Since every website needs a name, Dr. Steve Baba has written a
free ebook that will help you obtain a brandable, memorable
domain name at a reasonable cost, which will contribute to your
brand equity and profits. The ebook, downloadable from
Seemly.com, explains how to select and buy an elite domain name.
You will be able to obtain a better name than your competitors
have.

There are at least 10,000 words in a dictionary that would make
great domain names plus at least 10,000 proper names and 10,000
great short coined-words. With a supply of 30,000 great names
and millions of good names, obtaining a good name is easy.

There is no need to pay more than a few thousand dollars for a
great one-word domain name, and many good domain names are
available for free. This book provides you with the information
needed to beat domain name speculators at their games.

Both naming methodology to identify great domain names and
negotiating/purchasing methods to obtain great domain names at
low prices are covered. After a couple of introductory sections,
the book starts with domain naming goals or the criteria for
choosing a great domain name: image, memorability,
trademark-legal, and price. Then quality domain naming
strategies are discussed. Inferior domain naming styles, which
you want to avoid, are then discussed.

The second half of this
book explains how to buy a great domain name. Auctions, expired
domains, speculators, and other sources are discussed. Finally,
many other topics are expanded on.

Steve Baba has a Ph.D. in Economics and ebusiness experience.
The ebook on domain names is available at www.seemly.com, for
free. No registration is required. The ebook is a PDF file of
approximately 250K. The free ebook is advertising supported. The
following paragraphs are book excerpts. Generic names, arbitrary
dictionary words, coined or made-up words, modified generic
names (generic plus) and unrelated two-word names are quality
domain naming strategies. But, each quality strategy has
strengths and weaknesses.

There is no such thing as a perfect
name. Generic names are highly controversial and expensive.
Examples of generic names are Hotels.com, Shoes.com and
Furniture.com. The generic name strategy was always
controversial and peaked during the dotcom bubble. The generic
naming strategy is virtually never used offline, but a very few
small stores do business under generic names such as the
"Mattress Store" in Annapolis, Maryland. Offline, anyone can use
the same generic name and open a store name "Mattress Store."
Online, ownership of the domain name MattressStore.com can only
prevent competitors from using the same exact domain name.
Since, generic names cannot be trademarked, competitors can use
Hotels.NET, Rooms.com, Hotelrooms.com, Motels.com, Hotel.com
(singular), Inns.com Hotels.us, and so on. Often, there are a
half dozen simple generic names for each industry not to mention
generic names with a prefix (e, i) or suffix such as
eHotels.com. Since competitors can use similar generic names,
developing a distinct, memorable brand is difficult.


Memorability or the need to spend less on advertising is often
an argument for high domain name prices - but this argument is
only half true. At the same time, with only a few first-rate
generic names in each industry, the generic domain names may be
unavailable or overpriced, and are rarely bargain-priced. A
generic name also hampers brand extension beyond the generic
category - Hotels.com selling plane tickets? Another quality
strategy is unrelated, arbitrary dictionary words. Examples of
unrelated dictionary word names include Amazon.com Yahoo.com,
Google.com, Target and Staples. Both the words yahoo and google
are in the Oxford dictionary, but were rarely used prior to
becoming famous brands.

Compared to generic names, it was not
immediately obvious what business Amazon, Yahoo or Google was
in. On the other hand, Yahoo can legally prevent competitors
from using similar names such as FreeHoo via trademark laws.
SearchEngine.com would be the generic name for Google. "Fast"
and "All The Web" are used as trademarks by another search
engine. But "fast" and "all the web" are not unrelated or
arbitrary. Other search engines can also claim to be fast,
speedy, quick, the entire web, or something similar. The key to
having the most trademark protection is to choose an unrelated,
arbitrary word. Descriptive words, such as fast, are unlikely to
earn much trademark protection. Instead of fast, it may be
possible to use a suggestive name such as jet, rocket, or race.
With 10,000 good, short, easy-to-spell dictionary words, it is
always possible to find one for a few thousand dollars. Shorter
four or five character dictionary words are more expensive.


Three character dictionary words are extremely expensive. Coined
or fanciful words are words such as Exxon or Kodak that had no
prior use. In theory, coined words are the best from a
trademark-legal point of view, since no one has used the word
before. Ideally, a coined word is totally new and unrelated to
any other word. But, memorability requires a short name, which
has led to a number of similar coined names such as Duron,
Enron, and Micron, which diminishes the legal advantage, since
confusion is possible. LexIs sued LexUs. While the legal
protection is not perfect, the legal protection is considered
the strongest of any category. But from a marketing point of
view since no one has used the word, coined words may be as
difficult to remember as nonsense syllables. With a supply of
thousands if not tens of thousands of short, coined words, it is
always possible to find one for a few thousand dollars or less -
often free.

Because of the lack of trademark protection for
generic names, the lack of distinctiveness, and the cost of many
generic domain names, many businesses have used a "generic plus"
or "modified generic" naming strategy. A prefix, suffix or
second word can be added to the generic name. Examples of this
are Carmax, CarMart, eCars, CarDepot, CarOne and CarLand. This
works if the generic word, such as car, is short. Longer generic
names, such as CarpetCleaningMax.com, can be too long. But many
of the longer generic words have common abbreviations. For
example, computer is often abbreviated "comp" as in CompUSA.
Software is often shortened to "soft" or "ware" in names. Tech
is a common abbreviation for technology, overused in names.

These names range from virtually generic, eCars.cars, to nearly
coined, QuanCars.com, with descriptive, suggestive and arbitrary
second-words in-between. Since the generic word lacks any
trademark protection, the trademark strength depends on the
trademark strength of the "plus" part of the name. The generic
plus strategy is often an attempt to have the benefits from both
a generic and a distinctive name, but may have the problems of
both if one is not careful. At worst, it could infringe on
someone's trademark based on the second word such as CarsRus or
CarBay. The generic part of the word is usually trademark safe.
Another strategy is to use two unrelated words in a name.
Examples of two unrelated words are RedEnvelope.com and
BlueTooth.com.

The two unrelated words strategy differs from the
generic-plus strategy in that neither word is related to the
generic product. Technically red is related to envelope by being
an adjective, but neither word is closely related to the product
or service being sold. The main advantage to this method, two
unrelated words, is that it's cheap and often free. With 30,000
single words, there are 900 million combinations of two single
words (30,000 x 30,000). The main disadvantage is that two
unrelated words are twice as difficult to remember as one. Two
words that are commonly related to each other such as "happy
birthday" or "hot wire" are easier to remember, but rare and may
be as expensive as single words. From a trademark viewpoint, it
could be twice as risky.

It could infringe on someone's
trademark based on either the first or second word. If you are
RedDog.com selling computers, either Red Computers or Dog
Computers could consider trademark action against you. The
entire book can be read at www.seemly.com.