

What to do if the .com domain for your idea is taken? - skcin7

I have been working on my first idea for a startup for 3 years now (most of time spent just teaching myself how to code... i only knew basic html back then). The name I have for my startup I am pretty firm with, though unfortunately the domain is taken. It's just 4 letters long (no vowels) so you can imagine that it is taken. What do you think the best way is to handle this situation?<p>I was thinking:<p>A) Get a top-level domain such as .net or .info?<p>B) Get a country code level domain such as .us or .cc?<p>C) Lookup the information of the current owner and try to buy it from them<p>D) Keep the same name but add something to the end of it, e.g. "burgersapp.com" instead of "burgers.com" (if it's an app for burgers)<p>E) Think of a different name for your product<p>F) Something else (please explain)
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sixtofour
F) Go to Google Translate, type in variations of your desired domain in
English, then try out most of the languages until you get a short,
pronounceable, memorable word or phrase, then register thatphrase.com.

English: hack me, hackme.com, not available.

Danish: hack mig, hackmig.com, available.

Icelandic: hakk mig, hakkmig.com, available.

Indonesian: hack saya, hacksaya.com, available.

Norwegian: hack meg, hackmeg.com, available.

Swedish: hacka mig, hackamig.com, available.

Bonus: you get to make up some cool, interesting back story.

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togasystems
Wow....that is a great idea... I am going to use this method tomorrow!

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stephenhandley
F) <http://domai.nr>

your name being 4 letters makes that less useful than it would be otherwise.

So D) is probably your best bet for the reason pavpanchekha and Joakal already
suggested: if you're successful you can buy the original domain name you
wanted like dropbox, mint, facebook, twitter, etc.

Maybe try getting the same 4 letters twice in a row if that works...

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staunch
Definitely try to buy it. A good domain is well worth it.

Probably though it'll be too expensive (unless you have significant funding).

Keep it mind that it's _extremely_ easy to convince yourself that a particular
domain is The One. It really truly _never_ is. It's really hard, but you can
find another one that's good (often better).

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grah4
C.

We were in the same situation and settled for mispelledword.net while we were
in dev - until we stumbled onto an auction for the word.com and picked it up
for ~$2k. We were incredibly lucky though.

If you can't reach them or don't have the budget and that name is The One go
with D.

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mootothemax
I'd go with option D - if your app takes off, you'll be making enough money to
buy the "proper" domain. That, or use a random word generator to create a
brand name. Protip: if you go down this road, do a Google first just in case
it means something unexpected :)

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msahil
I vote for D since trying to buy domain name from owner could be expensive and
not worth going for it

Add something to the unavailable domain is my preference D, but what ever you
add, don't make it too long, try to keep it around 8 chars max

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PonyGumbo
There are lots of successful apps with great names and less-than-ideal URLs -
37 Signals seem to be doing just fine with BasecampHQ.com, HighriseHQ.com,
CampfireNow.com and BackpackIt.com. I use BeanstalkApp.com and
PostmarkApp.com.

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petervandijck
How do you mean, "if"?

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venturebros
spell it differently

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samstave
whats the space? think of an alternate name.

Is the .com you like doing the same thing as you?

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rorrr

        A) Get a top-level domain such as .net or .info?
        B) Get a country code level domain such as .us or .cc?
    

.org is better - there's wikipedia, craigslist, wordpress, thepiratebay, all
in top 100.

If you look at alexa top sites, there's not a single .net or .info site in the
top 100.

First .net site: secureserver.net (106th place)

First .info site: com-net.info (807th place)

First .us site: imageshack.us (132th place)

First .cc site: wretch.cc (287th place)

    
    
        C) Lookup the information of the current owner and try to buy it from them
    

Assuming you can find them and they answer the email filled in their whois.

    
    
        D) Keep the same name but add something to the end of it, 
        e.g. "burgersapp.com" instead of "burgers.com" (if it's an 
        app for burgers)
    

No.

    
    
        E) Think of a different name for your product
    

That's definitely one of the best ways, if rebranding is not an issue. Notice
that most of the top websites have completely made up names that don't say
much about the business - google, youtube, yahoo, linkedin, amazon.

    
    
        F) Something else (please explain)
    

Check out domain auctions, you might find something short and sweet for a
reasonable price.

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pavpanchekha

      D) ...
      No
    

I wouldn't be so glib. Didn't Dropbox start at getdropbox.com and only buy
dropbox.com a year or two ago? Worked for them.

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Joakal
GetMint.com and TheFacebook.com, both made deals to buy out the domain iirc.

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skcin7
Facebook also had to pay $100,000 to buy the .com. That's not really a
possibility for most of us.

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diolpah
Option C worked well for us. There is no harm in trying.

