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Comment by fsk | Hacker News Reader

Don't aim for 1 word english domain names. Those are taken and you'll pay big $$$.

Instead, pick a 2 or 3 word phrase that describes your project, and use that.

Another tip: Don't do a "domain availability check" until you're ready to buy the domain. I did that once and someone else, seeing I did the request, grabbed the domain. It turns out that the list of "domain availability checks" are sold to squatters.

Also, pick your proposed domain name and Google it. Look at the first couple of results. If they're all low PageRank, go ahead and take the domain. Most people use Google now instead of typing the domain into their browser, so you want to be #1 in Google for your domain name.

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1) Get your domain name before you name your product :-) a lot cheaper that way

2) Don't break my two tweaks rule. Which is, take your ideal name, now make one change to it so you can get the domain you want. I.e. change letters, mispell it, spread over the '.' etc. But don't make TWO changes, TWO changes looks naff. One is acceptable. (Obviously this is a rule of thumb).

I'd also add, be creative, there are lot's of ways to create cool domain names (as you can see from YC companies), but as @fsk said, CHECK GOOGLE! once you're done.

Especially try not to have a valid dictionary word as a product name unless you are Apple - the reason for this is you'll want to have Google Alerts and track mentions across blogs and social media. You can't do this if you've chosen a commonly used phrase or name.

Interestingly this is why Marina and the Diamonds named her album Froot ;-) true story.

If you want to do a domain availability check without using one of the webforms you can usually determine whether a domain name has been reserved or not with a simple DNS query:

$ dig in any example.com

> Another tip: Don't do a "domain availability check" until you're ready to buy the domain. I did that once and someone else, seeing I did the request, grabbed the domain. It turns out that the list of "domain availability checks" are sold to squatters.

Use gandi.net for these check, since, much like they slogan says: they're "no bullshit".

I bought C.HOW for way less than a grand...

c.how?!

How is that valuable/worth $1000..?

Because "c" is the third letter in the alphabet and how is three letters, and 3x3 is 9 which is the amount of letter in Black Mass which has Kevin bacon in it. - plus c.how can be chow or see how or ch ow or even cho w...which loosely translated from Klingon means "a fool and his money..."Honestly, it shocks me to you didn't see how it's worth more right away...I guess more gold in the TLD domain rush for me :)

Also, it could be an alternative spelling for "ciao".

That's $$$.

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