Is it just me or…?
I'm going to start off by actually apologizing before I even get going, this post isn't meant to be a rant but if it becomes one then I'm sorry in advance.
Does anyone else think that trying to find a decent domain name for any niche related website is becoming increasingly difficult. Personally when I'm choosing a domain name(s) I like to get the DOT com extension where possible and preferably it should contain my main site 'theme' key phrase which I aim to rank the front page for. If my main key phrase is a short one and maybe two words long then I may have to place another word either in front of or behind my main key phrase, this is all very well but what if it's not available. Lately with most of the new niches I have discovered it has been the case that the DOT com has inf act been taken and short of hyphening the hell of it or adding several random words to the end there is no chance of me acquiring a decent DOT com. So what do you do?
Well usually I will go ahead and move onto the DOT net, especially if it has my specific key phrase in but once again I have spent the last couple of days finding that the DOT net's are also taken. Of course it's not imperative that I have my keyword phrase in my domain name, it's not going to be the end of the world if I build a site on a domain without it. But from a ranking point of view it's just more preferable to have it, especially if I can rank above a similar site in the SE's without having to do a chunk more of off page SEO.
Okay, so what's the problem in someone else getting there first?
If someone manages to purchase a decent domain name before me then great, I say good luck to them! But that's not the issue, the issue is that not one of those domain names I visited actually had a website on it, not one! All of the domains had the usual holding page which allows the owner or the registrar to earn income from Adsense etc. There must be hundreds of thousands of these pages just stuck out there cluttering up the internet with no development plan and no point.
So just contact the owner and offer to buy it!
I would except there are a couple of problems in doing this. Firstly you can very rarely make contact with the person who actually owns the domain name and secondly, when you do they will usually offer to sell it to you for $10,000 which is the point when, if it weren't for that fact it's via email, I would laugh in their face.
So what's the solution?
We need more TLD extensions! From what I am constantly seeing when looking around I would confidently say that there are very very few 2 (or even 3) word DOT com domains actually left (I'm talking about one's which are readable).
The other issue of course is should people be allowed to keep a domain name just for the sake of keeping a domain name? Should they be allowed to put those ridiculous holding pages on which the registrar provides? I have a large portfolio of domains myself but I can honestly say that I probably only have around 5 which aren't in use. If they aren't in use I've usually set them to expire or plan to put a site on them within a week or so.
It would be interesting to know how many of you just have domains sitting going nothing. Are you a contributor to the problem?
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Hi Ben,
I have to admit to having a couple of not used dot com domain names. That’s because I couldn’t make my mind up on a name when I chose my niche, so I grabbed what was available to give me time to think about it. Sorry!
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
@Ben .. i’m with you on this one mate. I have the same pet peeve when looking for domain names, and finding squatters on the best options.
It does seem pretty pointless, because I am sure that they cant be earning that much in adsense anyway, as few of these seem to be at the top of the serps for the keywords in the domain name.
btw .. have you checked out Namefuse (http://www.namefuse.com) … very cool tool for finding domain name alternatives. There are quite a few of these tools, but this is the best I have used.
Cheers
Al
As an affiliate marketer, I also own about 1200 domain names, another contributing factor why some can’t find domain names is that investors, marketers and others see potential. Everyday, I scour expiring domain names to try and find the good generics or keyword phrases that someone has let go, and a recession is a great time to find some gems. My intent is to develop or redirect to other developed sites. But I would also sell them if the right price came along, without exaggerated or hyped up prices. $100-$500 is a good price, or x,xxx depending on the name. I also look at domain names as an investment opportunity because of it’s relevancy to real estate. Only for .com extensions. Investing in domain names is a good hobby or an excellent way to extend your online business.
Ben,
I’m right with you on this as well.
I’ve been running into an inordinate amount of .COM names that are nothing more than holding pages in less than stellar keyword phrases.
I’d like to see more TLDs too.
Jeff
@Jeff Jones – Tell me about it, the darn things are all over the place.
@Sean – I can see why you do it and I don’t doubt they can sell well but personally having so many domains bothers me and if I’m not using them I usually set them to expire. Unless I have a fantastic one which I really don’t want to let go :P.
@Alan – Alan, I’ve not checked out NameFuse.com before but I’ll have to give it a look. I usually use Domainbots.com or Bustaname.com which both seem to be quite good.
I love the new feature in MNF which enables you to check for domain availability before going after a keyword.
@Mandy Allen – Mandy, that’s okay, it was just me having a bad day :).
Unfortunately ownership is 9/10s of the law and as with physical real estate so it goes with cyber real estate.
How many developers would just love for farmers or owners of prime real estate to just sell them their parcels of bare land for development. LOL
I wish I could agree, as I certainly come up against this as well. You just have to hope that one day the person gets tired of paying year after year for a URL they are not going to use and not making any money on.
I remember that back in the 1999s, last century…LOL going to Comdex (Microsoft’s big trade show back then) people were purchasing thousands of URLs in vertical markets…and that was when a URL was $30.
New phrases and products are coming out everyday, so you just have to deal with this trend and move along. Whining will do you no good and not make you any money, that is for sure.
I also recommend getting the Firefox Plug in Domain Lookup so you can look up URLs on the fly as you surf the web, it is very cool and you can pick up new phrases quickly.
Another cool name tool I found also is Bust a name at
http://www.bustaname.com
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