Web Lore has become resplendant with stories of site names that didn't quite work out. Some of these legends are true, and some, as I discovered thanks to a helpful tweet from state-side, are not so true, but do serve the purpose of demonstrating the need to read, and re-read what you put in as your site name.
Of course, it's not all bad news if you do make a mess of things. One only has to look at the outstanding success of www.comparethemeerkat.com, to fully appreciate the benefit using a bit of humour in the site name itself, in order to drive business. Indeed it seems that the Compare the Meerkat campaign has become a brand in it's own right, with the target audience being offered meerkat cuddly toys to tempt them in to comparethemarket.com. I even got a book given to me at Christmas based on the genealogy of Alexander, the main character of the meerkat campaign.
So when I see a website for an on line pen company called www.penisland.net, I have to ask if this was a rather careless faux pas, or were the marketing team trying to plug into our love of comedy, and a tinge of naughtiness.
Join in with the fun with the twitter hash tag #sitenamepitfalls
