There are billions, billions of possible domains. The number of domains available is in the hundreds of millions. What are the chances of getting your preferred domain name when you go to the registrar? Mathematics was fine.
But experience proves otherwise. Finding a combination of letters and numbers is one thing. Making sure the combination produces a good domain name is an entirely different process. There aren’t many good ones to choose from.
That’s why it’s possible when checking domains that someone has already registered your top picks. Such things happen. However, we’ll show you what your options are if it happens to you.
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When you want to create a website and are trying to come up with the perfect name for it, it’s wise to come up with a few ideas in case one of them has already been taken. If you type the domain name into your browser’s address bar and press enter, you can understand that the name was taken during the brainstorming or research process.
Three things could happen. you can visit a websitethis means your domain name is taken. You may be redirected to an error page, which probably means your domain is free for you. Finally, A sales page may appear asking you to contact the owner of the domain name and the person who put it up for sale.
If you are worried that visiting an unknown website poses a security risk, you can check website availability from websites like below. whois.comIt’s a tool you might want to remember because we’ll be back to that in a minute or two. Also, some hosting providers that work as registries may suggest that you search your chosen domain name online without going to their website.
In case of bad news, which can be any news other than that your preferred domain name is free to use, you can proceed in two ways. You can do your best to protect the name, or you can come up with cheats or alternatives that might work. Let’s take a look at both options.
When you want to use an already taken domain name, the first thing you need to do is find out who owns this domain name. Go back to whois.com and type the address. If the owner’s contact information is available – if not customized – you can see it and contact the owner directly. If not, maybe the website itself will have some contact information about the seller.
How to Buy a Second Hand Domain Name?
If they are willing to sell – great, you just have to navigate to buy a domain name from a person or company you met online. Usually this means using services to help you exchange.
a service like Retention can help. You and the seller agree on terms, and then you put your money in escrow at Escrow. The seller then transfers the domain to you – every registrar has a procedure, you check and confirm the domain name and they get the money.
What Should You Do If You Can’t Buy The Website?
Things get more complicated if they’re not willing to sell. In this case, you can try to get your lawyers involved and sue the owner for cyber invasion. Depending on how it is legally processed in your country, You can win the case, but only if you can prove that they are infringing on your trademark or generally sitting in the domain in bad faith.
If you don’t want to involve your lawyers or can’t find out who the owner is, you can try to buy the domain with an alternative TLD. So instead of .com – assuming you always go straight to it as you should – you could try purchasing the .org or .net version of the website. But keep in mind that this can lead to some confusion and perhaps even brand dilution.
In some cases, you may even manage to split your domain in two and use the second half as the top-level domain. For example, you can get example.le instead of example.com. Again, this can cause some confusion, and it may work better if the domain name consists of two words.
For some reason, you may also decide to avoid the hassle of figuring out how to get the perfect name and choose an alternative. This can be an extremely difficult decision if the domain name you want is your brand name, but they happen often and brands find ways to get around them.
You don’t want to use a name that has absolutely nothing to do with your business, your blog, or what you’re trying to record. There must still be some kind of connection to the original idea.
Expand the Original Domain Name
There are some words that you can add to the original domain name that will not detract from its meaning – they may even serve to reinforce it. Exactly what you can add will vary based on domain name, business type, industry, and many other factors.
But let’s say your chosen domain name is “something”. You can expand the domain name by adding an appropriate verb.like “to do something” or “to buy something” or “to read something” and “to do something”. Or if it’s a store or business that caters to a geographic market, you can add the location to the domain nameLike “somethinglosangeles” or “oregonsomething”. Be creative, but make sure it makes sense.
Use Related Words
There are also several types of related words that can work as a domain name rather than your brand or business name. Again, these work better for some brands and businesses than others, but may still be worth a try.
For example, you can use a keyword instead of a brand name. So instead of “something” you can use for example “beststoreinlondon” or “orlandolumber”. In this case, your business name doesn’t need to match the domain name.
If there is a way to extract a similar and brandable word from the original domain name, you can try that too. Thus, for a magazine called “something”, the website might have the domain “something”. You can unleash your imagination, but always make sure it is somehow connected to the brand, business, product or industry.
Let’s wrap it up!
Domain names are important and you need to look no further than the reseller industry for proof. When choosing yours, make sure you have several alternatives. If you go to the registrar determined to get a name, and that name is taken, you could get yourself registered for an unpleasant and perhaps even expensive trip. It might be much better to show some flexibility – something even big brands should do when faced with an uncompromising domain sitter.
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