Read the previous lesson 04 article here.
Here comes the fun part. At least for me that is! If you’ve read the ‘About Me’ page on this site, you will have known that I love to buy and sell domains. So much in fact that it was cost beneficial for me to become a domain reseller just so I can buy domains at the lowest price possible. This of course included being a reseller of not only domain names, but also for hosting, email, SSL, marketing tools, and much, much more. The benefit that I receive is the ability to completely understand the process when it comes to finding domain names and connect it to email and hosting if need be.
Finding a Great Domain Name
Knowing that this will be a mobile app development company, I wanted to keep it really simple and short, so the domain name will be easily remembered. I also wanted to use keywords or searchable words in the domain, if at all possible. This can be daunting because I’m so late to this industry that all the good domains might already be taken. Regardless, if I feel it’s creative, I’ll write it down. This is where I start to make a list of names in my composition book, no matter how crazy or absurd they may sound. I do this so I can check to see if they are available on my domain reseller page at Square Dick (yes, one of those funny names that was thought of while in conversation that I checked its availability for purchase and it was…so I bought it).
Below is the very list that I jotted down in my composition book:
- AppDev.com
- AppDev.io
- MobileAppz.com
- AppaWow.com
- AppBiz.com
- AppCreate.com
- Knappd.com
- BuildAnApp.com
As you can see from the top list, I tried to mostly keep it to .com’s only because they are the tried-and-true domains extensions that have been at the forefront of the internet since the beginning. And personally, I feel they hold weight when it comes to selling a product or service online. After checking out the 8 domains above for availability, I was able to quickly see that 2 were not taken. Those two were AppaWow.com and Knappd.com. So I went ahead and purchased them both for ~$20 total. This is the first expense for this new startup. At this point, I’m not sure which domain I’ll use for this startup, but I wanted to get them in my possession as soon as I could.
After mulling it over a few days while I worked on establishing a partnership with BuildFire, I opted to go with Knappd.com because it felt right. I could envision this name being branded like hell, more so than AppaWow.com even though it sounded cute at the time I thought about it. The cool thing about buying domains is I have a year to decide on what to do with it. I was not going to spend any additional time on deciding if this is the right name because I’ll just make it the right name. These days, I don’t think having a quirky name hurts you any less than having a common name. Sure common names are easier to pronounce and market, but do you think the decision to use Skype or Etsy or Flickr was a bad decision? I don’t. And that’s because they made a name for themselves in their category to make it a memorable name. So Knappd it is! It has app in the domain name (unsure at this point if that’ll mean anything with SEO tactics) and I love to take naps, so there you go.
Finding Hosting
Now, for this white label business of building a mobile app for iOS and Android, I got lucky because their service already provides hosting. If I needed hosting, I would have went back to either Square Dick or to another hosting company like BlueHost. I’m a little impartial to Square Dick because I know what I can do on this platform. I’ve built hundreds of websites from my design agency and have had no issues with integration of a domain and hosting. But if you have experience or feel more comfortable using another service provider, by all means use them. Especially if you already have an account and established working relationship. No need to burden you with having to have too many usernames and passwords and having to learn a new platform.
Speaking of usernames and passwords, as you can imagine, I have lots of those and to remember all of them would be a huge waste of time. As Einstein said when asked how many feet are in a mile “I don’t know. Why should I fill my brain with facts I can find in two minutes in any standard reference book?” I couldn’t have said it better. This is why I always keep a digital file of my usernames and passwords in a corresponding file folder associated with that project or business. Instead of Einstein looking for two minutes, I can find my username and password in a couple of seconds by opening up that file name and looking for that digital document.
Another way to remember all your usernames and passwords is to use your web browser’s built in password reminder. Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge all have this capability. To keep it further secured, you can also create a password to allow access to these usernames and passwords so all you have to remember is one password. There are also software that you can install on your computer that act like password vaults. I’ve never used any of these but know of a few that have. Most of these have features that are charged monthly and yearly. These include Keeper, and Dashlane. PC Mag has a great breakdown on some password management service in their article here.
There you go. I was able to secure a domain name that I feel will work perfectly for this white label business of mobile app development and have an extra one that I can use at a later time. We discussed hosting needs and I went on a tangent with passwords. The way you work may or may not be the same, but at least you get a snapshot of the basics.
The next post that you will see will be inside the Knowing Your Competition—Chapter 2 Session: Investigate Any Copyright and Trademark Infringements – Lesson 06.
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Till next time Biz Army…
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Expenses: The expenses for this lesson totaled a little over $20 including ICANN fees for the two domains. Cut that in half when you only need to buy one domain name. This fee is for a whole year. If we needed hosting, hosting starts at around $6 per month usually paid yearly for that discounted price. We’re still very low when it comes first expenses for starting a business. Imagine having to open a retail store! Yikes!! The money that I save will be invested in advertising on social media and other avenues in future articles.
What’s In My MP3: Last week while I finished listening to #AskGaryVee: One Entrepreneur’s Take on Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness, my MP3 player automatically played the next audiobook in my library. This book just happened to be The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss which I’ve already listened to twice. But being in the zone and not wanting to stop running, I decided to listed to the first 30 minutes while I finished my run. And did I not regret that! It’s always great to get a refresher on some practices that I tried, forgot, and otherwise missed the first two times I listened to the book. So I’m going to re-listen to The 4-Hour Workweek the next few trail runs.
Click here to check out Audible by Amazon.
