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Author Topic: Domain Names. What's yours and why?  (Read 9480 times)

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« on: October 01, 2007, 14:02 »
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How did you go about picking a domain name for your photo website?  Did you use your name i.e. joebloggsphotography.com or think of something with a photographic theme i.e. f-stop.com?

I already have three other websites covering my various interests but now Id like one for photography. Does anyone have any suggestions for a domain name that isnt already taken?


« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2007, 14:13 »
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I already have three other websites covering my various interests but now Id like one for photography. Does anyone have any suggestions for a domain name that isnt already taken?

I assume you register your domain with GoDaddy and not with the hoster, or you will find yourself a hostage by your hoster if you want to change hosting. On GoDaddy it's easy to look up what's still free.

Nowadays you have to work backwards. Think of a domain/brand name first, check whether the domain is still free, then register it - and afterwards you can work from that name on...
Don't forget to register the same name on Yahoo, GMail, Blogspot, etc...
After all that, you can Trademark the name officially, and you're set.

« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2007, 18:47 »
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The domain name that I have for my non photographic sales (i buy and sell vintage cameras and melamine) is cutterpup.com, long story, but in over ten years I have moved three times and was never "held hostage" by my original host/register which was yahoo.  I still use cutterpup as my screen name/non photographic address.
My photographic one combines two interests, that way I can use it for both photographic images and plant sales "orchidimages".

« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2007, 19:21 »
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I already have three other websites covering my various interests but now Id like one for photography. Does anyone have any suggestions for a domain name that isnt already taken?

I assume you register your domain with GoDaddy and not with the hoster, or you will find yourself a hostage by your hoster if you want to change hosting. On GoDaddy it's easy to look up what's still free.

Nowadays you have to work backwards. Think of a domain/brand name first, check whether the domain is still free, then register it - and afterwards you can work from that name on...
Don't forget to register the same name on Yahoo, GMail, Blogspot, etc...
After all that, you can Trademark the name officially, and you're set.

Amen!!   I went with GoDaddy as well.   Finding a name?  Good luck.  Try it yourself.  Just pick two words that have nothing to do with each other and google it.  Odds are, it's a name already..  LOL LOL.
  I literally spent months trying to come up with something, I wrote down hundreds (no exaggeration) of names, ones I would have bet the farm no one had.  Good thing I didn't bet!
   I didn't want family name, didn't want something common... wanted something different.  I also got this bug in my head that I wanted a number in it?  why?  ........no clue.  I thought I wanted something 'spacey'  as in outerspace....  finally,  I decided if I found the name of the newest star discovered/named in the universe,  how many could possibly have that already?
     The newest star named at the time was Pegasus 35.   I wanted a number, so I picked 8,  the number in my family.   And since we were going to be doing illustration and graphics besides photos,  we went with  'imagery'.
     I did the latin plural of   'us'  which is 'i'   and put together  "Pegasi 8 Imagery" .   It wasn't taken,  I went to GoDaddy, bought it and five domains close to it in net, com and biz.   

   Also, if you are going to use it for a business, you might want to make sure the name isn't already registered as a business in your state or local.  We went to the state and fed, got registered, got our federal ID number....   Now, we are doing business as Pegasi 8 Imagery, LLC. 

STILL don't have the website completed, in fact still in the embryo stage. It's a lot of work.  For that we went with Better Photo.com.

But... the money is coming in.  I'm already published in magazines, books, internet.... so is my wife.   We started 'pro' in micros a little over a year ago,  now, microstock  is the least of our income in photography.  We are at this time turning down work.      SOooooo  Peat Bog,  GO FOR IT!   It's tough in the beginning, but it's worth it!  A year and a half ago, if someone told me I'd be doing what I am doing now... I would have laughed and called them fools.  Impossible!

  Nope, it isn't.

I'm sure you can find many other similar stories from the gang here!               
                               8)-tom

 
« Last Edit: October 01, 2007, 19:26 by a.k.a.-tom »

« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2007, 19:28 »
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LOL I have over 80 domains sitting pretty with godaddy

The main one that I use for my website is just my surname so www.meder.net also use it for my emails, sweet and short :)

« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2007, 20:22 »
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I was lucky a couple of years ago, and registered epixx.net. Haven't updated in two years though. Too much to do   ???

For non-photograpic purposes, I just registered toosmall.net, but nothing there yet. In 2015 maybe  ::)

« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2007, 01:49 »
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Mine is issimple.com

I like it very much cause i can just append anything to the front as sub-domain eg stockphoto.issimple.com, photography.issimple.com

But so far .. not much work done on it ..

« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2007, 07:25 »
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Which one? :-).

http://www.trash.co.nz  <- I used to run a dial-up BBS called 'The Trashcan', and then when I started a web hosting business it seemed logical to use a similar name, and the same logo..

http://www.ohmark.co.nz <- Business name, for a business I sold in 2004 doing electronics design and development.

And finally: http://cpix.co.nz <- cpix is short and easy to remember, and fits on my jackets etc easily It sorta works as an acronym for a photography business as well.

There were quite a few others I had and subsequently dropped when I started to wind down my web  business about a year ago (Still supporting old customers, not taking on any new ones)

« Reply #8 on: October 02, 2007, 12:59 »
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This tread made me think about getting one. I just registered naturextra.com this morning.

I did choose this name simply because I specialize in nature and animals pictures, also, this name works both in French and English. Domain name with nature in it are getting hard to find. It will take a while before I do something with it, but at least I own it.  :D

Thanks for the tread.

« Reply #9 on: October 02, 2007, 13:01 »
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Peat Bog, the trend is brandable over relevance.

The most famous case was amazon.com who could have gone with books.com (yes, they were THAT early!), but imagine how inappropriate that name would be now given all the businesses that amazon.com are running.

Look at Fotolia as a name. It's both brandable and relevant. It's more specific and creative, giving it a stronger identity than names like photos.com (who sell stock photos). Photos.com cannot protect their brand from anyone using stockphotos.com or bigphotos.com or freephotos.com. However, Fotolia would have a strong case against anyone using stockfotolia.com.

Also, look at how Fotolia's brand allows for vertical expansion into other photography related products and services. They could easily start selling camera, photography courses, macrostock photos or media services for the photography market. It's more restrictive than amazon.com, but much less restrictive than BigStockPhoto, for example.

In short, you don't necessarily need to have your keyword in your domain name. surnamephotos.com is no better than surname.com, though will always be more likely to be available. AKA Tom's name, Pegasi8, is a good example. It's very brandable. Perhaps not as memorable as amazon.com, but we don't all have the extremely-early adopter advantage of Jeff Bezos (amazon.com founder and CEO)!

So don't feel you need to have PeatBogPhotos.com.

« Reply #10 on: October 02, 2007, 13:10 »
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Good thread... I just registered PenelopeB.com - guess its time to get busy this fall on my website.

« Reply #11 on: October 02, 2007, 13:39 »
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Many years ago I was in the same boat and I spent over a week writing down potential domain names.  I just wanted someplace to put my photos, artwork and blog.  I continually bounced names off my husband, trying to come up with something that was different and of course available.  I don't really remember why we chose pixelbrat.com but the hubby thought it was cute and catchy so it stuck.  About a year ago when I really started taking my art and photography seriously I wanted another domain that looked a bit more professional.  Since I've gone by pixelbrat on the web for so long I wanted to integrate it into the new name.  I do art of all sorts along with photography so I just stuck "imagery" on the end and PixelbratImagery.com was born.  :D  I still use pixelbrat.com for my blog and other stuff.
« Last Edit: October 02, 2007, 13:51 by pixelbrat »

« Reply #12 on: October 02, 2007, 16:10 »
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vividpixels.net - which there is nothing really there other than a canned rapidweaver design as a placeholder. I am hoping to get something up someday.

I too spent a few days looking through the online thesaurus looking up words and their synonyms and finally settled on "vividpixels"  - .com was taken  so I went with .net, .org, and .us
I am a retoucher and do stock in my spare time, so I thought that vividpixels was a perfect name for what I had in mind for my future plans, which are still a bit cloudy but at least I have a good solid name to start with!

« Reply #13 on: October 04, 2007, 17:40 »
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I assume you register your domain with GoDaddy...

Nowadays you have to work backwards. Think of a domain/brand name first...

I used to run a web hosting company so I have a reseller account with eNom.

I've spent the last few days trying to find a name that isn't already taken.  I've come up with one and started work on the site, I must get to bed before 2am tonight though as I'm shattered!


  I too spent a few days looking through the online thesaurus...

I did the thesaurus thing too

Peat Bog, the trend is brandable over relevance ...

... In short, you don't necessarily need to have your keyword in your domain name. surnamephotos.com is no better than surname.com, though will always be more likely to be available. AKA Tom's name, Pegasi8, is a good example. It's very brandable. Perhaps not as memorable as amazon.com, but we don't all have the extremely-early adopter advantage of Jeff Bezos (amazon.com founder and CEO)!

So don't feel you need to have PeatBogPhotos.com.

I didn't think of the Peat Bog name as a domain to be honest, I only use it on forums. It's and old nickname I was given years ago.

I didn't feel I was important enough or brandable to go with an off the wall name like 'go daddy' or 'amazon'.  I've not used my name either, but managed to find something relevant to stock. The dot com has already been registered by someone in the Maldives although the site is not active. So I bought the .co.uk as I'm based in the UK.

Mine is issimple.com

I like it very much cause i can just append anything to the front as sub-domain eg stockphoto.issimple.com, photography.issimple.com

That's a great name very versatile.

Thanks to Lee and eveyone for the advice it's all been helpful. Now back to work on the keywords and descriptions  >:(

Peat Bog



« Reply #14 on: October 05, 2007, 01:52 »
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Just want to add that a domain name should be easy to remember. Especially when you're far away from your bookmarks, or people get word of mouth, easy names from the dictionnary with no typo pitfalls are the best. The domain name issimple.com is genial. Wonder why the big guys overlooked it. I'm sure the owner can sell the name for a good price ;-)

« Reply #15 on: October 06, 2007, 17:20 »
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Hi,

I guess that what most people are saying is true... You have advantages in thinking forward and having a brandable name, and not one directly related to your business, so you can expand if needed in the future, and even if you don't need to expand you still have a great name.

Just about a year ago i had to make such a decision and went with fnalphotos.com
The reasons are simple, i wanted an international name, one where you could easily know the subject when reading it (photos). While i agree that fnalphotos is not very easy to remember and may seem a bit strange (even more in portuguese), it's working and i'm getting a few results, also due to some adwords and some direct marketing i'm carefully and slowing putting into practice.

btw, fnal are just my initials... so no big mystery there.

Regards

Francisco Leito

Quevaal

  • Rust in Peace
« Reply #16 on: October 27, 2007, 18:57 »
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HeyHeyDecay.net. I think it's sort of lame now, but as I deal generally in grungy and decayed textures, I wanted the domain name to reflect that.


« Reply #17 on: October 28, 2007, 04:57 »
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My domains are: www.mjp-photographs.fi and www.mjp-photographs.com. In late of this summer  I decided that it is time to get more serious about this photography thing. So I set up "company" under the same name (MJP-Photographs).

I know little about book keeping etc, but I outsourced things like that to bookkeeping agency (expensive: yes, quality: newer get to this level in my own). This is not yet my full time job :) but maybe some day it generates enough credits to allow me to do so. The name is registered as: "Private person carrying on trade", its like a normal company but in a very small scale :) and the taxing is different from other business forms. I do not know is there similar company/business forms in states etc.

The name comes from my name initials. It's bit a lame, but I hope I get nice logo sometime and I try to build web-site for it. Now the web-site is down, but I try to get something for it in next few days.


OT: Is there any logo designers out there? If you are interested design a log please send me  mail.


br, Mikko

« Reply #18 on: October 28, 2007, 15:20 »
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Some of the best domain names occur to a person when they are trying the least hard - brainstorming ideas, then giving it a rest.

I've had a multimedia business for the past 15 years, http://www.vividmedia.com. The business name I chose in 1992 has (for me) passed the test of time and it still works well. But it took a while to come up with that, I had some real strange ones in the weeks prior, which at the time seemed like good candidates, but now make me choke and gag.

I just finished my initial photography portfolio site, http://www.cameraB.com, a few weeks ago. I wanted the domain name to somehow communicate "photography" without being laborious. Camera + my firstname starts with B, it's simple. I'll know in a few more weeks if I still like it.

I second the godaddy.com registrar recommendation. I don't care for their advertising, and their website is rather difficult to use, but their costs are competitive and they offer good included services like DNS, or even mail and hosting if you want.

If you're looking for a domain name that will also be your business name, the task is harder, but if these two don't need to mesh then choosing a domain name is much easier, and it's easier to switch to something better later.

Many successful photographers have simply used their firstnamelastname.com and this seems to work well.

« Reply #19 on: October 29, 2007, 15:20 »
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because of the way search engines work, a domain name is not all that important anymore.

it has to be rememberable and relevant, and that is about the end of it.

dreamstime does not say anything about stock photos, and yet they are successful.

the actual "best names" is a myth, continued by those who have parked domain names in the hope of selling them to someone at a later date. of course, in Australian that is illegal for .com.au names. It is illegal to sell a domain name, it can only be transferred at no cost.

« Reply #20 on: October 30, 2007, 04:07 »
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My personal portfolio site is at www.sybilleyates.com, my name but sometime ago I acquired photographicfreedom.co.uk and com because I liked the name and you can add sub domains easily now I have only to work on these sites *sigh* SY

« Reply #21 on: October 30, 2007, 07:37 »
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I have 5 domain names but the most important one for me is the one that links them all together. I also needed something bilingual since I have lots of french clients. So... www.Image-Y.com since my name is Yanik. I also have yanikchauvin.com as this was super important to get since it's my name. One day I'll be famous and I wouldn't want anyone to grab it and try to resell it to be to make a quick $.  ;) I use it as my main portfolio site.

RacePhoto

« Reply #22 on: October 30, 2007, 13:17 »
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My surname was taken back in the late 80s, so that was immediately out. I came up with some ideas, but since I do more than photo, nothing relevant would exist. I made up a five letter word, just because it was short, and that's what I registered.  ;D

I use it for storage and there are numerous subtopics stored there, but the main page links to nothing. It's host for a Gardening website, Antiques and Collecting information, I have various photo galleries, another site for a road rally, one for a charity event that I used to work, and of course the email addresses are all mine! Nice for storage above all.

My main landing page is still the free one I get from SBC, formerly Prodigy,  which has links to all the other minor areas and sub-sites that I created in various places, over the years. Wow a whole 15 MB website, what else would I do with it?

Who else would have a recipe for Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls or one dedicated to the TV show (which was canceled before the season ended) "Push Nevada" and have the time and space to waste on them.  :-\

If I get into something serious, I'll have to get into a new site with a new name.

Many websites names have nothing to do with their business, and it doesn't seem to hurt them. The days of the website name making a difference don't seem relevant.

GoDaddy? Amazon? Google? Monster? Have nothing to do with the products.

Find something simple and easy to remember, that's all I'd aim for. However almost all of the above sites, people have listed, seem to have nice names, and relevance, which is good. Tricky spelling will lead to frustration and take people off onto someone else's site.

In short, you could be Timbuk2.com or Qwerty.com and it's just as good as MyPhotosAreFamous.com. I don't think the name is as important as the content.

Quote
in Australian that is illegal for .com.au names. It is illegal to sell a domain name, it can only be transferred at no cost.

Go Aussies. This should be implemented world wide. I probably feel this way because one of the names I wanted was taken and does nothing but forward to a gun and ammo site, which has nothing to do with the name, or their real site. Another one just goes to "buy this domain name" where the owner has it parked, hoping to get money for it.

« Reply #23 on: November 04, 2007, 18:07 »
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araminta.net

Chosen long before I start photography seriously  ;D

As a sci-fi lover... The Araminta Station is a novel from one of the best sci-fi writer, Jack Vance. And "araminta" sounds nice to me.

Some fantasy doesn't hurt.



« Reply #24 on: November 05, 2007, 03:58 »
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Domain name should be easy to remember and also it's smart to use this like brand name. So, I like stock photographer have my brandname and my wish is to remember my name  many people.

Much before stock I was choose this name  because my design and multimedia  background. When you choosing brand name or something like this fallow this simple steps:

- easy to remember
- easy to say
- not to long (5 characters max)
- have some meaning
- free domain name
- somewhere on beginning of alphabet (because of listing domains or users, it is  good if you are on first place. Another tip is to use some special character before name like -,.)
- everyday word (optional)
- international, mean same on all languages
etc, etc...

Here is one example of using special character and setting it before name. Because my brandname/nickname beginning with latter S I was put "." before name.

.shock

http://www.istockphoto.com/user_view.php?id=1409170

One more thing. If you wish to be successful in stock business look all this just like ordinary business. More and more I trying to, but I don't have much time.

So, good luck.


 

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