Yes, a domain name can actually make or break your business

I was really happy to see an article that went live on Forbes.com on Monday about a subject near and dear to my (and many of my readers) heart – the real impact a domain name can have on your business. Sometimes when I get lowball offers on my domains, the prospective buyer says something like, “well it’s not worth that much, a domain doesn’t make that much of a difference.”

To which I respond…oh wait, I don’t respond to those 😉

The reality is that yes, a domain name can actually make or break your business in more ways than you could imagine and seeing Forbes cover it is great…but I do think they missed the mark a bit since they cover a lot of great topics around making sure you’re not infringing on any Trademarks, etc. but then they suggest that you go and register the domain.

You should check whether the domain name is available. This can be done fairly simply by searching any domain registrar. GoDaddy is an example of a popular registrar with a search function that will tell you whether a domain is taken. (Source – Forbes.com)

Honestly I cringed when reading this. In most cases, the domain name you want is going to be taken, but like the article title says, a good domain can make or break your business so it’s weird to think that you’d only have a $10 budget to hand-register it.

What this article misses is the fact that sure, you can look up and see if the name you came up with is taken on Go Daddy. I’d probably use a WHOIS service like DomainTools.com myself, but either way works. The reality that the article misses is that it’s more than likely the domain you want will be taken, and you’ll need to reach out to the owner to buy it.

Just like an office on Main Street is going to cost more than an office out in the middle of a field, so will a good domain name. But once again, I’ll just go back to the title of the Forbes article…a good name can make or break your business, and without securing the domain, then you’re really in trouble – but it’s going to take more than coming up with a name that isn’t already registered.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton