HN Explorer

Tell HN: It's not about domains, it's about a package

8 points by kamme ↗ HN
I often see advice about domain names and how choosing the correct domain name is one of the most important things to have a successfull concept, but in my opinion it's not about domain names, it's about branding/accounts in general.

If you don't have the twitter account, facebook page, linkedin, ... to go with your (domain) name, it's pretty useless to register the domain. People expect a package, not only a domain.

That is why tools that do it all (like for ex. http://www.namechecklist.com/ ) are in my eyes far more important then any domain checking tool, you don't want a domain, you want the whole package. It makes finding the correct name harder, but in general it's that name that has to be as unique as possible. It's always better to think about things like this is advance, it's harder to change afterwards...

4 comments

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moe
how choosing the correct domain name is one of the most important things to have a successfull concept

Nonsense. The name is amongst the least important bits of almost any product. It should obviously meet some basic criteria (be pronouncable..). Beyond that it's mostly bikeshedding, unless you're in one of the rare markets/situations where branding really matters.

Moreover the tool you mention seems to be horribly misleading. It gives me a green "70%" in domain availability for a name that has .com, .net, .org taken...

kamme
It's true in some cases the name of the product is far less important, but in my point of view it's only true for more or less traditional products and doesn't apply to new, innovative products (and even then).

Some people may like to push a product without giving proper tought to the name/branding but I'm sure it will decrease their chances of success, maybe not a lot, but still. As I see it, today everything is getting more and more connected, a product without a twitter account or facebook page is possible, but imho you're missing out on a great chance to market your product.

After you're done with development, it's getting users/attention that counts, and as it's already pretty hard to do that it's best you take every chance you get, even if it's not much.

CatalystFactory
I'm not sure you need the whole package, but it sure helps and potentially saves time/cost down the road.

@moe I think branding is always important.

jbail
I might be the minority, but I just don't care what Google has to say on Twitter and the whole "visit us on Facebook" thing is just lame. It used to be "visit us on MySpace" and I think it'll be something else in the near future. "Friending" my bank just isn't going to happen.

Social networking sites come and go as their popularity waxes and wanes. Your domain name will (or should) outlive them.