Domain name first then Brand / Product / Service or the other way around? Conflicts of a domainer developer

In domaining, what domainers would usually advice people is before they register a company, develop a product or service they should check the availability of the domain name first. However, having started as a developer and moving towards becoming a domainer, it’s always been thinking about the brand / product / service before even thinking of a domain name…

… If you do look at the world of developers (especially web 2.0 websites), what’s really popular are the really cool products or service that they make regardless of domain name. These can be usually seen as the ready made scripts that developers sell for a few hundred dollars online. So it’s pretty much like the chicken and egg problem when you do get caught up between the two sides.

– Domainer or Developer? –

The way domainers see it, it’s about the marketing involved to the product. The more exact keyword matches of the domain name you have then the more you’re going to rank better and get higher organic search traffic. While developers see domain names as a cost, cost which they could save on and reinvest in other opportunities like outsourcing or advertising.

So as a domainer developer, what’s the best way? Invest in a domain name first and then develop, it could be much costly later on and it could be harder to find. How I approach my development is by getting inspired by the domain name and developing a product around it. It saves me time thinking of a concept or idea, saves me from potential cost of acquiring it from someone else and definitely going to get me the traffic that I need (thru SEO).