URL is 50% of your success?

[fm1234]

posted by dogfighter:

posted by fm1234:

I'm still waiting for the domainer who can explain to me what the word "ebay" has to do with buying and selling, what the word "google" has to do with searching the internet, what the word "yahoo" has to do with news etc.

Short, brandable, memorable. All important because you selected 3 companies that A.) rely heavily on repeat business and B.) were named long before internet advertising was what it is today. They named companies, not domains.

Right, this was my point (the question was rhetorical.) Branding via promotion and service vs. picking out clever kw-packed domains.

A great domain is hardly a liability in any event, and that is not how I'm framing my point (not intentionally, at least.) I'm simply saying that for non-domaining purposes; ie. if you're trying to build money sites, content and promotion trump the domain. Search engines are going to find you and rank you according to content and backlinks, and the domain is a bonus if it's a cherry. But it is certainly not 50% of the value unless your primary thrust is domaining for the sake of the investment in the domain, or as an added inducement to flip the freshly-built site to some sucker who thinks the domain is 50% of the value.

posted by HarveyJ:

Google: The numeric value of one, followed by 100 zeroes.

Right; nothing to do with "searching the Internet."

eBay: Pre-1999, before the letter 'i' preceded every product, if you wanted to look technological, you either started everything with an 'e' or had COM in the name. 'e' signified electronic but quickly became associated with email... which was still this wonderous thing at the time...
The 'bay' just comes from most auction houses also being known as bays.

Wrong all over; "e" preceded "i" (that's why we call it e-mail) and eBay was a short quasi-clever way to say "Echo Bay," the original owner of the domain name. Also -- founded several years before 1999, both Echo Bay Technologies and eBay, so not sure where that date comes in.

Never heard of a single auction house being called or calling itself a "bay" but not really my field.

Yahoo: ... The sound of "yahoo!" was supposed to be what n00bs would make as they used it to "surf" the "information superhighway"

Right, again, nothing at all to do with the actual thrust of the site. Branding and promotion and quality site (relative to what else was available at the time.)

Sorry if I sound like a smart arse...
I've been using modems since the speed was rated in 'baud' though...

I was screaming along at 300 baud on my Dad's TRS-80 a long long time ago myself, then later on my ultra-suck TI-99/4A (gods, how I wanted a Commodore 64 ...)

Frank

 

[Webferret]

worst domain I ever bought? www.cockflavoredlollipop.com

 

[Chris R Motive]

It really is all speculation. No one car ever say for certain how much of their business they can attribute to the domain. We can just say that having a good domain kicks ass but its the content that is gonna make you the $$$$$$$

 

[Chris R Motive]

It is all speculation. No one can really put a percentage on how good a domain is. It is part of the battle but the content wins the war.

 

[Drake]

I have noticed myself scanning the urls of sites in SERPS to recognize the best, shortest, and most likely well funded companies when looking for a certain type of client.

I really used to think it would not matter too much. But heck it might be 50% of the winning formula. If done right it can be a company mantra, Unique selling propostion and memorable.

Think before you buy em. Spend some quality time doing it. Not just guessing a word combination and checking if it is still there.

My next project is a 6 letter .com and that is one of the reasons I want to take that domain off parking and actually develop it.