Thanks everyone for the comments. Finally decided on a couple of names and already registered them. Decided to go with hostinghillbilly.com and thehostinghillbilly.com and also hillbillyservers.com.
@geekyhillbilly said:
Thanks everyone for the comments. Finally decided on a couple of names and already registered them. Decided to go with hostinghillbilly.com and thehostinghillbilly.com and also hillbillyservers.com.
So when do we see a provider tag for you and of course .. offers? :-) In other words, best wishes for the new venture.
@geekyhillbilly said:
Thanks everyone for the comments. Finally decided on a couple of names and already registered them. Decided to go with hostinghillbilly.com and thehostinghillbilly.com and also hillbillyservers.com.
The last one is ??
Mark Zuckerberg was famously advised to go with facebook.com instead of thefacebook. com. I will give you the same advice.
@ndelaespada said:
Most of the time people tend to waste time thinking of a name for their business venture, why not dedicate that time into planning, thinking of something different to offer than what's already out there? at the end of the day while the name is important that's not really what will bring in customers.. now if you still decide to dedicate more time thinking about a name go with something short and may be containing a word related to the business.
Good luck!
I wouldn't call it a waste of time.
Nor something that would keep you for months, preventing you from doing the other important things - like making a business plan.
Sort of goes hand in hand with all that. Boils down to doing what's up to you to make it all work.
P.S. @deank - I thought "OG" stands for "Openly Gay". Your signature info has completely shaken my impression of what LES is all about.
Relja of House Novović, the First of His Name, King of the Plains, the Breaker of Chains, WirMach Wolves pack member BikeGremlin's web-hosting reviews
@poisson said:
By your logic, Apple is a poor brand.
My opinion here but yes they are a poor brand, barely able to stay in the market with lacklustre underpowered products now that the only decent sales person they ever had died and passed away. Not to mention the struggles they went through with Apple as a brand name and how hard it was to get it taken seriously in the early days - they made it hard on themselves with that name.
They are an example to me of how to sell expensive, under powered products with a terrible brand name by the use of influence. They were very much an exception and driven forward by only a very few influential people.
But I’m just using it as a generalized rule for someone who has never created a brand or company trying to get traction jut through the name. You can of course do otherwise, but ‘clear willow servers’ sounds like someone’s personal consulting brand to me that is probably two droplets on digital ocean. And ‘tredaxa’ sounds like a cryptocurrency exchange.
@poisson said:
By your logic, Apple is a poor brand.
My opinion here but yes they are a poor brand...
Do Cisco, Twitter, Ebay, Amazon, Google, Dell EMC, HP, Fox, Nintendo, or Sony next.
When you have VCs, millions in investment funding, unique products or services and have been around for over a decade as a first-to-service you can use any name you like and see possible traction.
Regardless, WillowServers does not even come close to comparing to any of those in unique products, branding identification, or in really anything.
It can't be a surprise that company branding has changed significantly in the last decade to be able to compete with companies like this. That said, call it whatever you like, but if you tell a story with the name - it is pretty obvious it will get better traction. Kind of branding 101.
Believe it or not, my advice is actually coming from somewhere. And I have a moment to ramble for the sake of it
I've made over 250 or so mobile apps and games now - each a micro brand on its own (with about 60 online today) and my learnings have to led to many going over the 1m download mark. During that time I've been running 3 innovative tech companies spanning the last 8 or so years. One of which is starting to really take off. I could talk for ages about the importance of branding, micro branding, sales, ROI and building a repeat user base, although it probably would only interest myself. But when I recommend that hey - if you have no real funding, no fans, no users - you have nothing right now. Make your first brand MEAN something - make the name sell your services just as hard as your website and your advertisements - it just might be valuable advice to someone even in passing - so why not try. It doesn't make me right, or the only voice, but it does come from a history and purpose.
Once a founder has a considerable userbase / investment or funding - a person can be as cryptic as they like (I actually founded my last company this way - and it worked out well - but would have failed had I not built on the previous two). But when you have nothing and want to build something meaningful - a smart business person who wants to be successful makes sure every single thing they touch in the company from the name, to the site, to the prices, to the service, to social media, to how you treat people - it must all serve the single purpose of pushing the company forward. Stop worrying about what other companies did 15 years ago - it's not only outdated it's irrelevant and financially out of reach.
Right now, to me, as an outside user that may or may not buy the service - the brand and name does not instill confidence or make me interested in the service. I would at best pay a couple dollars a month at an unprofitable BF deal, I would not place it in front of BuyVM or even Hostodo. However, I do not run a hosting service, so by all means take this advice however you like. Maybe BF is worth the hassle and strong enough to build the brand - what do I know. But I'll bet it just gives a very short increase of revenue at a cost of long term maint fees.
Once you DO get traction though, which is high risk and would likely take what, 2 to 4 years? in the server market even if you do things right, the harder and fun part is finding out how to ensure you properly price balance yourself (while retaining your clients) so you cover all the expenses with room to grow and without overworking yourself. In that regard I recommend finding an amazing business partner you can trust the take they work on - their main goal should be to help you get your billing to approx 3x your cost or more. I've advised with companies that have a 10x mark up with over 100m in sales per quarter and still seen them go belly up because they stopped thinking of the future, but the best odds come from having a good team you can trust. I'm a tech guy, I bring on business people I trust instead. Let them do what they do best.
The burnout of being an entrepreneur is also very intense, it's called founders fatigue, you can only work so hard for so long - the only way to avoid that later will be fewer clients at a higher rate (which you may not be able to do without a trustworthy brand at the start) giving yourself less work and more breathing room. Clients will fail, payments will bounce, projects will fall through and you need to prepare for that. That is when 'what makes you different' is actually what will let you become an actual viable and stable company - this is all IMHO of course.
That said sure, call yourself anything. You may even be able to get a viable subscriber base regardless - there are many exceptions and the convo is deep and subject super complex. But my advice is still the same - why not put in a few minutes at the start and stack the cards in your favour by making the name tell a story to sell to a user and make it easier to sell the services later on.
My last piece of advice ... Be prepared to go all in. Only when your life, family, bills etc depend on your own company for survival - when you have 20 people depending on you for their bills at Christmas - only then will you do everything it takes to make it as successful as it can be. Until that happens it will never have your full undivided attention. I've also seen many companies fail because the founder couldn't focus completely on the company. Anyway I don't even know if you are that passionate but hey some free advice - and if you didn't find it useful, ask your enemies to read this so they lose 10 minutes of their lives they will never get back.
/End of pointless rant on the bottom of a LES thread
@geekyhillbilly said:
Thanks everyone for the comments. Finally decided on a couple of names and already registered them. Decided to go with hostinghillbilly.com and thehostinghillbilly.com and also hillbillyservers.com.
Great. So whats that gonna be there under the hood ?
@KermEd nice rant, thanks for that perspective. It was actually pretty intense to read - the steadily intensifying intensity is super intense ...
I would agree it's often worth some mindful effort to make the most of any rare chance we get to communicate effectively.
A strong brand or product name could be the first and possibly the last impression a potential customer makes when evaluating a landscape littered with options (such as the hosting services market).
There may be any number of lucky exceptions to this rule ... but if it's within our capacity to come up with a good name for a business (etc) then it makes sense to be as creative, deliberate, and diligent as is appropriate for whatever may be at stake.
Comments
Thanks everyone for the comments. Finally decided on a couple of names and already registered them. Decided to go with hostinghillbilly.com and thehostinghillbilly.com and also hillbillyservers.com.
Sparrow Bitcoin Wallet
PussyWillow.
PS: BillHilly.
You'd have the hilliest billing pannel, ever.
So when do we see a provider tag for you and of course .. offers? :-) In other words, best wishes for the new venture.
blog | exploring visually |
The last one is ??
Mark Zuckerberg was famously advised to go with facebook.com instead of thefacebook. com. I will give you the same advice.
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floodallports.io
Point directly to CHARGEN.
My pronouns are like/subscribe.
None of these tell a story. Mix the intent with the purpose. It should sell the brand for you.
I.E.
SecureServers
DataBunkers
ThatDataGuy
GoodCleanVPS
HonestServers
I dunno. What makes you unique + what you sell. You could make it abstract. But let it tell a story.
SecureServers could be FortServe or SimplyReliableVPS etc.
By your logic, Apple is a poor brand.
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I wouldn't call it a waste of time.
Nor something that would keep you for months, preventing you from doing the other important things - like making a business plan.
Sort of goes hand in hand with all that. Boils down to doing what's up to you to make it all work.
P.S. @deank - I thought "OG" stands for "Openly Gay". Your signature info has completely shaken my impression of what LES is all about.
Relja of House Novović, the First of His Name, King of the Plains, the Breaker of Chains, WirMach Wolves pack member
BikeGremlin's web-hosting reviews
My opinion here but yes they are a poor brand, barely able to stay in the market with lacklustre underpowered products now that the only decent sales person they ever had died and passed away. Not to mention the struggles they went through with Apple as a brand name and how hard it was to get it taken seriously in the early days - they made it hard on themselves with that name.
They are an example to me of how to sell expensive, under powered products with a terrible brand name by the use of influence. They were very much an exception and driven forward by only a very few influential people.
But I’m just using it as a generalized rule for someone who has never created a brand or company trying to get traction jut through the name. You can of course do otherwise, but ‘clear willow servers’ sounds like someone’s personal consulting brand to me that is probably two droplets on digital ocean. And ‘tredaxa’ sounds like a cryptocurrency exchange.
colonhost
LayinThiccPipe.io
My pronouns are like/subscribe.
Do Cisco, Twitter, Ebay, Amazon, Google, Dell EMC, HP, Fox, Nintendo, or Sony next.
Man you need this : https://namelix.com
UpCloud free $25 through this aff link - Akamai, DigitalOcean and Vultr alternative, multiple location, IPv6.
Prem.Host
It don’t be like it is until it do.
When you have VCs, millions in investment funding, unique products or services and have been around for over a decade as a first-to-service you can use any name you like and see possible traction.
Regardless, WillowServers does not even come close to comparing to any of those in unique products, branding identification, or in really anything.
It can't be a surprise that company branding has changed significantly in the last decade to be able to compete with companies like this. That said, call it whatever you like, but if you tell a story with the name - it is pretty obvious it will get better traction. Kind of branding 101.
Believe it or not, my advice is actually coming from somewhere. And I have a moment to ramble for the sake of it
I've made over 250 or so mobile apps and games now - each a micro brand on its own (with about 60 online today) and my learnings have to led to many going over the 1m download mark. During that time I've been running 3 innovative tech companies spanning the last 8 or so years. One of which is starting to really take off. I could talk for ages about the importance of branding, micro branding, sales, ROI and building a repeat user base, although it probably would only interest myself. But when I recommend that hey - if you have no real funding, no fans, no users - you have nothing right now. Make your first brand MEAN something - make the name sell your services just as hard as your website and your advertisements - it just might be valuable advice to someone even in passing - so why not try. It doesn't make me right, or the only voice, but it does come from a history and purpose.
Once a founder has a considerable userbase / investment or funding - a person can be as cryptic as they like (I actually founded my last company this way - and it worked out well - but would have failed had I not built on the previous two). But when you have nothing and want to build something meaningful - a smart business person who wants to be successful makes sure every single thing they touch in the company from the name, to the site, to the prices, to the service, to social media, to how you treat people - it must all serve the single purpose of pushing the company forward. Stop worrying about what other companies did 15 years ago - it's not only outdated it's irrelevant and financially out of reach.
Right now, to me, as an outside user that may or may not buy the service - the brand and name does not instill confidence or make me interested in the service. I would at best pay a couple dollars a month at an unprofitable BF deal, I would not place it in front of BuyVM or even Hostodo. However, I do not run a hosting service, so by all means take this advice however you like. Maybe BF is worth the hassle and strong enough to build the brand - what do I know. But I'll bet it just gives a very short increase of revenue at a cost of long term maint fees.
Once you DO get traction though, which is high risk and would likely take what, 2 to 4 years? in the server market even if you do things right, the harder and fun part is finding out how to ensure you properly price balance yourself (while retaining your clients) so you cover all the expenses with room to grow and without overworking yourself. In that regard I recommend finding an amazing business partner you can trust the take they work on - their main goal should be to help you get your billing to approx 3x your cost or more. I've advised with companies that have a 10x mark up with over 100m in sales per quarter and still seen them go belly up because they stopped thinking of the future, but the best odds come from having a good team you can trust. I'm a tech guy, I bring on business people I trust instead. Let them do what they do best.
The burnout of being an entrepreneur is also very intense, it's called founders fatigue, you can only work so hard for so long - the only way to avoid that later will be fewer clients at a higher rate (which you may not be able to do without a trustworthy brand at the start) giving yourself less work and more breathing room. Clients will fail, payments will bounce, projects will fall through and you need to prepare for that. That is when 'what makes you different' is actually what will let you become an actual viable and stable company - this is all IMHO of course.
That said sure, call yourself anything. You may even be able to get a viable subscriber base regardless - there are many exceptions and the convo is deep and subject super complex. But my advice is still the same - why not put in a few minutes at the start and stack the cards in your favour by making the name tell a story to sell to a user and make it easier to sell the services later on.
My last piece of advice ... Be prepared to go all in. Only when your life, family, bills etc depend on your own company for survival - when you have 20 people depending on you for their bills at Christmas - only then will you do everything it takes to make it as successful as it can be. Until that happens it will never have your full undivided attention. I've also seen many companies fail because the founder couldn't focus completely on the company. Anyway I don't even know if you are that passionate but hey some free advice - and if you didn't find it useful, ask your enemies to read this so they lose 10 minutes of their lives they will never get back.
/End of pointless rant on the bottom of a LES thread
I came up with the motto.
My pronouns are like/subscribe.
Hah!! You are alive and well! LET be damned! I'm not even sure why they banned you. You must've bashed CC
I asked them to ban me. Then I teased that I was going to come back and sent a submit for unban. That never occurred.
My pronouns are like/subscribe.
Do you remember the Mario Latif saga with .host ?
Great. So whats that gonna be there under the hood ?
@KermEd nice rant, thanks for that perspective. It was actually pretty intense to read - the steadily intensifying intensity is super intense ...
I would agree it's often worth some mindful effort to make the most of any rare chance we get to communicate effectively.
A strong brand or product name could be the first and possibly the last impression a potential customer makes when evaluating a landscape littered with options (such as the hosting services market).
There may be any number of lucky exceptions to this rule ... but if it's within our capacity to come up with a good name for a business (etc) then it makes sense to be as creative, deliberate, and diligent as is appropriate for whatever may be at stake.
HS4LIFE (+ (* 3 4) (* 5 6))