Company/Branding Name

[Smitty91]

I'm in the process of finalizing my business name and I'm having difficulties between my name (the whole "me" product/brand thing) and an "entity" name (not cliche' but something that is not my name). I prefer to go with my name but my name is Steve Smith. Pretty dam generic. A simple google search yields a bunch of "Steve Smith Photography". I don't necessairly want to jump in the mix and have potential clients find somoene else when they are trying to find me. I could use my middle initial, but the .com domain is taken. I have secured the .co version of my full name including my middle initial.

Considering I can't get my full name in a .com, I've come up with an "entity" name which is simple, but it's not "me" as the domain. I suppose I could use that as the domain and still call the business as my name. But that just seems weird to me.

Any insights regarding the importance between a .com and .co domain? And if the .co's are looked down upon, the use of an "entity" name?

Hope that all makes sense.

 

[Big Mike]

I think that if you're going to be primarily servicing your area, there is nothing wrong with using .co but, it's certainly not as familiar as .com...so .com is still the better option. This would be especially bad if the .com site, that was otherwise the same as your .co....is a similar site. I'm sure that many people would get confused.

As for company name vs web site address....sure, it's great when they match up. But I think that an easy address is much better and more important that having it match.

 

[12sndsgood]

yeah i'd worry about a bunch of people just glancing at the web adress and popping in .com instead of .co and going to someone elses sight. ive been going thru the same delima because it seems everybody uses there name. but i havn't found anything ive been happy with except a slang version of my fullname.