discuss What makes for a good brandable domain ? Showcase your brandables here

[oldtimer]

With thousands of startups needing a name for their new company and many more existing businesses also branching out all the time and needing names for their new line of products and services it seems that brandable domains is one of the areas that could be very beneficial to domainers both old and new and deserves to be explored further.

Below are a few points of discussion to get this thread started, if I have left something important out please let me know so that it can be added to them. If you have any tips or advice about brandable domains please feel free to share them with the rest of us.


1-What is a brandable domain.

2-How many different types of brandable domains are there and is one type better than the others.

3-What makes a brandable domain stand out amongst thousands of others.

4-What is the optimum length for a brandable domain, how long can a brandable domain be and still qualify as being a good choice.

5-What types of brandable domains are most desired by startups and existing businesses.

6-What is the best way to find brandable domains.

7-What is the best way to sell brandable domains.


Attention Newbies: It's probably best to first hear what some of the more experienced domainers have to say about this subject before you consider getting any domains, and even then it's probably best to experiment with just a few domains at a time. You should be able to sell one domain and then use the proceeds from that sale to get more domains, if you cannot even sell one domain then you are doing something wrong and need to adjust your strategy. IMO

 

[urlurl]

What do you think about cloudiffy?
There is cloudify.cc and other cloudify that are trademarks. So got cloudiffy dot com.

I would strongly suggest to stay away from TM's and typos of trade marks,

---------- Post added at 07:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:40 PM ----------

i think a lot and bought these domains.my brain told these are brand names.
am i wrong?
please share your opinion about my domains.

host joomla . net
the host space .com
world class host .com
usa skill .com
cherry vps .com

waiting for your reply. thanks

These would not be considered brandable's.

to give you an example to make them become brandabled...try

jhost (joomla + host)
skillus (skill + usa)
cherryup
etc.

names are usually made up or a combination of words to make a new word. they are also usually shorter, easy to identify and rolls of your tongue with no effort.

 

[Nappy Bunch]

Hi Honey,

I currently have 6 listed at icBrands and 5 listed at Namerific, no reported sales for me as of yet but still early days.
icBrands have a low commission of 10% and they had the logos up and finished in a couple of days (although the logos at Namerific are better). I had submitted a few to BrandBucket a couple of weeks ago but had no response as of yet.

Hi Nappy Bunch, thanks for the list and that is a great question. I just checked out icBrands.com, do you have any listed with them yet?

I just got one name accepted to Namerific and have another 8 they are thinking about. Looks like the days of learning from their personal rejections are over! I only got an automated refusal. I subbed to Brandbucket nearly 2 weeks ago so am still waiting to hear back from there too.

It looks like Brandroot is a professional-looking place to keep an eye on, as the option to sell with them is "coming soon". I don't know of any others, and would love to hear of any others too.

 

[Honey Domains]

Thanks Nappy Bunch. I just submitted some names to icBrands too. I suspect the chances of a sale are lower depending on what their current traffic is, but it is more exposure and the commission is definitely competitive.

 

[newshunter]

recent one

dawtcom:

Payish

 

[sandvale]

Hi all,is this a brandable names--sandvale;lucalux;mediazur-- all is .com.What you thinking...

 

[DnEbook]

Hi all,is this a brandable names--totema;sandvale;lucalux;mediazur-- all is .com.What you thinking...

your on the way but try keep em short as possible, really the only way to confirm is to submit to brandbucket or namerific

 

[urlurl]

your on the way but try keep em short as possible, really the only way to confirm is to submit to brandbucket or namerific

the real way to determine is if you sell them, lol

 

[Nappy Bunch]

Here's a new brandable i just picked up BOXSU

what do you think?

 

[Ms Domainer]

Choosing a Two-word Non-descriptive Term as a Brand Name--Fool's Mission?

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I can see that there are three types of brandables:

1. A descriptive term that is related to the product, perhaps a merge of two keywords that might not otherwise go together, for example, Loan Swift (not mine).

2. A real word or phrase that represents a product, but is not descriptive of the actual or service product, for example, Apple, Igloo, Canon, Blackberry. I have noticed that these are typically one-word brand names -- and SHORT.

3. Created terms that contain roots of real words, such as Verizon ("Veri" = truth; "zon" = horizon)​

A question, related to #2 (Disclosure: moved from another thread):

What if I find a really great brandable name that does not contain the word "brand," does not even suggest branding, but is so totally cool and memorable that it would be tempting to adopt it and allow the description reveal that it's a brand name site?

I have such a domain, a nice 14-year-old name--8 letters, 2 (real) words, and 2 syllables--that just rolls off the tongue and sticks in your head.

I have noticed that most of the brandable sites have "brand" or "name" in them, and, perhaps, I'm trying too hard to follow what others do and not following my own bliss. In addition, I find the word "brand" an incredibly boring word with a boring sound (I know, I know, it's a major keyword, and I have a lot of "Brand" names to show for it).

On the other hand, could it be a fool's mission to select a long (two word) non-descriptive term that might confuse users, even with a clear description?

I'm purposely not revealing the name here because I'd rather focus any discussion on the issue of choosing a name that has nothing to do with a product or service itself and less on the actual name itself. I would like this to be a discussion that can be helpful to others when it comes to selecting a brand name for any product or service.​

In other words, I'm trying to figure out if using a two-word non-descriptive term is wise or a fool's mission.

Pros and cons? Also, any real-life examples of two-word products or services that use a non-descriptive term would be welcome; I just can't think of any off-hand, which may be an answer in itself.



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[mikeowoicho]

ophem.com, takaj.com.. both got accepted by brandbucket some minutes ago.

 

[hawkeye]

What if I find a really great brandable name that does not contain the word "brand," does not even suggest branding, but is so totally cool and memorable that it would be tempting to adopt it and allow the description reveal that it's a brand name site?
.......
In other words, I'm trying to figure out if using a two-word non-descriptive term is wise or a fool's mission.

As we all know - "The more descriptive the domain is in correlation to the product/service, the less one has to spend to market and "brand" it." (Hence why generic EMD's are so expensive.)

So the simple answer to your query - How big is your marketing budget??!

 

[Honey Domains]

As we all know - "The more descriptive the domain is in correlation to the product/service, the less one has to spend to market and "brand" it." (Hence why generic EMD's are so expensive.)

So the simple answer to your query - How big is your marketing budget??!

This totally makes sense and also explains why you can make good affiliate money with ungainly longtail domains and no backlinking :D

Congrats on the acceptances Mike. I am looking forward to my first "feedback" from BB.

Do any of you think the look of word has an impact on appeal?
I just had X u m m u accepted to Namerific, maybe it was the common double letters, but I think how the letters will look in a logo may be a factor. Any thoughts?

 

[Ms Domainer]

As we all know - "The more descriptive the domain is in correlation to the product/service, the less one has to spend to market and "brand" it." (Hence why generic EMD's are so expensive.)

So the simple answer to your query - How big is your marketing budget??!

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Thank you, hawkeye.

You have a way of making things crystal clear.



I have my answer now.

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[DU]

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Thank you, hawkeye.

You have a way of making things crystal clear.



I have my answer now.

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It's overly simplified though and if you miss the subtlety of the comment it seems more crystal clear than it probably should.

Even with EMD the question is: How much of a marketing budget do you have when you want to create a destination.

Getting arbitrary traffic versus targeted traffic is always going to require marketing. There is then more branding required the further away you get from that exact match but there's a HUGE space between the two.

The key with a brand is not how it is used to find you but how it identifies you once you've been found. There has to be some kind of emotional or meaningful link. Of course people sell junk brandables all the time but I doubt many of them become meaningful projects. A lot of the names on BB or Nameriffic are quite nice but a lot of them are junk. A word with missing letters, a word with additional letters, words that are pure nonsense that don't mean anything, four letter words you can "pronounce" etc. It's a hit and miss category where most people are going to miss.

But anyway:

There are a large number of companies branded on multiple words but they're not in the Fortune 50. As long as the brand name fits it's fine. Take something "Red Cap Taxis", "Merry Maids" etc. That's category 1. They don't need short nice names.

Category 2 you have to understand the history: Apple wasn't always Apple, Canon wasn't always Canon, Igoo is a true "brand". Most of these companies evolved into what they are.

Apple only became Apple in 2007.


A couple of things to bear in mind.

You can still use a subtag/byline/slogan to unify the concept - the name is not the be all end all.

I don't know what you mean when you say "brandable" site. Most people don't even know what brandable means (i.e. white label) so I am at a loss to understand what you mean when you say most brandable sites have the name brand in them. If you're selling names - why not use "name"? Why "brand"? Why not "handle"? Have fun with it. What's the most important thing? Some might say that a word that implies integrity is more important than anything.. some say anything with "prime" is great.

If you want a name like BrandBucket (which sounds like you put your hand in and pick out random crap) then yeah, they all sound boring.

Personally, I think BrandSwank is the absolutely perfect name for this category

Seriously though. Pick a name you like and just stick with it. You're not establishing the name for a large corporation. It's just your site. You don't like it in 5 months, 6 days or next year? You change it. Look at the names at http://500.co/startups/ some are junk and some are good... but there are plenty two worders.

 

[Ms Domainer]

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The name I alluded to in post #334 is GlowTown [dot] com. As you can see, nothing to do with branding, so I won't be using it for that purpose, but it sounds cool.

However, it might make a better name for one of those bowling alleys that feature "glow bowling" (bowling by black and strobe light, LOL; do they still do that?).

OR an e-cig product.

I have my brandable site name narrowed down to two names.



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[urlurl]

picked up: B r u n g , com

its bad English (even though its in the dictionary) but that's why I liked it for a brandable name.

 

[akeemag]

advanpedia dot com

 

[Coral Cove]

I have been registering and selling nothing but brandable domain names. They are very profitable but can also waste a lot of your money. Every month I let about 10-20 brandables expire because I learn more and more about which ones will sell and which ones won't.

Compound words, like GladFish, BlotMedia, TreeDog, CrowdSociety and WayBound (Some recent ones I have sold) are great types of brandables because they instantly connect with people, thus attracting a larger interest, unlike completely invented ones like Javolo, Vanqo and Fliva (of which I also sold recently) that require a more brand-name trained eye to identify and desire.

There is also another type of brandable that I find to have a higher selling chance and more selling points than the completely invented one (but probably not better than compound ones), and that is the derivatives, like Nuvew (which I just sold a day ago) that sounds like "New View." These give the owners a better story to the name and lend it more life than just an invented one. Another one I sold like this is Refoca and Voyara, one sounds like "Refocus" and the other reminds one of "Voyage" and "Air."

The more you can describe the name the better the odds of selling. Entrepreneurs want stories to their business and that starts with a good domain name. They don't want to say, "I don't know, I just chose this name because it sounded cool." If you can capture some positive or attractive emotion with your brandable then I'd say it's a good one.

 

[cdawgz28]

I got Xamca.com ...Punxo.com..Im trying to develop Dunceless.com

 

[arcturis]

I have been registering and selling nothing but brandable domain names. They are very profitable but can also waste a lot of your money. Every month I let about 10-20 brandables expire because I learn more and more about which ones will sell and which ones won't.

Compound words, like GladFish, BlotMedia, TreeDog, CrowdSociety and WayBound (Some recent ones I have sold) are great types of brandables because they instantly connect with people, thus attracting a larger interest, unlike completely invented ones like Javolo, Vanqo and Fliva (of which I also sold recently) that require a more brand-name trained eye to identify and desire.

There is also another type of brandable that I find to have a higher selling chance and more selling points than the completely invented one (but probably not better than compound ones), and that is the derivatives, like Nuvew (which I just sold a day ago) that sounds like "New View." These give the owners a better story to the name and lend it more life than just an invented one. Another one I sold like this is Refoca and Voyara, one sounds like "Refocus" and the other reminds one of "Voyage" and "Air."

The more you can describe the name the better the odds of selling. Entrepreneurs want stories to their business and that starts with a good domain name. They don't want to say, "I don't know, I just chose this name because it sounded cool." If you can capture some positive or attractive emotion with your brandable then I'd say it's a good one.

what methods did you use to sell the domains? sedo? afternic? private sales? others?

how many brandable domains like these types u list do you normally handreg per month approx?


thx 4 your valuable info btw!

:santa:

 

[mazkel]

ViralCrowd dot com

Turbofy dot com

 

[Coral Cove]

what methods did you use to sell the domains? sedo? afternic? private sales? others?

how many brandable domains like these types u list do you normally handreg per month approx?


thx 4 your valuable info btw!

:santa:

I only use my own website, Brandroot.com, to sell my names. I generally list about 2 per day right now. And yes, I hand register about 98% percent of them, the others I find for in different places or put in a backorder for ones I feel are very strong and I don't want to risk passing up. I recently got Faviva.com from a backorder. Hope this answers your questions.

 

[Honey Domains]

I only use my own website, Brandroot.com, to sell my names. I generally list about 2 per day right now. And yes, I hand register about 98% percent of them, the others I find for in different places or put in a backorder for ones I feel are very strong and I don't want to risk passing up. I recently got Faviva.com from a backorder. Hope this answers your questions.

Cool! I regularly check out the site and you have some great names there. You certainly have the touch! :D

 

[gc1282]

Avadore.com - (Notice of Allowance has already been issued to the TM applicant for this name)

 

[arcturis]

I only use my own website, Brandroot.com, to sell my names. I generally list about 2 per day right now. And yes, I hand register about 98% percent of them, the others I find for in different places or put in a backorder for ones I feel are very strong and I don't want to risk passing up. I recently got Faviva.com from a backorder. Hope this answers your questions.

thx for all the valuable info!

btw how do u make the logos for your domains you market?


:music: