How To Obtain A Domain Name That’s Taken

Finding The Real Seller

You should aim to try and find the real seller of the domain, this can be found through a simple whois check, you can use any website.

This will usually expose the sellers’ email and details, here you should attempt to asses the type of seller. If the registrant name is a personal name rather than a business name you should attempt to make direct communication as this will always save you money and allow you to create a more personal connection.

Putting It All Together

You may find yourself at a digital chasm with your domain taken, but its not the end of the world. Whether a professional domainer, a fellow business owner, or a domain squatter currently owns your ideal domain name, the steps above can help you attach a relevant and professional domain name to your website. Stop helplessly glaring at that screen, and start getting your brand or business a piece of the internet.

How To Get A Domain Name From Domaincom

Domain.com is a reputable domain registrar, launched in 1998. Over 1.2 million websites are registered with them.

Domain.com features the most popular top level domains such as .com, .net, .org, .co, along with over 25 county-specific domain extensions .

They are mostly selling affordable domain names with most names priced in the $9.99-$12.99/year range. If you are lucky, you can also steal a deal and buy your domain name for as low as $2.99/year.

For that price you get:

• 1-year domain ownership.
• Free SSL certificate for extra security.
• Automatic email forwarding to your domain.
• DNS registration and management tools.

Also, you can purchase extra Domain Privacy+Protection for your domain . In this case, your personal details will not be displayed publicly in the WHOIS/ICANN directories. Plus, the registrar will also run extra security checks.

Sounds sweet? Heres how to register a domain name on Domain.com.

Step 1: Run a quick search to verify that the domain name you are eying is available.

Step 2: Pick your domain extension. Go for .com since its the most familiar option among users and thus, people, tend to type .com before trying anything else.

Your choice gets automatically added to your cart with a 2-year privacy protection subscription. This ones optional, so you can remove it during the next step. Also, you can change your domain renewal period from one year to five years.

Moreover, you can pick some add-on services such as:

Also Check: How To Secure A Domain Name

Find Out How To Contact The Owner Through Whois

If the domain isnt listed for sale on Namecheap.com and theres no link to contact the owner through the site, its time to turn to a domain search to find out who owns the domain.

WHOIS is a directory that tells you who owns a domain name. You can search for a domain on WHOIS and get the owners address, phone number and email address.

From there, the easiest way to contact a domain owner is through email. Just send them a friendly email asking if they are willing to sell their domain name and if so, for how much.>

Some domain name owners wont respond to emails about buying a domain because they get a lot of inquiries. Try calling the domain owner if you dont hear back a few days after sending the email. If all else fails, do it the old-fashioned way: write a letter and send it via snail mail. Youd be surprised how often this works!

How Much Does A Domain Name Cost

When you buy a domain name through domain registrars, you register it for one year with the option of a multi-year registration. You will be able to renew your domain name registration when the initial period finishes, and will usually be alerted by the registrar to do so. Domain names are also sometimes included in your web hosting plan and if not, usually offered by your hosting company.

Domains purchased through Mailchimp are priced based on the TLD you choose, such as .com or .net.

A domain name with a common top-level domain, such as .com, can be had for as low as $12.99 per year, and promotions are often available. Internet domains purchased through Mailchimp also come with free WHOIS privacy protection and a Secure Sockets Layer certificate to provide your website with free verification and encryption.

You do need to have a web hosting plan to put your site online, but you dont need to have hosting to purchase a domain. Assuming you have a business or blog name in mind, its possible to reserve your brands name for the future by purchasing and registering your domain name now. Then youll have plenty of time to consider how to build your website.

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How To Purchase A Domain That Is Already Taken

Jeffrey is the Co-Founder of Saw.com, focusing on domain sales and acquisitions. Visit www.Saw.com if you want to purchase a domain.

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Youre starting a business or undergoing a rebrand, and youve come up with the perfect domain name. The only problem is that the domain is already registered. In this case, you have one of two options: You can either choose an alternative domain name, or you can fork over the cash to the current owner. If your heart is set on your first choice, this article will explain how you can go about acquiring that domain.

Beware of buying the same domain with a different top-level domain.

One unfortunate occurrence I see all too often is when buyers decide to go with a different top-level domain of their first-choice domain. At first glance, this strategy makes sense. After all, its the same name, and its much cheaper! Registrars like GoDaddy.com and Domain.com will often suggest this option when you search for a .com domain that is already taken.

It is a fact that internet users typically enter .com at the end of the domain name when they type into the URL bar. This means if you decide to go with a .net or a .biz, users who end up at the .com could have a much harder time finding you. All in all, I believe its a better decision to pay up for your first-choice domain, and if that doesnt fit your budget, go with a different name altogether.

Visit the domain to see how its being used.

Find the owner of the domain.

Registration date.

See If The Domain Is For Sale

If your desired domain is already registered, there is still a chance that it is available for sale. Go to whois.sc and do a search for the domain. The results will show you who the domain is registered to and how to contact the owner . Send an email to the domain owner to see if the address is for sale so you can determine if it is a possibility.

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How Do You Buy A Domain That Isnt Available Anymore

If your desired domain is already taken, you generally dont have the option to buy it from the provider even if the address isnt being actively used. However, you can try to locate the domain owner to make an offer to buy the domain. For information on the entire process, from locating to purchasing to the final transfer of the domain, see our article Domain already registered? Heres what to do.

Search On Namecheap To See If Its Listed For Sale

Many domain owners list domain names for sale with services linked to Namecheap. If the owner of the domain you want has done this, youll see that the domain is available for purchase at a premium:

You only pay the premium price once for .com domains. The domain renews for regular prices after that.

Buying a premium domain on Namecheap is secure and the domain name is transferred to your account almost instantaneously.

Recommended Reading: Can You Get A Domain Name For Free

If Its Not A Parked Domain Find The Owners Contact Information

If you find that the domain has a fully built-out site, then its not a parked domain. The domain is being used by a real business. Luckily, you still have recourse if you want to buy the domain.

First, determine how likely it is for the owner to sell the domain to you. Does the website look like its been recently updated? Is it under construction? How many snapshots does it have on the Wayback Machine? If the website looks outdated or has just a few Wayback Machien snapshots, its more likely youll successfully start a conversation with the owner.

For example, the domain mellowbee.com looks like a good candidate because its had only a few Wayback Machine snapshots over the years and the current website is made up of one page.

The owners email is at the bottom, so its easy to reach out.

If you cant find the owners contact information on the site, try searching for the owner through ICANN. Keep in mind that a good portion of domain name owners hide their contact information for privacy reasons.

S To Your Dream Domain

Now that you are ready to take the plunge and go for that perfect domain for your project, lets look at a few final steps which will give you the best chance at walking away with that name. There are really only a few steps involved in buying a domain:

Of course, you can apply variations and tactics to each step, but I am confident someone with little domain buying experience can make a decent go of getting the exact name they want if they follow the steps below.

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Ready To Buy A Domain

As with anything else in business, getting started is often the hardest part. But now that you know how, I encourage you to jump into buying the domain you always wanted. Even a no from the current owner doesnt mean you have to give up situations change, so its always a good idea to check back in from time to time to let your dream domains owner know youre still interested.

Want an expert to handle it for you? If all this domain aftermarket stuff sounds too complex or if you just dont have the time to deal with it, consider turning to a professional service like GoDaddys Domain Broker Service. A broker will contact the domains current owner and negotiate for the domain on your behalf. Done and done.

How To Buy A Domain That Is Owned

Isnt it frustrating when you come up with the perfect name for your business and then, after you run a search, find out that the domain name it already taken? And whats worse, the owner doesnt seem to be using it?

While you cant make someone give up a domain they own, there are things you can do so dont abandon hope just yet. Follow the steps below and you might just get the domain youve always wanted.

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Use A Different Domain Extension

If you really love your chosen domain name and the alternatives are just not working for you, you can always use a different domain extension. .Com is the most common, but the range of TLDs continues to grow. With hundreds of TLDs available, theres a lot more flexibility today.

Also, depending on where you expect a lot of your online traffic to come from, many visitors may never even realize that youre NOT a .com. If traffic comes from referral links and searches, visitors to your site will most likely not notice your domain extension. Some of the more common extensions youve probably seen are .biz, .net., .ly, .guru, but there are also options for various industries, like:

• .clothing
• .agency
• .online

you get the idea. If youd like to learn more about various TLDs, .

Whether youre brainstorming to modify your name just enough to find a relevant and available .com or youre starting from scratch, here are a few pointers on selecting domain names:

Good luck with your domain name selection and remember that it doesnt have to be permanent. Your original .com choice may one day become available, if you choose to make the transition. The important thing is that you kick off your web presence with a simple, memorable, and relevant domain name that helps the right customers find you online.

Once youve selected your domain name, get your business online with our easy-to-use website builder.

Couldnt I Just Get A Username On A Big Web Platform

Having your own domain name, even if its not perfect, is a far better option than building your online presence on top of another services URL, e.g. yourshop.shopify.com or facebook.com/yourcompany. This practice of building your brand, service, or web presence on another organizations platform is an example of sharecropping, and can be problematic for a number of reasons.

With this sharecropping setup, the platform youre hosted on:

• controls how your presence can look or function .
• can change services or raise rates, leaving you little recourse, since not accepting/paying could mean losing your site.
• can control how much exposure you get. Thereve been lots of articles about issues with brands on Facebook getting ever-lessening exposure of their content to their fans if they dont pay for advertising.
• can limit your access to analytics, making it hard to know how large your audience is, what theyre doing on your site, or where theyre engaging when theyre there.
• can simply take your site offline without much notice, explanation or recourse if you are deemed to have violated terms of service or other issues. It can take a lot of time and frustration to get these issues sorted out, and all the while your site is unavailable to anyone.

You can always switch domains later, but its a good idea to start with a web address you control while you build up your search engine visibility.

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What To Do If The Domain Is Available And Not Taken

This would be your dream come true. It means your dream domain name is not taken after all. Go ahead and register it as quickly as you can.

But how do you know the domain name isnt taken?

Go to Scalahosting and type in the domain name you want to verify into the search box.

On the page that follows, under Actions, click Register a New Domain.

Now, enter your domain in the search box. Your search results will show if your domain is taken or not.

If the domain is not taken, youll see the message, Congrats, Your Domain Is Available!

However, if you go through this process with a different domain name, say techcontentlabs.com, and that domain name is taken, the message will be different.

You will see the message Sorry, techcontentlabs.com is unavailable, as you can see in the image below.

If the domain name you want is taken, then youll want to find out if its expired but not available yet, or the owner isnt using the domain name.

Read Also: Where Did I Buy My Domain Name

Detect The Keeper Of Your Dream Domain

At first, you need to find out whether someone owns your dream domain or not. WHOIS Lookup is useful for doing this task. You may even find the owners name and contact information here. However, domain owners use privacy services to protect their data. You must be wondering how to beat this barrier? Well, you can find out the privacy email in the WHOIS database. Most of the time, the privacy emails forward to the owners email. So it is possible to contact the owner through the listed email address.

Purchase The Domain Name

When you have settled on the domain name and a suffix, you will pay to register the domain name with the domain registrar. This is not a one-time purchase, however. Typically, you will pay to own the domain name for one year, after which you can renew your registration for a fee. You can expect a registration fee of about $10 to $15.

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How Much Is The Domain I Want Worth

That depends on a lot of factors. There is no service you can check to see what a given domain should be worth. Any site that claims to tell you what your domain name or social media account is worth is just using some arbitrary calculation. They are just for fun and have no legal use or bearing on actual domain value or prices.

Any domain is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it . Note that some domain owners have pretty grandiose ideas about what their domain is worth, or think they can get rich quick off some desperate buyer.

There are many things that can influence the cost of a domain name. Some examples: