On 8/4/10 9:42 AM, Rick C. wrote: > > > Hello everyone, > > I have a question regarding choosing a domain name. At this time I have > only one app on a domain/site named after my company. I tried before to > name the site after my app but it was difficult since the name was > already taken. I will soon be adding another app to the same site named > after my company as once again the domain with the same name as my new > app is already taken. My question is do you think having multiple apps > on a company named website is good enough? Or should I also have > additional sites named after my apps that maybe redirect to my company > site to increase awareness? And if so how about the naming part? Should > I use something like "myapp.net" since the .com is already taken? Or try > to make a .com work for example "myappformac.com" or similar? Thank you > for the input. >
I'm going to be contrarian here and suggest that you stick with a company website, without separate domains for product pages. My basis for this suggestion is http://panic.com, http://red-sweater.com, http://flyingmeat.com, and http://barebones.com. This is a good model for an indie developer to follow: it builds brand awareness of both your apps and your company. When you release a new product, it automatically benefits from the positive brand awareness of your company. It also reduces complexity in your marketing efforts: you only have to manage a single domain. For a solo/indie developer, reducing complexity is a winner because time is a finite resource. An interesting example of a company using tons of product-specific domains is Sofa: http://www.madebysofa.com/. For them, it makes sense to do this because their company doesn't just focus on Mac development, but also design projects as well. Their company site brands them as a design/development shop with really good taste, and it probably helps them get contract/design/consulting work. They don't want just to be recognized as "the developers of Checkout." However, this approach also has costs. Their apps do not benefit from brand awareness of the company. In fact, if you look at the domain site for Checkout (http://www.checkoutapp.com/) you'll see a link to "Werck," which is the name (and the parking page) for a joint venture between Sofa and the developers of AccountEdge (accounting software). If I'm a retailer looking for Mac-based POS software, I would evaluate Checkout on the basis of its features and what I learned at the app website, but looking at the "Werck" site would tell me nothing at all. This might actually detract from my evaluation of the software, since part of my confidence level is my sense of the company standing behind the software--will they be around? Just some food for thought. Kevin -- Kevin Walzer Code by Kevin http://www.codebykevin.com
