thrashiedean.com

Beware! There\’re some things to watch out for when selecting your domain name. The domain landscape is incredibly crowded. There\’re over one million domains registered ® daily (there were 1,263,695 domains registered ® on 8 Jun 07 according to Domain Tools). The good news is that domains drop, expire, & come back into circulation. You can also still come up with some great names. There is more. The bad news is that there is a segment of the domain industry that is more than willing to snatch your domain idea if you take one misstep.

One of the most popular ways to search for the availability of a domain is to type the name directly into a registrar like GoDaddy. It makes sense to check there, because if you confirm the availability, then you can simply register ® the name right then & there. If you do this, there is absolutely no problem. However – & this is a enormous how ever, if you decide to wait & think on it, you run the risk of losing this name to a domain squatter. In fact I can almost guarantee if you have even a remotely useful domain name, it will be gone. Domain squatters are doing absolutely nothing illegal. They are simply staking a claim of internet real estate albeit with a little inside knowledge garnered from your seemingly innocuous search. Instead of paying $6.95 & some change for that great domain, you will be faced with a request for $500 & up depending on how desirable the domain is.

Here are some ways to stop this. First & foremost, if you even begin to consider looking up domains names, & I do not care where you look it up, have a credit card in hand & pull the trigger! Buy the name right then & there. If you decide not to develop it, you can sell the domain, park the domain for future use, or let it drop back into circulation losing only the initial $6.95 investment.

Second, if you are not ready to buy the domain & prefer to search & mull it over, then do not use a registrar like GoDaddy to search for domains. Using the GoDaddy search option, I lost FossilCreek.com & Webistics.com literally the day after I looked them up. I naively thought it was a freak coincidence. I\’ve since been educated.

It is also important to note that GoDaddy is doing nothing wrong. Their search mechanisms often place previously searched names in the domain suggestion fields on future searches. They just do what they do best, & that is sell a whole bunch of domain names for a low cost. A lot of domaineers use Moniker.com to do domain availability searches & swear by the authenticity & security of Moniker. I have not personally used this site, but it has been recommended to me by many different esteemed sources. Again, the best policy is to register ® the domain if you even remotely like the domain.

In closing it\’s a real drag to come up with a great domain just to lose it the very next day. When I came up with the name, I had two credit cards in hand with my registrar account information all ready to go. I for sure was not going to lose this one. I do not know what happened to the FossilCreek website, but I followed up on the Webistics domain name & learned that it sold for $100. Thankfully, it was not thousands of dollars, but it is still $93.05 that could have gone to my pizza & Diet-Pepsi fund! If you have any questions, tips, or suggestions, please feel free to email me.

Leona started her home based transcription business, http://www.infoaces.com in August 2006. She served in the US Air Force & was awarded a commendation medal for her time during Desert Storm. She has two teenage kids & lives in sunny Arizona.
I enjoy the feedback, & I especially like the success stories. http://www.infoaces.com

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