[acabal]

Looks like a great idea, very clever, but I'm not sure about the pricing. I would love to use something like this as a small developer, but $250 is a bit much for a domain and a logo given my small-time budget. On the other hand, companies with a larger budget would probably just have something like this done in-house. So I guess I'd ask: who do you see being the target market here?

[Hrundi]

I see HN as the ideal target market. I'm sure this submission didn't occur spontaneously and there are many people in HN who can afford $250 for a seemingly good value.

I'd be surprised if most of the domains are not sold quickly.

[DuqE]

From searching and looking around a logo design can cost around $250 on its own, getting a domain to match a pre-designed and brandable logo is a nice idea and i like the concept, will i ever use this? Probably not.

[iamben]

IMO, some of these domains are probably worth more than $250 anyway.

[dotty]

Huh? A domain is worth around £10, not $250, not £1000 and definitely not $15,000+.

[ed209]

I don't think you understand. By your logic, everything should be equally priced based on its constituent parts, totally ignoring availability, desirability, demand and countless other factors.

Are you seriously saying that if you owned the domain name coke.com and the domain name jkkjs7e98wesj.com that you'd sell them to me for £10 each?

[sycr]

Worth and cost are not the same.

[dotty]

Very true, but when it comes to a domain, to have a fair and equal system - they must be the same.

[ollie]

I'm totally unaffiliated with stylate. I saw this (http://twitter.com/#!/ormanclark/status/119324718527553536) tweet from @ormanclark & decided it might appeal to people on HN.

[ja27]

The price can seem a little high but it's a fixed price. No guessing, no haggling, no uncertainty. Just pick one you like and go.

I wonder if you'd consider locking in the matching Twitter, YouTube, etc. names as well. I'm afraid that if you don't now unscrupulous people will start scanning the site and picking those up.

[ljf]

I was thinking that, full suite social media branding, plus basic business cards, letter head, invoice template - the potential addons could go on and on.

[ayb]

I think $250 for a decent domain AND a decent logo is a steal given the quality of both and the time savings they present.

[stylate]

We are testing different price points. What would you feel comfortable paying?

[acabal]

From a small-time perspective, $100-$150. That's small enough where if the project doesn't take off I won't be out too much cash, and big enough to justify a logotype from a font library, a simple vector logo, and the transfer of a not-unreasonable domain name.

[kiwidrew]

I'd like to see two or three different price points. Some of the names and logos are much higher quality than others. Seems that $250 is too high for some folks and too low ("a steal") for others. I'd suggest something like $100 for a minimally-branded name (like Sporous.com or oveza.com), $250 for a standard name and brand, and $500+ for the really good stuff. Also +1 on the idea of upselling business cards, letterhead design, etc.

[dmbaggett]

It's clear from the feedback that you guys should be running auctions instead of charging fixed prices. Let the buyers choose the prices on a per-domain basis.

[dmbaggett]

Just bought one of the domains. Great idea. But you're off by 10X on the pricing. Should be $2500 a piece. Seriously.

[dotty]

How about £10? You know.. how much you're supposed to pay for a domain.

[Isofarro]

In hind-sight everything is obvious. Everything is easy if you already know it. You already know the perfect domain for your uses that's already available - more power to you.

The interesting aspect of this service is as a set of triggers. You'll find some people will immediately spot a matching domain in that list - they may not have thought of it themselves, but seeing it there triggers off the lightbulb.

Sure you can do the exact same thing with a command line whois, but then you don't get the benefit of serendipity. Someone else's list of brandable domains shows an item you weren't expecting to see, and that triggers off your own creative process into a different direction, and you find an end result you may not have arrived at without that serendipitous discovery.

You are seeing the results of someone else's creative process of discovering brandable domains. You don't have to pay for that effort, but you can be motivated by it. The $250 charge is if one of those domains is a perfect match, not for the process of finding an available perfect match and brandable domain.

The route that satisfies your expenditure expectations is watching expired domains lists - that's another source of someone else's creative inspiration. But you either have to scan tens of thousands of junk entries, or have a keyword list of some sort to focus on. Even then, because of the volume, you'll miss excellent domain names that are slightly outside of your current thread of ideas.

Then there's http://impossibility.org/ - generating available domains centred around a keyword. It's interesting, more serendipitous than expired lists, and purchasable immediately by registration. This is probably one of the better "suggested domain name" tools around, though it's just sticking words before or after your keyword. Sometimes an good domains does pop out, but it takes a bit of a graft, or a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Or sit there typing one domain idea at a time into a whois. It depends on your own level of innate creativity as to which approach will reap dividends. Personally, I use several different avenues. This is one more to keep an eye on.

Don't underestimate the creativity and inspiration. This is perhaps a better source of quality domains than Sedo/GoDaddy auctions, ebay/flippa/digitalpoint. Better, because of it's focus on brandable names rather than generic keywords / keyword-heavy / geo-targetted domains that are the current vogue in domainer/internet marketing circles.

These guys won't know what matches perfectly for you, only you do. If the price upsets you, you are not forced to buy even if it's a perfect match, you can just find another perfectly matching domain that is available.

[ljf]

The other day me and my business partners spent about 3 hours between us throwing around brand names and checking out .com's - we found a name we love and now we are getting a logo/branding piece done for it.

The costs in terms of our time, plus the design time are going to be way more that $250 - so if this has something you want and can use, great. If not there are literally millions of other names out there.

These guys, IMHO, are adding value. If you think not - fair enough, but they aren't selling just a domain. They are selling time saved. Some peoples time won't be worth as much, some people are already talented designers. For the rest of us, this is a great idea.

[phsr]

So you expect to get a logo for free with that logic. What they are selling here is a somewhat pre-built brand. If you want a $10 domain, spend the time to think of one that isn't registered. This will definitely take at least a few hours. Do you value your time? 6 hours spent thinking of a domain name is "free", but it took 6 hours during which you could be doing billable work, at a very low ~$40/hr

[itswindy]

acabal, $250 is a steal. Cut on beer and coffee for a month and there you have it. Branded domains can go for a lot more

[icebraining]

These aren't branded. They have nothing behind them, no product, no recognition. Having an icon doesn't turn them into a brand.

And the thought of spending $250/month on beer and coffee is disturbing. I spend $15 ;)

[itswindy]

Should have said brand-able, sorry. But my point still remains, names are extremely important and $250 is relatively nothing. Fix a script for someone and you'll get that much.