Made up domains, how do they work?

[airwav]

I am seeing a big trend in making up names that are pronouncable and spellable, but have no meaning. Google is now a dictionary word, wikipedia is right behind it.

What is a good method for coming up with these domains and what makes them marketable?

Is there a special lenght that is acceptable? I am seeing real short terms, i.e., Google, Wikipedia, Vonage.
But then we see Blog, WII, Zune, etc., so short terms are good too.

What is this new dohmain science?

 

[GreenGambler]

I don't think it's anything new however it is becoming more popular. IMO a made up word is yours and yours alone to brand. No worries about TM problems as it is a made up word. Plus if you market and brand well you have the possibility of becoming an icon brand name. I think they will continue to do well. Better or worse than a good generic DN I don't know.

 

[Kate]

Brandable names have always been around. But we also know that the best names like generic keywords have been registered for a long time. Many are not even available for sale or are so pricey they are out of reach for most business ventures.
The way around this, or one of the alternate solutions is to use made-up names.
Made-up names are often very unique and provide an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. They are usually brandable too. It is still possible to make out nice names that are short and easy to remember, for reg fee.

Names like skype, google, vonage have become household terms.
As GreenGambler said, there are normally no TM issues with made-up names.
I don't think the trend is new, after all names like yahoo are more than 10 years old. We saw lots of brandable/funny names with the startup era before the Internet bust. But these names might become increasingly popular in view of the shortage of .com domains.

 

[Coopey]

What is a good method for coming up with these domains and what makes them marketable?

Keep them short: 4-8 characters, and as pronouncable as possible is my advice.

 

[Fleege]

aspirin, windex, polaroid were all "google" words in the beginning. Thats how naming and branding - works. Its just that with the net and the domain registrering issues naming has had to stretch a little further. + yahoo and google made it kinda cool to come up with obscure names

 

[cjcjcj]

Although these appear to be made up, they do have meanings in many cases.

Google = The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol," which refers to 10 to the power of 100 (a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros).

Yahoo = Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle

Wikipedia = Merged combination of 'wiki' meaning 'hurry quick in Hawaiian taken from a bus root at Honolulu International Airpot and used originally to name WikiWikiWeb - an open source project. The 'pedia' comes of course from encyclopedia.

Interesting isn't it

 

[thegenius1]

Basically you can brand any " made up " word when you have the capitol and ad budgets of some of these major corporations, thats what makes them successfull nothing really to much to do with the name.

 

[airwav]

Ok, how about:
BlingCaChing.com

Bling:"Bling-bling" (sometimes shortened to simply "bling") is a hip hop slang term which refers to expensive jewelry and other accoutrements, and also to an entire lifestyle built around excess spending and ostentation.

CaChing:CASH

A jewlery store?
:hehe:

Do I get it?

 

[Coopey]

Ok, how about:
BlingCaChing.com

Bling:"Bling-bling" (sometimes shortened to simply "bling") is a hip hop slang term which refers to expensive jewelry and other accoutrements, and also to an entire lifestyle built around excess spending and ostentation.

CaChing:CASH

A jewlery store?
:hehe:

Do I get it?

If somebody spoke the domain to me I would type: blingkerching.com
I bet there are lots of other ways of spelling 'CaChing' / 'Kerching' also- you might have to register them all to catch the mis-spellers...

 

[airwav]

If somebody spoke the domain to me I would type: blingkerching.com
I bet there are lots of other ways of spelling 'CaChing' / 'Kerching' also- you might have to register them all to catch the mis-spellers...

CaChing is what Forbes used. It is not yet a wikipedia name and I don't find any results for KerChing, but I regg'd it anyway.

Thanks.

 

[GoPC]

I always thought it was "Cha-Ching"

Things that make you say: Hmm....



GoPC

 

[thegenius1]

I always thought it was "Cha-Ching"

Things that make you say: Hmm....



GoPC

Yeah im with you i never heard these other pronunciation of Cha-Ching

1 - 10 of about 436,000 for "cha ching "

1 - 10 of about 22,600 for "ker ching ".

1 - 10 of about 53,000 for "ca ching "

 

[airwav]

Yeah im with you i never heard these other pronunciation of Cha-Ching

1 - 10 of about 436,000 for "cha ching "

1 - 10 of about 22,600 for "ker ching ".

1 - 10 of about 53,000 for "ca ching "

LOL I guess it is spelt "Cha-Ching" with a hypen it gets 1,110,000 Google hits and is defined in the Urban Dictionary:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cha-ching&r=d

Cha-Ching:
The sound that a cash register makes when its drawer is closed after money has been put inside. Used in conversation to indicate that the person being spoken about is going to or already has made quite a profit at little expense.

So it's BlingCha-Ching.com. :gl:

 

[tm]

Ok, how about:
BlingCaChing.com

Bling:"Bling-bling" (sometimes shortened to simply "bling") is a hip hop slang term which refers to expensive jewelry and other accoutrements, and also to an entire lifestyle built around excess spending and ostentation.

CaChing:CASH

A jewlery store?
:hehe:

Do I get it?

Not really - that's not a made up word. Just a domain made up from several words. It also seems like 3 words instead of one. Something like Yahoo, Google, or Wikipedia, are 1 word.

 

[fleshas]

if you want to invent new dictionary word, you need to be "super duper" guy.