BustAName.com

When starting a business, coming up with a name for you business, to me, is probably one of the tougher things one has to do. It seems easy, it should take a lot of thought, some trial and error and some research. It use to be you could simply come up with name, check to see if it was trademarked, and if wasn’t previously held by someone else, all you had to do is write it into your articles of incorporation and “tad-da”, you’re in business with a brand new shiny name.

Now-a-days, you can not brainstorm a name of a new business without taking into account whether or not there was a suitable and available domain name for it. I would venture to say that you’re more likely to find someone squatting on a good domain name, than you are finding it already as a registered as trademark by a competitor in your industry.

The reason is thanks to cybersquatters, these guys are out to make bunk by registering all the common domain names that anyone could want, sitting on them until they find someone to resell them to you at a marked up price. It’s a bit like scalping tickets for a popular concert. These folks have no intention to do anything domain name, other than selling it to you at a premium.

So, thanks to these guys, many times finding a domain name and thus a name for your new company, is a little more about compromise. Someone may very well have your first pick of a domain name, but by playing around a little with some variations, you can find a great alternative domain name without having to dole out hard cash or go to battle with a cybersquatter over it.

Fortunately, there’s a easy tool to help you come up with variations. Bustaname.com is simple ajax based site allows you enter various keywords or phrases and it displays which combinations are available.

Three Simple Steps

1) First add keywords and synonyms that relate to your business name that you’re hoping find a good domain for, then click add.

2) This is where they appear and you can get further suggested words by placing your mouse over the blue arrow.

You can remove any them simply by clicking on the red icon.

3) Anything that appears under Available Domains is yours for the taking, if you want them. They even connect directly to popular domain name registrars (yes, inexpensive ones!).

TIP: Exclude some variations with the use of Groups

If you play around with it, you’ll realize that you may want to try various combinations of some keywords and at the same time excluding others. For example, try combinations with the words “frames” and “framing”, but do not want available domains showing both such as framesframingart.com, all you need is click on Add Group and drag both those keywords into the group.

Good domains are easy to say and easy to spell. Just remember, you’ll be saying it a lot so make it easy on yourself.

Start with Bustaname.com to help you find a good one for you. Good luck!

Here’s a few E-Commerce facts found collected by SMBTN Network (smbtn.com).

3/4 of online shoppers say they would not return to a website that took longer than 4 seconds to load.
Akamai, 11/2006

Online retailers are acquiring new customers at a 15% annual rate versus 2% for traditional brick and mortar retail outlets.
Deloitte & Touche USA, 11/2006

Consumers are 50% more likely to be influenced by blogs and e-mails than TV or radio advertising.
EPM Communications, 04/2006

93% of consumers say they are unlikely to purchase from or even return to a website after encountering annoying pop-up ads; 89% are annoyed when they need to install extra software; 83% are annoyed when registration pages block access to online content.
Hostway, 07/2005

79% of small businesses shop online regularly.
Jupiter Research, 07/2006

16% of consumers say they would contact a vendor through e-mail. 68% of consumers say they would use the phone number listed on a website to contact a vendor.
Nielsen/Net Ratings, 09/2006

54% of consumers referred a friend to a vendor found online.
Nielsen/Net Ratings, 11/2006

93% of those who have a net worth of $10 million or more have purchased a luxury product on the internet in the past year.
The Luxury Institute, 07/2006