Ask YC: How to get a domain name?

2 points·aneesh··4 comments

I am interested in getting a particular domain name for my startup, if it's not prohibitively expensive. The site at that domain doesn't seem to have been updated in years. The domain is currently registered to someone, and I found their contact info with a whois lookup. Is there a recommended way to try to get the domain, or a service that people use? Should I contact the owner directly?

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You can backorder it if it's set to expire soon (I've done that with GoDaddy - they lock you in for 90 days after you use their service to register).

You can use a service like afternic's assisted offers: http://www.afternic.com/uoffer.php

or you can TM the name and see if a lawyer's letter will convince them that they should hand over the domain, although that's sort of evil and it didn't work out well for Nissan (http://www.nissan.com).

Or yeah, contact the owner directly, that's an easy way to figure out if they're interested, although any interest immediately makes the psychological value of the domain go way up for the owner.

thanks!

a word of caution I back ordered on my old employers site that went out of business. no one wanted it so I used a company to make sure I got it and suprise suprise someone else got it and I was offered it at an inflated rate. I told them no thanks.

you could try and buy it via proxy using godaddy.

first I would try the direct approach myself personally.

I think the best way is to try and talk with the owner. If the domain expires very soon you can try to backorder but it may be prolonged by the owner.

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