What to do when the domain name you want has already been registered
Okay, so you’ve sat down and thought long and hard about the perfect domain name for your business. It’s a domain that you know is easy to remember, has the relevant keywords about your business in it, and would certainly drive traffic to your future website. You’re excited about the possibilities of bringing or expanding your company online. So you go to a domain registrar to search for the cheap domain name that you wanted when suddenly, a nasty announcement comes up: YourPerfectDomain.com has already been taken! What can you do? Is there anything you can do?
Good news! There is. The most straightforward way to get a domain name that has already been bought is to simply buy it back. Don’t expect this deal to come off cheap though. If the domain name is owned by a business which makes money off it, it’s certain that you will have a lot of difficulty buying the domain off the owner. There is a higher chance of getting the domain you want if it is registered by a person who makes a living out of selling domain names. You’ll be able to get a good deal so don’t forget to negotiate. The price you’ll be paying for ultimately depends on how good and in-demand the domain name is - you might have to bid if there are other takers.
How will you be able to contact the owner? Go to the Whois.net to search for the domain name. The results will display the name and contact details of the owner of the domain. If the domain name is privately registered (the Whois database will not display the owner info), contact the domain registrar and if possible, request for the details you need.
If you’re not willing to pay a lot of money for a domain that’s originally cheap at $10, you can just opt to slightly compromise on the domain name you wanted. Say for example, you wanted Greatdomains.com. You can add “the” or “your”. If this is the case, don’t forget to change your business name to sync with your domain name. If adding a prefix is not a good option for you, change the extension name. Instead of Greatdomains.com, register Greatdomains.org, .biz, .net, .tv, and so on. This might confuse the traffic that comes into your site, but the trick is to optimize your website so that it’s at the top of search engine results. If the SEO is done right, people will go to your Greatdomains.net instead of the .com one when they search for your business.
While you’re doing this, don’t forget to back order the original name that you wanted. There’s always a chance that the original owner will forget to renew within the allotted time. Tell the domain registrar that you want to be first on the waiting list when the domain expires so that you are immediately notified when it’s not renewed. You can then buy the domain name cheap at it’s usual cheap price - a little patience is all it takes.
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