Domain Name Ideas & Helpful Tips
Your domain name is vital to your unique identity as it represents your brand online. Choosing the best website address for your business is a big decision- it impacts your branding, search engine ranking, and social media marketing.
Do you need help coming up with the perfect domain name for your business? We asked the pros how they were able to come up with their unique names. Hopefully their anecdotes will help you come up with your domain name ideas.
My domain name allowed me to expand on my product and service. (Ellen Cagnassola, Owner, SweetSoaps.com)
I was a stay at home mom looking to build a business to allow me to stay home and raise my kids with a flexible work schedule. Making glycerin soap with my then 3 year old daughter, I remarked to her that it looks like candy. Then, I decided then that it should be called Sweet Soaps. That soap company progressed for 15 years and I then turned it into a social media company using the tagline “marketing that cleans up”.
Pick a domain that allows you to expand on a product or service that is not too specific. Here at Fit Small Business we created a business name generator to help you come up with the perfect name for your business.
I looked up synonyms in order to get a dotcom. (Brad Hines, Owner, NerdPlaythings.com)
When I opened up my e-commerce store, I had my heart set on anything quirky that described that I sold educational and brainy toys. Using a domain with anything but dotcom (ex: .net, .org, .co) was out of the question since people tend to assume a domain has a dotcom ending, and I didn’t want to drive traffic to the wrong website. NerdToys.com was my first choice, but was way too expensive. I instead looked up synonyms for toys and found playthings. I secured NerdPlaythings.com for $8 and haven’t looked back.
We made sure our domain name will not be associated with inappropriate or spam content. (Andrew and Karen Strikis, Travel Writers, ForkandFoot.com)
Our very first website was named on a whim. We couldn’t believe it when our readers started reporting that their spam filters were blocking them due to ‘inappropriate content’- but when we looked more closely, we realised our choice of domain name was very poor. Join an ‘s’ to the word ‘tripping and you got ‘stripping’!
Our second attempt has been far more successful, and it all came back to one key question: what’s our passion? The answer was: tasting the world, one step at a time. A brainstorming session then commenced, writing down every word we could think of related to food and exploration. With time, we were drawn towards two words in particular- ‘fork’ and ‘foot’. Join them together and we had our perfect domain name!
Once you’ve thought of a domain name, use a website builder to create your website.
Website builders are tools to create websites without the need for programming, so they’re very easy for people with no coding experience to navigate. They typically provide hosting and a simple interface to design your site, and you can use your own domain name. Check out these reviews of the most popular website builders.
I bought an intriguing domain name.
I created StolenDress.com in 2003 almost on a dare. Now, 14 years later, we’ve produced two feature films (with a third coming out in 2017), two books and we are a burgeoning podcast network. While living with eight roommates in North Hollywood, California in 2003, a friend, Chad, said, “You should buy stolendress.com. Because it would be funny”. And the tagline could be- did we steal yours?
Based on his whim, and with little money in my pocket, I decided to buy StolenDress.com, and it soon became the home for all of my productions. It has hosted numerous shows and films, and we continue to churn out fun, mostly comedic, projects.
Our CEO listened to what our clients were saying and played to their connotations. (Sean Martin, Growth Marketing Manager, DirectiveConsulting.com)
Our CEO has a great story about how he started our business and first purchased our domain name. While finishing up his Masters, he was doing some one-off consultation work for local businesses to start growing his own portfolio.
In discussing the results with his first client, he was told that his approach went directly for the money. I suppose he started mulling this over for a few days because soon after, the domain name Directiveconsulting.com was purchased and our company was born.
My advice would be simple – instead of focusing on the message or abstract idea you want to represent, try listening to what your clients are saying about you and play to their connotations. That’s who you want to impress anyways, am I right?
I chose a name that communicated my vision. (Shel Horowitz, The Transformpreneur & Author, GoingBeyondSustainability.com)
When my tenth book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, came out last year, I needed to come up with something that showed how mere sustainability (keeping things the same) isn’t good enough. I wanted to have people know immediately that they could use their businesses to make things better.
I work with business leaders to develop and market profitable products and services that turn hunger and poverty into sufficiency, war into peace, and catastrophic climate change into planetary balance. This goes far beyond sustainability, and thus the name.
I bought a popular domain name and built my business from there. (Jeffrey Reynolds, Ph.D, President & CEO, AmericanFlags.com)
At AmericanFlags.com, our domain actually drove creation of the business. I was a domain name investor and won the URL in an Ebay auction about a month after 9/11. The second highest bidder congratulated me on outbidding him and shared with me that he had a warehouse full of American flags, but no dedicated channel through which to sell them.
I, of course, had no flags and demand have skyrocketed, given our nation’s pride, patriotism and resolve. I quickly incorporated the business, set up a site and I funneled him dropship orders until his supply ran out. AmericanFlags.com was profitable about three hours after going live.
Having a premium domain gave us instant credibility and brand recognition, despite being brand new to the space, which made supplier negotiations easier. It boost our SEO and helps drive our marketing efforts. We get a fair amount of direct navigation traffic where visitors simply type in ‘american flags’ and that traffic converts at a rate that’s four times that of any other channel.
I used alliteration to make my domain name stick. (Joe Gillard, Founder, HistoryHustle.com)
When I had to come up with a domain name for my history website, I thought hard about it. I recalled reading about the power of alliteration in a name, and decided it must say history and must be an alliteration. So I created a huge list of names that included HistoryHits, HistoryHero, HistoryHooray, etc.
Then, I emailed my girlfriend and told her to pick the one she truly loved. When I heard back, I was pleased to see that her favorite one was the exact same as mine! So I immediately went to GoDaddy and purchased HistoryHustle.com. When choosing a domain, I think about how easy it will be to remember and say to someone. An alliteration such as HistoryHustle.com sticks.
I included a playful element- and it’s a great conversation starter. (Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO, MavensandMoguls.com)
When I started the firm, I jokingly referred to the women as the Marketing Mavens & the guys as the Marketing Moguls & for short I called them Mavens & Moguls as a working name but never expected it would stick.
I did research over e-mail with prospective clients, referrers, media, etc., and tested around 100 names. Mavens & Moguls was one choice on the list and to my great delight, it came out as a clear winner. It has helped us be memorable and stand out from the pack.
Names contribute to your brand and in our case, I think it has been a major plus. Maven is Yiddish for expert and a Mogul is someone of rank, power or distinction in a specified area. I like the alliteration and I think it sets us apart from other consulting firms. It shows a little personality and attitude, and implies we do not take ourselves too seriously.
I just kept it simple. (Richard Storm, Photographer, NYPhotoNY.com)
I’m a photographer based in NYC. I quit my job in 2013 to follow this passion full time and since I’m a native New Yorker, I combined that with becoming a new me and also shooting people at their best.
Everyone wants a New You right? So that’s how NYPhotoNY.com happened. It stands for New You Photo New York. Four years later, I stuck with the name and it has gone over pretty well with clients. Most people feel like when they start a photography business, it’s “their name photography”- I didn’t want to be like everyone else because I’m not. My advice is to roll it around and talk to other people about your name. Bounce it off others, write it down, and keep it simple.
Bonus. I decided to use my name because my businesses are personal. (Hunt Ethridge, HuntforAdvice.com, HuntandGatherJC.com)
So my name is Hunt. It’s a unique name and it’s also a verb and a noun, so it can come into play and help me brand myself. I know that having the right name for your business/URL is extremely important. It needs to be unique yet easy to remember, and easily understandable.
So for my first company, a dating and relationship company, I was back and forth between “HuntForAnswers” or “HuntForAdvice.” I decided on HuntForAdvice because, honestly, do any of us really have the answers? Over the last 10 years, it has gotten a lot of positive feedback and is easy to remember for people.
When I started another company, a salvage/refurbishing/furniture making company, I wanted to come up with another catchy URL/biz name. At first, I didn’t want to use my name as I thought I might be using it too much or run the risk of appearing egotistical. I played with many names, but most were already taken or too obscure. Finally, I circled back and decided to use my name as it is me and I do want people to remember it. So I finally settled on HuntAndGatherJC (JC = Jersey City).
Again, it has been easy for people to remember, it’s catchy and others seem to like it. My businesses are personal, so I came to the conclusion that it was okay to use myself in the names.
Over To You
Do you have your own quirky, fun, and personal story on how you came up with your domain name? Did reading these domain name ideas inspire you in your quest for your perfect domain name? Share your story in the comments below! Once you’ve chosen your domain name, it’s time to create your website! Learn how to create a website with WordPress in under 30 minutes.
Do you need help coming up with the perfect domain name for your business? We asked the pros how they were able to come up with their unique names. Hopefully their anecdotes will help you come up with your domain name ideas.
My domain name allowed me to expand on my product and service. (Ellen Cagnassola, Owner, SweetSoaps.com)
I was a stay at home mom looking to build a business to allow me to stay home and raise my kids with a flexible work schedule. Making glycerin soap with my then 3 year old daughter, I remarked to her that it looks like candy. Then, I decided then that it should be called Sweet Soaps. That soap company progressed for 15 years and I then turned it into a social media company using the tagline “marketing that cleans up”.
Pick a domain that allows you to expand on a product or service that is not too specific. Here at Fit Small Business we created a business name generator to help you come up with the perfect name for your business.
I looked up synonyms in order to get a dotcom. (Brad Hines, Owner, NerdPlaythings.com)
When I opened up my e-commerce store, I had my heart set on anything quirky that described that I sold educational and brainy toys. Using a domain with anything but dotcom (ex: .net, .org, .co) was out of the question since people tend to assume a domain has a dotcom ending, and I didn’t want to drive traffic to the wrong website. NerdToys.com was my first choice, but was way too expensive. I instead looked up synonyms for toys and found playthings. I secured NerdPlaythings.com for $8 and haven’t looked back.
We made sure our domain name will not be associated with inappropriate or spam content. (Andrew and Karen Strikis, Travel Writers, ForkandFoot.com)
Our very first website was named on a whim. We couldn’t believe it when our readers started reporting that their spam filters were blocking them due to ‘inappropriate content’- but when we looked more closely, we realised our choice of domain name was very poor. Join an ‘s’ to the word ‘tripping and you got ‘stripping’!
Our second attempt has been far more successful, and it all came back to one key question: what’s our passion? The answer was: tasting the world, one step at a time. A brainstorming session then commenced, writing down every word we could think of related to food and exploration. With time, we were drawn towards two words in particular- ‘fork’ and ‘foot’. Join them together and we had our perfect domain name!
Once you’ve thought of a domain name, use a website builder to create your website.
Website builders are tools to create websites without the need for programming, so they’re very easy for people with no coding experience to navigate. They typically provide hosting and a simple interface to design your site, and you can use your own domain name. Check out these reviews of the most popular website builders.
I bought an intriguing domain name.
I created StolenDress.com in 2003 almost on a dare. Now, 14 years later, we’ve produced two feature films (with a third coming out in 2017), two books and we are a burgeoning podcast network. While living with eight roommates in North Hollywood, California in 2003, a friend, Chad, said, “You should buy stolendress.com. Because it would be funny”. And the tagline could be- did we steal yours?
Based on his whim, and with little money in my pocket, I decided to buy StolenDress.com, and it soon became the home for all of my productions. It has hosted numerous shows and films, and we continue to churn out fun, mostly comedic, projects.
Our CEO listened to what our clients were saying and played to their connotations. (Sean Martin, Growth Marketing Manager, DirectiveConsulting.com)
Our CEO has a great story about how he started our business and first purchased our domain name. While finishing up his Masters, he was doing some one-off consultation work for local businesses to start growing his own portfolio.
In discussing the results with his first client, he was told that his approach went directly for the money. I suppose he started mulling this over for a few days because soon after, the domain name Directiveconsulting.com was purchased and our company was born.
My advice would be simple – instead of focusing on the message or abstract idea you want to represent, try listening to what your clients are saying about you and play to their connotations. That’s who you want to impress anyways, am I right?
I chose a name that communicated my vision. (Shel Horowitz, The Transformpreneur & Author, GoingBeyondSustainability.com)
When my tenth book, Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World, came out last year, I needed to come up with something that showed how mere sustainability (keeping things the same) isn’t good enough. I wanted to have people know immediately that they could use their businesses to make things better.
I work with business leaders to develop and market profitable products and services that turn hunger and poverty into sufficiency, war into peace, and catastrophic climate change into planetary balance. This goes far beyond sustainability, and thus the name.
I bought a popular domain name and built my business from there. (Jeffrey Reynolds, Ph.D, President & CEO, AmericanFlags.com)
At AmericanFlags.com, our domain actually drove creation of the business. I was a domain name investor and won the URL in an Ebay auction about a month after 9/11. The second highest bidder congratulated me on outbidding him and shared with me that he had a warehouse full of American flags, but no dedicated channel through which to sell them.
I, of course, had no flags and demand have skyrocketed, given our nation’s pride, patriotism and resolve. I quickly incorporated the business, set up a site and I funneled him dropship orders until his supply ran out. AmericanFlags.com was profitable about three hours after going live.
Having a premium domain gave us instant credibility and brand recognition, despite being brand new to the space, which made supplier negotiations easier. It boost our SEO and helps drive our marketing efforts. We get a fair amount of direct navigation traffic where visitors simply type in ‘american flags’ and that traffic converts at a rate that’s four times that of any other channel.
I used alliteration to make my domain name stick. (Joe Gillard, Founder, HistoryHustle.com)
When I had to come up with a domain name for my history website, I thought hard about it. I recalled reading about the power of alliteration in a name, and decided it must say history and must be an alliteration. So I created a huge list of names that included HistoryHits, HistoryHero, HistoryHooray, etc.
Then, I emailed my girlfriend and told her to pick the one she truly loved. When I heard back, I was pleased to see that her favorite one was the exact same as mine! So I immediately went to GoDaddy and purchased HistoryHustle.com. When choosing a domain, I think about how easy it will be to remember and say to someone. An alliteration such as HistoryHustle.com sticks.
I included a playful element- and it’s a great conversation starter. (Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO, MavensandMoguls.com)
When I started the firm, I jokingly referred to the women as the Marketing Mavens & the guys as the Marketing Moguls & for short I called them Mavens & Moguls as a working name but never expected it would stick.
I did research over e-mail with prospective clients, referrers, media, etc., and tested around 100 names. Mavens & Moguls was one choice on the list and to my great delight, it came out as a clear winner. It has helped us be memorable and stand out from the pack.
Names contribute to your brand and in our case, I think it has been a major plus. Maven is Yiddish for expert and a Mogul is someone of rank, power or distinction in a specified area. I like the alliteration and I think it sets us apart from other consulting firms. It shows a little personality and attitude, and implies we do not take ourselves too seriously.
I just kept it simple. (Richard Storm, Photographer, NYPhotoNY.com)
I’m a photographer based in NYC. I quit my job in 2013 to follow this passion full time and since I’m a native New Yorker, I combined that with becoming a new me and also shooting people at their best.
Everyone wants a New You right? So that’s how NYPhotoNY.com happened. It stands for New You Photo New York. Four years later, I stuck with the name and it has gone over pretty well with clients. Most people feel like when they start a photography business, it’s “their name photography”- I didn’t want to be like everyone else because I’m not. My advice is to roll it around and talk to other people about your name. Bounce it off others, write it down, and keep it simple.
Bonus. I decided to use my name because my businesses are personal. (Hunt Ethridge, HuntforAdvice.com, HuntandGatherJC.com)
So my name is Hunt. It’s a unique name and it’s also a verb and a noun, so it can come into play and help me brand myself. I know that having the right name for your business/URL is extremely important. It needs to be unique yet easy to remember, and easily understandable.
So for my first company, a dating and relationship company, I was back and forth between “HuntForAnswers” or “HuntForAdvice.” I decided on HuntForAdvice because, honestly, do any of us really have the answers? Over the last 10 years, it has gotten a lot of positive feedback and is easy to remember for people.
When I started another company, a salvage/refurbishing/furniture making company, I wanted to come up with another catchy URL/biz name. At first, I didn’t want to use my name as I thought I might be using it too much or run the risk of appearing egotistical. I played with many names, but most were already taken or too obscure. Finally, I circled back and decided to use my name as it is me and I do want people to remember it. So I finally settled on HuntAndGatherJC (JC = Jersey City).
Again, it has been easy for people to remember, it’s catchy and others seem to like it. My businesses are personal, so I came to the conclusion that it was okay to use myself in the names.
Over To You
Do you have your own quirky, fun, and personal story on how you came up with your domain name? Did reading these domain name ideas inspire you in your quest for your perfect domain name? Share your story in the comments below! Once you’ve chosen your domain name, it’s time to create your website! Learn how to create a website with WordPress in under 30 minutes.
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