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I went to register a domain today and for my surprise almost all the short variations I could possible think or use for the domain I want were taken giving me not much options in that sense.

What was more pissing about it is that more then 90% of the variations I tried were hold by place holders selling the name that usually goes for at least 100USD or even more.

Are there any solutions to this kinda of things ?

Is my one and only option to keep searching until I can find an available name even if at that point it has lost completely the mean it had or became extremely big where no one would remember it ?

What do you usually do in this kinda of situations ?

Consider yourself as a starter that doesnt have 100USD to spend, I do have that much but that is not really the case here and that was just a cost example, I heard that there are domains that even with bad names can go for more then 1000USD or even more.

Prix
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2 Answers2

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Are there any solutions to this kinda of things?

Your main options largely consist of:

  • Come up with another name that is available.
  • Use a different TLD.
  • Pay whatever the current owner is asking or try to talk them down.
  • If you have an actual legal claim to the name and can show the current owner is squatting for purposes of confusing visitors or similar, you might have legal options or be able to file a domain name dispute.

Squatters may be abusing the rules by any reasonable interpretation, but strictly speaking they generally aren't doing anything that's actually against the rules. It sucks, but that's the situation.

Su'
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  • true, I would love to keep .com as an option but that is what I am starting to question but aside from that there is also the question of for instance if u register sti.co but there is also sti.com since .com people might mistype it. – Prix Aug 22 '11 at 20:21
  • True, they only want to make money without doing anything for it. It's very annoying, they hinder senseful projects, but it's unfortunately not illegal. – martinstoeckli Aug 23 '11 at 11:48
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Bad domains that sell for $1,000? Not likely. It can't be bad and valuable at the same time. Wherever you are "hearing" these things is a bad source of information and you should probably stop using it.

Optimal domain names are definitely getting harder to come buy as literally millions and millions of .com domains have been sold and a large number of them are being registered every day. If you can't find a .com domain that you like, alternatives include:

  • Registering the domain using the .net TLD. It is almost as widely recognized as .com.

  • Registering the domain using the .co TLD. Although this is the TLD for Columbia they have opened it up to general registration and Google has acknowledged it as being a general TLD like .com, .net, etc.

  • Using hyphens (-) to separate keywords in the domain.

  • You can also try negotiating with domain squatters if you like a domain they own. They often will accept offers far below their advertised price. This is usually because the domain generates little interest and they are just eager to get rid of it.

TRiG
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John Conde
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  • Bad domains that sell for $1,000? Not likely. It can't be bad and valuable at the same time. Wherever you are "hearing" these things is a bad source of information and you should probably stop using it. Well my way of bad does not mean it will be your way of bad and It does not mean it will be always 1000 it was just an average price which those domain holders often use as their price I have never seen a domain going from less then 100 USD from those people. Of course I would prefer buy my domain from a registrar but that is also business this days. – Prix Aug 22 '11 at 20:17