Picking Domain Names

For the most part, I’m happy with the domain lifecatcher.net. In the process, I realized somethings that I wanted in a domain name. Ultimately, you need the domain name to be easy to remember. After all, if people never remember your domain name, then you’ve lost a reader. Additionally, I wanted a domain name that would translate into a useful email address, which had different requirements.

Here are some things I learned in the process of choosing lifecatcher.net.

1. Use Normal Words or Catchy Made Up Ones

For a domain to be easy to remember, you need it to be made of normal words. Alternatively, it can be a made up word, but make sure it is easy to say. If the reader can’t pronounce the name of your site, then there’s a good chance that he or she won’t remember it either. Stay away from awkward consonant combinations. For example, “Panera” is pretty easy to remember and flows off the tongue. “BSCSS” is unpronounceable and therefore, more difficult to remember. Companies and organizations like using acronyms or an abbreviation for the website name, but this often leads to difficult recall of the domain. In other words, unless you are UPS, don’t use acronyms.

You could also use normal words with unconventional suffixes. “Writely.com” is one example. The word “write” is a little plain, but the “ly” makes it stick out a lot more, and is easier to remember. I would never use “writely” in my normal speech, but it makes a good domain name.

2. Use Words that You Won’t Easily Mix Up

One of the domain names I thought of was papertype.com. I registered it, but was ultimately unhappy with it. Why? I thought the two words “paper” and “type” could be easily reversed in the reader’s mind. Neither papertype nor typepaper is more intuitive than the other, so I canned that domain name because I thought there would be a risk that people would mess up the domain name by mixing up the two words.

In a two-word domain name like “lifecatcher,” one way to remedy the mix-up-words problem is to make one word a noun and have the other word function to describe the noun. I think “lifecatcher” is a good example. No one will remember it as “lifercatch” or “catchlifer” or “catcherlife.” Of all the possible combinations, lifecatcher is the one that makes the most sense, and it’s because of the “er” added to “catch,” which makes sure that “catch” will come second in the sequence of words when the reader recalls it. There’s a risk that the reader will remember “lifecatch” instead, but I decided that the chances of that were relatively low.  “Catcher” suggests a person, whereas “catch” does not. So hopefully, when people hear “lifecatcher,” they’ll make some connection in their mind about the site and the person behind the site.

3. Be Careful of Hidden Words or Meanings

Just be on the look out for unintended meanings in the domain name that you pick and words that inadvertently stick out as a result of combining words. The SNL skit containing the phrase “the pen is mighter” comes to mind.

4. Ask What Meaning You Want to Convey

I picked “lifecatcher” because I wanted to convey that my site is about “catching” bits of my life and noting them down in my blog. Sometimes those bits will come as words, but it might come in the form of music, video, or pictures. I wanted to leave the title ambiguous enough so that I wouldn’t feel constrained by the title to only put particular types of content.

While you need to keep other things in mind, don’t forget the reason that you’re creating the website. Maybe you’re doing it because you are really passionate about something. Whatever it is, you should at least suggest it in the domain name. I remember coming up with a few names that I thought were really catchy, but they had nothing to do with what I wanted the website to be about. As a result, I had to toss those.

5. Email Criteria

I also wanted a new email address at the end of all the domain hunting. Therefore, there was some additional requirements that my domain name needed to meet. First, I wanted the email address to be something easy to spell. Luckily, my first name is Dan, which isn’t hard to spell anyways, so I wanted the rest of my email address to be easy too. That way, if I say my email address out loud, the other person will be able to easily jot it down. As a result, I eliminated made up words, words spelled in an unconventional manner (i.e., flickr), words that could be spelled multiple ways (i.e., tune vs. toon), and excess punctuation (i.e., hyphens). Though a bit extreme, I also didn’t want any numbers in my email address. Lots of people use them in gmail or hotmail addresses, but since I created my own domain, I decided to eliminate numbers.

Additionally, I wanted the email address to be something that I wouldn’t mind giving to a stranger. That is, I wouldn’t feel embarassed or self conscious about what my email address contained. I didn’t want it to be offensive either. Sometimes, you have to decide whether you really care about other peoples’ opinions of you. Usually it doesn’t matter, but sometimes it does. And an email address can potentially impact what someone thinks about you. If that someone is an employer, then you don’t want to take a chance by giving an email address that sounds childish or racy.

6. Com vs Net

It’s probably best to do .com if you can. But the amount of squatters out there probably makes it harder to get the .com name that you want. Often though, the .net name will be available. As you can see, that’s what ultimately happened to lifecatcher.net. I couldn’t get the .com name, so I had to think about whether the .net name would be worth it or not. In the end, I decided it would be fine. If people read you site regularly, they’ll remember your domain name. And hopefully people that you stay in regular contact with will remember your email address too. I was also okay with the .net because I felt that the .com suggested a commercial nature to the site, which I didn’t want to convey.

That’s It!

I can’t say my domain name is perfect, but I’m relatively happy with it. Ha ha, my sister says lifecatcher sounds like I’m going after people’s lives. I told her that going to the site makes it obvious that’s NOT what my site’s about, but it was a good point. Along the way, I figured out things that I wanted or didn’t want in a domain name, and a couple of guidelines that I can use in the future to find another one.