You’ve got an idea, and you’re ready to start a website around that idea. The only problem is that you cannot find a domain name that will work for you. This could be for a few reasons. The most likely one is that all of the domains you want have already been bought by someone else. However, this may not be the case as your desired domains could be premium or you might just want to make sure that before you pull the trigger and click that buy button you’re going to love the domain you choose. No matter what your problem is, this article will help you out.

All The Good Domains Are Taken

This is something that a lot of people struggle with when starting a website. It seems as if every good domain that you want is taken by someone else who most of time isn’t even using it. Now, I know how annoying this can be because I’ve been in this position many times. How do you deal with this? There are a few ways.

First off, I would recommend going to an online thesaurus and searching for the perfect one word domain that you would to use for your website. Let’s say it’s “Dog”. Once the search is completed, you will see synonyms for your preferred one word domain. Now, choose some of these words that you like, and see if they are available. If they aren’t your life isn’t over, we just have to keep looking. Take those synonyms and add words to them. Your domain doesn’t have to be one word. For example, keeping with the “Dog” keyword you could try BestDogTips.com, EasyPupTraining.com, or PupTrainingTips.com. All of these focus on the same general idea, Dog Training, but they are all different domains that could be available, and could be used by you.

A second thing you could try, if you’re not looking for a niche site domain and want more a branded domain like DropbackTV, is simply start looking at random things in your life, such as a drop down, and coming up with things around it. DropbackTV was actually spawned from Nic seeing a retail store “dropping down” prices. Thus, he thought of things that took those words and changed them into something different. Thus, DropbackTV was born. The “TV” comes from the domain itself. If you’re looking for a brand, just look around your everyday life for cool words that could be combined with other things to create an awesome domain name. Also, you could try to spell words backwards and see if you can come up with something cool. Patrick and I have came up with some very brandable domains by just spelling words in reverse.

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The Domain I Want Is “Premium”

Premuim domains are domains that have been bought before, but have expired and returned to the public market. These domains are valued at higher prices for two main reasons.
1) They have already been purchased, and thus, they could be bringing in more traffic than other domains that have never been purchased.
2) The domain is short, memorable, and normally not more than one or two words.
My best advice is to stay away from these domains. Unless you have done in-depth keyword research and you know that the name itself will help you bring in tons of traffic or you have some start-up cash to blow on a domain, look for something else. It’s not worth it. Just use the steps I mentioned above in the “All The Good Domains Are Taken” section to find a different domain that will work for you. There is no reason to spend $1,000 before you even start your online business.

The Domain I Want Is “For Sale”

Chalk this up on the board of things I also try to avoid, but I will look into if I’m confident that I can get the domain for a good price. When you see this on a possible domain, it means that the owner of that domain, whether it be a individual or a company, is looking to sell it. Now, the reason that I warn against these domains is because they can be scams, and most of the time, if they aren’t, the owner of the domain will want way too much money for the domain. For example, I’ve had people try to sell me domains that may be worth $100 for well over $500, $1,000, and sometimes even up to $10,000. Keep in mind these are domains that get very little if any traffic and have no content currently on them.

Additionally, buying domains does have other concerns such as well such as the domain could be search engine or AdSense blacklisted. This means it will be very difficult to get it to appear in search engines or run any kind of Google Adsense advertising on the site. Honestly, getting a site off of a blacklist is too much pain for what it is worth. All in all, I would not recommend buying domains if you don’t know what your doing because it is a very risky business.

If you do decide to buy a domain, make sure you check with Google to see that the domain is not blacklisted, and make sure that you do get a fair price for the domain. An example of a fair price for a domain is Patrick and myself paying $100 for RKTus. RKT is a three letter domain that is very easy to remember and very brandable, and we negotiated the seller down from $250 to just $100 because we knew what we were looking for and how much we were willing to pay. Don’t be afraid to negotiate, and be smart about every move you make when trying to buy a domain from someone else or a company. It’s real money we’re talking about here.

Where Should I Buy My Domain?

I wanted to include this at the end of this article because this is a question I get a lot from people who are looking to start an online business. There are tons of places to buy a domain, and it can be very overwhelming if you start looking for the perfect company to buy your domain or web hosting from. The answer is there is no perfect company out there. There are, however, two companies that I have came to know and love over the years. One for buying my domains and another for hosting them.

Name.com

Name.com is, in my opinion, the best place out there for managing your domain names. Patrick and I have almost 10 domains in our portfolio, and Name.com give us an easy place to manage, renew, and control every single one of them. Literally, there is one page where we can do all of those things, and it is incredible. If you’re looking for a great place to house multiple domains, Name.com is the place to do it!

Bluehost

I am confident in saying that Bluehost is the best web hosting company in the market today. They have affordable prices, great support, 99% up-time, and better yet, they have things one click WordPress installation to help you get your WordPress site up and running super fast. Patrick and I have been using Bluehost since we started, and they have never let us down. While Bluehost isn’t the best for managing domains, they are amazing for hosting them, and they give you a free domain when you sign up for hosting. So, go check out Bluehost, and get your online business started today!

If you think I missed something, please post a comment with what you think I missed, and I will happily add it to this post. I’m always looking for new ways to come up with awesome domain names. Additionally, if you enjoyed this article and it helped you out, please consider sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social networks you may use. It helps me out, and it helps the blog grow!