Are all the good domains taken? • Hacker News Board

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#21

Post by petercooper » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 12:44 PM UTC

A 5 or 6 letter domain name isn't necessarily significantly better than a, say, 7 or 8 letter domain name. twitter.com is much better than twtr.com or similar.

The trick nowadays, unless you want some unpronounceable nonsense, is to conjoin two words in some way. Let's assume your site's main topic / product / quality is "widgets." You could go with things like: gowidgets, widgetstoday, hotwidgets, redwidgets, widgetman, widgetway, widgetinside, widgetwise.. you'll find a significant amount of domains with this technique that are free to register. It does take a lot of thinking and testing to find something that's good though! You can't just join anything.

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#22

Post by petercooper » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 12:44 PM UTC

joshc wrote: post #4

I find this one handy: http://www.bustaname.com/

Seconded. BustAName has proven very useful for me, especially in terms of coming up with word combos.

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#23

Post by mynameishere » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 1:53 PM UTC

STHayden wrote: post #16

I often wonder ho this will scare over the next 10, 20, 30 years. It's hard enough now... by 2037 will there be any domain left?

No, but you'll definitely be able to get what you need, when you need it.

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#24

Post by wrigley » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 3:24 PM UTC

We bought OFF2.com from snapnames about 1 1/2 years ago, $60 as was expiring, we are a travel website so its a great name for us

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#25

Post by mrtron » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 3:38 PM UTC

I recently (Feb 2008?) got a 4 letter domain, but it does include numbers.

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#26

Post by giles_bowkett » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 3:47 PM UTC

http://you-need-to-read-borges-labyrinth.com

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#27

Post by yawl » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 3:55 PM UTC

Take a look of this one, a little bit of old but still helpful: http://www.yafla.com/dennisforbes/Interesting-Facts-About-Do...

I registered a 5 letter domain (xruby.com) in 2006. I think there are still 5 letter domains available, but good names are extremely hard to find.

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#28

Post by sabat » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 4:00 PM UTC

ra wrote: post #11

A great option is to look at expiring names for domains being dropped because domainers couldn't monetize them. A good tool is this, look at the tdnam expiring list: http://www.freshdrop.net/expiring_names.php Just filter out everything except .com, and have a scan through. Hundreds of names drop each day. Minimum cost is $10 + reg fee, which is another $10 per year. Right now I can see these dropping today, with no…

Excellent tip, Rich; thanks very much for posting.

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#29

Post by jrockway » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 4:01 PM UTC

epi0Bauqu wrote: post #20

jrockway wrote: post #9

There are probably still 4 letter domain names in .us (and friends). I got jrock.us a few years ago -- nice-n-short :)

"Just" and a "few years ago" don't really mesh :) And jrock is 5 letters! Sorry if this is coming off differently than I mean it--I just think this comment is funny.

Well, a "few years ago" is wayyy past 1994 when there were still usable domains left.

Re: Are all the good domains taken?

#30

Post by crazeinc » Mon, Apr 28, 2008, 4:59 PM UTC

If you're willing to part with a little cash, you can find some decent ones for not very much. I didn't pay over $40 last year for vjot.com