So what’s in a name?06/09/2010
So what’s in a name: Getting a good descriptive domain name!
Registering or owning a business name does not entitle you to own the same URL.
A recent example in TheAge.com.au
After a Tennessee police department let its website expire, the site was snatched up by Brian McCrary who uses it to gripe about speed cameras. The site shows a smiling cartoon police badge clutching greenbacks. It also posts gripes from those who’ve been caught speeding.
So remember to keep your Domain registration up to date!
In the great 90′s Domain grab, a whole load of Domains were grabbed by web prospectors or Cyber Squatters as we once called them. This has made it much more of a challenge to find ‘Good’ available domain names, but it’s important to know that you spend less to market and brand descriptive URLs. Remember that you need to appeal to both Humans and Web Robots, so a good web address needs to be memorable, easy to spell, simple to say, hear and read, but most importantly your URL should be descriptive and relevant to your product or service.
Just like any post gold rush, there is always a gem laying around if you know where to look.
“I’m often amazed at some of the domain names that still haven’t been taken and equally frustrated by domains that have, but just sit there with a coming soon notice”.
The key is to do a bit of creative thinking and make a mind map of descriptive terms, and then just test the availability on a domain shopping site. If your a location based business, then narrowing down your search by using the location name i.e. (AvalancheBoronia) will inversely widen up your opportunities.
“Brand creation is a big part of what we do at Avalanche Creative Solutions, we go through a long and painstaking process of name creation and then cross referencing with available domain names as well as Business and Trade mark searches. Sometimes we strike gold and sometimes we have to go back to the creative thinking stage”
Sites like www.godaddy.com offer ‘Domain Auctions’ but this can be initially expensive. Look at premium domains – you will pay more initially but thereafter the cost to renew is exactly the same.
Please let us know what you think about this article
The new Tardis design04/28/2010
The great guys at Surface Interiors helped us design and build an awesome tabe for the studio. Working in conjunction with Andy at Avalanche, Tony and the team from Surface Interiors created a custom piece for us in record time!
I was inspired by ‘The TARDIS’ from that great TV series ‘Doctor Who’. I was brought up with the likes of John Pertwee running around the TARDIS work station, saving toe world from the Dalek invasion. The shape and form seem to work for him, so I based the studio desk arrangement around the same central communication hub concept.
Built in our corporate colours (orange of course), the table is designed to be communal and makes it so much easier for us to communicate to each other about projects. It’s so easy to share ideas and notes in this setup, it’s great! It also allows the studio to grow in size as we can now fit in more people into the same space.
It looks really impressive in real life, so why not pop down and check it out (and get to know us!)
** We’re also recreating the Surface Interiors site to make it SEO compatible and friendly, as well as building in a CMS system for the guys so they can easily update their website whenever they complete a new project. Stay tuned, we’ll keep you updated. 
