Which product name should I go with?
I've been working on a personal finance tool to scratch my own itch and even though the development is going well I've been struggling to decide on what to call it.
I managed to register 3 domain names that I quite like:
darkfinance.netcompletelysimple.netlooponce.com
The first domain came about because I like dark themed websites and I thought it was a nice way to brand my products. Then as I started thinking about it more I worried that "dark" might be disconcerting to some people.
The second domain came from a thought that I could build multiple products and use the subdomain to "name" the product. The neat thing about this approach is that I can host new product ideas without needing to come up with a brand new domain each time. For example:
- Completely Simple Finance =
finance.completelysimple.net
The third domain came from thinking about what I want to call my brand. Previously I worked in game development (which is where my username comes from) but now that I'm focused on building web based products I thought I'd come up with a new name. I could also the the same subdomain trick as above.
- LoopOnce Money =
money.looponce.com
So, two questions. Which domain do you like? Am I crazy using subdomains this way?
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I'd stay away from "dark finance", got a "dark web" vibe to it.
I don't know the upside of using subdomains that way.
So I'd go with "looponce" just because you have .com
I was pretty happy when I got loop once. I spent at least a whole day looking for something short and memorable that fits my personal values. The original idea was infinite loop but loop once is pretty neat. I would have been happy with .net or .io Getting the .com was a nice bonus.
For non-tech users I believe .com and .co are probably the best TLDs. .co might actually be better than .net these days.
@craftworkgames Hi Dylan, Unfortunately domain names written in lowercase are often parsed in an unintended way. FYI
ponceis slang, so isloo. Personally I would re-consider.You can fix that slang issue if you make your logo these two letters in two different colors/font.
I did that for one of my domain name https://dearele.com check it..
And I vote for LoopONCE.com, darkfinance is scary. And also I felt those sub-domains are long and not really linking well.
I agree. I love the way you put ONCE in all caps.
My favourite lowercase domain name like that is
expertsexchangefrom a few years ago but I believe those guys have a hyphen now :)I understand the concern but I'm not overly worried about people misreading it. Time will tell I guess.
I used to use experts exchange. It was stackoverflow before stackoverflow. They wanted you to pay for answers but would often leave the answer at the very bottom of a long-scrolling page of adverts. Stackoverflow didn't (maybe there's a lesson there..?)
I suspect English users are more likely to pick up on both loo and ponce so that might provide you with some latitude. Loo is widely known. I have a feeling the term ponce is one of those words which is being used less and less. As @rab suggests though, lowercase parse can lead you down a garden path if you're not careful;
There are others that sound innocent which take you to definitely unsavory websites.
There are two avenues on this. It could work for you. Susan Boyle's hashtag hasn't been forgotten. There's a website that "remembers" it six years after; https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/cbd0fd47-3f92-494e-8154-da08a565498e
The other is; there might be some money to be made selling (or hiring?) the loop once domain name to a carefully selected buyer (depending on your values and lifestyle).
Not saying that particular domain name is a target one but Courtland had a guy on the podcast who has set up a business buying and selling domain names so there might be a contact through IH. This guy's product was the ability to buy domain names the moment they expire.
If it's finance you are likely to want to solidify trust. Being known as the loo ponce guy may not necessarily do that for you. But that does depend on who you are/how you carry yourself and who you are looking to sell to.
All that said, there are enough people out there who can make that kind of thing work for them. A plant nursery who came to fame originally known as "Wombat Gully plant farm" used a catchphrase "Hello Hello" with a guy running around the nursery in a pink tutu. They became known as "Hello Hello" Their website hellohello.com.au now redirects to www.thetutuguru.com.au. Here's an example of their advertising; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQZOJ2GpIBw
This comment is the most interesting thing I've read all day :) I'll think these great points over :)
Btw.. I'm an Aussie myself so that video is extra hilarious. It reminds me of my childhood.
Naming things is really difficult.
On my evening walk tonight I listened to IH podcast episode #073 - Building the habits necessary to succeed as a founder with James Clear.
A great point was brought up about 2/3 through.. Discussing his business which is named jamesclear.com. James' perspective is; The work you do is the thing that defines what people come to you for, not the name of your business.
Yeah, they renamed. Best of luck.
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.
Hey! as a non-tech person, I would actually prefer "completely simple" since I (at this point) cannot grasp what would mean by "loop once" in terms of personal finance. And if you can simplify anything that has to do with finance, you have my vote :)
Still, just one opinion :)
Right. This was exactly my thinking when I registered "completely simple". If I managed to get just
simple.comthat would have been ideal but getting single word domains is super hard these days. Maybe I'll try some A/B testing one day (when I've got actual traffic and customers to measure).LoopOnce isn't intended to have a specific meaning. It's more like a company name to combine with the product name in the same way you see Google Maps, Google Domains, Google Play.
Ah alright.
Really like your idea about open to the different options, and testing to see which one would be better :)
I like the idea around creating a subdomain (like the completelysimple & looponce). The "dark" idea is exactly like you suspected, I immediately thought about "dark web", "something not legal", etc...
In terms of naming, I prefer LoopOnce, it's a nice name, a give an idea of something simple (without explicitly say it), because it will only requires one single loop to do the job/task/whatever.
So, the name LoopOnce is cool, and the idea of creating multiple products around that name, seems to be a good idea as well. So, I will bet on: money.looponce.com
It's quite clear now that most people find the "dark" thing off-putting so that's ruled out.
You pretty much nailed the idea behind LoopOnce. I know a lot of people won't get it but I think that's okay. It makes a good story.
The unimportance of product names
I often think of this when trying to find the perfect domain name.
Very good point. I was wondering when someone would post something like this. I've read stuff along those lines before but it's an easy trap to fall into when you're in the middle of it.
I would pick LoopOnce.com but without the money subdomain as it can effect your SEO. Also, as @MichalM said its a .com which is always a plus but in my opinion its not a requirement in the beginning.
Also, I think you don't need to add money to the name, maybe adding it to the tagline or something related to it being personal finance app (e.g. Zoom: Video Conferencing That Doesn’t Suck). Most products' names actually don't mean anything without their taglines.
Wish you all the best in your new product!
Thanks for the advice. I managed to get something at looponce.com tonight. Man, Netlify is amazing!
In terms of SEO the plan is to have a blog at the main www site for content marketing and host the authenticated app at the subdomain. I think this will be okay since the app itself won't be indexed by google anyway.
Well, that I think also works too.
You're welcome, and gald to be of help!
looponce.com - it's short, looks and sounds good and is .com.
Check out this essay from Paul Graham that suggests you should always go with .com http://www.paulgraham.com/name.html
Thanks. That was a great read. That's three votes for Loop Once. The name is sounding a lot less silly to me now.
Personal opinion...
I think subdomains are fine in terms of brand recall, although I'm not sure if that has technical implications (ex. SEO)...
Hope this helped. 😅
Thanks for the quick reply. It definitely helps to know that there's someone else thinking the same things. SEO has crossed my mind but without knowing how to prove it one way or the other I'm just going to take the chance.
Hi, Dark is a negative word! Don´t use it!!
looponce looks great
If you ask me, none of the names sound good 🙈
Fair call. I have a LOT of other names that I like but finding the domain is harder than it sounds.
I would not recommend using subdomains this way. It's non-standard and the computer laymen may not know how to get back to the site.
You want a .com if at all possible, if you want to use part of the domain as marketing consider a TLD https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains (.finance is an option) I would just warn again that it may be hard for people who know ".com"
I think your best bet is to stick with something finance but instead of going for dark, try to put a spin on it that gives users the feeling of safe, simple or secure.
I use http://www.bustaname.com/ to search for domains, you can enter a bunch of keyword and specify an order and it will autosearch all permutations (or combinations) for you
Thanks. BustAName is a neat tool. I'll bookmark it.
I'm not convinced that computer laymens will have trouble getting back to the site. In my experience working at a company that builds websites for laymen type people we rarely run into this kind of issue. Usually people find the site again in one of the following ways:
I'll definitely keep it in mind though.
I'm very opinionated here:
I have no idea what "loop once" is :/
dark finance is 'dark' :(
completelysimple seems good, especially i liked the vibe of finance + simple. but maybe it's too long.
Honestly, I would look for more options, but if I had to choose only from these three, I'd go for finance.completelysimple.net. The reason is that you'll most likely have very niche customers, and it's not too difficult to remember the prefix 'finance', which automatically helps the brain remember the full address, IMO.
I really did try hard to get the "simple" concept to work. I tried many, many alternative words and combinations. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to find a shorter domain name than that.
The idea behind Loop Once is to build a brand in the same way Google, Twitter and JetBrains have done. These are all nonsense words that we know and love today.
That said, I'm not naive enough to think that I can actually pull it off. It could very well be a better idea to go with something more descriptive of the product. The problem is I have no way to know the answer until I've tried it (and even then it's still very subjective).
This comment was deleted 2 years ago.