Hosting business name, can't decide.

geekyhillbilly

Maybe you good folks here can help me to decide which domain name would be good for a hosting business. I already have some of these domains registered. Not sure which one would make a good hosting business name or should I just try to think of something else? Maybe y'all have a great suggestion. Going to try and make it a poll. My first time, so bear with me. The services will be just shared hosting and reselling vps servers. Thanks for your time!

Massimo

clearwillow sounds like a care-home kinda thing

FlamingSpaceJunk

I think this needs a poll.

Clear Willow is probably the easiest to recognize immediately.

geekyhillbilly

@FlamingSpaceJunk said:
I think this needs a poll.

Poll made!

seriesn

@geekyhillbilly said:
Maybe you good folks here can help me to decide which domain name would be good for a hosting business. I already have some of these domains registered. Not sure which one would make a good hosting business name or should I just try to think of something else? Maybe y'all have a great suggestion. Going to try and make it a poll. My first time, so bear with me. The services will be just shared hosting and reselling vps servers. Thanks for your time!

Boss, please take this as constructive criticism. This is your business, your brand, your dream, your idea. Only you get to choose and decide what your business name should he and what would it represent. You get to choose what your brand image should look like and only you get to make the decisions because no one else knows what's your business plan and focus is.

It could be JoesVPs or SuperDuperUltraMegahosting. But that is the first step. If you can't decide that or don't have an answer to that question, you are not ready for it yet. Have a proper vision and start there.

deank

The best hostnames are ...

Amitzhost
Popohost
Nighhost

You may not pick it but google or some other web scrapper will pick these up and some poor sod will use it.

uptime

@FlamingSpaceJunk said:
I think this needs a poll.

Clear Willow is probably the easiest to recognize immediately.

I read it as "dear" willow - I need glasses but still just a bit ... ironic?

@geekyhillbilly I dunno, all of these seem okay but not great - maybe if you're asking here then that should tell you in your heart of hearts you know you can still do better?

I think most important aspect to look for may be: "easily memorable"

This is especially true for coined names - such as tredaxa (? - I am assuming this is just a techie-sounding brandname)

I'm of the opinion that all other things being equal, shorter is better, though all other things are seldom actually equal, ammirite?.

Your username here is a good example of poetry and personality - it resonates and stands out a bit, in a good way I think

while you might feel a bit more reserved or concerned about presenting a serious image for business, ultimately the quality of your service will carry the most weight - still, a strong brand name could help kickstart that just a bit.

I am vaguely aware of professional consultancies, software, textbooks, and so on dedicated to the art and science of branding gobbledygook. Some of that may be useful to know about but ... I think you can DIY it - maybe play around with some techname and/or business buzzword generator software for ideas until you either get all that nonsense out of your system and/or (long shot) maybe find something you really like anyway.

and that's probably actually the most important thing - something you really dig. You'll know it when you find it. Maybe ask for a second/third/fourth opinion and discover that no one can talk you out of it anyway ... then that's the one. (Tredaxa.com ...?)

DP

To me, something short, catchy and easy to remember.

So from your list, I would go for Tredaxa.

uptime

"easy to remember" - axemurderhost

qps

DefinitelyNotAnotherColoCrossingDeadpoolHost.com

I kid, but yeah, I would go for the Tredaxa name of those choices you listed.

WSS

AlphaSwamplandSupremeShoeCircle

MikeA

Fuxler - Hosting you can't deny

geekyhillbilly

@uptime said:

@FlamingSpaceJunk said:
I think this needs a poll.

Clear Willow is probably the easiest to recognize immediately.

I read it as "dear" willow - I need glasses but still just a bit ... ironic?

@geekyhillbilly I dunno, all of these seem okay but not great - maybe if you're asking here then that should tell you in your heart of hearts you know you can still do better?

I think most important aspect to look for may be: "easily memorable"

This is especially true for coined names - such as tredaxa (? - I am assuming this is just a techie-sounding brandname)

I'm of the opinion that all other things being equal, shorter is better, though all other things are seldom actually equal, ammirite?.

Your username here is a good example of poetry and personality - it resonates and stands out a bit, in a good way I think

while you might feel a bit more reserved or concerned about presenting a serious image for business, ultimately the quality of your service will carry the most weight - still, a strong brand name could help kickstart that just a bit.

I am vaguely aware of professional consultancies, software, textbooks, and so on dedicated to the art and science of branding gobbledygook. Some of that may be useful to know about but ... I think you can DIY it - maybe play around with some techname and/or business buzzword generator software for ideas until you either get all that nonsense out of your system and/or (long shot) maybe find something you really like anyway.

and that's probably actually the most important thing - something you really dig. You'll know it when you find it. Maybe ask for a second/third/fourth opinion and discover that no one can talk you out of it anyway ... then that's the one. (Tredaxa.com ...?)

@uptime actually my girlfriend is the one who started calling me geekyhillbilly. I talk with a southern accent (live in the midwest of USA), lived in the south for 30 yrs and am as hillbilly as they come. I had a computer repair business for a couple years until the people in the small town where I was living quit paying for things. She said I was her geeky hillbilly because I am so much a hillbilly but love computers. So that's what I called my repair business, Geekyhillbilly Computer Repair. You ARE right @uptime that when I find that one nobody can talk me out of then that's the one.

WSS

@geekyhillbilly West Plains Hosting

FlamingSpaceJunk

@uptime said:

@FlamingSpaceJunk said:
I think this needs a poll.

Clear Willow is probably the easiest to recognize immediately.

I read it as "dear" willow - I need glasses but still just a bit ... ironic?

Ironic indeed. DeerWillow? We can add deers to the managerie.

@geekyhillbilly said:
So that's what I called my repair business, Geekyhillbilly Computer Repair.

Why not riff on that? You've already got a brand with some recognition, presumably, just expand it.

vyas

Naming businesses is fun! Bottomline; I concur with what most folks have mentioned- it is your call/ your gut !

@geekyhillbilly let me ask- why not hillbillyhosting or a variation of the same ? Maybe it is too pre-dot-com-dial-up-isp ish?

I've never used the term TL, DR before but the below can represent exactly that. *

tl;dr:

Depending on which era you want to represent:
If you live in 2015 - name your business after a 'real person name':
https://fortune.com/2014/12/22/startup-names-human/

Is the company’s name a kooky word with too many vowels, such as Google (GOOG) or Yahoo (YHOO)? It was probably founded in the Web 1.0 era of the mid-to-late 1990s.

Is the name in question a kooky word with not enough vowels, like Flickr, Tumblr, or Twttr, the original name for Twitter? It’s from the Web 2.0 era of the mid-2000s.

Is it two words jammed together with a capitalized letter in the middle—so-called camel case—such as NetSuite (N), LinkedIn (LNKD), YouTube, or BuzzFeed? Who knows. That style trend, a blight to copy editors everywhere, will simply not die.

Does the company’s name end in a cutesy suffix like Chirpify, Spotify, Ghostery, Findery, Bitly, Contently, Artsy, or Etsy? It was probably born in the last eight years, as evidenced by this chart. Many companies in this category took advantage of readily available domain names from Syria or Libya, ending in .sy and .ly, respectively.

This list came recommended but does not load on my ad blocker controlled Opera/ Firefox:
https://growth.org/blog/how-to-name-a-startup-the-s-m-a-r-t-checklist

Early 2019, here is the 'naming philosophy'
https://news.crunchbase.com/news/startup-names-may-have-passed-peak-weirdness/

If investor funded, you have to sound smart, nerdy, intelligent. Locomation, Trustology, Educative are some of the names.

I recall the post dot-com bust years, when wave after wave of companies renamed rebranded themselves. That's when I believe Altria, Verizon came into being. And Volkswagen had their "premium" car Phateon. The reason I say this is because in the first stage of a new business, you want everything just right. Sometimes, it's just as great to let it be. When the business grows stale or growth slows, or there is pushback from regulations, etc. a rebranding happens.

There was marketing magazine study - eight letter words (4+4) were the norm in the late 200s / early 2010's. Face+Book being the most well known. (The Fortune article lists more examples from that era)

Next came the domain name registration. So on a related note, let me mention briefly about TLD.
Indian companies consider if uncool to have the .in TLD - they want to project themselves global and they use .com .
Google and Amazon are smart- they localized. amazon.in sells more stuff than all other web commerce companies combined. I think they just hit the Billion $ mark or something like that. Google.co.in is the top 2 or top 3 in Alexa rankings in India.

I had a long conversation with the CMO of a potential customer and they recommended that we change our TLD to .ai - to project that we use AI in our business. I think about three or four years ago, .io was the 'cool kids' favourite.

Coming back to the name:
Startups in India in completely unrelated businesses share same last three letters , etc. Apparently some investor guru or a management advisor had mentioned that the word 'fox' represents guile, speed, etc... that's how Shadowfox, Coverfox, etc. came, of course there was firefox- a web browser and a bicycle maker, squirrelfox (why cross breed two species?) etc. One or two rounds of investment later, they all changed names to five letter words- because that is the norm now.

Maybe it stems from the fact that the most well known Fox name- Twentieth Century Fox, got taken over by Disney. In a way, the Top Dog Fox was gone, and all other foxes ran for cover, including coverfox. The last one is called Acko or something like that.

If you want to use more 'recommendation engine driven' naming resources, here are a few

https://www.shopify.in/tools/business-name-generator

https://startupbros.com/how-to-pick-the-perfect-name-for-your-business-or-startup/

https://thenextweb.com/entrepreneur/2017/10/26/before-naming-your-startup-read-this/

*Edit: Thanks @uptime, help with the actual way TL, DR is written or what it means- you seem to use it often!

I am vaguely aware of professional consultancies, software, textbooks, and so on dedicated to the art and science of branding gobbledygook. Some of that may be useful to know about but ... I think you can DIY it - maybe play around with some techname and/or business buzzword generator software for ideas until you either get all that nonsense out of your system and/or (long shot) maybe find something you really like anyway.

We had an entire course on branding- brand persona, how it reflects the founder's / owner's personality, geography, heritage, industry, yadaa yadaa... I always feel it is a conversation best suited for classrooms, PR agencies, and multi billion $ corporations who have money to spend on consultancies who usually spit out such gibberish.

cybertech

how about

(geeky)hillbilly.host

uptime

@geekyhillbilly - I think @cybertech may be on to something ^

getting good domain names still available is a (potentially wallet-draining) challenge - I'd like to think it doesn't matter that much if you can get the .com vs the .net or etc, etc - but ... .com is nice

a .host domain sometimes seems like a tempting choice to me but currently ridiculously expensive to register anywhere other than namecheap - so would suggest paying for several years renewal ahead of time to lock in the current sale price (about $15) there - and also registering the .com equivalent as well (for example huckleberry.host -> huckleberryhost.com) ... then maybe redirect the .host to the .com

The above may or may not be an excessive and gratuitous way to approach the domain game - a good question to ask self always is "y tho?" It just might not really matter that much, compared to other more important things.

@vyas lol I am partial to the canonical tl;dr:

"Too long; didn't read:"

But I could read this stuff all day.

poisson

Your best name is in plain sight: hillbilly

It catches attention and is memorable because nobody expects a hillbilly to even know how to operate a computer (I am exaggerating but basically there is an inherent contradiction between hillbilly and technology which will make people interested to at least click and check you out).

And, you can make lots of hay with this when it comes to marketing. For example,

"Even hillbillies have websites these days. We can help you start your own with a price tag that satisfies even the most miserly hillbilly."

I should apply for a freelancer tag for communication consultation but as part of contributing to the community, my asking price is that you don't deadpool.

cybertech

and considering .host to be a long-term brand name, then your biz initials/logo could be HBH

dev

I wouldn’t recommend using a .host domain, it will look like one of the kiddie hosts. Either .com or .net for sure

bikegremlin

@poisson said:
Your best name is in plain sight: hillbilly

It catches attention and is memorable because nobody expects a hillbilly to even know how to operate a computer (I am exaggerating but basically there is an inherent contradiction between hillbilly and technology which will make people interested to at least click and check you out).

And, you can make lots of hay with this when it comes to marketing. For example,

"Even hillbillies have websites these days. We can help you start your own with a price tag that satisfies even the most miserly hillbilly."

I should apply for a freelancer tag for communication consultation but as part of contributing to the community, my asking price is that you don't deadpool.

I'm with the "take the .com by all means" line of thought - no one prevents you from using .local-country as well (or redirect .com to it, making the local country TLD a primary one).

Also, when choosing a domain/brand name - good test is to tell it to your friends and ask them to write it down. If they can't figure it out, it's not good (like bikegremlin is for Slavic language native speaker population older than 40).

verjin

something short and memorable is great

uptime

reading other comments and thinking on this some more, a couple haha insights percolate

1) different (sometimes conflicting) opinions all make sense
2) I don't always follow my own advice about ".com is king" (etc.)
3) branding is nice but really the rest of the business plan is even more difficult and usually that much more ctucial

Whatever you do, have fun with it

ndelaespada

Most of the time people tend to waste time thinking of a name for their business venture, why not dedicate that time into planning, thinking of something different to offer than what's already out there? at the end of the day while the name is important that's not really what will bring in customers.. now if you still decide to dedicate more time thinking about a name go with something short and may be containing a word related to the business.

Good luck!

vyas

:-)

As long as it is not something quirky like the "toilet stealer" or whatever the name the provider uses on LET

FlamingSpaceJunk

@ndelaespada said:
Most of the time people tend to waste time thinking of a name for their business venture, why not dedicate that time into planning, thinking of something different to offer than what's already out there? at the end of the day while the name is important that's not really what will bring in customers.. now if you still decide to dedicate more time thinking about a name go with something short and may be containing a word related to the business.

Sort of. Don't name it something like "Bitch Magnet Hosting" or anything else offensive.

seriesn

@vyas said:

:-)

As long as it is not something quirky like the "toilet stealer" or whatever the name the provider uses on LET

Project 2020

ToiletHosting - A CC venture.

level6

hostFU.com is available! It send an unambiguous message to your prospective clients.

But seriously, if you're serious about the hosting biz, you can do better than the domains in the poll.
Go with .com (assuming you're in the US) but I do love those $$$ .io

AlwaysSkint

Why do I always think .io sounds like the person's on another planet?

deank

For me, io always reminds me of iolo from Ultima.

geekyhillbilly

Thanks everyone for the comments. Finally decided on a couple of names and already registered them. Decided to go with hostinghillbilly.com and thehostinghillbilly.com and also hillbillyservers.com.

Janevski

PussyWillow.

PS: BillHilly.
You'd have the hilliest billing pannel, ever.

vyas

@geekyhillbilly said:
Thanks everyone for the comments. Finally decided on a couple of names and already registered them. Decided to go with hostinghillbilly.com and thehostinghillbilly.com and also hillbillyservers.com.

So when do we see a provider tag for you and of course .. offers? :-) In other words, best wishes for the new venture.

poisson

@geekyhillbilly said:
Thanks everyone for the comments. Finally decided on a couple of names and already registered them. Decided to go with hostinghillbilly.com and thehostinghillbilly.com and also hillbillyservers.com.

The last one is ??

Mark Zuckerberg was famously advised to go with facebook.com instead of thefacebook. com. I will give you the same advice.

WSS

floodallports.io

Point directly to CHARGEN.

KermEd

None of these tell a story. Mix the intent with the purpose. It should sell the brand for you.

I.E.
SecureServers
DataBunkers
ThatDataGuy
GoodCleanVPS
HonestServers

I dunno. What makes you unique + what you sell. You could make it abstract. But let it tell a story.

SecureServers could be FortServe or SimplyReliableVPS etc.

poisson

@KermEd said:
None of these tell a story. Mix the intent with the purpose. It should sell the brand for you.

I.E.
SecureServers
DataBunkers
ThatDataGuy
GoodCleanVPS
HonestServers

I dunno. What makes you unique + what you sell. You could make it abstract. But let it tell a story.

SecureServers could be FortServe or SimplyReliableVPS etc.

By your logic, Apple is a poor brand.

bikegremlin

@ndelaespada said:
Most of the time people tend to waste time thinking of a name for their business venture, why not dedicate that time into planning, thinking of something different to offer than what's already out there? at the end of the day while the name is important that's not really what will bring in customers.. now if you still decide to dedicate more time thinking about a name go with something short and may be containing a word related to the business.

Good luck!

I wouldn't call it a waste of time.
Nor something that would keep you for months, preventing you from doing the other important things - like making a business plan.

Sort of goes hand in hand with all that. Boils down to doing what's up to you to make it all work.

P.S. @deank - I thought "OG" stands for "Openly Gay". Your signature info has completely shaken my impression of what LES is all about.

KermEd

@poisson said:
By your logic, Apple is a poor brand.

My opinion here but yes they are a poor brand, barely able to stay in the market with lacklustre underpowered products now that the only decent sales person they ever had died and passed away. Not to mention the struggles they went through with Apple as a brand name and how hard it was to get it taken seriously in the early days - they made it hard on themselves with that name.

They are an example to me of how to sell expensive, under powered products with a terrible brand name by the use of influence. They were very much an exception and driven forward by only a very few influential people.

But I’m just using it as a generalized rule for someone who has never created a brand or company trying to get traction jut through the name. You can of course do otherwise, but ‘clear willow servers’ sounds like someone’s personal consulting brand to me that is probably two droplets on digital ocean. And ‘tredaxa’ sounds like a cryptocurrency exchange.

tgl

colonhost

WSS

LayinThiccPipe.io

FlamingSpaceJunk

@KermEd said:

@poisson said:
By your logic, Apple is a poor brand.

My opinion here but yes they are a poor brand...

Do Cisco, Twitter, Ebay, Amazon, Google, Dell EMC, HP, Fox, Nintendo, or Sony next.

Dazzle

Man you need this : https://namelix.com

ouvoun

Prem.Host

KermEd

@FlamingSpaceJunk said:

@KermEd said:

@poisson said:
By your logic, Apple is a poor brand.

My opinion here but yes they are a poor brand...

Do Cisco, Twitter, Ebay, Amazon, Google, Dell EMC, HP, Fox, Nintendo, or Sony next.

When you have VCs, millions in investment funding, unique products or services and have been around for over a decade as a first-to-service you can use any name you like and see possible traction.

Regardless, WillowServers does not even come close to comparing to any of those in unique products, branding identification, or in really anything.

It can't be a surprise that company branding has changed significantly in the last decade to be able to compete with companies like this. That said, call it whatever you like, but if you tell a story with the name - it is pretty obvious it will get better traction. Kind of branding 101.

KermEd

Believe it or not, my advice is actually coming from somewhere. And I have a moment to ramble for the sake of it

I've made over 250 or so mobile apps and games now - each a micro brand on its own (with about 60 online today) and my learnings have to led to many going over the 1m download mark. During that time I've been running 3 innovative tech companies spanning the last 8 or so years. One of which is starting to really take off. I could talk for ages about the importance of branding, micro branding, sales, ROI and building a repeat user base, although it probably would only interest myself. But when I recommend that hey - if you have no real funding, no fans, no users - you have nothing right now. Make your first brand MEAN something - make the name sell your services just as hard as your website and your advertisements - it just might be valuable advice to someone even in passing - so why not try. It doesn't make me right, or the only voice, but it does come from a history and purpose.

Once a founder has a considerable userbase / investment or funding - a person can be as cryptic as they like (I actually founded my last company this way - and it worked out well - but would have failed had I not built on the previous two). But when you have nothing and want to build something meaningful - a smart business person who wants to be successful makes sure every single thing they touch in the company from the name, to the site, to the prices, to the service, to social media, to how you treat people - it must all serve the single purpose of pushing the company forward. Stop worrying about what other companies did 15 years ago - it's not only outdated it's irrelevant and financially out of reach.

Right now, to me, as an outside user that may or may not buy the service - the brand and name does not instill confidence or make me interested in the service. I would at best pay a couple dollars a month at an unprofitable BF deal, I would not place it in front of BuyVM or even Hostodo. However, I do not run a hosting service, so by all means take this advice however you like. Maybe BF is worth the hassle and strong enough to build the brand - what do I know. But I'll bet it just gives a very short increase of revenue at a cost of long term maint fees.

Once you DO get traction though, which is high risk and would likely take what, 2 to 4 years? in the server market even if you do things right, the harder and fun part is finding out how to ensure you properly price balance yourself (while retaining your clients) so you cover all the expenses with room to grow and without overworking yourself. In that regard I recommend finding an amazing business partner you can trust the take they work on - their main goal should be to help you get your billing to approx 3x your cost or more. I've advised with companies that have a 10x mark up with over 100m in sales per quarter and still seen them go belly up because they stopped thinking of the future, but the best odds come from having a good team you can trust. I'm a tech guy, I bring on business people I trust instead. Let them do what they do best.

The burnout of being an entrepreneur is also very intense, it's called founders fatigue, you can only work so hard for so long - the only way to avoid that later will be fewer clients at a higher rate (which you may not be able to do without a trustworthy brand at the start) giving yourself less work and more breathing room. Clients will fail, payments will bounce, projects will fall through and you need to prepare for that. That is when 'what makes you different' is actually what will let you become an actual viable and stable company - this is all IMHO of course.

That said sure, call yourself anything. You may even be able to get a viable subscriber base regardless - there are many exceptions and the convo is deep and subject super complex. But my advice is still the same - why not put in a few minutes at the start and stack the cards in your favour by making the name tell a story to sell to a user and make it easier to sell the services later on.

My last piece of advice ... Be prepared to go all in. Only when your life, family, bills etc depend on your own company for survival - when you have 20 people depending on you for their bills at Christmas - only then will you do everything it takes to make it as successful as it can be. Until that happens it will never have your full undivided attention. I've also seen many companies fail because the founder couldn't focus completely on the company. Anyway I don't even know if you are that passionate but hey some free advice - and if you didn't find it useful, ask your enemies to read this so they lose 10 minutes of their lives they will never get back.

/End of pointless rant on the bottom of a LES thread

WSS

@KermEd said:
WillowServers

I came up with the motto.

KermEd

@WSS said:

@KermEd said:
WillowServers

I came up with the motto.

Hah!! You are alive and well! LET be damned! I'm not even sure why they banned you. You must've bashed CC

WSS

I asked them to ban me. Then I teased that I was going to come back and sent a submit for unban. That never occurred.

Rahul

@dev said:
I wouldn’t recommend using a .host domain, it will look like one of the kiddie hosts. Either .com or .net for sure

Do you remember the Mario Latif saga with .host ?