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Good Domain Names Are Hard to Find

I never really did get caught up in the whole domain name collecting business. I�m not saying that I don�t own several domain names that I don�t use. I have about 12, but I always planned to use them for something at some point. I just don�t buy them with the intent to sell them for a profit in the future. If I had been insightful enough to buy a few domain names back in the 90�s , I could have been living it up right now, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Looking through the press releases on PRWeb the other day, I came across a listing titled �Internet Empire for Sale�. The gist of the article is that Scott Alliy, a retiring Internet entrepreneur is selling 290 websites and domain names that he has collected over the last 9 years (available at domainsavailablenow.com). I�m no Yun Ye ( Doman name guru – read more –> Master of their Domains)
, but I didn�t see anything that looked too valuable there.

The whole domain name business kind of reminds me of a gold rush, and now we are in the stage where people are kind of panning for the occasional scraps of gold that are left over. If you want to find anything good, you have a couple of options.

1. Search through the thousands of domain names that expire every day.
2. Brainstorm and come up with a great new and unique name that is still available.

For those who choose the second option, I have come across a really great tool for checking domain names. It�s so good I kind of don�t even want to share it, but since you are taking the time to read this far, I guess it�s only fair. It�s called Instant Domain Search. It�s an AJAX based tool, and it actually searches as you type. This makes it very easy to experiment with different word variations instantly. The tool only searches .com and .net, but it’s so cool you won’t even care about that. Happy hunting.

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3 Responses to “Good Domain Names Are Hard to Find”

  1. pvsys Says:
    January 28th, 2006 at 11:42 am

    I know this is off-topic for this post.. But please allow me to ask about something else here… maybe you can check this out and follow this up with a post.

    Anyway, there is a web site for which I’ve been doing an intensive seo effort for the past few months. This site has shown a PR5 in the “current pagerank” tool for the past several weeks. However, just yesterday I noticed that it dropped to a PR4. (Interestingly, it STILL shows a PR5 in Big Daddy) …using that “alt” method in all cases, of course.

    This drop makes me “ill” considering that this is happening just prior to the ToolBar PR update.

    Therefore, I’m wondering:

    (1) Is this a sign that Google is tightening up their standards for what it takes to achieve each PR level just prior to the Toolbar update? That would make sense because I think they’ve done this before, haven’t they?

    (2) Could this be because of a FEW dropped incoming links this site has has recently had combined with me not being quite as aggressive with adding backlinks as I was up until Christmas? (But my incoming links #s have have remained overall steady and overall **slowly** growing since before Christmas.)

    Also, I’m wondering whether Big Daddy’s algorithm is “behind” in a possible PR formula update, or if Big Daddy’s PR5 is a sign of things to come?

    Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated!

    –Rob McEwen



  2. B Jones Says:
    January 30th, 2006 at 4:46 pm

    This is definitely off-topic Rob. :) That’s okay, but at least let me know…How did you like the doman name tool at the end of the post?

    As for your questions, Ill do my best.

    (1) Is this a sign that Google is tightening up their standards for what it takes to achieve each PR level just prior to the Toolbar update?

    I doubt it. The “current pagerank” is pretty mucy fluid as far as I have seen. I watch the “current pagerank” for this site and it also has gone back and forth between 4 and 5 since the last PR export.

    The pre PR export buzz is already begining to grow. People on the forums are starting to sense a pagerank export/ update coming very soon.

    I will say this. It’s a lot tougher to go from a PR 4 to PR 5 than it is to go from 3 to 4.

    (2) Could this be because of a FEW dropped incoming links this site has has recently had combined with me not being quite as aggressive with adding backlinks as I was up until Christmas? (But my incoming links #s have have remained overall steady and overall **slowly** growing since before Christmas.)

    A few dropped links will definitely affect your PR. It is possible that you are right on the edge between 4 and 5. Try to get some more “natural” looking links from a good site with some decent PR ( PR3-4 or better).

    Also, I’m wondering whether Big Daddy’s algorithm is “behind” in a possible PR formula update, or if Big Daddy’s PR5 is a sign of things to come?

    According to Matt Cutts:
    “Q: Do you expect this to become the default source of web results? How long will it take?
    A: Yes, I do expect Bigdaddy to become the default source of web results. The length of the transition will depend on lots of different issues. Right now I’m guessing 1-2 months, but if I find out more specifics I’ll let you know.”

    So chances look good for BigDaddy results to stick eventually.

    Hope this helps.



  3. pvsys Says:
    February 5th, 2006 at 3:47 am

    Thanks for the helpful advice. BTW – I’m also wondering whether Big Daddy is “slow” in picking up new links and new pages compared to “regular” google. Do you get the same impression?

    Also, I did check out that domain lookup tool and it is very cool.

    –Rob McEwen



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