Check Domain Names for Typos Before you Buy

Before you buy, bid, or acquire a domain you should always check domain names for the proper spelling of a word or phrase. A simple misspelling or typo can be quite costly if you don't keep your eyes peeled and alert.

Checkout this screenshot I took of a GoDaddy Auction where the bidding got quite intense. It's pretty funny.

At first glance it looks like people are bidding on the domain name “Oil.com.” Obviously this would be a great domain to have whether you wanted to build it into a website tracking oil prices around the country or world. You could ask for some serious cash if you wanted to resell it to an oil company. However, the “O” is not a letter, it's a number. The number is Zero and the domain name is therefore worthless.

What blows my mind is that the bidding got up to $17,250 for a domain name that is obviously not worth even the registration fee. This shows the importance of why you should always check domain names spelling before buying or acquiring them in the domain aftermarket. You never know what domain typos people have registered and will try to sell you or what is being auctioned off. I've seen a lot of black hatters try to sell a spam domain.

It's something a lot of people could have missed but whoever Bidder 7 is must be pretty upset about it. It seems that bidding for “Oil.com” stopped yesterday as participants must have realized what they were actually bidding on. I assume whoever he or she is that was bidding on this domain name they were either;

Very tired and were not thinking clearly.
Drunk beyond imagination.
A shill bidder.

Could GoDaddy Auctions have decided to shill bid this crappy domain name? Honestly considering GoDaddy's unsavory business practices it wouldn't surprise me. It's almost good PR for them since the domain forums are talking about this crazy auction.

Another lesson that this shows is that when participating in domain auctions you really need to keep a level head. The urge to win was obviously clouding these people's decisions, provided they are in fact real bidders. You can see this behavior in many types of auctions not just for domains. People are more motivated to “win” then to actually get a good price on the item. That's why so many things, from paintings to cars, are auctioned off.

Anyway, what do you think of this GoDaddy Auction for “Oil.com?” Do you always check domain names before you buy them or do you sometimes let it slide? Have you ever bought a domain name with a typo and only realized it later?

NameSilo Review: Clear Pricing, Simple Interface, and Easy Domain Management

I've been using a new domain name registrar, NameSilo, for awhile now so I thought I would write up a NameSilo Review if anyone is considering buying or transferring domains to them. This NameSilo Review is going to be as complete and detailed as possibly and you won't find any better review than what you are about to read, I guarantee it! 🙂

Just as a disclaimer I have included affiliate links in this review. This means I get a commission if you click through to one of these links and buy or transfer a domain with NameSilo. However nobody can “buy” my opinion on this blog and this review reflects my honest opinions about NameSilo and their service as a domain name registrar.

NameSilo Review

NameSilo is a relatively new domain name registrar that has been in business since 2009. This small, but fast growing registrar, has gained a lot of new customers mainly by word-of-mouth via online forums and by not using pleasant tactics other domain registrars use. What does that mean? Hard upsells, a confusing checkout process, different prices on domain registration and renewals, selling web hosting, charging for Whois privacy, etc. NameSilo's mission is to make domain registration and management as easy as possible and they do good job.

NameSilo User Interface

NameSilo has one of the easiest domain management and user interfaces of any domain registrar I have used or seen. Changing nameservers, renewing and paying for names, transferring domains to NameSIlo, transferring out, turning privacy on or off, etc. is all easy and painless thanks to the intuitive user interface. Buttons are big, clearly marked, and easy-to-understand. Check out my awesome screenshot!

Like any UI it will take some getting used to but I think most people should be able to navigate NameSilo's Domain Manager dashboard quickly.

I see a lot of people say NameSilo has the best user interface of any domain registrar out there, but I'm unsure. I definitely prefer it over NameCheap‘s UI which I always have found confusing and I think the text is too small. (GoDaddy… don't even ask as most people will tell you they hate it, including me.)

Overall it's hard to beat NameSilo's easy-to-use UI and the way they clearly present everything in their backend.

Domain Search and Registering

Searching and registering domain names with NameSilo is a straightforward and easy process. Like I said above, the user interface is simple and easy-to-understand. NameSilo makes purchasing domain names as hassle free as can be.

I do have some complaints about searching and registering domains with NameSilo though. When searching for domains it automatically selects .CO as well as .COM for some reason. I understand they want to make more money on .CO registrations (since they charge $22.49 for per year) but who really needs a .CO if you can get the .COM? Honestly I would prefer a .NET or .ORG but that is my personal preference and opinion. I know the tech community and startups love .CO domains and .IO domains these days, but really? (NameSilo doesn't support .IO in case you were wondering. Probably a good thing as .IO domains lost me money.)

In addition NameSilo's shopping cart defaults to a 2-year registration period for domains instead of 1 year. This is something that you usually see from other registrars and I honestly don't like it.

UPDATE: NameSilo seems to have changed the registration process for domains. It no longer automatically selects .CO domains and the default is to only have the .COM selected. I imagine other NameSilo customers had similar complaints, and they might have read this review, which is why they changed the domain search defaults.

NameSilo's bulk domain search is straightforward as well. One nice thing is that you can upload a TXT file of domains names that you want to search availability on. Useful if you are looking for a large list of domains. You can search up to 500 domain names at a time using NameSilo's bulk search. The domain bulk search works fine but it can be a bit cubersome and clunky to use. It benefit from having a separate landing page and larger menu and input field to work with.

NameSilo also offers the ability to buy premium domain names (domains owned by someone else) through them if you wish. I doubt many people are interested in that though since most probably flock to NameSilo due to their low pricing.

NameSilo Domain Transfers

Domain transfers in and out of NameSilo are pretty straightforward and easy. I've only had trouble transferring domains in from 1and1 (which is a domain registrar you shouldn't use.) Just make sure you have the correct EPP or authorization code and have unlocked the domain name from the losing registrar if you are going to be transferring to NameSilo.

A great feature that NameSilo offers for transferring domain name to an outgoing registrar is that you can approve a transfer in their backend without waiting. Typically it can take 5-10 days for a domain transfer to go through. This means with NameSilo you just need to retrieve the authorization code via email and once that is approved by NameSilo, you can go to the “Transfer Manager” in your account and approve the transfer immediately. The only other domain name registrar I have seen offer outbound domain transfer approvals in their backend is GoDaddy.

NameSilo DNS Propagation & Management

NameSilo's DNS propagation is pretty snappy. The usual amount of time I've waited for nameservers to update and see it on my end is 10-20 minutes. NameSilo says nameserver updates on their end are updated immediately, of course that doesn't matter unless the update gets to you quickly. Keep in mind DNS updates around the world can take up to 48 hours to propagate. Today I had to wait a few hours for a domains nameservers to change.

In addition managing DNS with NameSilo is quite easy and they don't cut corners when it comes to DNS management. This registrar offers a full range of DNS services which allows you to change CNAME, MX, and A records.

Also NameSilo makes it easy to apply templates with domains for using different services such as Blogger, Google Apps, Squarespace, Weebly, Yola, Zenfolio, Tumblr, and SmugMug. This is a nice feature if you are someone who is buying a domain name to use with an 3rd party web hosting service. (Of course I don't recommend doing this and tell people it's better to buy web hosting with a company like Site5.) If you are not comfortable with making DNS changes to your domain, this should help you set it up somewhat easily.

NameSilo Pricing

NameSilo's claims to have “The Cheapest Domains on the Internet” as well as the “Cheapest Everyday Prices on the Web.” While this sounds like a lofty claim and marketing ploy, as far as I can tell this seems to be accurate. If you exclude coupons that other larger domain registrars offer, like NameCheap or GoDaddy, the everyday pricing is extremely competitive and the price you see is the price you pay.

NameSilo does not charge the $18 cent Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) fee on domains and they do not charge for Whois privacy. That is included in the price when purchase domains. NameCheap, Godaddy and a lot of other registrars tack on these fees when you are checking out.

Here are all the domains that NameSilo currently supports and their pricing. Prices are for registration and renewal.

COM – $8.99
NET – $8.09
ORG – $9.19
INFO – $9.59
BIZ – $9.99
CO – $22.49
MOBI – $7.89
ME – $16.99

These prices are for regular NameSilo pricing if you are ordering under 49 domain names. (Sounds like a lot but some people own thousands of domains.) They have bulk discounts as well as the NameSilo Discount Program. This allows you to save 10 cents off per domain name if your prefund your NameSilo account and pay that way. I am not sure what the advantage is for NameSilo but I assume they make money on holding money, like a bank. If you don't want to prefund your NameSilo account you can pay with a credit card with Visa, MasterCard, AmericanExpress, and Discover. Online payment solutions include PayPal, Skrill (formerly MoneyBookers), and Payza if you prefer.

UPDATE: NameSilo now accepts Google Wallet, Bitcoin, and Dwolla for payment.

Transfer pricing is reasonable too;

COM – $8.39
NET – $7.89
ORG – $8.99
INFO – $9.19
BIZ – $9.79
CO – $22.49
MOBI – $13.99
ME – $15.99

If you want to save $1 off on registration or transfers use the coupon codes – NAMESILO27 or SAVEDOLLAR1. (FYI these are my codes.)

Only comparable pricing that matches NameSilo from what I've seen is Internet.bs (no, not that BS but .BS is the country code top level domain name for the Bahamas.) which has free Whois privacy and doesn't charge an ICANN fee as well. There is also Resell.biz but you would need to setup to be a domain reseller with them. Still with Resell.biz's pricing structure you would only need to spend $500 over the lifetime of your account to get their bulk pricing which is extremely competitive. A lot of people use them since it's easy to spend over $500 on renewing domains. In addition DynaDot's bulk pricing is on par with NameSilo's bulk pricing, but DynaDot at the time of this writing does not offer free Whois privacy. I heard DynaDot was considering changing this though.

No matter how you cut it NameSilo pricing is hard to beat and they seem to be picking up a lot of business because of it.

*All pricing was accurate at the time this post was written.

NameSilo Support

NameSilo support is decent and fast to respond mostly any time during the day. Response time on weekends is even pretty good. NameSilo support is usually pretty helpful about answering questions but sometimes I have found that support is a bit snobbish since often they just link to their knowledgeable base without a clear explanation.

NameSilo offers email and chat support, but there is no phone support. With domain names I don't anticipate that you will need tons of support or have a lots of questions, unlike web hosting, but you never know.

Final Thoughts about NameSilo

In addition to what I've already mentioned I have had a few issues with NameSilo. They advertise “Free Domain Parking” which you use with Google Adsense. I am unsure if it is allowed to use a Google Adsense account on parked domains though. Google shutdown their domain parking program a few years, even though the company makes money with agreements with domain parking companies.

If you are going to use their domain parking option with Google Adsense it might be a good idea to setup an LLC.

Another thing which bothered me was I recommended a family member move some domains from another registrar to NameSilo. He used my affiliate link to make the transfer but I didn't use my coupon code, but a bulk transfer code they were offering at the time. I noticed I didn't get an affiliate commission, which made me feel jibbed. I asked about it and they said it was because it was a bulk transfer and he didn't use one my my coupon codes. I won't cry about it but it was annoying.

For those of you interested in an easy-to-use straightforward domain pricing and free Whois privacy, NameSilo is definitely a good option. They have a lot of great features and don't cut corners even with their low pricing.

I am personally hesitant to keep my important and key domains with them as they are a new domain registrar though. I will use them for keeping domains I have development plans for, but don't want to spend too much money renewing ever year. That's why NameSilo is a good name I guess.

NameSilo also doesn't fill all my domain needs as I own a handful of .US domains. At this time NameSilo does not support ccTLDs (country code top level domains) except for .ME and .CO currently. I imagine this isn't a big deal for most people though.

It's kind of hard for me to believe that NameSilo can continue with their pricing strategy without moving into other markets or jacking up prices. A lot of domain registrars slowly have price increases and start charging for Whois privacy and taking on ICANN fees as they grow larger.

NameSilo did introduce domain auctions for expiring domains a few months ago. According to RegistrarOwl, which is run by NameSilo, they have about 108,000 domains under management. That means that on any given day there are not going to be too many deleting domain gems dropping under their control. As they grow, this will likely change and I assume bring in more revenue for NameSilo.

Some might not remember this but GoDaddy got big by undercutting the competition in price back when they were first getting started. Now their coupon pricing might be good, but their service isn't all that great. Since NameSilo is using the same strategy, despite my reservations, I really have no doubt in my mind that in a few years NameSilo could become a major player in the domain industry. That is if… they are not bought out and stick to their original business goals.

It is quite possible that NameSilo could get gobbled up by a big domain registrar in the domain industry since I am pretty sure execs at GoDaddy, Demand Media, Name Media, etc. will see this little domain registrar slowly increasing their market share as threat. They could very well buy them out at some point.

My hope though is that NameSilo sticks to their original mission of providing no-headaches and ho-hassles when it comes to domain registration and management. No web hosting, SEO products, etc. which I won't buy from a domain registrar anyway.

Bottom line is that NameSilo is good if you have 1 or 1000's of domain names.

If you use NameSilo and think I've missed something in this NameSilo Review please leave a comment below. If you have any questions about NameSilo let me know below and I will answer them to the best of my knowledge.

Just as a reminder you can save $1 off on registration or transfers with these NameSilo coupon codes – NAMESILO27 or SAVEDOLLAR1. These NameSilo coupon codes will work for most domain registrations and domain transfers with NameSilo. Each code can be redeemed once per person per account.

Again I've included affiliate links in this review but that does not change my opinion. If you received value and insight from this NameSilo review I appreciate any help so that I can continue to write informative and honest reviews on this blog.

NameCheap Review: a Good Domain Registrar

As domain names are becoming something more and more people are buying since everyone wants to start a website or blog, NameCheap has been there to pick up a lot of domain business over the last couple years offering decent customer service, fair pricing, lots of coupons, and taken stands against SOPA.

NameCheap Review

Here is my NameCheap Review using NameCheap as a domain name registrar. Hopefully you will find this NameCheap Review useful if you are thinking of registering or transferring any domains to NameCheap.

Disclaimer: I have included affiliate links in this NameCheap Review. However nobody can “buy” my opinions on this blog and this review reflects my honest opinions about NameCheap and their service as a domain name registrar. If you find this review valuable I'd appreciate it if you considered using these affiliate links as keeping this blog up takes time, effort, and money.

User Interface

I have seen a lot of people on the large admin, webmaster, and hosting forums say they really like the NameCheap user interface and backend for managing domainnames. Honestly, I am not a big fan of the NameCheap user interface. I think the typeface is a little too small for my liking and it's not like I am an old person. (At least I hope not.) I am a guy in my 20's but font that is too small nobody likes. Isn't that web design 101? Usually what I deal with this by hitting [CTRL +] a few times to zoom in.

Additionally the user interface takes getting used too and it does not have the most intuitive layout in my opinion. If I haven't used the made nameserver changes or been in NameCheaps backend in awhile I tend to comeback and be a little lost on what is going on. I am used to it now though and don't think about it too much.

Fortunately NameCheap does have good Youtube tutorial videos in their support section showing how to manage and complete tasks in the backend. The videos have good documentation as well in their knowledgeable base and you can ask questions using Disqus. I think this is a smart idea and probably one of the reasons people confuse think NamCheap has a good user interface.

Buying Domains

Buying domains through NameCheap is pretty easy and fast. You can easily lookup and register a domain name and transferring into NameCheap is fairly straightforward. (If you know how to transfer domains from domain name registrars.) They don't go for too many upsells but you will see them.

The shopping cart is easily laid out and one nice feature is that you can “Save” a domain. This keeps the domain in your shopping cart but doesn't mean you are purchasing it right then. Later you can come back and move any domains in the “Saved” section into the shopping car to buy.

DNS Propagation

DNS propagation I have found for NameCheap usually takes around 30 minutes. Sometimes your nameservers can update faster and I have had it happen in about 5-7 minutes. However, I wouldn't necessarily bet that it will only take 5 minutes. The 30 minute timeframe is what I have found to be an average time for nameservers to propagate.

NameCheap does allow you to do Bulk DNS updates which is convenient if you are switching hosts or moving to a different domain parking company. Making bulk DNS updates is easy as you select the domains you want to update and click “Edit Selected” in the backend and put in your new nameservers.

Domain Pricing

NameCheap‘s pricing is quite confusing but I am going to try to break it down into simple and an easy-to-understand explanation.

COM – Domain Registration $10.69 (includes Free Whois privacy) – Domain Renewal $10.69 (does not include free privacy)

With Coupons – Registration/Renewal – $9.61 a year

NET/ORG – Domain Registration $11.48 (includes Free Whois privacy) – Domain Renewal $11.48 (does not include free privacy)

With Coupons – Domain Registration/Renewal – $10.16 a year

NameCheap releases monthly coupons every month which they encourage customers to use when buying, transferring, or renewing domain names. To keep updated with NameCheap's coupons you can check NameCheap Coupons which is a site run by NameCheap. They also have special registration and transfer deals which I take advantage of a lot. You can follow them on social media networks or checkout this epic Namepros thread for the latest domain deals. Obviously go to the last page to find the most recent NameCheap coupons.

FYI NameCheap charges your the 18 cents Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers (ICANN) fee on COM and NET domains but any other top level domain, such as ORG, is excluded. Since most people own COM domains the ICANN fee is a bit annoying, Most registrars do not include it in their domain prices either though. The prices shown reflect the ICANN charge.

Whois Privacy – NameCheap's Whois Privacy is free only for the first year of domain registration or transfer. After that you will have to pay for NameCheap's Whois Guard subscriptions if you don't want your info to appear in the Whois database. Regular pricing for a Whois Guard subscription, what NameCheap Whois privacy service, is $2.88 a year but if you use the coupon code – WGSPECIAL – it will only cost you 99 cents a year. If you need to order multiple Whois Guard subscriptions for different domains you can use that coupon code to order multiple Whois Guard subscriptions at the same time.

While I, and probably others, would prefer if Whois privacy was available for free after the first year of registration I don't think 99 cents is too bad. A lot of domain registrars charge $10+ bucks for privacy which is as much as renewing a domain.

Bottom line, if you want straightforward pricing you should probably consider another domain registrar. If you think you have anything to add about NameCheap's pricing leave a comment below. Please realize I only included COM, NET, and ORG pricing as these are the most popular extensions. You can check NameCheap's pricing for other domain extensions here.

Support

NameCheap has online chat support that is available 24 hours 7 days a week. NameCheap also offers email support as well. NameCheap does not offer phone support.

Honestly for domain names I don't think you will need to contact support too much. The few times I have contacted NameCheap support they have been pretty helpful in resolving my question or issue. There was one time they really annoyed since I wasn't able to use some affiliate earnings I had to purchase a domain and the chat support representative didn't seem to understand what I wanted. Eventually it was worked out but it took a lot of explanation.

NameCheap MarketPlace

For anyone that that is a domain investor or “domainer” I am sure the like the fact that NameCheap has the NameCheap Marketplace. This is NameCheap's inter-registrar market for buying and selling domain names under $1,000 dollars. You can also buy premium domains over $1,000 from other places too.

The NameCheap Marketplace has been quite a useful feature for me. I've used it before and found that it was a easy to sell domains. All you do is pick a price, category, description, and length you want your domain to be available. If your domain is bought NameCheap handles the transfer into the other buyer's account and then they automatically put the money in your account. They take a 10% brokerage fee which is reasonable.

On the flipside if you can't find a good available domain name to buy and you are a NameCheap customer, I think you will find the NameCheap Marketplace useful. If you want to negotiate a price sometimes you can contact a seller directly. Just remember to do your research before you buy since you don't want to end up paying for a spam domain.

One issue I encountered is when I sold a domain name in the NameCheap Marketplace I didn't realize NameCheap's money policies. I sold the domain for $5 since it was near expiration and got $4.50 (this was a domain I was just trying to get rid of before it expired) but that was not enough to pay for a new domain registration. I noticed when checking out that I couldn't use these funds along with PayPal or another form of payment. I talked with NameCheap customer support and they said I need to add money in the account. The minimum you can add is $5 but I wanted to just $1.68 to add to the $4.50 since they were having $6 registration special. I just had to wait until I found another available domain I wanted then add that amount of money into the account before making anther purchase.

Just something to be aware of when collecting affiliate revenue or using the NameCheap Marketplace.

Conclusion

Overall I like the features NameCheap provides such as the Marketeplace, free URL forwarding, and chat support. They also offer a lot of advanced DNS management options which other domain registrars don't of charge for. I think they are a decent domain name registrar and will continue to use them.

I also like NameCheap due to their political initiatives. A lot of time their transfer specials will include donations to support groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), They were strongly against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which would have made it difficult for people to operate at all online and widely publicized their “Move Your Domain Day” to encourage people to transfer away from GoDaddy. This was not only good for business but brilliant marketing as it drew a lot of stories and attention. In addition they had Save the Elephants transfer day when it was revealed that GoDaddy CEO Bob Parson's went on safari to kill elephants. That's why some bloggers call GoDaddy “NoDaddy!”

However, I don't like the confusing pricing and the fact they don't offer free Whois is bothersome. Another thing to be aware of is that NameCheap has been an ICANN accredited registrar since 2006 but all domains you register are controlled under their Enom as NameCheap is an Enom Reseller. Considering they have over 3 million domains under management and have had ICANN accreditation for awhile I am surprised they are still using Enom's services. It seems like they would have started to migrate to their own platform. Hopefully in the future they will start using their own domain management system as I assume that will mean faster DNS propagation and better pricing for customers.

Also I wish NameCheap would update their backend to be more user friendly and have a cleaner look. I have been told they will be making changes in the near future though.

NameCheap does offer a lot of other services such as SSL certificates and web hosting, I could not answer questions about that in this NameCheap Review since I haven't used these services.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed by NameCheap Review and found it informative. If you have any question's about NameCheap please leave a comment below.

Impossibility.org, a Great Domain Name Generator

Searching for the right and available to register domain name for your new website or online venture can be a frustrating and difficult process. A lot of good domains are taken and to alleviate this problem a lot of domain name generator tools and sites have popped up over the past few years. A lot of these domain generators don't work that well and churn out odd word combinations few people would want to register. However, recently I found a great domain generator, Impossibility.org.

Impossibility claims to be “The Best Domain Generator Ever.” While that is a fairly lofty claim considering there are some pretty good ones out there, I think Impossibility definitely deserves to be on any list for great, good, or useful domain name generators. I've used a bunch of them and have found few that match the usefulness and quality of Impossibility.org.

The only other comparable domain generator I have seen is Lean Domain Search which I have recommended before on this blog in my post, “4 Awesome Tools to Find the Perfect Domain Name.” If I had known about Impossibility.org when I wrote that article I would have included it.

The difference with Impossibility.org and Lean Domain Search is the ability to be more specific and drill down words. You have the option to include adjectives, nouns, or verbs in the beginning or end of the domain name. You can choose 4, 5, or 6 letter word domains with your keyword. There is also an “anything” option which will generate a much broader list of domains. If you are not sure you like the list of domains you can just “Get more” and it will generate more domains. (Sometimes it just shows you the same ones from before.)

I found a few great domain names while using Impossibility.org for a some website ideas I had the other day. (I tend to have an idea for a new website every week.) My usual go to domain name generator is Lean Domain Search but it really was not cutting it. I needed something more specific and I noticed that several people recommended Impossibility on webmaster and domaining forums. So I gave it and shot and was pleasantly surprised.

Even though I really like Impossibilty.org, and will surely recommend it in the future, it could use some work. I think the user interface could use sprucing up. The keyword you type-in should be a different color than the other words in the domain. Right now all the text is in white which can make it a bit hard to see your keyword against the other words. The words that it matches could be in blue or green and the keyword could stay white or something. One of the reasons I like Lean Domain Search is the user interface and ease-of-use.

Also John Forsythe, the developer, should add different domain registrar affiliate programs to the domain name generator besides GoDaddy and NameCheap. That way he can capture more revenue and keep the site going. (These domain generators make money via affiliate links when you buy a domain.) John knows what he is doing as he spread out the generator across different servers to make it fast. The last update was back in November 2011 though sooo the frontend of the site could definitely be updated in my opinion.

Typically a domain name generator will throw out a lot of word combinations and domains. When you are looking for a domain name you want quality over quantity. It could give you lists all day but if the domains are not good, then it is not worth your time. Remember a domain is your “frontdoor” to the internet.

To save time and your sanity while searching for a domain name I recommend Impossibility.org and hopefully you will be as happy with it as I am. Thanks to John Forsythe for making this awesome domain name generator.

4 Awesome Tools to find the Perfect Domain Name

As the internet keeps growing and with new sites popping up everyday it is becoming increasingly hard to find the elusive ‘perfect domain name' for you business, blog, service, or product. While it's becoming harder it is still not impossible to find an available good, great, or perfect domain name to register for only $10 to build your website with.

Here are some tools I use for finding domain names. Some might use other domain finding tool, but overall I have found these are the sites and tools I always keep coming back to use when I need a new domain name.

LeanDomainSearch – Probably one of the easiest and most helpful tools I have seen on the web for finding a good available domain name. Lean Domain Search is super easy to use and straightforward. All you do is type in a word or a few words that you want to use in a domain name. It will generate a list of available .COM domains using those keywords highlighted in green. Hover over and click one of the domains and it will tell you if that domain is in fact still available and if the Twitter handle for the domain is available (Twitter handles must be less than 20 words or characters though). I have used Lean Domain Search many times and have found some great gems through it. Of course a lot of domains it will spin out may not make sense or will just be plain weird word combinations. Still this is worth a shot if you have been having trouble searching or narrowing down a perfect domain name. There is also a new brandable domain generator too, which helps you find short brandable domains. These are not necessarily grammatically correct but would be good if you are a startup or want a catchy memorable domain name. You can use Lean Domain Search for free but it does limit your searches to 150. To see the full list of 5,000 domains you can pay $79 for two months or $199 per year ($16.58 a month). Probably worth every penny but I have never paid for the service.

UPDATE: Lean Domain Search is now completely free to use. In addition the developer, Matt Mazur, let Automattic acquire Lean Domain Search. This means the company behind WordPress now owns the domain generator. Also something to be aware of is before the Automattic acquisition Matt shutdown the brandable domains and domain name trends section he use to have on the website.

ExpiredDomains.net – One of the best and most comprehensive domain finding sites out there I have found. This site searches expiring domains that are in the process of deleting from the domain registry and deleted domains. You can really narrow down specifics of a domain name like no other tool or site I have seen. For instance if you want to find a domain with the word “tech” you can select whether you want it in the front, back, or anywhere in the domain. It lets you select domain extensions, character length, pagerank, , DMOZ entry, different languages, and whole lot more. One thing you should keep in mind is that it searches expiring domain lists and there are a lot of junk domains that people buy and drop. The best way to utilize ExpiredDomains.net is to really drill down what words you are looking for and to use specific search criteria to narrow down results. Get to narrow though and you search won't turn up any domains. ExpiredDomains.net also lets you search through GoDaddy Auctions, NameJet PreRelease and Auctions, Pool Marketplace and Dynadot. This makes it very valuable all around domain finding tool. You will have to sing-up for an account, but considering how useful it is I wouldn't worry about it.

NameChk – This is not technically a domain finding tool, but it is extremely useful. It lets you see what social media handles are available for certain words. So if owned the domain “example.com” I could try to see if “example” is available on social media bookmarking and networking sites. Since consistency is important on the internet it is a good idea to see if that domain name you want to use has a Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. handles locked up or if they are all available.

WhoisRequest.org – My favorite Whois tool. It will tell you how many times a domain nameservers have been changed, when, and how many times a domain was dropped, if ever. If the domain was never registered before it will also tell you that. The data goes back to 2002 which should be far enough back for most people. Most services that let you see a domain's history you have to pay for but WhoisRequest is completely free. Making it a great tool in my webkit.

FYI Lean Domain Search and ExpiredDomains.net make money when you click through to a domain name registrar and buy a name. They seem to prefer GoDaddy but I recommend using NameSilo as I have never had a problem with them. Read my NameSilo Review to get an idea about their services. They provide free privacy and easy domain registration and management.

If I find any other domain finding tools or sites that lets you zero in on that perfect domain name you are looking for, I will be sure to let all my readers know. Remember it is possible nowadays to get a that perfect domain name, you are just going to have to spend time finding it.

Know someone who needs to find the “perfect domain name” and can't? If so, please share this article with them so they don't need to be tearing their hair out.

Catch me on Twitter @AdamYamada … if you can!