The Hyphen...Oh No!

[QuirkyJessi]

Okay, so I have a blog I want to start up, but of course, every name I can think of has been taken already. Basically, I'm left with either going with hyphen...or using something other than .com, neither of which I really want to do. The sad thing is, most of the names I tried aren't actually being used....they're parked...and I don't want to have to go through the whole paying tons of money, negotiating, contacting them, blah, blah, blah.

So...that hyphen. I know it's awful for type-in traffic.....the ones without the hyphen have to be doing quite well with just their parked pages cuz they came up with lovely ads, lol. I remember there being a mention here somewhere about it being nice for separating the words, but that's the only even semi-positive thing I can come up with. What do you think? Should I just go for the hyphen or continue struggling for names that aren't going to happen?

[Inhibitor]

Well, nohyphensallowed.com, hyphenatethis.com and wedontneednostinkinhyphens.com are all available.

/duck

[QuirkyJessi]

Then again....maybe I should grab those before someone else snatches them up. :lurk-2:

[Ferox]

Maybe we can help you think of names if you give us the theme?

[rhyswynne]

One of the tools I have written allows you to generate brandable names for blogs:

Brand Product Domain Website Business Name Generator my Brand new Brand

[QuirkyJessi]

Originally Posted by rhyswynne

One of the tools I have written allows you to generate brandable names for blogs:

Brand Product Domain Website Business Name Generator my Brand new Brand

Well hun, considering I blogged about you just a week or two ago and you stopped by thanking me, I think I've already covered that step.

[Bloggeries]

Unless you are building a resource like this one. I don't see a big deal in hyphens... I remember a hyphen (limited to 1 or 2) and will type it in again.

Furthermore a search engine will bring in more visitors then word of mouth ever will for MOST sites.

.net's aren't so bad either... Tough call Jess!

[thenetfool]

Hyphens may not look good, but I think that they are actually quite positive on search rankings. One of my friends registered an ebook affiliate site with the keywords built in with hyphens and the thing effortlessly rises to the top of the page time and time again.

Nice domain name finds though inhibitor. I don't know that you shouldn't be recommending domain names, there is no law to my knowledge that forbids this.

[Kacey]

I'd go with a hyphen over a .net. I think. Hyphens won't hurt search engine traffic. Sometimes you can add the word "the" to the front of the name. Have you tried that?

[Katalina]

Originally Posted by Ferox

...because we're nice people here.

:icon_twisted: Speak for yourself Ferox!

I think one hyphen between two words is OK. Plus, as fewer names are available more people will use hyphens and it will become more acceptable. More than one hyphen starts to look spammy.

I am also a .com purist. I would rather have a hyphenated .com than a non-hyphenated .anythingelse. It keeps me from buying too many domains!