How to avoid domain name disasters

You're planning on launching a new website and realise that you have yet to choose a domain name. You get your team together and start the selection process.

However, some thought should be given as to how your domain name will be perceived, the impression that it will give about your business and how the domain name will be marketed.

Some names are great, and self explanatory, www.diy.com, the home of the UK's No1 DIY chain, B&Q, www.bbc.co.uk, www.amazon.com, www.ebay.com, www.google.com etc.

In their own right, these are good - they either represent the company or the services offered by the company.

However, for some people, good is not enough, they need to be seen as being "smart", "trendy", "hip", "cool" or whatever the current word of the day is for one who is in tune with youth culture.

A classic example is the former mobile phone company, one2one. Great company name. It embodies the text culture, it hints at the nature of the company, is fairly short and snappy and looks good on paper and that is probably how it came about. People sharing ideas by email or paper.

Luckily the company had a huge marketing budget covering print media, TV and radio so the brand name was spread far and wide. However, just imagine how it would have been were the budget to be significantly smaller.

When talking about the web address, the owner would have had to almost spell it out to the listener - "yes, we have a web site, it is at www.one2one.co.uk and that is the word "one", the number "2", that's the digit 2, followed by the word "one" again.

All of a sudden the snappy web address seems a lot less snappy and almost a liability.

So how about www.business-in-the-west.co.uk, this looks really good on paper - easy to read, much easier than www.businessinthewest.co.uk and yet - - when one tries to communicate this message verbally, it gets extremely convoluted.

So, choosing a domain name can be more of a minefield than one may originally think.

Of course, choosing a domain name verbally also has its share of problems.

There was much hilarity when Italian battery distributor Powergen Italia was thought to have registered the domain name www.powergenitalia.com. Easy to see how this conclusion could have been reached - they are called Powergen Italia after all. However, put it on paper and it could take on a totally different, and unwanted, meaning.

It was later confirmed to be a spoof and powergenitalia was no more.

However, there are some sites where errors of this magnitude have been made.

I'm not sure whether this site is a spoof or not - I've been aware of it for a couple of years. It has been updated a couple of times and seems legitimate but it just does not "smell" right. The company sells promotional pens, the type where you get your company name printed on them. The company name is Pen Island, however put together as www.penisland.net is a little more risque, this IS an example where a hyphen would have helped.

How about the site put together by software experts to exchange ideas. www.expertsexchange.com - sadly they seem to have realised the error of their ways and sold this domain on now, but for a long time it was a repository for software ideas, not experts on sex change.

There is a site for actors who are looking for an agent. If you want to know who represents a particular actor, you can use the site www.whorepresents.com Sounds great over the phone but written down - well my wife would not be too happy if she thought I was buying presents for whores.

And finally - Californian Therapists. Want to find a therapist in California, then go to www.therapistfinder.com. They really should have used that hyphen, www.therapist-finder.com because the alternative reading (especially bearing in mind the potential target market) is simply awful.

So, there you have, exercise caution when selecting a domain name. See how it looks on paper, look at all the ways the letters can be split up and also think about how you would explain it to a potential customer over the phone.