Question

Topic: Website Critique

Picka Url For An Ecommerce Drape & Shade Website

Posted by Anonymous on 2/23/2010 at 2:15 PM ET 125 Points
I am building an ecommerce website that sells custiom draperies and shades on line. I am about to pick a domain name for this website. The name I originally picked is www.DrapesandShades.com and this URL is not available anymore however I might be able to negotiate and buy it from the owner cause They haven't started anything yet. My second option which is close to that one is
www.DrapesorShades.com which is still available but I am not sure if having an or is good or not. Also my other choiced are as follows: placefordrapes.com OR shopfordrapes.com OR dressforwindows.com these are good names as well and they are more brandable versus the first two ones that are more keywordish and generic. I am not sure if it is better to pick a name that is generic or more brandable. I dont even have a bussiness name yet and I want to pick that according to what I pick here. And my last question is that if the owners of the first URL are willing to sell that name does it worth buying that at a higher price at all? if yes ,how much would that worth? or I just forget about that name and go stick with the second name?

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RESPONSES

  • Posted on 2/23/2010 at 2:22 PM Accepted
    What kind of drapes or shades? Custom? Odd sizes? Locally made?

    Tell us more about your products and we'll be able to do a better job of helping you.

    Before you worry about the name, figure out what's special about what you do and who would want to buy your products. Know who your ideal customer is.

    You don't want generic, you want something memorable, unique, and also easy to type and spell. Avoid hyphens, for example.

    Jodi
  • Posted on 2/23/2010 at 2:36 PM Accepted
    Suzanne,

    If you are looking for a keyword rich domain name for your custom draperies and shades business I would do some keyword research first.

    The place to start would be https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

    I would not spend a lot time seeing if you can buy Drapesand Shades.com. If you look at other popular terms like DrapesOnline.com they are taken as well. Probably by people wanting to sell them for a large profit.

    You can look at when the domain name is going to expire and get set up with a service like Snap Names. You could also visit many of the online domain auction sites and type in your keywords drapes or shades and see what comes up.

    If your business is new you may try a regional domain name first like Custom Draperies Houston. Build your local business and then venture worldwide. You can get domain names quite cheap now a days so register keyword rich domain names and save them for later. If you never end up using them what did cost you $8.00.

    Pick the domain name first then the business name. It will be easier in the long run.

    Good luck with your domain search. When you start looking to design your new draperies and shades website, post another question and all of us that live in the website design and development business will be glad to assist you.

    Brian Bearden



  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 2/24/2010 at 1:04 AM Accepted
    The following domains are available:
    CustomizedDrapes.com
    CustomizedShades.com
    ShadeMyWindows.com
  • Posted by Clare Mckee MA on 2/26/2010 at 3:06 PM Accepted
    I would suggest you do a quick competitor analysis of existing etailers in your line of business. See how you can differentiate yourself. Scan the competitor sites and you'll start to get a feel for what you want and how you want to position yourself. A keyword rich domain is good, but no so good in branding terms as people will mix you up with similar domain websites. It really depends on how you hope to generate business; online/offline initiatives or both.More research will start to shed more light on your decisions.
    Good Luck
    Clare
  • Posted on 3/3/2010 at 6:24 PM Author
    back to Jodi Kaplan's question, it would be a website selling custom made draperies and shades online.They are not oddsize . It would be made in local workrooms and some type of shades would be fabricated in factories in the us and would be shipped to the customer. We are going to be selling them nation wide and there would be several options of fabrics to be picked from.The functionality of our website would be something close to this website: www.theshadestore.com again I have a list of the URLs and they are as follows and I can not pick the best.
    www.DrapesorShades.com
    www.ShopforDrapes.com
    www.PlaceforDrapes.com
    www.TrendyDrapes.com
    www.CrazyCurtains.com! and
    www.DressforWindows.com
  • Posted on 3/3/2010 at 6:30 PM Author
    Oh and I forgot this one that might be the best option:
    www.StylishDrapes.com
    thank you all for your time, your answered really helped and I did what ever you suggested but I still wasn't able to decide and pick one of these
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