Poll for Name Protection Product Concept

[Rob Monster]

I previously invited input for a new brand name for a product/service that protects domain owners from unforeseen risks and provides optional insurance against economic loss. The concept was introduced here.

After a few days of reviewing domain submissions, we now have a screened list of prospects for this project and are looking for some input on name selection before making a final decision.

 

[Rob Monster]

Liked NameSeal.com of the lot.

Short, crisp and easy to recall.

Must say that I was disappointed that my entry NameAttest.com did not make it. It had the credentials to be in the most likely list. Pity.

Yes, but there is a simple reason. Your asking price was $15K for a me-too hand registration. Next time, bait the hook by presenting the name without presenting the price. I am sure you would have accepted less but by presenting me a hand-registration for $15K, you take me for an idiot. Guess what, I am not. Pity.

 

[Rob Monster]

I think Rob believes in engaging people. He views NP as an important platform to engage target audience for many of his projects, including epik, and gauge their thinking. Exciting the core, being visible etc. are important here and he is a rare breed that understands all these.

He mentioned that he started at P&G and that is the best university for that kind of thinking. I worked for P&G myself and it is one of the best schools I have ever had in my life.

That's it -- co-creation.

I think what also come out of this is people learn from other experts about what to look for in a name. I am also giving a lot of private feedback in response to PMs though it makes for rather long days.

The process we ran for FullVenue.com, which led to us selecting @Ategy.com's domain was a good example.

We also bought Armored.net, SignDeck.com, Toki.com, TrustRatings.com, Us.Tv and Watchmask.com, all here through various invitations for submissions, sometimes with polls.

Of course anyone could do this assuming they are prepared to follow through with a purchase.

The NamePros community could play a more active role in helping end-users find suitable domains. The talent is certainly here. The format is just more "open source" versus Squadhelp.

The steep rise of Squadhelp is telling -- end-users are going there and the domain name is a modestly priced accessory rather than an integral and strategic starting point:

https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/squadhelp.com

We are planning a next phase for the Epik domain marketplace:

https://marketplace.epik.com/

This is an increasingly fine marketplace -- integrating a lot of inventory types. However, to appeal to retail buyers, I definitely think we can take some pages from the SquadHelp playbook.

As noted elsewhere, I am a big fan "Make Offer" pricing. I would like to see more domains listed as "Make Offer" and to provide more help to domainers to get retail prices.

And yes, when someone does buy a domain for $50,000, we'll help them insure it, and the domain owner can earn affiliate revenue on the upsell to a Forever domains ($399) with an insurance policy (1% of the face value as annual premium).

I don't have the answer, but I am starting to ask questions about how to bring more end-user budgets into buying high quality .COM domains. We'll look to move swiftly.

@Ala Dadan @Domain Graduate

 

[Recons.Com]

Why the poll? Your team seams to have a good grasp of what will make the best brand for this project. Why not wait for the right time when you have the budget to get the absolutely best domain?

I think Rob believes in engaging people. He views NP as an important platform to engage target audience for many of his projects, including epik, and gauge their thinking. Exciting the core, being visible etc. are important here and he is a rare breed that understands all these.

He mentioned that he started at P&G and that is the best university for that kind of thinking. I worked for P&G myself and it is one of the best schools I have ever had in my life.

 

[Rob Monster]

The Nigeria reference is a bit off-topic.

I think the problem here is that while co-creation is a great ideal .. by having a seemingly winner take all poll, it's unfortunately spurring some participants to do just the opposite. When there can be only one winner, rather than give genuine and honest opinions, some people will obviously focus on the prize, at the expense of overall best community interest. Particularly when for some people that prize money could make for a significant impact on their quality of life if they are located in a developing part of the world where $5000 USD is beyond life changing.

For example, minimum wage in Nigeria is the equivalent of $82/month (30k NGN). So a single $5k USD domain sale would be the equivalent of FIVE YEARS working at minimum wage in Nigeria. Particularly with 20+% unemployment rate I can't in any way feel angry that whoever submitted VettedName got all his buddies to vote. (Heck .. I'm starting to feel like an ass for pointing it out in the first place).

NamePros can still be a great tool for filtering suggested names .. but the priority of the thread should be the comments .. the tangible pros/cons of the names. The first thing I suggest that be emphasised in threads where a single winner might sell a domain, is that the poll itself is only guideline, and that the actual written pros/cons will have significantly more weight.

Obviously that itself could also lead to serious abuse .. but in the end if the pros/cons don't align with reality, you just don't take it into consideration.

I think it is awesome that anyone can make a windfall. Great for them.

As for gaming the system, yes, we have to be vigilant to such things. Keep in mind that I take the poll results under advisement as a dull knife to identify a logical set of acceptable candidates and then will select one. Others might come later and choose one I did not take. That's great too.

As for the larger issue of people being self-serving, that is just life. As folks become more enlightened many of them will figure out that when they help others they help themselves. The feedback loop is not always instant, but in the end, I believe the wise ones do figure it out.

And my dealings with Nigerians have been fantastic so far. I believe there will be many very successful Nigerian domain investors in the years to come. They are learning quickly, and they clearly are willing to learn from each other and help each other. I think that is great too.

I am sorry if some polls breed competition or divisiveness - my goal is 100% not that.

 

[Etinosa]

In Branding when using two keyword as a name. The two words must complement each other and portray a meaning and that is where vettedname stand out

Vetted means

make a careful and critical examination of (something)."

Or

vetting - Formal and thorough examination (usually by an expert) prior to grant of approval or clearance

Why this name is most suitable for this project is that it tells the end user that the name listed on the platform has already be vetted against the following:

Prior Fraudulent Conveyance
Domain Theft post purchase
Negative SEO
UDRP Complaint
Civil Trademark Claims
DDoS attack
Copyright / DMCA complaint
RBL/Spamhaus whitelisting
DNS Hijack protection.

 

[karmaco]

I don’t care for any of those.The closest to the desired feeling is NameSoldier but I would expect the com. I am sure it was hard because “name” names are mostly taken.Thats why I suggested DN. Surprised not to see any “domain”or “brand”words in this list.

 

[Rob Monster]

Hi Rob,
I respect and value you. Frankly this comment did sound harsh to me. You are right that, I might have quoted on the higher side but, being an industry veteran you could have ignored the pricing and focused on the domain name ..NameAttest.com. But it seems that in your focus of the 'unacceptable' price you did not pursue the domain and, more importantly, felt 'upset' about the pricing.
These things will happen. No point in being harsh. I hope you bloom and prosper. Cheers!

All done in love. We are family here. Just wanted you to know why so others could learn. You actually have taught a human behavior hack when selling domains, but also selling most things. Never lead with price.

 

[Ayodeji]

None of the names give me a feeling of "yes, this is it!".

NameSoldier.com - It explains the brand, but i feel it tries too hard. And i don't like "name" as prefix for a brand.

NameSeal - I love this at first sight, but then again..."name" is a general word and "seal" gives other meanings before protection even comes to mind.

DNProtect : it explains the brand. It doesn't give that hint of authority.

Okay, that is me been over-analytical. From the list, it is one of those 3.

 

[TCK]

Just acquire domainshield.com and dnshield.com. Both are available for purchase. You won't get a better brand than these for your project. Disclosure: I don't own those names or have any vested interest in them.

 

[Kassey Lee]

This is about protecting "domains" but there is only one choice DNProtect.com so I picked it. I'd like to see "Domain" prefixed choices.

 

[Blitzpotz]

This is about protecting "domains" but there is only one choice DNProtect.com so I picked it. I'd like to see "Domain" prefixed choices.

I agree. DNProtect.com got my vote.
Besides that NameSeal.com is the most beautiful name for the purpose.
Namesoldier reminds me to war, to aggressive for protecting a digital code with digital means IMO. Would prefer -police, -ninja, -knight if an active defense shall be expressed. Or the NameSafeguard.com which I voted for, too.

 

[Jevsim]

NameSeal might be the best option, IMHO - combo of 2 4L words with a clear meaning

 

[Recons.Com]

Assurer seems like it "should" be the clear winner .. but I'm not sure how many people would put a double r (assurrer) .. it just seems a little clunky off the tongue ... *BUT* .. it is a single word .. so mega bonus points for that .. but despite being 2 words, NameSeal is just a single character longer and much easier to say. Not sure if NameSeal is even my first choice, but I would take it over Assurer (for this specific purpose .. also considering the likely significant price difference)

At first glance I thought Assurer as well, but it's a pretty horrendous brand name in hindsight.

Ok, I am the owner of Assurer.

But, regardless, the above comments amaze me. Google search for Assurer returns 200 million results and only 200 000 for assurrer, meaning the chance of misspell is 1/1000.

The pronunciation is super easy too. And at least for this one out of all names in the list, you can go to authoritative source and actually listen how to pronounce it:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assurer?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=a&file=assure05

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assurer

Furthermore, it is one of few names in the list that correctly describes the purpose of the project. Because, by full description from Rob elsewhere, the project also aims at providing assurance that the names are clean, usable etc. It also assures customers that their name is safe and protected.

And, I am fine if the contest holder chooses another name. This one will find a good home regardless, as there are only handful of similar alternatives for a great brand in insurance, quality assurance, safety, security industries, each of which is huge. There is a reason this name was registered in 1996. Truly, no need for animosity like above.

PS in the heat of competition, many forget that these contests are in the name of having fun and an opportunity, not a cut-throat fight.

 

[Etinosa]

I'l add 2 new submissions:

NomGuard.com
NomShield.com

Many of the comments suggested the keywords "Guard" or "Shield" as being suitable for the project. Though I think we all agree that name/domain/dn are better than nom, the 6 domains are priced more than the budget ($1000) as follows:

DNGuard//com - No BIN, min. offer $3,925
DNShield//com - BIN - $4,595
NameGuard//com - developed
NameShield//com - developed
DomainGuard//com ( not for sale as per my quick research (landing page/afternic/sedo).
DomainShield//com - BIN $7,038 - min. offer $1,000

I think that many of us were greedy in our asking prices when sending domains to Rob and that's why those names are not in the poll. I'm sure I was and I'm not proud of myself, pricing my one day regged domains in mid-high $X,XXX, but I came to understand that the most important thing is to help our enduser(Epik) and in the meantime make a profit on our domains. Rob knows domains, he's always here when in need, why do we have to quote him a higher price for our domains than we would usually quote for a handreg (my case) ? As I said, I'm not proud of myself and I learnt a big lesson: don't be greedy!

Many of us sent him handregged domains, don't you all think that the Epik's team could have brainstormed and come up with similar domains that they could've regged for $5,49 instead of paying mid-high $XXX? Maybe (Probably) it made more sense to the business that we regged domains with Epik, but one of us gets to have a sale and help Rob/Epik.

Domainshield.com is $5732 on Sedo , I think that falls within the budget . what do you think Rob?

 

[Ategy]

The Nigeria reference is a bit off-topic.

Not really .. it was never meant to mean people from Nigeria are any different from anywhere else. I just used it because it's where you said this particular person who tried to rig the system is from (I never said, meant or implied that he represented all Nigerians in any way .. I apologise if anything I said was written in a way that might have given that impression) .. people are taking what I said completely out of context (I'm hoping you can empathise with that).

I was using it in a generic way to point out that $5K usd can be life changing for many people, and that you can't really blame anyone for trying to get all their friends to vote blindly. It's nothing criminal or evil .. I'm not even saying he's a bad person ... but it's just a fact that getting your friends to vote blindly completely spoils the poll system going forward making the results effectively meaningless with regards to actual domain quality.

As for VettedName.com -- I am pretty sure that this is the flag name of Team Nigeria.

I thought VettedName was a bad domain and suspected the poll was being rigged before you posted that, and before I even know it was a Nigerian submission .. I didn't even know there was a "Team Nigeria" on NamePros as I don't really care where people are from .. and the fact it's a Nigerian submission has nothing to do with why it's bad ... there are bad domains from every country in the world. Just as I'm sure there are plenty of Nigerian domainers with great domains.

It should also be noted that I wasn't making false insinuations .. if you go to the forum you linked, unless it's been deleted, you'll see the submitter asking his contacts to come vote for him.

Even more interesting is going to that forum and seeing things like "A lot of whites have started to open new account to attack my name on the vote list and increase their vote as well. Thanks", "He later commended Nigeria that we are least better than India", "We are saints compared to India in cyberfraud rate".

There have also been posts in this thread directly and personally insulting me and my intelligence that have since unfortunately been deleted after being left too long originally.

Now am I going around making claims of racism? No. Using the term "Whites" the way it was most certainly is racist .. but was it actually meant to be racist? Likely not! Is the person who said it racist? Also likely not! He or she probably just got excited at the thought of making a great domain sale (something that ALL domainers ALL around the world can appreciate, including myself) and resorted to what was likely meant to simply be a nationalistic statement to motivate his/her buddies to come here and vote for the name in question.

As you know I'm half Indian and I also could have been extremely offended seeing statements like Nigerians are saints compared to Indians, or that Nigeria is better than India. But who knows .. in all likelyhood there are more people in India doing scams than there are in Nigeria. Does that mean Indians are scammers .. no .. just that some are .. just as there are some scammers in Nigeria and some in Canada and all over the world.

It's in the same way I used the example that money can go a lot further in Nigeria than it can for most of us in the west .. it most certainly was not meant as a personal attack ... and I meant it to actually show my possible empathy in that I could understand if someone would ask their friends to vote for them given the significant impact that amount of money could have. (Again .. I'm not saying he's a bad person .. it's not like he asked people to help him rob a bank or beat someone up .. it's an internet poll .. it's not the end of the world .. it just sucks for those of us who take it seriously)

I have zero hate for Nigerians (or any nationality/race) .. my family doctor as a kid was Nigerian and I was friends with his kids. I worked for a Nigerian one summer when I was young and it was great .. he was one of the coolest guys I met. While it's cooled the last 2-3 years, the Nigerian economy has been growing at an explosive rate the past 2 decades, they are well positioned for further growth .. particularly when it comes to Internet usage. Anybody would be a fool to bet against the future of Nigeria.


I actually did take time to explain and spell out the technical and linguistic reasons why I felt strongly that VettedName was a bad domain, but unfortunately that post and several others have been deleted .. what you're seeing now is likely a trail of somewhat off-topic posts.


All that said .. I'm just not a fan of people voting blindly and rigging the system for anything regardless of what it is and/or where they are from. That being said .. it seems many people here are indeed actually fine with that .. so I've said what I had to say .. and they said what they had to say.

 

[NonHipster]

I previously invited input for a new brand name for a product/service that protects domain owners from unforeseen risks and provides optional insurance against economic loss. The concept was introduced here.

After a few days of reviewing domain submissions, we now have a screened list of prospects for this project and are looking for some input on name selection before making a final decision.

Fantastic selection of potential names!

 

[Rob Monster]

Sure, it's a hand-reg, but aren't all domains at some point.

I'd understand your frustration if the name was registered within the past week, but it is ~2.5 years old?

Idk, that just seems harsh to me.

I quite like the name(seal) for this project, either way (compared to the other options presented.)

My 2.5 cents.

GL!

Seriously, it is a few days old:

I am glad for the business -- he bought it for $5.49, less than cost.

I would have tested it since the name is not bad. The issue was that I was annoyed by the outrageous asking price.

Contrast that with the current front-runner: VettedName.com, which was a late entrant. That was a name I bought after the poll started because a Nigerian domainer suggested it. I think he told his friends to vote for it, so the poll might have a little bias on that one. The competition is still wide open.

 

[Mister Funsky]

I don't have a horse in this race so I may analyze later (or not...don't want to offend anyone needlessly) but I will say there are a couple real 'barkers' in this list.

It seems there were a few more entrants, based on earlier thread posts, that were clearly better than some on the list. I have only taken the time to check two of the names offered, so there may be history issues on some of those names that caused them not to make it.

Just for giggles, why not in the future post/poll any and all names that are submitted (as long as they meet basic criteria) and then poll that list down to the top 25 for the second vote. Then take that list down to a final top 10 as indicated by votes. Also, require that each person that votes in the final round does so in the thread so we can be sure there is no impropriety in voting (company/employee voting, friend voting, etc.) as is demonstrated by the current front runner.

EDIT: I don't have any issue with a late reg at all. I've regged a few over the last several days that are quite good...my hope is that Rob's product takes off so much that a new niche for names will be born as the competition smells the profits!

 

[oldtimer]

Seriously, it is a few days old

I am glad for the business -- he bought it for $5.49, less than cost.

I would have tested it since the name is not bad. The issue was that I was annoyed by the outrageous asking price.

I am not talking about this specific name here, but the fact that a domain might have been just registered should not affect its value, granted that most newly registered domains might not be worth a lot, but you never know when someone might get lucky and register a million dollar domain and so it's best to evaluated each domain on its own merit and inherent value and not necessarily on when it was registered. I think perhaps we need to add this to the Epik University courses.

 

[oldtimer]

My translator says it must be a Veterinarian office. Heeeh?

From my research it seems that "to Vet", "Vetted" or "Vetting" are related to the word "Veterinarian" which was originally derived from the Latin word "Veterinae" which means Cattle in English. So I assume that the same way a Veterinarian has to do a thorough examination of a herd of Cattle to make sure that they are all okay and can be given a seal of approval the same principal can apply when Vetting people (or domains in this case).

Just think of Domains as Cattle and then Vetted Names or Domains can make more sense.

 

[wwwweb]

Show attachment 130136

PC used to be relevant but now Laptop, Tablet, Smartphone have overtaken it. You are just limiting the likelyhood of a sale, by playing in a more cornered type niche.

 

[Joakim]

My vote goes to NameSeal.com from that list, but several other great options not in the poll have already been mentioned.

Realizing my submission for NameBlitz.com didn't attract any attention, I have already sold that one, as it's more suitable for a domain portfolio.

 

[wwwweb]

Why would they allow multiple votes for a poll, that is absurd. Obviously the person who posted vettedname.com is looking for a big payday from Epik thinking if they stuff the ballot box, little do they know this is not the end all when it comes to choosing a name.

 

[Rob Monster]

Thanks .. That was exactly my feeling when I submitted the name. I think contextually and in terms of delivering the message of what they're trying to do it's one of the better domains. Although I do have to admit that NameSeal is simpler and somewhat catchier brand. I loved the use of crucial as opposed to "great", or something in that vein, because some people might need to insure domains that they themselves admit might not be top notch, but are still crucial to the running of their business.

CrucialNames also conveys an impression of empathy and understanding to potential customers in that the service understands that regardless of the domain, it will always be handled as if it was of crucial importance to them.



Doesn't really help that you've posted too many names for anyone to keep up with, most of them worse than the top choices ... HOWEVER .. both VettedNames and VettedDomains are at least linguistically usable .. whereas VettedName isn't the expected natural language and really should not even be a consideration. Both those names you proposed here are a million times better and more appropriate (although in the end unfortunately those names only covers half of what they'll be doing with the business, so while linguistically and structurally correct, still not ideal choices).


Which leads me to say that unfortunately as @Rob Monster posts more and more name contests, I think the integrity of polling is just going to continue to plummet. Honestly .. anybody who voted for VettedName really are either fake accounts, are only voting because of a connection to the person who submitted the domain, or simply don't have sufficient language or branding skills to know what a good brand actually is. It's such a bad domain that I wouldn't take insurance there even if it were free .. because the first and ONLY thing I'd think of is that it's some foreign hacker trying to steal my info!

It's really unfortunate that whoever the domain belongs to, likely rallied all his or her friends to blindly vote for it .. because now these polls have effectively become completely useless (including this one). Seeing an effective margin of error of 100% on the leading domain really means this poll should be thrown out. Rob .. you should gather some very trusted employees (with existing experience in branded) or hire the services of some of the better branders you can hire, and go through the submissions with them one by one .. dropping a few each round until you're left with a clear winner.

Most definitely I'd suggest using NamePros .. but only for written comments in the goal of discovering pros/cons on some of the names you might have missed .. not for an actual poll.

You might also want to post in the Insider's Lounge, as I think people in there have either paid for an account or have been a member for over a year .. still not the ideal .. but quite a bit better .. plus there's the advantage of the domains not being publicly viewable.

Yes, the poll is an unscientific in every way. ICYMI, in 1999 I founded and led Global Market Insite (GMI) which scaled to 300 employees and was sold to WPP for 9 figures cash. It was my first big exit. The idea of it centered on online market research, and was conceived at the end of a 9 year career at P&G.

One of the things you see a lot in market research is focus groups, one on one interview and ethnographic studies. It is great for range-finding, and figuring out potential problems or opportunities around a concept.

I treat these polls as Concept tests. The added incentive here is that someone sells a domain, and others promote their names in a way that some contextual theme. After all, there is little joy in poring over random portfolios. However, if someone is later looking fo a similar domain, this thread is money.

As for selecting a name, I am a little behind on PMs after a busy week but powering through them tonight and this weekend in between family commitments, most notably, my youngest daughter has Homecoming and my wife and I agreed to host a bunch of high school kids for their after-party.

Updates to follow.