How To Come Up With Great Domain Names

Domain Name Ideas and Tips

One thing I am constantly doing and never fall short of is my relentless pursuit for great domain ideas or domain names. Today, I will share a few things on how to come up with great domain names out of thin air.

Creativity is your number one asset – if you want to be a proud owner of some world-class, high-end domain names. Whenever I don’t need to be attentive and can free up my mind, I put my mind to work questing for domain names. Most people will let their mind wander when on the subway, standing in line, or just wandering around and wasting time; however, I see these moments as an opportunity and concentrate on finding great domain names. Here are a few tips I can share with you. These tips have worked for me and if you use them, they will work for you too.

- Always keep your eye and mind open. Pay attention to details when you are watching TV, reading signboards or store names while walking, reading a newspaper, and so on. Why? Because you may bump into some words or variations of words that can be used as domain names. For example, I came up with Dotcomdiary.com, Earthroadmap.com, and Globalboundaries.com just doing what I just mentioned.

- Keep a notebook and pen handy on your table, next to your bed, in your bag, etc. This happens to me a lot – I wake up in the middle of the night with a domain name burning in my head. Because of keeping a pen and notebook handy everywhere, I am able to write down the domain idea that woke me up in the middle of night and research it later when I get a chance. I came up with domains like beyondyourimaginations.com, greenlivingjourney.com and many others because I was able to write down right away.

- If you are waiting in line or riding the subway and can’t find anything to do, play around with some words and variations domain ideas. For example, one day the word “Roadmap” somehow struck my mind and I got infatuated with this word. Since then, I have been building one after another great domain names with this word “Roadmap.” Some of my Roadmap related domains are: Earthroadmap.com, Roadmaptosaving.com, Roadmaptosaving.com, RoadmaptoChina.com and much more.

- Use domain tools such as Domainbots.com to help you create domains with those words you are enthusiastic about. If you enter a word in Domain Bots search and hit enter, it will give you many variations with that word and also will tell you which are available. For example, I found many domains tied with “Green” and “Travel” from my search results on Domain Bot.

- Many domain names are dropping out of someone’s portfolio because the owner forgot to renew, gave up Internet Entrepreneurship, or simply can’t afford to hold them anymore. There are many sites that list those domain names that are about to expire or have recently expired. Go through these lists and who knows, you may be able to pick up your gem from these dropped-out domains. I found domains like 1timecash.com, 1tourtravel.com, and Realestateexpedition.com because someone else forgot or decided not to renew these domains.

There are many other ways to come up with great domain names. I can think of the above I mentioned right now off the top of my head. If you are into domains, you will come up with your own ways. If you can’t think of something right away, never give up and keep trying. It will all come to you slowly.
First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com Apr 18, 2010