Business/Domain Name - unique and catchy or name with keyword

[throttleforward]

I am thinking about starting another ecommerce business (my current one failed - but that will be for another "lessons learned" post).

We are looking at the roller/inline hockey wheel and accessory niche. We have done some pretty good market research, and we ourselves are avid and long-time roller hockey players. With that said, we know that word-of-mouth is critical in the roller hockey community, however our research indicates that nearly 50% of players will Google a roller hockey wheel keyword to find wheel retailers (with the other 50% going to the same 2 major inline retail players, Inline Warehouse, and Hockey Monkey).

With that said, we want to optomize our name for both SEO and word-of-mouth power. What we don't know, is how important keywords in the domain name can be for SEO. For instance:

inlinewheels . com is availible, but for around $5000, a cost we would rather not pay right now
inlinewheelsplus . com is our leading keyword-based name
inline or rollerxxxx . com, with the x's being something catchy (like rollerpunk . com, inlinetakeout . com, or inlinecheetah....something like that)

I am leaning toward inlinewheelsplus, with the notion that if we get going and are successful, we then buy inlinewheels . com. What do you guys think? Catchy or keywords? Would a business called "Inline Wheels Plus" be too difficult to spread word-of-mouth? Is it too cheesy?

Also, FWIW, in our market research the overwhelming response was that inlinewheelshop . com was the best potential name listed, with wheelpunk . com coming in a distant 2nd. But I know that customers often think they buy a certain way, but act another way, which is why I'm asking you guys

 

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[CommonCents]

Nail down the inlinewheelsplus domain and then You could offer them the $5k they want or whatever price you negotiate, but then ask for terms based on a % of revenue until their price is paid. Make terms and conditions work for both of you.

 

[biophase]

I am thinking about starting another ecommerce business (my current one failed - but that will be for another "lessons learned" post).

Why do you think it failed? I'd like to hear the reasons you think before you venture onto another store.

 

[Flatlander]

A keyword rich domain can help a lot but it isn't crucial to success. Just ask eBay, Yahoo, Woot, Digg, and a billion more. In any event I think "Inline Wheels Plus" is pretty good (albeit long) but I wouldn't go posting it all over the place until you've bought it.

 

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[throttleforward]

To be brief:
- We did not do the proper research on the niche before entering into the market
- We failed to do a proper competative analysis on our competition - once we did this, we realized there really wasn't a reason why people should buy from us vs. someone else - we didn't value the concept that in order to be successful, we would need to be different from other stores in terms of our competative advantages
- We did not narrow ourselves down - we actually expanded into numerous niches we shouldn't have with the thought of being more legitimate as opposed to focusing on a target niche/demographic
- We failed to understand how people buy online - we made assumptions that we shouldn't have
- We tried to sell products that were not MAP priced - we ended up finding our products on Amazon for cheaper than we could get from "legit" wholesalers/manufacturers
- I assumed that because I had experience and expertise in emergency management/preparedness that I knew what it would take to sell those related products - being an excellent EMS provider and selling water filters are two totally different things
- I wanted to deal with people who should want my products, as opposed to the kinds of people who DID want my products right now (essentially trying to convince people of a problem they didn't know they had vs. people who I considered 'a little crazy' but who did buy our products- We failed to really study our target demographic...once we had done this, we realized that they valued making prepardness items on a shoestring or make-shift budget (unless it had something to do with guns...our target would pay for those things)
- We were undercapitalized
- We decided that we hate drop shipping...we wanted that interaction in the shipping process - some of our customers commented about how it was strange to get packaging without our brand on it (I know that there are work-arounds to this, but in general we didn't like the dropshipping experience)
- Eventually we just didn't care about our products/mission, because frankly we felt like we were trying to fit a square product into a round target demographic, and didn't really want to deal with the people who were most likely to buy our products
- Very few people care about emergency preparedness
- They are products people don't feel they want or need...when is the last time you bought a fire ladder for your 3rd story window vs. going to a fancy dinner?

 

[biophase]

please delete

 

[biophase]

I put my responses in between yours.

To be brief:
- We did not do the proper research on the niche before entering into the market
- We failed to do a proper competative analysis on our competition - once we did this, we realized there really wasn't a reason why people should buy from us vs. someone else - we didn't value the concept that in order to be successful, we would need to be different from other stores in terms of our competative advantages

While it is true that you would be just another online store in the vast sea of your niche, there is no reason why someone would NOT buy from you versus another store. I don't believe that this is a legit reason because there is no well known store in your niche.

- We did not narrow ourselves down - we actually expanded into numerous niches we shouldn't have with the thought of being more legitimate as opposed to focusing on a target niche/demographic

I did think that you store didn't have focus. While you were a niche store, you could have been way more nichy?

- We failed to understand how people buy online - we made assumptions that we shouldn't have

What assumptions were these?

- We tried to sell products that were not MAP priced - we ended up finding our products on Amazon for cheaper than we could get from "legit" wholesalers/manufacturers

I ran into this issue also. So I bought my products from the place that was cheaper than my wholesalers. Then I went back and talked to my wholesalers and got lower prices.

Given that Amazon charges 15% per sale, the people you were buying from were getting their products at at least 15-20% below their sale price and probably much more. Did you do any research to find our where they were getting them from?

- I wanted to deal with people who should want my products, as opposed to the kinds of people who DID want my products right now (essentially trying to convince people of a problem they didn't know they had vs. people who I considered 'a little crazy' but who did buy our products- We failed to really study our target demographic...once we had done this, we realized that they valued making prepardness items on a shoestring or make-shift budget (unless it had something to do with guns...our target would pay for those things)

I don't know about this one. You are talking about the type of customers that YOU want. Customers are customers, your demographic might be different than you thought but that doesn't mean you shouldn't sell to them. I had huge misconceptions of my demographics when I started my store. They were pretty much 100% wrong.

- We were undercapitalized

But you were dropshipping? You're monthly expenses should have been minimal, <$100.

- We decided that we hate drop shipping...we wanted that interaction in the shipping process - some of our customers commented about how it was strange to get packaging without our brand on it (I know that there are work-arounds to this, but in general we didn't like the dropshipping experience)

I don't like dropshipping that much either, but if you are undercapitalized, it's the way to go.

- Eventually we just didn't care about our products/mission, because frankly we felt like we were trying to fit a square product into a round target demographic, and didn't really want to deal with the people who were most likely to buy our products
- Very few people care about emergency preparedness
- They are products people don't feel they want or need...when is the last time you bought a fire ladder for your 3rd story window vs. going to a fancy dinner?

I feel like these last reasons are just based on sales. If you were getting decent sales would you still be not caring about your products? I am sure alot of people care about emergency preparedness. You just probably missed them because they never found your site.

I just googled "emergency preparedness" and didn't find your site in the top 500. I think that you are basing this store's failure on the product type. But I think it's based more upon your store product selection and your SEO and marketing.

I'm just afraid that if you start a whole new store that you will run into the same exact issues. When people google "roller hockey wheel", will they find your store in the top 10?

 

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[throttleforward]

thanks biophase -
I think the biggest problem for us was that as newbies, we picked a pretty hard niche to try to sell in. I'm sure an expert in ecommerce could sell in any niche, and given enough time we could have been successful too, but for our first try we picked a product class that, in my opinion, is pretty tough.

One of the biggest problems with our niche is that:
1. you can almost always find preparedness products in a camping supply store

This to us means that we had better be really, really good at convincing someone they needed to buy right now, from our store, and wait for a few days to get it, as opposed to finding some cool stuff on our site and then getting in the car and checking out what REI has in stock.

2. of the products you can't find easily in a physical store, they are products that are the upper end of their product categories in terms of price/quality

Take water filters for example. The only water filters that we could find that were MAP priced, and claimed superiority over the major brands like Pur, Katadyn, etc (which we also carried, but which are easily found in stores) was Berkey. Berkey filters are $100's just for the basic ones, and their claims of superiority have been questioned legally in some states, banning their sale in those states. Plus, there were already established online stores in the niche that focused heavily on Berkey filters - in fact it's one of the most competative preparedness items on the internet. In addition, because of MAP, we either had to be ranked well on Google, or offer some other distinguishing factor from the other places. Because we didn't have enough money to buy a bunch of these things in bulk and then beat everyone on shipping times, and because we didn't feel that we could unseat the established Berkey guys SEO-wise, we decided that focusing just on that wouldn't be a very good option.

Of course, an experienced, driven ecommerce person could easily start to compete with the other guys...we frankly didn't believe in the product enough (after doing the research we should have done) to focus our lives for 6 months-1 yr on blogging, article writing, asking for links, etc., esp. since the benefits of the product were in serious question

3. preparedness is not something that you need to do (most people don't and have no interest in it until a disaster happens), and the majority of people who do feel strongly about preparing and are spending money for equipment also strongly prefer to prepare as cheaply as possible and have no interest in pre-packaged solutions.

This means that they would rather buy #10 cans, seeds, grain mills, fishing line (with no expensive pole), black powder and reloader tables, etc. well before they would even consider buying nearly anything on my site. They will happily spend days working on their preps before spending some money to save them time by buying a prepackaged solution.

4. We were not our own target demographic - essentially, we wern't going to buy the things that we were selling ourselves. While I know that is not very important to experienced sales people, we really just didn't want to take the time nessesary to be a champion for our products on the internet, and when we really looked at it, at the end of the day, we just lacked the passion for our products because, when push comes to shove, I'm always going to choose to go to a Capitals game or buy a new hockey stick waaayyy before I'm ever going to spend money on a fire ladder - and I have education and experience in emergency preparedness! (I know that sounds stupid on a logical level, and it def. is, but I'm being honest with myself and I think most people in this country as pretty similar)

5. I think you are totally right about sales effecting our desire to continue, obviously if we were making some money doing this than we would probably be pushing on.

We have actually identified a serious, unmet need in the roller hockey market, and we have done enough research to know that our market wants this problem solved. We know the major inline retailers, we know why people choose them, and we know how we can beat them and provide a superior product vs. the competition. We also know how to protect our idea so that the major competators can't copy it.

We are coming into this business idea with the mindset of frustration at how things are currently done, vs. our previous mindset of "I'm good at emergency preparedness, therefore I'm sure I could make some money in it".

When we think about it, we are far more passionate about roller hockey, we have strong national connections to the community of players, we intimately understand the buying patters and needs of players, and we smile when we think about the possibility of solving one of the biggest problems that roller hockey players have.

We have a much stronger understanding as to how to do SEO as opposed to before, and we are willing to do what it takes SEO-wise to start to make a dent. Also, hockey wheels are traditionally bought online, and they are difficult to find in stores, so we know that our market is comfortable and expects to buy these products online as opposed to in a physical store. The niche is well defined, and we will not be venturing outside our niche like we did with our previous store. Plus, no more dropshipping, which gives us the opportunity to provide excellent customer service from purchase to delivery to refund or next purchase. Our reputation isn't dependent on our dropshipper.

Plus, we already have some strong community validation for our concept. We have had over 100 players, and several prominent rink owners, semi-pro team owners, etc. look at our offering and tell us that they would prefer us vs. the competition in a heartbeat. We also have had over 100 survey responses from hockey players in the local area telling us about their buying patterns, needs, desires, and expectations when it comes to buying wheels.

Overall, we went into our old store with a$$-backwards - we didn't start it because we were solving some unmet need in the market, we went into it because we thought we could get a piece of the pie by being just like everyone else.

Now, we feel we are going about it the right way - we have identified a large frustration in a market that we are familiar with, and we have found a way to solve that frustration in a way that the community has (so far) strongly validated and encouraged us to implement.

 

[CMCarlin]

To answer your original Q: You could go for brand identity and use your page names for keyword rankings

ie.

www.brandname.com/keyword1/
www.brandname.com/keyword2/

Something to consider. Brand loyalty could be a major success factor.

 

[cobwab]

Use dashes

inlinewheels . com

in-line-wheels.com
inline-wheels.com
inline-whe-els.com

etc.

 

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[cobwab]

You are asking for trouble if you use a brand name as your primary domain name. The legal depts will pounce on you. Bu brand names seem ok as category names under a domain name.