Did a domain you’re interested in bring you to my site?
Say Hello, and let’s talk about it!
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your project.
Most of my domains are priced in the lowish four figures.
Naming and Domains – Rev.com’s CEO Jason Chicola with Shaan Puri on the My First Million Podcast
Excerpt from the ‘Getting a Billion People Working From Home‘ episode of the My First Million podcast with Shaan Puri. The entire episode (linked to above) is great but I wanted to focus on what Jason Chicola shares about naming his company and acquiring the domain. He demonstrates some hard-earned wisdom in his approach.
Chicola spent $400k to acquire Rev.com (a huge part of their assets at the time).
- Started off with a funky (animal + keyword) $12 Godaddy domain to make clear and specific their initial product offering. Knew it was temporary. “Spend no time at the beginning thinking about a name because the odds that your business is going to work are not super high”.
- Only later when the business was working and they’d found a good product/market fit did he prioritize naming the company.
- “It’s really a two part problem. One is picking a name that you love, and then figuring out can you get the domain name”.
- Hired two domain brokers to research his name list.
- Used Mechanical Turk to evaluate names…”What three words does this name evoke?”
New Names For Startups
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First Names Make Great Brands!
For more information or to make an offer, email me.
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Most of my domains are priced low to mid 4 figures.
I’m up for creative deals.
Like the names but not your niche? I can find you a great name for a reasonable price.
Lots more elsewhere in the blog or email me!
Looking for some perspective? What is a First Name Domain Worth?
One Domain Can Change Everything | NameCorp
Excellent summary of all the advantages to owning and building on a great domain name.
Read the full article: One Domain Can Change Everything
A Domain Name Is An Asset.
Say that with me again, so you understand the difference between buying a service and an asset. A domain name is an asset.
- A domain name is not a toy.
- A domain name is not just a thing for the Interweb.
- A domain name is not something everybody will automatically remember.
A domain name is a highly valuable piece of intellectual property that you need to focus on getting right.
- A domain name is something your staff has to spell every day
- A domain name is the face of your company email
- A domain name is your home on the web.
Try To Get It Right The First Time!
Change Your Name
“If you have a US startup called X and you don’t have x.com, you should probably change your name.
The reason is not just that people can’t find you. For companies with mobile apps, especially, having the right domain name is not as critical as it used to be for getting users. The problem with not having the .com of your name is that it signals weakness.”
–Paul Graham 8, 2015
What I Learned Spending $1.5 Million on Sumo.com
“This is crazy for me. I used to be so against buying expensive domain names!”
– Noah Kagan Feb 16, 2017
How (and Why) We Purchased the Snappa.com Domain for $40,000
Since Snappa.com was taken, we registered Snappa.io. I mean, all the hip new startups were using .io right?
Brutal Honesty: The Developer CEO & Our Journey
So, in the end, we went with a terrible domain name – “teamworkpm.net”. Could it be worse?
Captain Hindsight says we should have called it GetTeamwork.com
The upgrade to Teamwork.com cost them $675k
How to Name Your Startup
“The domain name doesn’t matter.”
My current startup is named Buffer, but the domain name is bufferapp.com
— Written by Joel Gascoigne Jan 17, 2014
We acquired Buffer.com: Here is how and why we did it
(At a cost of what’s estimated to be $600k)
– Rodolphe DutelMar 10, 2015
How Is A Sale Transacted?
So you found the name you’ve been looking for. You contacted me with an email, we’ve come to an agreement on the price. Then what? How does the domain become yours? It goes like this:
- I initiate a transaction at Escrow.com
- Escrow emails you and if you don’t already have one, you sign up for an Escrow account. Once you accept the terms of the sale that I’ve listed (as per our negotiation) I will get an email from Escrow stating so. Escrow will now ask you to fund the transaction. Your money goes to Escrow.com.
- Once Escrow has the funds, they email me with the go ahead to begin the domain transfer.
- I will have already collected from you your Godaddy account# and the email address that is associated with that account. I begin a ‘push’ from my Godaddy account to yours.
- Once the domain has transferred to your account, you inform Escrow.com that you are in possession of the domain. Only then are the funds released to me.
Why Escrow.com? Because they’re very good, very secure, and their pricing is fair. If you’re new to Escrow you may be asked to provide some form of identification to confirm your account. Although it can be part of the negotiation, typically the buyer pays escrow fees. The fees will depend on the amount of the transaction and the form of payment. You can calculate escrow fees here: https://www.escrow.com/fee-calculator.
Once Escrow informs me that the funds have been deposited, I initiate the domain transfer to your Godaddy account. Even if you don’t normally use Godaddy as your registrar, I highly recommend going this route because it is by far the easiest. I will simply need your Godaddy account # and the email address that associates with that account.
If you’re new to the Godaddy interface, finding your new domain can be a bit daunting. It will be found in the Domain Manager Control Panel top left under the Domains dropdown (next to DNS) in Pending Account Changes > Incoming Account Changes.
Once you accept the domain it goes into your account and you have full control of it. You can begin using it immediately. If for some reason you’re not comfortable with doing the transfer at Godaddy I would suggest using Escrow’s ‘Concierge’ service. More expensive, but hands on help in doing the transfer (explained very well here). Once you have possession of the domain (there is an ‘inspection’ period, but expediting this part of the process is greatly appreciated) you let Escrow know you’ve received it, at which point they release the funds to me. At each step of the process Escrow updates with emails. The transaction is updated in your Escrow account as each step is completed. If it’s your turn to take action it will be stated there as well.
There’s A Domain For That – Startup Domains For Sale
A selection of names acquired over the last six months. Hundreds of hours pouring over domain drop lists and navigating the auction sites so that you don’t have to. For more information or to make an offer, email me (If you don’t hear back it slipped into the spam folder – please try again).
More great names here and here! Contact form, or…
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Most of my domains are priced low to mid 4 figures.
I’m up for creative deals.
Like the names but not your niche? I can find you a great name for a reasonable price.
Lots more elsewhere in the blog or email me!
More Great Names For Startups
For more information or to make an offer, email me.
More great names here and here! Contact form, or email me…
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Most of my domains are priced low to mid 4 figures.
I’m up for creative deals.
Like the names but not your niche? I can find you a great name for a reasonable price.
Lots more elsewhere in the blog or email me!
How To Start A Project | Autodidacts
I may be biased 😉 but it seems to me this infographic is missing the ‘look around for reasonably priced domains that match our project idea and save ourselves a whole lot of time’ step. Here’s a few other things to consider… With a better domain, are you more likely to invest time into your project? (Your domain should inspire you and give you confidence to talk about your project!) If you invest in a domain, you have skin in the game and what better nudge to ‘get it done’ than cash out of pocket? Apart from whether or not you build your project, will the domain you’ve invested in become an asset you could resell, that could even increase in value? Does a great domain make your project easier to sell later if you decide to move on?
Early in your project’s life, your domain is the clearest signal of how clever you are as an entrepreneur.
From Autodidacts.io (Well, of course, great content can help… at least in the short run.)
