As a relatively new web entrepreneur, one question that i get asked a lot – Why Fachak.com … or how fachak.com … and/or many variations of same question.
Thought would enumerate some guidelines that we had formed while selecting our domain name …
A .com
We were very clear right at the outstart that whatever domain name we choose, it has to be a .com … i always use ctrl + enter and i am sure many more people do so … hence i always ended up typing slideshare.com instead of slideshare.net before I reached the actual site.
Moreover, I have seen a lot of friends assuming by default that the site they are viewing is a .com … so while they would remember ‘your-domain-name’ out of ‘your-domain-name.xyz’ they would in all probability type in your-domain-name.com … instead of whatever it was.
10 dollars or less
If you are rich and have tonnes of money, you may as well spend much more … there is a sprawling domain market where can get you great domain names for millions.
But this was never even a consideration for us … not even a single thought was spared on spending anything more than 10 dollars on domain name … we had limited resources and we would be better off spending them elsewhere.
Easy to pronounce
Ever wondered what makes google or yahoo or ebay sound so good … may be its because they are both bisyllables … amazon, orkut are tri syllables but still great domain names … facebook, myspace have four syllables each … add anything more and it becomes almost unpronounceable … try bruceclay.com … does that give your tongue some curls …
So our domain had to be limited to two or max three syllables. Fachak.com depending upon which side you stand on … is either a bi or at max a tri syllable. And whatever is the no of syllables, its easy to pronounce.
Difficult to mistype
Ever noticed how you almost never misspell while typing google or facebook … now try wakoopa … how many times do you mistype that out of 100 times … is it a significant no … most probably yes … why … because its easier to type ‘g’ than it is to type ‘w’ … its easier to type ‘o’ than it is to type ‘p’ … All the letters in google – g,o,l,e or in facebook – f,a,c,e,b,o,k are at relatively easier words to type in a qwerty keyboard. Similarly, all the letters in fachak – f,a,c,h,k are at relatively easy fingertips.
Hard to misspell
If you are a startup, a significant lot of marketing would happen by word of mouth … probably on those water cooler conversations … so try misspell that domain name thats lingering in your mind since last night … is it possible to misspell it … if the answer is yes, be sure a lot of people would do it.
Notice that sudden peak in cool.com …. thats because cuil.com was launched around same time. A lot of people typed in cool.com instead of cuil.com … and traffic died down once cuil.com’s traffic died down … albeit its still larger than the initial traffic.
In fact, thats a problem for us too … some users have reported that they typed in facha.com the first time they tried to reach fachak.com … so thats one thing we need to work on in our communcation …
A positive or no meaning…
If you were lucky, you were yahoo … but that was 1995 … and for rest of us are mere mortals … words with positive association that would still satisfy other guidelines are not so easily available … so go the sony way … coin a word that carries no meaning .. and do a lot of marketing to give it a meaning …
That was the route we followed with Fachak. Although, fachak signifies sound of splash in native Hindi …. in most other languages its an unknown word.
No rule is indispensable
The most important guideline – none of above guidelines is indispensable … if you find a name that’s great in some areas but lacks in one or two, you may as well go ahead with it … ultimately its your baby … if you feel its right choice, go ahead right away.
In fact, Fachak was not a result of following these guidelines strictly but more a result of a creative streak inspired by an advertisement in a comic book. We had tried about 500 keywords while searching for available domain names – all the while trying permutations on words with positive meanings – cool, trendy, hip … et al … when I finally found something that was available. When we crosschecked fachak against the guidelines we had formed, it fitted the bill perfectly … or almost perfectly 
Finally, do give your domain name about 3-4 weeks to grow on you, before you finally accept it or reject it … especially with names that carry no meaning at all …
It took my team almost 3 weeks, before all of us really started liking Fachak.com … before that it was yet another idea thrown in by a crazy entrepreneur 
Vaneet
