Website names?

[tag141]

Having a web presence these days goes without question. People ask you what you do and then what your website is. It's an extremely powerful tool when done correctly.

But the domain name...!! Having thomasanthonygreenwoodphotography(.)com is just ridiculous. Letterheads, business cards and flyers would need to be twice as wide to fit it all in, or the font would need to be ridiculously small to fit it in. And what if tag(.)com or tagphotography(.)com has gone? or any combination of your name has gone.

My question...does having a mixture of letters and numbers matter? Say tag141(.)com (Don't look that up NSFW unless you really need an escort!!!). It's short, rememorable and easy to include on business stationary. OK, it doesn't say anything about what you do etc but would someone look at it and be puzzled enough to look it up? If they saw thomasanthonygreenwoodphotography(.)com they could go "it's a photography site, meh!"

I was toying with the idea of 52nth(.)com. It's the line of latitude I was born on. Means nothing to anyone but could be easy to remember and be 'imaginative' enough for people to be curious.

What I'm basically asking after all that drivel is does having an alphanumeric name matter?

[Mark1]

The mixed characters wan frowned upon till all the names were taken. So you may still get a " dont do it". But now you dont have a choice, And it is acceptable, just find a number that makes sense. Your area code, last 2 or 3 of your zip code, mail box number... not just some random numbers. Your idea you mentioned it a great idea. But does not tie into the business. Web names are hard to come up with anymore, you have to be creative about it..

[brian-socal]

I know it's not ideal, but you might try an alternate top level domain. There's a good list on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code_top-level_domain).

[sandro9mm]

sandrophoto.com I tell my customers the web, they remember it pretty easy :) according to recent statistics, I have around 10K visitors per month just typing in the domain name - meaning it could be result of my viral marketing, not a slouch a? yourname.com works the best for business...

[sandro9mm]

btw, I just wrote this article, maybe u find some use for it:
how to make a photo blog (http://www.sandrophoto.com/2009/03/10/how-to-make-a-photo-blog/)

[Jeff]

Maybe instead of random or vague (like the line of latitude) numbers that mean nothing to the user, try a zip code or area code; something they can already relate to mixed in with your name. Short & easy to remember is the key.

[ScottKCooper]

http://tagsphotography.com seems to be available, as is http://tagphotos.com/.
http://www.photosbytag.com/ is not owned by anyone as far as I can tell...

[ScottKCooper]

how about http://wwwtagmyphotos.com/ - that's catchy.