.

One thing I would mention is that many people know that names like "BikeTours.com" were the first to be registered in the early Internet days, and these days do carry a degree of trust through age.

Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

#98

Post by arkitaip »

swalsh wrote: post #87
k__ wrote: post #20

I still haven't figured out how to make money with butt.ventures

I own meatgalore.com, I thought it would be a cool idea to have a business that sold rare meats and cuts online... but never really got the supply chain worked out. We should link to each other.

Just set if free man. I've done so with many domains and it feels great. Maybe even too great...

Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

#99

Post by TeMPOraL »

pc86 wrote: post #71
vtlynch wrote: post #3

>I immediately gravitate towards the keyword descriptive dotCOM. It instantly exudes trust & authority Strongly disagree. As a result of this type of thinking, I find that the majority of "keyword descriptive dotCOM" domains are usually click-bait or shady content marketing. Sites like "VacuumReviews.com" are almost always full of content focused on SEO not quality, and questionable financial motivations. But I guess…

Since when is making money a questionable financial motivation? I think it's unlikely you'll find anyone reviewing vacuum cleaners online because they love the engineering prowess exhibited by a Dyson. It's so they can make $3 off your Amazon purchase. For all the talk of side projects and acquisitions and growth hacking and SEO, HN tends to have an inherent distrust of anyone attempting to make money online by any w…

> I think it's unlikely you'll find anyone reviewing vacuum cleaners online because they love the engineering prowess exhibited by a Dyson. It's so they can make $3 off your Amazon purchase.

You'd be surprised. That's what differentiates the ad-based Internet from the good old Internet "by people, for people".

Personally, my way of searching for / evaluating a product is to find a legitimate (not sponsored) community around this product category and search the archives for recommendations and discussions. This makes it much easier to get real opinions and avoid various kinds of marketing.

Sure, marketers have been trying to game this technique since time immemorial. That's one reason I consider them malicious actors.

Re: Want to Build a Side Business? Just Buy Great Domain Name

#100

Post by Animats »

And put ads on it? That's so 2005.

I really should do more with "downside.com". It had the first search engine for companies that returned financial data from SEC filings, back in 2000. But now everybody has that. The SEC data updater stopped working at the beginning of 2017 because the SEC shut down FTP access in favor of HTTP, so I either have to fix the ancient Perl code or turn that off.

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