Advice on selecting a domain name

[tiecollector]

Oh man! I just checked a site I thought of last week. The SAME DAY it was bought up. I was planning on buying it right now. I'm PISSED! Bought by a Chinese company.

 

[Silverback]

If you just do a search you will see people accuse Godaddy of this but Bob Parson's denies it.

It happens on all registrars and nobody can prove anything.

 

[TintinATL]

Originally Posted by Tarmac

Does Bic Pentameter mean something? Why did someone buy the .com

I assumed it was a pun: "I am Bic Pentameter" = "iambic pentameter" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter). Googling the pun shows plenty of references, so it's quite well-known, which may explain why the dotcom is taken.

 

[tiecollector]

Safest way to search is to use Linux or OS X and type 'whois mydomain.com' Never using an online registrar again. My domain was literally bought by the Chinese a few hours after I thought of it. I'm also pulling out all my godaddy hosted services.

 

[Silverback]

Originally Posted by tiecollector

Safest way to search is to use Linux or OS X and type 'whois mydomain.com' Never using an online registrar again. My domain was literally bought by the Chinese a few hours after I thought of it. I'm also pulling out all my godaddy hosted services.
I read about this on Slashdot, this is a big issue that comes up every now and again, and there were people who thought this would help and others that thought this was ineffective.

Certainly worth a try but the only way I have read to beat this is to reg it if you think you might want it.

 

[Bic Pentameter]

Thanks very much for all of your advice. I didn't mean to confuse the issue by using Bic Pentameter as an example. Yep, I chose the name because of the weak pun.

The following is a pretty accurate description of my situation, with certain details changed.

My name is John Smith. I am an architect living in Seattle. I am bilingual in Spanish, and understand Spanish design aesthetics (purely hypothetical). I am interested in doing purely domestic architecture work unrelated to Spain. I am interested in designing buildings for North Americans in Spain, and in designing buildings in North America and other geographical areas for Spanish clients. I also would be interested in doing non-architectural consulting/business development for North Americans looking to enter the Spanish market, and Spanish investors looking to enter the North American market.

So, Johnsmith.com is $3,000. Jsmith.com and other variations are taken, too. Johnsmith.net is available, and initially, I thought that this might be a good cheap way to have a web presence.

Because of the size of my practice, I don't think that anyone would intuitively enter my name in the address field of their browser to find me. Also, the $3,000 price tag is more than I want to spend. I would hope that people whom I have met will be able to contact me by looking at my business card, letterhead, or an e-mail message. Because my primary aim is to attract new business, I turned to descriptive terms, such as northamericanspanishspeakingarchitect.com, spanisharchitect.com, seattle-spanishdesign.com and the like. Most of them seem much too long, or appear to limit me to architecture, Spain, or a particular geographic area.

All of the talk about names being bought out soon after a search spooked me a bit. Luckily, jsmitharchitect.com was available, so I registered it.

Thanks for your comments.

Bic

 

[robin]

Originally Posted by Silverback

There are thoughts that this happens on most of the registrars including (especially?) Godaddy.
http://blog.domaintools.com/tags/stolen-domain/

 

[Silverback]

Originally Posted by robin

http://blog.domaintools.com/tags/stolen-domain/
Thank you Robin.

 

[thekunk07]

meatspin.com is pretty good

 

[Tarmac]

Originally Posted by Bic Pentameter

Luckily, jsmitharchitect.com was available, so I registered it.

Thanks for your comments.

Bic

Well, something like "smitharchitect.com" would be better, but that sounds fine.

 

[Xericx]

in general, I stay away from things that are hard to pronounce phonetically or that are often misspelled. I believe having architect is such a word I would stray away from.

I would use the 3 letters in John Smith Architect as :

JSA

then add another word behind it such as:

WorldWide
International
Design
Group
Consortium
consulting


blah blah blah. some of those sound generic, but if you try some more combos, you'll eventually find the right one.


take in mind, those are probably all taken....but keep on experimenting and find one that works...its easy to pronounce and more importantly, easy to remember.





You might want to register a site in spain too....they use an ".es" domain I think.

 

[Xericx]

either that, or don't even use your name...come up with a business name, DBA it and then register that.

Something seattle...then mix it with something spanish.

Or take a common name or term in seattle, translate to spanish and use that...just make sure its easy for everyone to spell.

 

[Bic Pentameter]

Originally Posted by Xericx

in general, I stay away from things that are hard to pronounce phonetically or that are often misspelled. I believe having architect is such a word I would stray away from.

I would use the 3 letters in John Smith Architect as :

JSA

then add another word behind it such as:

WorldWide
International
Design
Group
Consortium
consulting

blah blah blah. some of those sound generic, but if you try some more combos, you'll eventually find the right one.

take in mind, those are probably all taken....but keep on experimenting and find one that works...its easy to pronounce and more importantly, easy to remember.


You might want to register a site in spain too....they use an ".es" domain I think.

Thanks very much for your suggestions. I tried to register the site in my country of interest, but GoDaddy wouldn't let me do it because my mailing address isn't located in that country. I have a mailing address in the country, so I will do that.

Bic

 

[Silverback]

Originally Posted by thekunk07

meatspin.com is pretty good
Where did this name come from is it yours? Looks like a Appreciation site!

 

[Silverback]

Xericx, I agree with you. Good info.