Many of the guides on how to buy a domain name or how to build a website tend to gloss over this process as well. It is often assumed that the best approach is to just register whatever domain name is available and call it a day. I think this is a big mistake.

There’s nothing wrong with registering a domain name that is available, as long as you’ve thought it through and are intentional about it. In fact, I would encourage that. The issue is that in many cases, people don’t even realize that there are other options. Getting your hands on the optimal name is more doable than you might think.

In this guide, I want to walk you through my process for buying a domain name, starting with how I go about coming up with a name in the first place.

Understand the Cost of a Domain Name

First and foremost, I suggest that you do put some budget behind your domain name — especially if it’s for your business. If your budget is tight, then you’ll be more limited in what you can do.

There are two options when it comes to getting your domain name

1. Register a name that isn’t already currently registered.
2. Acquire a name that is already registered from the person or company that owns it.

Regardless of which option you go with, you’ll still need to pay the annual registration fee of $7–$15/year on average.

The cost of acquiring a domain name will vary widely: You can easily spend 4–5 figures on a name. In some cases you can find a good one for hundreds of dollars. Some domain names aren’t for sale at all, while others have sold for millions of dollars.

Brainstorm Concepts and Ideas

Before you even think about buying a domain name, you’ll need to do some ground work.

Get creative, because it’s time to do some brainstorming.

Your domain name is going to be used for something. Maybe a business, or a campaign, or maybe just a blog. And you probably already have some ideas around what it’ll be called, so you’ve already started the process.

Create a Concept List

I like to call this a concept list. It’s the list before your final name list. It isn’t necessarily names, but for now, just concepts.

Take your project and write down of all the words, descriptors, phrases, ideas, mantras, etc. that come to mind. Come up with as many words as possible. Use a thesaurus to help.

I personally find a mind map useful for this process.

Create a List of Potential Names

Once you have a thorough concept list, you can develop a more refined list of potential names. Start by listing all the names that you like. Since you might not have an unlimited budget, make sure you dig deep here. You can’t be too picky yet, because that will end up limiting your options. Write everything down that you think might work.

Narrow Down The List According to Viability

You can narrow your list down quickly just by typing in the .com for each name that you like. Type it into your browser and see what is there.

1. If there is an established website built on the domain name, cross that off your list. It is very unlikely to be a viable option.
2. If nothing comes up at all, then keep it on your list. That could mean that the domain name isn’t registered yet, which is great!
3. If a landing page with ads comes up, that means the domain name is parked. It is owned by someone already, but might be an acquisition target. Keep this on your list.
4. If the domain name is for sale, then that is the best case scenario. That’s exactly what we are looking for. Keep it on your list, and take note of the listed price if there is a listed price.

I find that my best domain names are generally ones that are for sale (as opposed to unregistered). I recommend browsing through the following websites to get more ideas. You might get lucky and find something you like just by browsing. If you do, add those to your list as well.

BrandBucket — They put together more creative, brandable domain names and then sell them. I’ve found a lot of names here that I would not have thought of on my own.

BuyDomains.com — They have a huge selection of domain names for sale. They have transparent pricing and offer a seamless experience. This is always my starting point, and preferred approach to acquiring a domain name.

Sedo.com — Probably the biggest selection of domain names and the most well known place to acquire a name.

BuyDomains.com and Uniregistry are the biggest players in selling domains. More times than not, if a domain name is for sale when I type it into my browser, it is one of those two companies that is behind the sale. I find them to be the most reasonable. HugeDomains.com is another one that I have bought from.

Once you have the narrowed down list. The next step is to dig even deeper to determine what your final options will be.

Choose Your Name

You’re ready to go through the process of choosing your domain name.

Some high level rules:

• Don’t worry about SEO or keywords. That doesn’t matter.
• Avoid hyphens.
• Stick with a .com only. If you are in the UK, Australia, etc. then of course a .co.uk, .au, etc. is also good.
• The shorter the better, generally speaking.

Quick checklist for your domain name options

• Do you feel good about the name? Do you like it? Are you confident when you say it? Does it feel good when you write it down? When you read it?
• Is it brandable? Is it unique, easy to remember and meaningful? Is it easy to read and spell?
• Does it pass the google test? Google the name. Ideally there are not any other organizations that pop up. If there are, you at least want to make sure they are not in the same industry, or even in a closely related industry.
• If it passes the Google test, you are probably good to go, but just in case, you also want to check for trademarks.

A Note on Social Handles

In a perfect world, you’d pick a domain name whose social handles are also available. This isn’t a perfect world. My take on this is that it’s hard enough to get a good domain name. Don’t make it even harder or nearly impossible by also adding this criteria. When it comes to picking up the social handles, you’ll have options. You can get creative, or even potentially acquire the handles from the current owners.

It’s a good idea to consider social handles when making your final decision, but don’t let that alone stop you from picking the right name.

The Starter Domain Approach

An approach that I am a fan of is to use the starter domain approach. The idea here, is that you can start with a domain name with the intention to move to another one down the road.

Let’s say you identify a domain name that you really like, but it is out of range for your budget. For example, when I was coming up with a name for my latest company, I really liked GoodLife.com. Someone else owns it, and isn’t necessarily looking to sell it. If I wanted to buy it, I would have to offer a lot of money — a lot more than I was ready to pay. If I wanted to take the starter domain approach, I could have gone with the name Good Life Media, and acquired GoodLifeMedia.com which is for sale for $24,500. (That price must have gone up, because it wasn’t that high when I was actually considering this as an option.)

Anyway, I could start with GoodLifeMedia.com and eventually try to acquire GoodLife.com. It would be very easy to rebrand from Good Life Media, to Good Life. Internally, we would just go by “Good Life.” The day that we eventually acquire GoodLife.com would be a huge milestone and would create a built-in company goal that we could go after as a team.

If you want a real life example, The Wirecutter just recently rebranded to WireCutter.

Considerations for the starter domain approach

• Make sure it will translate cleanly. The two names have to be very closely related, and you could ideally even use the desired name everywhere outside of the actual domain name, including in your logo.
• Remember that there is no guarantee your desired target domain name will be there when you are ready.
• I recommend getting into discussions with the broker or domain owner of your desired name as soon as possible. Even if you know there isn’t any chance you can afford it today. They don’t need to know that. This is actually a huge advantage for you, because it is common that over time the owner will drop the price as they realize their high price isn’t going to happen.

Acquire And/Or Register Your Domain Name

At this point you should have a narrowed down list of viable options for your domain name. The next step is to own it.

Each of your options should fall into one of three categories.

1. The domain name is available and unregistered.
2. The domain name seems to be acquirable, but it is not clear.
3. The domain name is clearly for sale.

What to Do If the Domain Name is Unregistered

In this case, all you need to do is go to NameCheap and register the domain name. You’ll find out for sure if that is an option or not once you type it into the search bar on NameCheap.

Our domain isn’t for sale…

But www.mathsoeasy.com is for sale — for less than $1,500.

You’ll go through a straightforward process here. Don’t buy any of the add ons or worry about web hosting or any of that yet. You want to use NameCheap to simply register your domain name. That’s it. They are the best domain registrar, and I use them exclusively. I do not use them for anything else, because there are other companies that I use for the rest of my web needs.

After you finish registering the domain name, that’s it. You are officially the proud owner of your new domain name. All you have to do moving forward, is be sure to renew the domain name each year. If you fail to renew it, then someone else will be able to replace you as the owner.

What to Do If the Domain Name Seems Acquirable

If the domain name seems acquirable, but it isn’t clear — you have two options. Either you can try to figure out who owns the domain name yourself and reach out to them. Or, you can hire a broker to do it for you.

If you hire a domain broker, there isn’t much risk. Typically, the only way you will have to pay a fee is if you buy the domain name. The downside is that you do have to pay a fee if you buy the domain name.

Sedo is a good place to start if you want to hire a domain broker.

In the case of doing it yourself, you can start with a WHOIS search to try to figure out who owns the domain name. Googling the domain name and seeing if it is tied to any social media profiles or other websites is also a good approach.

More times than not, I will fail at finding out who owns the domain name myself. It is common for people to use privacy features that hide their contact information. Most domain registrars offer this for free, so people tend to do it by default.

The benefit of a domain broker is that they have a huge network. They almost always know who owns what, and if they don’t, they have ways of figuring it out. Back to my GoodLife.com example. There is no way I ever would have figured out who owns that domain name if I didn’t have a broker to figure it out for me. Of course, I still do not know who owns that domain name, but at least I have a broker who does.

Another benefit of a broker is that you do not have to deal with the awkwardness of negotiating price. You have a middle man who can be the bad guy for you.

What to Do If the Domain Name Is Clearly for Sale

Domain names that might be acquirable, as outlined above, can be challenging. I much prefer to focus on names that are clearly for sale. These are easy.

If the name is already for sale, then the process is straightforward. The only thing you really need to think about is negotiating price.

Negotiating Price

There is often opportunity to negotiate price. Depending on who you are dealing with, there could be some room to get the price down.

I don’t recommend pushing too hard or overthinking this. That might just lead to wasting time and potentially losing out on the name. However, there is no harm in giving it a shot and doing some level of negotiating.

After The Acquisition

Once you acquire the domain name, the next step is to transfer to your domain registrar. Again, I recommend NameCheap. You can see the process for transferring your domain name here. It also helps to understand how domains work.

Regardless of how you acquire your domain name, the final step is to see it sitting inside of your NameCheap account. That is when it’s official!

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