August 27, 2008

SMILE, not SCRATCH (When You Pick a Domain Name)

It would be great if you’d enter our naming competition. We’re currently calling our online language exchange service Lingolink; unfortunately, the lingolink.com domain is already taken and the owner is not willing to sell it to us.
Once the service is up and running the winner of the "competition" will receive a special mention on this blog!!! (Exciting, isn't it?!)  To enter, by Friday, Sept 5, please send me your top five names. Feel free to include your friends, co-workers and family members as well. Make it a fun, brainstorming event :o)
Through the name of the service we want to communicate the following characteristics:
We connect people from around the world through language exchange.
We’re an on-line market for the buying and selling of language services.
We’re the go to place where people have fun and make friends from around the world.
On our site users feel that we are using technology for learning unlike anyone else. This is the best way to practice speaking a language.
Users say “aha” after using the service. “I finally understand what that word means.”
We’ll most likely pick the name that meets the following criteria:


Needs to possess these qualities
Simple –- one easy-to-understand concept
Meaningful –- customer instantly “get it”
Imagery –- visually evocative, creates a mental picture
Legs –- carries the brand, lends itself to wordplay
Emotional –- empowers, entertains, engages, enlightens


Deal-breakers
Spelling-challenged — you have to tell people how to spell it
Copycat – similar to competitor’s names
Random – disconnected from the brand
Annoying – hidden meaning, forced
Tame – flat, uninspired, boring, non-emotional
Curse of knowledge – only insiders get it
Hard-to-pronounce – not obvious, relies on punctuation


I can't wait to receive your suggestions!


PS. This is my avatar...

10 comments:

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  6. viva la revolucion!

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  9. Gee, I hope someone doesn't use this list for domain squatting. Send in crap names everyone.

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  10. It's actually not a bad idea to move these suggestions into a more secure place... Thanks!

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