The Value of Domain Names
What makes a domain name valuable? With many premium domains going for millions of dollars, you want to be sure that you're getting your money's worth when you acquire one. Basically it all comes down to branding.
Your Domain Should Be Shareable
When you're trying to build your business, you want to make it easy to share by word of mouth and easy to type into a browser. That brings more potential customers to your door. There are two main things you need to do to achieve this.
Make It Short
Shorter names are easier to remember and less work to type. That's part of the reason why Facebook changed from thefacebook.com to facebook.com and Uber from ubercab.com to uber.com. In particular, domains that are six characters or less or usually are seen as ideal.
Make Sure It Passes the Radio Test
You want a happy customer to be able to mention your domain on the radio and not have to spell it out. bfffr.com is shorter than buffer.com, but it's very hard to pronounce! That's why Buffer switched from the former to the latter.
Your Domain Should Inspire Trust
Your domain is part of your brand. When potential customers hear it, they should feel like it's part of a company they can trust.
Make It a Dot Com
The ".com" domain extension is the most popular and recognizable domain extension. Acquiring the ".com" domain makes your brand more trustworthy and memorable. You could go with another extension if you're having issues claiming the dot com. For instance Instagram went with instagr.am when it first started out. But if you can acquire the dot com, that's the way to go (and the way Instagram eventually went).
It Should Be as Close to Your Brand Name as Possible
When you're starting out, getting the ideal domain name can be hard. That's why companies will often go for something more complicated than just their name. That's why DropBox went with getdropbox.com early on.
But having your company's name as the domain is the ideal. All the other rules are just variations on this. getdropbox.com makes it feel like the business is just starting out (and therefore might fail). dropbox.com feels like the domain of an established and trustworthy website. Conveying trust and confidence is the key value of your domain.
For all the above reasons, it's vital for your business to have a strong branded domain name. Venture can help make that possible for you.