To find the perfect domain name is not nearly as difficult as it seems – Here are four easy steps to finding your perfect domain name.
1 – Your Full Name…
Easiest of all… If it’s available, and easy for people to spell, use your full name. Now, if your name is Mireille Saoirse, this isn’t going to work very well… but let’s look at a few places where it worked just fine:
NielPatel.com
AdamEnfroy.com
FrankSalinas.com
I’m sure there are many others – but this is a great possibility for those of you with a name that can be spelled easily – and who’s name hasn’t already been taken. As I detail below, only use the .com version.
Using your own name also gives you great incentive to build a really great website – since you’re putting your own name to it! The only major drawback is if you decide to sell the website, it will be much more difficult to sell.
One more tip before we get too deep into the subject – the choices of a .com, .net, or .org TLD (Top-level Domain) confuse people… indeed, it’s far worse today with the proliferation of extensions, you have such extensions as:
.co, .biz, .food, .website, .club, .info, .online, .best, .tech, .pro, .name, .shop, .world
and many more…
But the king is .com – you should consider nothing else. It popular and recognized, and most people will type it in automatically when trying to put in a website name. Even though it makes it more difficult to find the perfect domain name, I highly encourage you to consider only dot com.
2 – Using Keywords…
Start with your niche or industry. What are the keywords that people use to search for businesses like yours? Once you have a list of keywords, you can start brainstorming domain names that include those words.
As you can see from this site, this is precisely what I did. I knew I wanted “affiliate marketing” to be in the title, and I just looked around for something that would fit. And I must admit, CheapAffiliateMarketing” isn’t the best possible name – I’m sure I could have done better if I’d spent more time.
It’s a tad longer that I’d wanted, and it actually has a connotation I don’t care for. But it’s more important to just chose something! To find the perfect domain name is wonderful, but a merely adequate domain name will earn you money – while the other guy is still searching for the perfect domain name.
You can't earn money thinking about the perfect domain name...
You CAN earn money with a poor domain name.Use a domain name generator. There are many free and paid domain name generators available online. These tools can help you generate hundreds of potential domain names in a matter of minutes.
Use a thesaurus or dictionary. Sometimes, the best way to come up with a new idea is to start with an existing one. Look up synonyms for words related to your niche or industry. You might find a word that is perfect for your domain name.
3 – Made Up Names
Another fantastic possibility is to do what you’ve already seen done online. Google, Youtube, Amazon, Ebay, Facebook, Tic Tok, Etsy, Twitter, Yahoo, Reddit, Netflix, Twitch, Spotify, WordPress, Wikipedia, Zoom, Stack Overflow… and many others.
What do they all have in common? They’re simply made up names or words put together that mean nothing. You can do the same. Simply make up a word.
And any lack of creativity on your part isn’t a bar – you can also use other people’s creativity… where do you find made up words extensively? – Science Fiction!
If you enjoy reading Science Fiction – you can get a lot of great ideas from the “words” scifi authors use. Another domain name I own came from the made up name of a science fiction hero – The Man Who Never Missed. I won’t give it here, but science fiction fans can figure it out. And for those who read Dune, how about “mentat?” – it’s taken, but “mentatpro.com” isn’t, as of when I write this. Or how about “dancalia.com” (from a desert region of Caladan)’
In fact, Dan Calia would be a good pseudonym for a website author!
Science fiction can be a wonderful resource for words that no-one else has thought of, yet could be words in English.
Indeed, if you’ve not thought to use AI to find an interesting name, give it a try – AI can quickly give a list of “alien” words found in popular science fiction. You don’t have to go back and re-read “Dune.”
You can also take a word, and add “un, pro, hub, net, zip” or similar two or three letter words to the front or back of the word.
Just for the fun of it, I asked the Google Bard AI for this: "using no more than 7 letters, create a list of words that might be used in an alien language, but are not found in the dictionary" I then took one of them, "klor" and added a suffix... both "klorpro.com" and "klorzip.com" are available the day I wrote this. This took just 3 minutes or so to come up with several useable domain names... A number of them "created" with the help of AI were already taken, but I could probably compile a list of 10 or more with just 30 minutes of "work."If you’re not getting familiar with how AI can help you – you’ll be falling behind those of us who look to AI for help.
4 – Expired Domains.
Another excellent method to find the perfect domain name is to purchase an expired domain – these often carry great weight as a new website because many expired domains already have backlinks pointing to them. And there’s at least a large presumption that it’s a decent domain name, at least, someone else once thought so! If you are interested in this method, simply Google “Expired Domain Name List” and you should find some free resources…
Be sure to try to find out what the previous website looked like – so you aren’t blindsided by a poor reputation – you can check easily on the Wayback Machine.
Bonus Tips…
Stay far away from any name that sounds like a brand name. Remember the movie, “Coming To America?” Remember “McDowells?” Don’t even think about it. Unless you are a multi-millionaire, with dozens of lawyers on constant retainer – you aren’t going to survive any large brand when they sue you for infringing on their property. So whatever your great idea is – if it reminds anyone of a popular brand – just move on. It’s not going to be worth it, and you’ll end up losing whatever website you create.
When judging between different possibilities – pick the shorter domain name… shorter domain names are inherently more valuable than longer ones. It’s not hard to get a long domain name.
Itsnothardtogetalongdomainname.com is available as I write this, and I suspect that it will remain untaken for many years to come.
As I write this: https://supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.com/ (weighing in at 34 letters) is available for sale at the low, low price of just $49,000. I’ll be shocked if anyone ever buys it.
A better bargain is the much longer https://pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.com, (weighing in at 45 letters) which as I write is available for just $1,795… what a bargain!
Available right now for just purchasing is pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism.com (weighing in at 30 letters) can be purchased for just $9.58.
money.com, on the other hand… forgetaboutit. You’ll never see it available in your lifetime.
By the way – expired domains is where you’re going to find the shortest names… I own one domain that is only four characters long – and I got it as an expired domain.
Stay away from words that can be spelled in multiple ways… “way” for example, can also be spelled “weigh”… and don’t use numbers or hyphens if you can avoid it. They only detract from the value of your domain.
If you wish to purchase a domain name, do it right away when you find it’s available – some domain registrars will snap up a wanted name, and raise the price on you! I know Godaddy does this (Do a Google search for “godaddy buying searched domains”), I’ve personally seen this… and I strongly suspect others as well. NameCheap.com, to the best of my knowledge, has never done this – and this is why I use and recommend them.
Finding the perfect domain name shouldn’t be a hard task – as long as you’re not a perfectionist… Perfection is the enemy of the good enough. You really don’t need to pay any more than the basic cost of a domain name – I’d stay away from paying inflated prices from domain squatters, in the end – almost any domain name is going to work well enough.
Summary…
After you’ve chosen your niche – to find the perfect domain name for your website is not nearly as difficult as one might think – would it have been an easier job in 1995? Sure… but there are still tons of great possibilities.
Using these ideas should make it a fairly simple job to come up with just the right domain name. Start right now!
