Choosing the right domain name can have a big effect on the success of your website.

Carollynn Hammersmith asks an intersting question about URL naming conventions on Linked In:

From a marketing/advertising standpoint, what URL naming convention is going to make the most sense to someone viewing advertising and would most enable them to recall the site name to visit it? (See made up example URL choices below — Wonka is not a real URL we are considering)

Note: Advertising would be accomplished primarily via print ads.

The choices are:
a.) gum.wonka.com
b.) wonka.com/gum
c.) www.WonkaGum.com
d.) your recommendation

Here’s what we thought:

Nowadays, you don’t need www in front of a web address. The .com part reliably tells the viewer that what precedes is a web address as in svidocs.com.

We don’t love subdomains (something.somethingelse.com). Too easy for the viewer to screw up.

Ditto addresses with a subdirectory (something.com/somethingelse).

WonkaGum.com - that’s your winner! The internal capitalization is good!

See the whole thread here.