Here's a bit of a question: Some companies that go big get there by creating a brand name for themselves that was not previously associated with their product category, or, sometimes, any product category. For example, Google did not attempt to buy the domain "SearchEngine.com," Amazon did not attempt to buy "Shopping.com."
On the other hand, some sites have traded on the clout and accessibility of their domain name to help acquire customers, and have made their owners tens millions. For example, Cars.com and Limos.com.
I'm aware that one of the issues with the "prime" domain names is that they're hard to defend from trademark infringement *because* they're so freely associated with the thing they're selling, so cars.com can't very well pursue any other retailer using "cars" in their sales literature, while Google can pursue any other company using google/googled/etc. On the other hand, by not making up a word or phrase to be your domain, you save a lot on acquisition costs, and presumably having an exact match domain-to-search-phrase helps SEO as well.
With the way search engines have changed the internet (so, just hopping onto a browser and typing in the address bar, "www.realestateinvesting.com" instead of googling real estate investing, which might lead you to the (made up brand name) site "Bigger Pockets"), we all know a prime domain isn't as valuable to success as it might have been in 1999. But how do you estimate the value? How do you weigh the cost of having a defensible trademark vs. having the English-language byword for your category's product (pets.com, etc.)? I'm in the process of negotiating for a prime domain name, but I'm starting to have second thoughts, not because of the cost, which seems reasonable, but because I'm wondering about initial startup costs vs. spending those thousands on advertising, and defending my product from infringement later on since the domain name is just the generic exact-match term for what I'm selling.
Thoughts?
On the other hand, some sites have traded on the clout and accessibility of their domain name to help acquire customers, and have made their owners tens millions. For example, Cars.com and Limos.com.
I'm aware that one of the issues with the "prime" domain names is that they're hard to defend from trademark infringement *because* they're so freely associated with the thing they're selling, so cars.com can't very well pursue any other retailer using "cars" in their sales literature, while Google can pursue any other company using google/googled/etc. On the other hand, by not making up a word or phrase to be your domain, you save a lot on acquisition costs, and presumably having an exact match domain-to-search-phrase helps SEO as well.
With the way search engines have changed the internet (so, just hopping onto a browser and typing in the address bar, "www.realestateinvesting.com" instead of googling real estate investing, which might lead you to the (made up brand name) site "Bigger Pockets"), we all know a prime domain isn't as valuable to success as it might have been in 1999. But how do you estimate the value? How do you weigh the cost of having a defensible trademark vs. having the English-language byword for your category's product (pets.com, etc.)? I'm in the process of negotiating for a prime domain name, but I'm starting to have second thoughts, not because of the cost, which seems reasonable, but because I'm wondering about initial startup costs vs. spending those thousands on advertising, and defending my product from infringement later on since the domain name is just the generic exact-match term for what I'm selling.
Thoughts?
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