Ask HN: How do you pick your domain name?
i started working on a SaaS project a few weeks back and finished the MVP 2 weeks ago. however i can't put it out yet because every domain name that i can think of which related to the business somehow, is taken! so this is postponing my launch.
have you guys had the same issue before? do you just give up and pick any random available domain?! How important is it for your domain name to be related to the service you are offering? I bump up against this problem myself all the time and it's so infuriating (doubly so when most of the domains you want are registered but not even being used). Finding a domain name that is available, memorable, easy to spell, snappy AND which quickly gets the idea behind your product/service across is HARD but my advice is to persevere with it. A good domain name makes a big difference when it comes to user traction and seo (and, for me, just feels better than inventing some random name that bears no relation to the site). A lot of the time I find the .com is taken (but not being used) and the .net is free. So I register the .net and then try and pounce on the .com when it comes up for renewal (this is an art in itself). If the .com gets renewed I occasionally (depending on how badly I want it) approach the owner and ask if they'll sell it (be warned some people have ridiculous ideas of how much a domain is worth). An alternative is to try extensions other than .com (examples: .io .in .is .to). This is what pinboard.in did and I think it works (pinboard is easy to spell, memorable, snappy and does a good job of explaining what the site does). I use www.eurodns.com when searching for weird domain extensions (as you can check virtually all of them in one go). Failing all of that, get a thesaurus, dictionary and a few bottles of wine and just lock yourself in a room until something clicks! thanks for the great response. i was able to use some of your advice and also the website provided below to come up with a good domain! You can't give up. It took us (hall.com) over 6 months. You can always change. We went from companyline, to halleo, to hall.com. Other pointer, test the domain with users to make sure it works. Our story: http://blog.hall.com/post/13936429456/how-we-got-the-hall-co... You guys might also like my new web app, Lean Domain Search (http://www.leandomainsearch.com), a fast new domain search tool that pairs your search term with 1,000+ other keywords and instantly shows you which of the generated domain names are available. It's always a good idea to pick up a short memorable, maybe hybrid word, if there are no available domain names what you came up with. I posted some of short, memorable, free .com domain names here: I wrote a blog post a while back that describes what I did (and normally do) to find a domain for my project: very interesting read. much appreciated. I would be happy to try and help you run some names and see if I can find anything. Contact me off my site in profile if you're interested. Thanks Kevin for the offer! i ended up using the bustaname website and got the domain! cheers Can you share a little more information about your project? It seems there are plenty of HNers who would like to brainstorm with you. This is a clear sign of fear of shipping. Call it anything. Just ship. Change the name later if you have to. it's not so much fear of shipping. i just want to make sure the brand is good. i don't want to call the domain xobiaseaf.com to just get it out there and have to send emails to everyone and notify them of the new name when i come up with it. disagree. a name isn't a throwaway item. it's your brand. it's not the end of the world to change it, but it's not something you want to do if you don't have to. I use http://bustaname.com/ wow! awesome website. thanks a lot for the share. i was able to use that and come up with a cool combination that was available. I might be able to help. Contact me. Email is in my profile.