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Do I have to have a .com?
Yes. I believe that you should use a .com address rather
than a .org (for non-profits) or a .net (for ISPs) or anything else. The
only exception is one client who writes infomercials for a living and
has a .tv domain, because that makes sense.
Why only .com? Because the first place someone is
going to look for you is under the .com. If you can't get the .com
address (note the site you are on is plum-creek.com because the other
one was taken already, in 1997!) then you may want to consider doing
something completely different, like
www.iknowwebsites.com, rather
than your company name.
How about using a hyphen in it?
Speaking from experience, having a domain name with a
"dash" in it is okay, but it can be hard to communicate to people. If
the company who has the name without the dash isn't your competitor, I'd
say go ahead. plumcreek.com is a lumber company - not easily confused
with a web designer. But if they did websites for a living I'd lose
customers to them, I'm sure. Dash is better than "underscore", but it
would be even better without the dash. After 8+ years I'm pretty much
stuck with my domain name, but you aren't....yet.
Haven't yet named your company? Good!
When we went to name my second company, we picked a
company name because the domain was available. The company ended up
being OrgTrack.com
(organizational tracking software) because the domain name was
available. I wouldn't name a company or a product without the .com
domain name today.
Some other considerations...
I had a client with the company name NRS Exchange. We
talked on the phone and decided on his domain name and it was available
so we were going to go with it. However, I wrote it down and then broke
out laughing. Read it all together and it comes out "nr sex change". We
ended up using nrs-exchange.com.
Make sure it's short and easy to spell. I had a
customer who insisted on ...furnitureupholstery.com. How many people do
you know who can spell upholstery correctly each time?
And one other thing...watch out for homophones - two
words that sound alike but are spelled differently. Yet again a personal
lesson - over the years I have had several men who have spelled my
company name plumb-creek.com. Never occurred to me, but now you have
been warned! |
