First Love and More Names

I still have the stuffed Snoopy my parents gave me when I was three. It's older than my sister and half most of the guys I've slept with.
In Minneapolis/St. Paul, there is a giant Snoopy statue I always take a picture with. I love him with all my heart. I am even contemplating naming my biz Dark & Stormy or Stormy Night. LOL. I love Snoopy on top of his house fingerpecking at his typewriter.
Friday the 13th is always lucky for me. I just barely got on my flight back to DC today. Just barely. Denver was anticipating massive snowfall today but it didn't happen. I'm on 4 pm standby tomorrow. Grumble--I could have taken the redeye back tonight. jer got transferred to LA. I am so excited for her. I'm hellbent on making sure she gets headshots done by Michael. She is too beautiful/tall/leggy/thin/photogenic not to model right now.
Sat next to an attractive older (married) and chatty man. Was nice. He kept trying to see what I was reading (book on names and brands) and what I was writing (names, names and more names).
I'm sure I'm up to 300 now. It's finally starting to get fun. I think it' like exercise: at first it sucked and it hurts and it's stressy and boring. Now that I've been doing it for a few weeks and reading books and white papers and etc. on naming and branding, I am more confident that I know what I'm doing and I'm narrowing down what I want. I like short names that pop-- mostly words that start with C, K or G. I like double gg and I'm looking for words that evoke emotion or a good visual. I want warm, fun, dependable and good. Clever isn't really what I'm selling. I don't like puns, rhymes or "witty" names. I want a word or two that conveys writing but doesn't hit you over the head with it. I want to be different. But I don't want something that I have to explain to someone. You get it or you don't. It has to be fun to say. I also realize that even though i'm specific that i'm only writing now, the name has to be able to take expansion into marketing, branding and even design work if i end up teaming up with a graphics person.
so that's it. i'm going now. bye.

277 and Counting

Holy guacamole. Still looking for the elusive perfect name. I've come up with 277 names thus far. I taped a bunch of sheets on my wall and wrote them all in marker. I forgot some of them. Some make me cringe. Some, I'm still liking. Later, I will run a red line through all the ones that start with the word "word" or "write." (I always wondered why the ending punctuation goes inside the quote. It seems wrong. Math has it right: put the punctuation in logical order.)

So, I do notice that I like strong words- anything that has a strong consonate, preferably in the beginning. I also like double consonates (especially double gg's), and the words I pick tend to be online magazine titles and porn sites. I don't like puns- I think most of them are cheesy. I am definitely practicing what I preach: show, don't tell. I dislike the names that tell me something. As I've always said about those tees that say "Princess," "Hottie," etc. If you have to tell me, it probably ain't true.

Also, in doing a little competitor research, I noticed that the less professional looking/seeming sites tend to have names that are like bestcopy.com, increasedsaleswriting.com, cleverandwittywriting.com. (All, hopefully, made-up names here.) I noticed a lot of branding and naming companies have really boring names. The Name Lab, Brands R Us. Umm, yeah, I want to hire you and pay you lots of money to come up with my identity. Of course, there is the argument that they started their company before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon and named themselves. I guess that would be the perk of being first.

So am thinking. Trying to make this fun because I am so stressed about it. Along with daily job postings for copywriter jobs in fun places, I'm starting to crack a little in resolve. Gotta do this or I will hate myself forever.

So, I think I still have a bit more names to shift through before I come up with a winner. This is starting to feel like dating. As I am getting skeptical that Mr. Right will come along, I hope I don't get that way about Perfect Business Name.

Big Fish in a Little Pond

Finished one flyer for my client. Regaled Malio with stories of my client. He's a hoot. Started the second flyer. Even threw in a free tagline.

The naming process is still in progress. I've realized that I am not practicing good branding--I've been stuck on this whole word deal that I am not positioning myself away from my competitors. So, now it's going to get hard. Maybe fun if I stop stressing and have fun with it.

I'm going to buy butcher paper tomorrow and put every name I've scribbled onto it then make a list of whether the domain name is in use or just parked.

The cool thing is that this process is truly forcing me to sift through everything to the essence of what it is that I want to convey to the people. I did *finally* realize that I need not include the word "word" in my name. Why?

Copywriters with the word "word" in their name (not a comprehensive list):

marketing words
the word shop
word shop
word association
word feeder
word doctor
straight forword
sales word plus
word content
word power
ideas to words
word asssoicates
word navigator
wore words
wicked word craft
the right word
the word biz

How am I going to stand out in a sea of words? How am I going to preserve when everyone and their mama is hiring in-house copywriters right now? It's tempting to go work for one making much more money than I am now.

So Close

I was so close I could taste it. I had a name, went to go register it and it's already registered. Even though putting the name in the addy bar gave me the result I wanted, I didn't check to see if it was registered.

So here's the dilemma. (Odd how this morning, I was kinda unsure and got more sure during the day.) The dilemma: Do I go ahead with the name and use a different extension like .biz or .us and risk people not remembering that it's not .dom? In that vein, would I try to buy the .com when I have more money?

Do I go back to the drawing board and come up with another name altogether? I'm kind of chomping at the bit to get this naming thing done so I can finish my marketing materials and get to prospecting.

I started working on my brochure. Feeling good about it. Still not quite sure how I want to lay things out but getting a stronger sense of my brand so I'm content. The testimonials I've gotten back from my clients are phenomenal. I am so pleased!

Still freaked out about my finances. Thebutcher offered to buy me a laptop if I come and visit. Not sure if it's a loan or a gimme or whatnot but either way, it's nice to have options.

Everyone is being so supportive as I panic and all. I've noticed that the whole process freaks me out greatly but if I just sit down and just write and brainstorm through the fear, I get it done and it's not so scary on the other side.

So, am working on my brochure even though I have no name. And working on my client's stuff tonight as well.

Taxes have been sent to accountant and must pack for trip tomorrow.