People constantly whine and complain that all the good domain names are taken; that if only www.myproduct.com were still available, their future success would be secured. This is a load of codswallop. Sure, the boring single word names are all taken, but show a little creativity here! If we’ve learned anything from companies with strange names like Google, Squidoo, and del.icio.us, it’s that you don’t have to be a creative genius to be original, and that people are more than willing to accept the quirky and unusual if it leads to something worthwhile.

The same holds true for free email accounts. darren@yahoo.com does not belong to me, but does that mean I should settle for darren_d_1972@yahoo.com? Not exactly eye catching, is it? So how do you come up with an unusual, but slightly captivating name?

To quote Lionel Trilling, “Immature artists imitate, mature artists steal.”

I’ve always prided myself on my maturity. For every new email account, I dip into a hidden font of wordy weirdness in the form of a much used and battered copy of Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil.

A troubled genius
Pick a poem at random and start reading. I guarantee that before you reach the end of the first verse you will have found half a dozen phrases that would make anyone stop and stare.Today’s random poem is The Wretched Monk, and in case you’re wondering, www.thewretchedmonk.com is still available. It’s a short poem of fourteen lines, and produces the following fresh, vibrant, and slightly quirky email addresses:

under_steadfast_walls@yahoo.com
of_holy_verity@hotmail.com
those_cold_halls@yahoo.com
their_austerity@hotmail.com
thrive_and_grow@yahoo.com
in_obscurity@hotmail.com
graveyard_studio@yahoo.com
ennobled_death@hotmail.com
And that’s just the first eight lines.Now, you may think these addresses are just a little too unusual; that it would be safer all round if you went for johnsmith2006a2@hotmail.com. But ask yourself this: say you receive emails from two strangers, one from johnsmith2006a2@hotmail.com, the other from (final verse of The Ransom) corn_and_grapes@hotmail.com. Which would you read first?If you want to be noticed, you need to be noticeable. You need to stand out in the crowd, because the crowd is getting bigger and bigger. So toss all those boring name and number combinations out the window and start getting creative.