How To Get ANY Domain You Want
One of the most frustrating parts of starting an affiliate website is actually finding a good domain name that you like. If you are doing a keyword based domain, it can seem like EVERYTHING IS TAKEN ALREADY!
I remember when I wanted to start my homebrew website, I wanted to use beeer.com (three e’s). It was taken. beeeer.com and beeeeer.com were also taken! What kind of crazy person was buying all these domains?
Some business buy domains in bulk, and probably based on search criteria. I don’t know how they pick them, but a lot of “taken” domain names aren’t actually used. They’re just squatted on until someone decides they really, really want it.
Instead of the normal $14/year, you could pay anywhere from $50 - $5,000+ for a certain dot coms. Psh. Fuggetaboutit!
There’s a really cool way to bypass these jerks (OK, I’ll admit they are business savvy) and get any domain name you want. Here are a few ways that I’ve used in the past.
Let’s say I want a really short domain name like baseballtickets.com. 99% chance that domain is taken, right?
Here’s a list of variations which are still short, catch, and have your desired phrase in the domain name.Adds something to the beginning:
Words like Mr, Best, Great, The, or descriptive adjectives like fast, red, sweet, easy, etc can work.
Have a website about computers? What about SuperFastGaming.com? It’s available!
Add something to the end:
Words like zone, online, corner, for men/women/etc or other things that refer to “places” work well.
Have a website about fitness? What about GetAbsFastAtHome.com?
Add something to the beginning and end:
How do you think I ended up with the domain xBREWx.com for my beer site?
But the easiest trick of all is to use your own name. It makes it easy to brand yourself as a person instead of a business, and makes just about any keyword domain available to you.
Even something like makemoneyonline.com can be transformed to MakeMoneyOnlineWithMike.com. If your name is less common than Mike, you could probably find something shorter like MakeMoneyWithNate.com.
______
In short, don’t settle for a domain name you don’t like! Get creative!
Oh, one more thing. Last week I wrote about trademark infringement with domain names: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/nathaniell/blog/do...
What happens if someone already owns a domain like bestantiquefurnitureonline.com?
Chances are, that’s not a trademarked phrase. If you bought a domain like thebestantiquefurnitureonline.com, I don’t think you would run into any legal issues. I also don’t think you would have any issues with bestantiquefurniture.org.
However, there is the issue of confusion! Don’t worry about how they feel, worry about yourself and your business! If your website turns out to be really good, and a great money maker, do you really want them to be able to ride on your coattails with such a similar domain name?
While there’s no “rule” about choosing similar domain names, and there definitely are a lot of repeats/similarities out there, I personally think you’re better off getting a little creative and finding a more unique domain name.
It can be tempting to get that exact-match domain name, or the phrase you really wanted. But brainstorm a bit and you can probably think of something a little more clever, a little more unique, and something that you’ll enjoy equally as much.
Have a search for some domain names here inside Wealthy Affiliate: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/websites/domains
You can also see why SiteDomains is a big deal here: http://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/domains
Recent Comments
64
Great ideas Nathaniell!
... thanks. I've been missing you! - glad you're posting/blogging/teaching us more again. You are incredibly helpful and I appreciate it.
I already sign up to Amazon affiliate account. I was required to fill up tax declaration. (for US citizen) since I'm not a US citizen what should I write in the box?
what were the other options? How do you normally fill out tax declaration and if you don't have to pay taxes in the North Pole, what are the summers like there?
There is a version of the tax form for people who are not US citizens. I suggest you start the tax section again and look for it - I missed it the first time. If you can't find it, get back to me and I'll go into Amazon and look for it. Good luck
Another suggestion is to check out different extensions, like .club, .xyz or .ooo. Right now, there are over 600 extensions, and many of them have huge swaths still unregistered and waiting for people to take an interest.
.PRO for instance recently deregulated itself, allowing anyone with an interest to register their own .PRO domain name, though unlike a lot of TLDs it does require not using a privacy service, but the majority of these problems with this can be easily averted simply by creating a PO Box or having an actual business address, using a free Google number, and creating a work inbox using the website or your provider of choice.
I have decided to go branding with an acronym nice and short that people can remember. I'll see how it works before I get too excited about it.
I've used 'love' & 'my' as prefixes & 'hq' as a suffix. Just a matter of choosing something that suits the phrase you want.
That's some great thinking 'outside the box' Nathaniell. Very helpful post. Thank you. Warmly, Heather :-)
Nice thought, I wanted kidsart.com and added thisis before it, because kidsart.com wasn't available
See more comments
Excellent. Thank you Nathaniel