Bill Sweetman President of NameNinja.com, sent out a press release today saying that 79% of 491 Startups that will be participating at the Collision Startup Conference being held in Las Vegas on May 5-6 are using domain names that are counter intuitive and likely pose marketing challenges.

Bill also found that more than two-thirds (68%) of the startup domains failed the Radio Test, meaning the names are not spelled the way they sound.

“Startups without the optimal domain name face an uphill marketing battle.”

“Choosing a hard-to-spell name that fails the “Radio Test” is the number one problem, followed by not having the exact match .com domain.”

“If your startup is named Fashion Ferret then the optimal domain name is the exact match .com domain FashionFerret.com,” “Using anything else is risky because it’s likely to confuse your customers and drive up your marketing costs.”

Only 21% of startup domain names were the most intuitive domain name.

Bill Sweetman, is quoted as saying:

“I get it.

“Most startups don’t have much cash to spend on their domain name. But let’s not forget that your domain name is a key marketing asset.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a memorable domain name”

There are lots of free tools and service providers that can help you no matter what your domain name budget is.”

I will add that many domain owners like myself offer leasing and financing options which is ideal for startups.