The Problem finding good business Domain Names
The biggest hassle in starting a business for me was selecting a name with a reasonable domain name. In general, domain names should be:
- Be the same name as the company.
- Should be memorable.
- Shorter is better as long as item 2 holds true.
- Should end with .com.
- Should include one more of your key words for SEO.
- Use the appropriate pluralization.
- Plan for the future.
- Do not choose domain names that are similar to competitors
A quick Google search will find pages of useful information on selecting a good domain name. A couple good ones that were available at the time this blog was written are (DN tip 1) and (DN tip 2). That is not the purpose of this BLOG.
The problem is that it is next to impossible to find a name that you like, reasonably represents your company, and bows appropriately to the SEO gods. I spent 2 weeks working through hundreds of names before settling on iSupport Services. The maddening thing and the object of my rant is that most of the names I wanted were taken by cyber squatters, not people running a regular business.
My solution to this problem is to charge a $100/year tax on .com domain names. People that know me would be shocked that I would voluntarily advocate taxing anything. I know this sounds extreme for something that costs about $10/yr to register. However, this tax would force cyber squatters that hold hundreds of names hoping someone is desperate enough to pay big money to get the one that best matches their business to re-think their business plan. Hopefully the result would be for them to release the bulk of the names back to potential real (I would say honest) business owners. I will save for a new blog what to do with this tax revenue (hint, I would not dump it in to general funds).