How to find a good domain name

May 5, 2011 in Happy Links

Finding a good domain name is hard. If you're like me, you've spent absurd amounts of time on this task. Including time which would be much better spent building your product/website/company. 

Here are a list of tools I use which have significantly reduced the time I spend looking for a good domain, and have also significanly improved the quality of the domain names I end up with.

  1. Domain Hole
  2. Panabee 
  3. Name Station
  4. Bust a Name - takes a little getting used to, and is a bit painful to use, but can be valuable at getting you to think about connected ideas
  5. Value Drops, these guys update every day with quality domain names recently expired.
  6. Domai.nr helps you find creative url structures for that name you really, really want to use.
  7. Wordoid helps you make up names.
  8. Avail.io
  9. LeanDomainSearch - punch in a word, get a bunch of pairs
  10. Domize.com
  11. NameMesh

And finally here's an even more comprehensive list of tools - dozens deep.

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Yeah, I would definitely go with domainhole as my number 1.

Posted by: TheChort | May 13, 2011 10:11:25 AM

Definitely, domain selection procedure is extremely important for online business. Of course, you should be serious about this. If an online entrepreneur selects the right domain he/she can simplify SEO work signifficantly. It makes sense to visit special domain marketplaces and buy an existing domain with keywords and good SEO history.

Posted by: Terje Sannarnes | May 23, 2011 4:20:23 AM

I have used it and it works really well...I have been building landing pages for a while now using Harveys free ebook http://mrzip.biz/ed for pretty much everything I do(that makes money that is) online.

Posted by: Steve | Aug 12, 2011 7:24:43 PM

Hey guys,

I recently launched a new domain search tool which I think you might like:

Lean Domain Search: http://www.leandomainsearch.com

It pairs your search term with 1,000+ other keywords and instantly shows you which are available. Makes it very easy to find quality available domain names.

Posted by: Matt Mazur | Jan 29, 2012 4:27:40 PM

Yes. Lesser and lesser good domain names are now available. Its just so hard to get a proper domain name nowadays. Search for a slightly more common domain name and 90% chance you will see that its unavailable. Few more years from now, people will be investing in domain names like they invest in properties nowadays... In fact i think they are already doing it now.

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Posted by: ethiopian women- more | Apr 26, 2012 2:40:43 AM

Wow, Nice list, really useful. Been searching for a domain for 3 weeks now, hope this helps

Posted by: Mazhar | Jul 29, 2012 11:16:04 AM

Acquiring a catchy domain name has become a business and it is true that there are people whose job is in actually inevesting money in that and all day searching for new ones, or waiting for expired domains to buy and try to resell for higher prices. I am still not one of these people, but thanks for the provided links!

Posted by: Star | Aug 2, 2012 3:53:08 AM

Great tools, I use for search http://domaintyper.com/ It shows you instantly which domain is available or taken!!

Posted by: Lea | Aug 30, 2012 3:23:59 AM

Don't forget that a domain name is one of the first things that search engines find you by. Make sure you are optomizing it to get the most traffic possible. If you need help doing this or any other SEO, check out www.iwanttobeseod.com . We have a section dedicated to URL's as well!

Posted by: Matt | Oct 15, 2012 12:07:02 PM

Thanks for a great list, anything new is a huge help as it really is not an easy job to get a meaningful domain name these days.

When I get completely strung out I go back to a book I have owned for many years now. It has more than a million synonyms which give you great ideas. The Synonym Finder by J. I. Rodale.

But I will be trying some of the links you have listed in future.

Posted by: Pat | Nov 19, 2012 3:26:04 AM