Business name, how important?

j-bo · June 28, 2006

I am struggling with coming up with a business name.

I want to register a domain so its easier for people to remember and get to my smugmug page, which I will be re-designing.

I also will be making business cards and adding info on the back of some "freebies" I'll pass out to some folks along the way.

My main photo's are of motocross. But I will probably be doing some of my sons karate, baseball, basketball, and daughters dance stuff later on down the line when I get better skills and so forth.

I want it to be somewhat short, but catchy too.

I have some in mind, but I can't make up my mind.

MXShutterfly..... ( a rip off of a video game named MXSuperfly) and I can come up with a cool logo for this too.

photosbyjbo.... j-bo (pronounced jay-beau) is my nickname that I've had for 10yrs or so....

Bayouphotos... ( I live in Louisiana)..but thats not very descriptive

Bayousports, bayouaction, etc. etc.

James Lindberg is my name, but lindbergphotography is already registered and that could be confusing to remember or type in correctly also. :rolleyes

Could try variations on the name thing I suppose. But people just can't seem to remember on how to spell my long name... :scratch

Looking for suggestions, ideas!! A lot of my ideas of course, have already been registered.

Thanks!

j-bo

Art Scott · June 28, 2006

Reply is below in color.

j-bo wrote:

I am struggling with coming up with a business name.

I want to register a domain so its easier for people to remember and get to my smugmug page, which I will be re-designing.

I also will be making business cards and adding info on the back of some "freebies" I'll pass out to some folks along the way.

My main photo's are of motocross. But I will probably be doing some of my sons karate, baseball, basketball, and daughters dance stuff later on down the line when I get better skills and so forth.

I want it to be somewhat short, but catchy too.

I have some in mind, but I can't make up my mind.

MXShutterfly..... ( a rip off of a video game named MXSuperfly) and I can come up with a cool logo for this too. could cause a probelm if the game company caught sight of it.

photosbyjbo.... j-bo (pronounced jay-beau) is my nickname that I've had for 10yrs or so.... JayBeauPhoto or j-bophoto or jay-beau-action-shots

Bayouphotos... ( I live in Louisiana)..but thats not very descriptive

Bayousports, bayouaction, etc. etc. I kinda like both of these with the addition of maybe.....photo(s)

James Lindberg is my name, but lindbergphotography is already registered and that could be confusing to remember or type in correctly also.

JLINDERG-PHOTOGRAPHY

Could try variations on the name thing I suppose. But people just can't seem to remember on how to spell my long name...

Looking for suggestions, ideas!! A lot of my ideas of course, have already been registered.

Thanks!

j-bo

You have some good ideas..just play with them a bit, get ideas from your friends in you area.....

In the past I was using CONTEMPORARY-VISIONS (which will be up for sale in the near future)....but went back to my name so I would not have to get a business checking account and also for tax reasons here in Ks........also wanted my work to bear my name and not that of a company.......

Good luck

Seefutlung · June 28, 2006

How about "PHOTOCROSS"? (may have a religious conotation though) ...

dogwood · June 28, 2006

your own name
I went through the name question too and first started out with Dogwood Digital. But then I noticed when I got photo credits, it was always my name, not Dogwood Digital. And people I talked to always remembered my name, not the Dogwood Digital. Not only that, but I had to register dogwooddigital.net-- someone else already had the .com. So that confused people too. And I could never get that name to list tops in the search engines.

Then I started noticing all the top pro photogs (the ones who make the big bucks shooting for Vogue, W, Vanity Fair, etc) all used their own names as their business names.

So I switched to my own name and there's much less confusion, I'm at the top of the search engine listings, and people actually seem to have a much easier time remembering it.

Just my two-cents.

j-bo · June 28, 2006

I forgot to mention. That I really had no intentions of this being a business I just wanted some extra pocket money and don't think I'll be selling a whole lot, but since I have to give a w9 to smugmug for payment, I suppose I need to set it up as one.

How to go about all that.. I'm clueless. I suppose I could put in my own SS# on the w9, but don't know how that affects taxes and so forth.

Is there a forum on here about all this?

I like the suggestions so far! Decisions, decisions!

Malte · June 28, 2006

I think j-bo is quite catchy, how about j-bophotography?

Malte

xtnomad · June 28, 2006

Changing mine soon
I was at the track last week end and a few people just told me I need some thing easy to remember. It's ok when you can give some one a card with the info but I am going to change to some thing short and get some tee shirts made so i don't always have to pass out cards to get the mesage out.

Nandita · June 30, 2006

I just went through this last month.

I first thought of doing Nandita Photography because of the argument that most people go by their names. However, my name isn't easy to remember unless you see it a lot and it's hard to spell it out based on word-of-mouth.

Then I thought of san jose or bay area photography -- taken, naturally. Plus, I didn't want people to think I was taking pix of the bay area rather than portraits.

So, I thought of Sundrop or other nature-related names. I use natural light and I love nature names (like Andy's Moon River). But Moon River is also a memorable song and easy to remember if you're an Audrey Hepburn or Henry Mancini fan none of which apply to sundrop. Also friends said that it didn't conjure images of photography.

Finally, I wrote a description of my business and what I wanted to achieve. Based on the words I saw there, I found something that no one had already registered. Candid Glimpses because I take unposed, candid portraits and they're glimpses into someone's day.

The reason for my long reply is that it was a process I had to go through and I can see you going through a similar process. How would you describe your photography? What makes you different from other photographers? Once you write those words down, the right words will leap out at you.

Of the ones you mentioned, I like PhotosByJBo and J-Bo Photography (although people may not remember the hyphen). I wonder about the legal ramifications of MXShutterfly. How about

Motocross and More Photography
Images by J-Bo
The Finish Line
Photo Finish
J-Bo's Photo Finish (my favorite

)
Caught in Action
Action Shots by J-Bo
Memorable Shots
Keepshots (play on keepsakes)
Shots to Remember

I'll post again if I think of more.
Good luck.

:

j-bo · July 1, 2006

After all this agonizing

I've gotten it down to just a few simple ones. Guess that's the best principle to be using, KISS.

jameslindberg.com

lindbergphotos.com

lindbergphotography.com is registered already or I'd take that one.

I am wondering...since I like it so much, even though it could cause me a problem, is MXShutterfly.com, if I had 2 domains is it even possible to point them both at one smugmug site?

Is it possible.... to have jameslindberg.com point to the home page where I could put all non motocross galleries, and then make another page that has all the motocross galleries on it and have mxshutterfly.com go directly to that?

Is that all just a pain to take care of and just stop worrying about it all, make it jameslindberg.com or lindbergphotos.com and get on with it already?

Yeah.... it takes me about 2-3 weeks to BUY ANYTHING, as I must do research on what I'm buying, drives the wife crazy!!! and I think it's making me crazy now too with something that should be so simple!!

Thanks for all the ideas!!! Hope someone can answer the above questions or just tell me to MOVE ON ALREADY!

Art Scott · July 2, 2006

j-bo wrote:

After all this agonizing

lindbergphotography.com is registered already or I'd take that one.

If this is already registered then try this: lindberg-photography.com or do lindbergphotography.biz

A dot biz can be catchy also.....even tho most prople are used to dot com's........

Then just keyword and list that puppy till it is in the upper 10.....tis a lot of work but pays off in the end.

bham · July 2, 2006

My only advise is if you plan the company to get big and have other work for you then don't use your name, otherwise use your name or nickname.

JayBo Foto
JayBo Photo
JayBeau Photo
JayBeau Foto

I imagine all these without the space would have the .com available.

Also have anyone ever called you Lindy instead of Lindberg?

Maybe

Lindyphoto.com
Lindyfoto.com

Motophoto Motofoto but these limit you if you start doing non moto photography IMHO.

or your initials

J_Lphoto.com
J_Lfoto.com

Not sure what your middle name is so I left an underline. With using your nickname as the website address you could always have your header something like

Jay Beau Photo aka James Lindberg or vice versa. That way they put your real name and the company name together and hopefully remember one or the other.

But once you go with one make a business card and everytime you shoot the motocross hand out tons. If they visit and like it, they will bookmark and remember the next time.

Just some ideas.

Also where in Lousyana are ya? Actually as I type this I am back in Zachary visiting the family.

rosselliot · July 2, 2006

you should keep in mind you want something easy to spell. you want to be able to yell across the sidewalk and that evening that person can see your site. yelling this: "YEAH! I have a site! It's Bayou, like in Louisiana, then J, as in the letter and then a hyphen, then bo, not B-E-A-U-X, just B-O. then photos, then .com. all one word, no spaces! okay...talk to you lat..... *trails off*"
believe it or not, I have problems with MY domain name sometime - and it's only www.rossfrazier.com! now, for people who know me well, that's no biggy, because they're like - okay, ross frazier . com. but a lot of times, if it's someone new that I just met, I'll be like: yeah, that's Ross Frazier, f-r-a-z-i-e-r dot com.

so keep that in mind! it needs to be SIMPLE.

- RE

btw, I'm from LA too!!! pretty much smack dab in the center of North Louisiana! where are you from?!

j-bo · July 2, 2006

Dern.. I wanted a simple answer!

I'm in Livingston, between Baton Rouge and Hammond.

photosbyjbo.com is available... kinda catchy and ez to remember. I don't really like hypens in a domain, too ez to screw up.

I see A LOT of the fotographerpeeps on here that only have their name as their domain. This is why I was thinking of that.. but my name is a killer to remember and to get spelled right..

Dern.... maybe Ill do that

rosselliot · July 2, 2006

j-bo wrote:

Dern.. I wanted a simple answer!

I'm in Livingston, between Baton Rouge and Hammond.

photosbyjbo.com is available... kinda catchy and ez to remember. I don't really like hypens in a domain, too ez to screw up.

I see A LOT of the fotographerpeeps on here that only have their name as their domain. This is why I was thinking of that.. but my name is a killer to remember and to get spelled right..

Dern.... maybe Ill do that

if you're name is more complicated than Bo and Beaux...don't do it. hahaha. what's your first name again? I don't know if you mentioned it in opening or not. but what about not doing your nickname. notice in your thread starter, you had to tell us how to say jbo..."as in jay beaux" - what about photosbyJames(john)(Jim)(um....).com. something like that. MotoPhoto? hhmmmm....that's pretty good. is it taken? oh wait...it's kinda similar to motorola thing though. but that's also a little confusing. gosh, I have no idea. I'm just talking to myself now...

...I think I should go to bed. haha. I hope you find your perfect domain name! Sorry I've been...a neusance. spelling!? oh...who cares.

j-bo · July 2, 2006

Its James.

And I doubt it would matter how they spoke it as long as they could remember how to spell it!

You're right.. GO TO BED... cause you making me think too hard late at night.

Wish I had a name like john smith!

Bakat · July 2, 2006

Ha Ha! That's why I took my husbands name when I got married; I have NEVER been asked to spell "Baker", unlike my maiden name "Schneider".

Depending on how you set up your domain name and who you use (I strongly suggest using ICDSoft) you should be able to point them anywhere you want. Generally what is done is called "domain parking" and it really depends on whether smugmug will allow you to have several domains parked at the same address or not.

For me "Kathleen Baker Photography" lives at phraug.net. I've owned the domain for some time and I'm fond of it. It's not easy to spell but once someone catches onto the weird phonetics of it, they never forget it.

Keep it simple and catchy and it'll work for you.
Kat

bham · July 2, 2006

With domains being pretty inexpensive you could try 3 and forward them all to the same site.

Maybe

PhotosbyJBo.com
JBoPhoto.com
jaybo.com
jaybophoto.com

I like how you could have Bo and Photo rhyme. But as with everything, sometimes people remember, sometimes they don't so ALWAYS carry business cards with you. Make them like your keys and your wallet, always have them with you and extra ones in the car. That way people can't mess it up. Because having people try to remember is only important between the first time they meet you and after they first visit the site. Then more than likely either they will bookmark the site, use your service or buy a photo, or decide that it isn't what they are looking for. At some point you start to overthink something that isn't going to generate business. Put more effort into marketing once you pick a name and the registered name because a minor decision.

j-bo · July 3, 2006

Finally it's over.. and I'm happy about it!

It was actually painless making the changes to make it a "non smugmug URL"

Oh.. it's http://www.motoximages.com

I figured, 98% of biz would be motocross, so why not!
Now on to the CSS customization.

I used to use HTML only (eons ago) and haven't even peaked at CSS. Oh well... here we go!

Thanks for all the suggestions, sorry I didn't pick any of them

Business name, how important?

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