4 ms·

Well, I'm interested to hear what others think is the correct percentage amount of your funding to spend on domain names or branding. Take YC for example. If y

Well, I'm interested to hear what others think is the correct percentage amount of your funding to spend on domain names or branding. Take YC for example. If you have two founders, you get $17k now. What is the maximum (prudent) percentage of that money that should be spent on the domain name and branding? $1k? $5k? Would it be better to get a longer (and perhaps less marketable) domain name that is cheaper/available, or to spend some serious money on it knowing that it may or not pay off in the end? How often do people buy a longer domain name (say, hackernewsconsulting.com) and later purchase a shorter version (say, hackernews.com)? If you've already got a successful business going on the longer one, will the owner of the shorter one raise their prices knowing that you can afford it now?

Mz 17y ago
I kind of idolized a couple of webmasters who had very large sites on subjects that were of interest to me. They both were big believers in owning every variation of a domain name that could link to your site. They also have generally been frustrated with not making much money from their websites. I eventually gave up my idols and began looking for examples of commercially viable sites that supported the owners and found that the ones that fit the model I was hoping to develop typically only had one domain name, bought cheap. I dropped most of the domain names I owned, thereby saving myself a lot of money. If I start making big bucks, I might buy some of them back. I did have success getting one of my domain names back that I lost when Yahoo screwed me over. (Long story.) I don't think it cost me any more to get it back than it had originally, except that I had to wait a year for the folks trying to make money off it to let it expire. I'm "once bitten, twice shy". So I have come to believe that it's a bad idea to spend big on domain names.

Mz 17y ago

I kind of idolized a couple of webmasters who had very large sites on subjects that were of interest to me. They both were big believers in owning every variation of a domain name that could link to your site. They also have generally been frustrated with not making much money from their websites. I eventually gave up my idols and began looking for examples of commercially viable sites that supported the owners and found that the ones that fit the model I was hoping to develop typically only had one domain name, bought cheap. I dropped most of the domain names I owned, thereby saving myself a lot of money. If I start making big bucks, I might buy some of them back. I did have success getting one of my domain names back that I lost when Yahoo screwed me over. (Long story.) I don't think it cost me any more to get it back than it had originally, except that I had to wait a year for the folks trying to make money off it to let it expire. I'm "once bitten, twice shy". So I have come to believe that it's a bad idea to spend big on domain names.