|
Learn more about Domain Name (Home)
Previous Topic
Next Topic
Dictionary Domain Names: Can you still find and register them?
While doing research on the Internet for things that looked interesting and
had some moneymaking potential I stumbled across a website dedicated to domain
names. There are many, but that particular site had loads of articles and
helpful hints. One of the articles caught my attention when it mentioned
dictionary domain names.
I immediately started thinking …yes; maybe I could register some valuable
dictionary domains and somehow make money from them. That potential bubble was
quickly burst when virtually everything I could find about domain names
indicated all the good names had been registered. It seemed to be true. I spent
hours thinking up names, then checking, only to find they had already been
registered.
Now, true to all I’d read, I was only attempting to come up with .com domain
names since by now I too had come to believe the best chance of making money
from domain names was to own names with the much more popular .com extension.
There are, however, significant exceptions but that will not concern us here.
After my initial failure to find decent domain names …almost all the first two
hundred names I thought were good were already taken, I decided maybe I should
take a different approach. I had read several articles indicating dictionary
domain names had intrinsic value compared to non-dictionary URL’s. I agree,
however it still is not easy to sell a dictionary domain name, or any domain
name for that matter, in my experience. Even more so, it seemed like all the
single word dictionary names were already registered, adding to my dismay in
trying to find good names to register.
It now became a challenge to find unregistered dictionary domain names, with the
dot com extension. I vowed to find some, no matter what. Being a researcher at
heart, but not totally sold on pure Internet research, I decided to straddle the
fence. I would think up words and write them down on paper, then check them out
on a popular Internet website for correct spelling, then check with a registrar
to see if they were available to register. It was rare to find any single word
domain name that was not already taken. Exceptions were very long undesirable
words.
Ok I thought, back to my college days. I got one of my original college
dictionaries, now some decades old, and started looking up words. I started with
the letter Z since I figured there are fewer and less common words beginning
with that letter. Knowing it would be unlikely to be able to register any word I
already was familiar with I quickly scanned for unknown (words I did not know)
words. Bingo! Almost immediately, when I entered the word zebeck.com to register
it I was shocked to find it available to register. I double-checked the spelling
and the definition. When I was sure there was no mistake I registered it.
After the initial shock of actually finding a dictionary word I could register I
made it a goal to spend several nights a week for a month or more to try to find
new words. I tried the F’s and almost immediately found floccule. Looked up T’s
and found thulia. To make matters interesting I found javary, kamacite, togate
and others in my dictionary, but they did not show up in the dictionary on the
Internet. Double-checking for correctness, I verified they were indeed true
dictionary words and proceeded to register the .com version of them.
In the process of using my old dictionary I noticed many alternate versions of
common words. Some I registered, such as tythe (usual spelling is tithe), some I
did not. You will also find words not in one well-known dictionary but in
another popular dictionary. The word may or may not be in the Internet
dictionary(s). I haven’t used the dictionary (a real printed dictionary) so
frequently since I finished college. Because of it my vocabulary has just
expanded by probably a thousand or more words.
As it turned out I was able to register many dictionary domains using this
method. Almost every sitting I was able to find one or more words to register as
a .com address. These were all single word dictionary words. I usually spent
from one-half hour to once almost three hours at night, each time I checked my
trusty old dictionary. My goal was to find at least one word to register. I
think I only failed to do that once in many sittings (actually I laid in bed
most of the time). Now, as you can imagine, each time I registered a name I felt
good knowing I was the owner of a domain name that had a real meaning. It was a
single word domain at that. Later I decided to find and register hyphened
dictionary words such as scrub-up, jury-rig, two-cycle, puff-ball and others.
Lately I have been too busy to use this method. I have, however, developed an
effective shortcut or two. Try these if you want dictionary words without
spending too much time searching for them:
1)When reading books, magazines, web pages, watching television, etc. take note
of any new or uncommon words. Check to see if any are available to register. I
registered UIIR (urotensin II receptor), an acronym, and futzed using this
method.
2)Subscribe to a domain name service (contact me for a recommendation) and look
to see dictionary domains that have very recently expired or are expiring within
the next few days. You can find names still available to register but you have
to act fast because most decent names usually get snapped up quickly.
3)You can sign-up with many registrars to get expiring dictionary domains, for a
price. However, now I believe there is an auction on them if more than one
person applies for the same name. Using this method I was able to get yolky and
waeg dot com names by paying less than $70 each.
Each of the above three methods have yielded good results for me whenever I used
them; resulting in dictionary domain names I never would have thought were
available. Words such as stellary, sexological, chinless, radishs, and shrilly,
although not so common, were easily registered.
As to the value of over 75 dictionary names I have registered using the above
three methods there is some uncertainty as to what they are worth. This is an
unanswerable question until they are sold or otherwise used. A future article
will detail some of my research to see what potential value lies in these
dictionary domain names.
...
Charles is a computer programmer and developer turned web entrepreneur. He has
written software for many major U.S. Corporations as well as written and sold
his own software. He is currently developing a soon to be published website for
his many domain names and another on top-rated eZines. Charles can be reached
via the contact form at his sister’s http://www.KLTGallery.com website.
|
L E
A R N I N G
C E N T E R
|
|
