Why do some people collect domain names? Why did I collect domain names? Richard Roger in his weekly newspaper series tracking his latest startups details some of the techniques behind name selection, such as “pick two ordinary words, and stick them together”. I’ve typical been inspired by somewhere I’ve been or something someone has said. Here’s some insight into my madness.
Domain name: moonbade.com
Lease range: 12-jul-2005 – Present
Complementary domains leased at some point:
- moonbade.co.uk (2004-2008) Wayback machine from 2004
- moonbade.ie 15-oct-2009 – 10-sep-2010
- moonbathe.ie 16-oct-2009 – 10-sep-2010
Name origin: An old American friend of mine used to talk about Moon bathing when we lived in Colorado, it stuck with me. With an Irish accent bathe becomes bade 🙂
Domain name: reducekeystrokes.com
Lease range: 01-aug-2007 – Present
Name origin: An American customer at a company I contracted for in England once used the phrase at a meeting “it’s all about reducing the keystrokes”. I like productivity tools so this joined the dots for me!
Domain name: seangan.com
Lease range: 14-nov-2007 – Present
Name origin: Coumshingaun is an amazing example of a corrie \ coum that I grew to love when living in Waterford. Com seangan is the Irish name (as Gaeilge), this leads to seangan.com.
Domain name: greatpacificgarbagepatch.info
Lease range: 13-oct-2009 – Present
Name origin: I found it frustrating to get information on the Pacific garbage patch back then so I started to maintain my own which I still keep active.
Domain name: polishingbox.com
Lease range: 05-feb-2009 – 05-feb-2014
Name origin: This was one of my blogging sites where I posted about using windows software for various things, the by-line was fine-tuning the software solution. It redirected to polishingbox.blogspot.com. I moved all the posts to reducekeystrokes.com under the category polishing box
Wayback machine from Feb 8 2011
Domain name: codeinquisitor.com
Lease range: 05-feb-2009 – 05-feb-2014
Name origin: This was one of my blogging sites where I posted about coding, the by-line was joining the code jigsaw. It redirected to codeinquisitor.blogspot.com. I moved all the posts to reducekeystrokes.com under the category codeinquisitor.
Wayback machine from Feb 8 2011
Domain name: boardtc.com
Lease range: 10-feb-2009 – 10-feb-2014
Name origin: A friend of mine said to me a few times that I have all these pages but he’s not sure where all the bits are so I collect them under this url. I now have that page undermoonbade.com/me. The handle boardtc has a number of meanings for me, I spend the 2000/2001 season snowboarding (board) in Treblecone (TC), Wanaka and TC is also my initials.
Wayback machine from June 1 2013
Domain name: boardtc.me
Lease range: 25-aug-2010 – 25-aug-2011
Name origin: This seemed a better url than boardtc.com and I redirected it to that.
Domain name: noviewseats.com
Lease range: 13-sep-2007 – 13-sep-2011
Name origin: A business idea to centralise online booking service for no-view seats, for all events but more suitable for multi-tier stadium concerts venues where the behind stage / upper levels no view element is a differentiator from currently restricted access selling proposition for the price conscious / price restricted population. Potentially one could form a relationship with current distributors/ sellers. These seats would be previously unsellable inventory as the only view of performers would be on screens. This would allow people who can’t afford full price to attend live events and clear previously unsellable inventory. With the only view of performers on a special erected big screen would it be worth it?
Wayback machine from Jan 28 2011
Domain name: alrightbub.com
Lease range: 04-feb-2010 – 04-feb-2014
Name origin: This was a favourite greeting amongst a circle of friends of mine going back some years.
Domain name: flossgun.com
Lease range: 31-jan-2009 – 06-may-2012
Name origin: This was a business idea I had to allow one to load the standard dental floss rolls into a “gun” which allow sections to be tensed for use like the current floss sticks. In 10 words: Durable, refillable device for storing, distributing and easy flossing. The idea was to eliminate disposable sticks & waste by having to wrap around fingers and to have something reusable.
Domain name: mashreviews.com
Lease range: 22-jan-2009 – 22-jan-2010
Name origin: At this time I got frustrated with there always being more reviews on amazon.com V amazon.co.uk and the business idea here was to mega-merge all the reviews from different sites together. I checked with Amazon at the time and one was able to access reviews for free but “you are not permitted to use Amazon Associates Web Service with any Application or for any use that does not have, as its principal purpose, driving traffic to the Amazon Website and driving sales of products and services on the Amazon Website.” Amazon has since combined the reviews themselves sometimes. This site was later taken by another party for some years.
Domain name: snowberth.com
Lease range: 10-mar-2009 – 10-mar-2010
Name origin: I did a start your own business course in Waterford in 2009, in fact, I attended the course on the night of my 40th birthday. We were encouraged to have a business idea and Snowberth was one such, a snowboarders hostel if you like.
Domain name: festivalhookup.com
Lease range: 07-sep-2009 – 07-may-2011
Name origin: Another business idea. From going to music festivals, meeting your friends is still a challenge to this day.
Domain name: gugse.com
Lease range: 18-may-2009 – 18-may-2010
Name origin: When working in Waterford in the South East of Ireland at the end of the naughties I got very interested in the computer language Groovy and introduced it to my company. This acronym stood for an aspirational user group Groovy User Group South East that I never setup.