How do YOU find available domain names?

[taunon]

I have a website that consolidates several tools to find available domain names - www.makewords.com - and I'm looking for some expert advice. The primary audience of that website is supposed to be exactly the people who participate in this forum, so I would really appreciate any feedback about that tool. Is it easily understandible and usable? What could we do better? We are building the next phase right now, and we can incorporate every suggestion you make.

If you were to find a good domain name there, would you register it via MakeWords "Register" link or would you go directly to your own registrar's site?

Thanks.

 

[Epic]

I either just think them up or use www.domainsbot.com

 

[IAmAllanShore]

1) I'd go to my own registrar's site. Your best bet would be an adsense link to my own registrar's site that I click out of laziness. I don't think I've ever actually clicked on a program or service's "register" link to register a name I found.
2) The program I use most often (now) is domain name analyzer, as the "spinning" is given a lot more control to the end user, rather than some terms that I don't care about.

-Allan :gl:

 

[HFear]

I use DomainTools (http://www.domaintools.com).

 

[trigatch4]

I use dotster. It has a good search feature and recommendation tool that gives good suggestions, or can help spark an idea. I also reg my names through them.

 

[taunon]

Thanks

Thank you for all your feedback, I've made some changes to the site, it should be user-friendlier now.

 

[gattoplano]

I have a self-built domain scanner that works pretty well.

 

[hawkeye]

I use dotster. It has a good search feature and recommendation tool that gives good suggestions, or can help spark an idea. I also reg my names through them.

...you might want to use a whois type of service like (http://www.domaintools.com) for your searching. Many a poster has noted that names checked at dotster for availability, seem to get registered by someone soon after. fyi :]

 

[DropLister]

I would use my own, and I kept pressing enter to noavail then i found the button your suppose to click

 

[End User King]

I use Web-page.info and DomainTools(rarely), only with credit card in hand however.
I f'kn hate ChestertonHoldings and WangLee, although I envy them.

For sure shot I use Google.com, and do a typical Pcuploads.com search right into the browser to see if it's available. If I get no results, then I head straight to Godaddy for the kill. If it's unavailable then OH WELL. In the case of PCuploads.com,it was!!!!

 

[VURG]

Why does your tool give unavailable domain names as suggestions?

Can you have an option to only list available names?

 

[Michelle]

Many different ways including some of the above and a site greatdomainz ( a sexy member here) has..... www.dnbrowser.com

 

[peaches017]

I watch a TV show or Movie with my laptop and start grinding out names into a notepad list

I usually end up with anywhere from 200 up to 1,000 names that I then run in .com / .net / .info / .us

About 300 or so are usually avail and I usually get the few best.

 

[B33R]

The voices tell me what to reg!

Seriously though, I get ideas from TV, movies, other domain names etc... run 'em and see what comes out. Sometimes I use justdropped.com and see what's dropped in the past 7/30/90 days, using keywords for areas that interest me.

Oh, and I also go through the available lists that people post in the available domains section - go there and look for Bannen or Nameclerk's threads for some great domains. Also look for ripley or katya's threads for more specialised expiring/recently expired domains. You can find a ton of great domains there, just remember to tell the thread starter what you've regged from their lists and donate some rep or NP$.

Many different ways including some of the above and a site greatdomainz ( a sexy member here) has..... www.dnbrowser.com

:lol:

 

[End User King]

Okay it's a little unorthodox, but any dn addict probably does this every now and then.

I buy many new mgazines and highlight with a highlighter terms, use of words, and new products, check them for ovt., with ext and do a little googling. I usually buy if I get back 500,000 or so hits.

 

[codinglu]

good! I often get words when i shop around.

 

[mis_chiff]

I still do it the old fashioned way

I type in words or phrases or whatever the interest is at
the time, and just search through a registrar, I like the ones
that check multiple top tld's, that saves time, but the search is half
my addiction, that's what got me hooked in the first place, someone ran a contest for an available domain name and slogan and the rest is history (still in the making).
I love typing in a word and seeing "AVAILABLE" I get chills... :lol:
And the advantage to multiple tld's, 9 times out of 10 the .com
will be gone but .net or .info etc, may show as available.
So... chills - still :hehe:

 

[Zilla]

Hi...it yours?! wonderful site!! I like it, nice work..appreciate it...let me remember ur ID, if ur ID named makewords will better....joke

 

[Michelle]

Hi...it yours?! wonderful site!! I like it, nice work..appreciate it...let me remember ur ID, if ur ID named makewords will better....joke

 

[estibot.com]

Great thread! I use several methods, many of them similar to those already mentioned above:

-Brainstorming, my favorite, I also call it the Flow: Get a seed term from a magazine or website or whatever, the just get typing on my WordWrangler, name after name whatever associations come to mind, go with the flow. After I've typed 100-200, I go to domaintools to bulk check for availability, and consider regging either the available .coms or, if all of the other TLD's are taken, I'll go for .org, .info or .us . Out of those 100 I usually reg 0 to 2.

-Read a magazine and (thanks to my blind typing skills) just type down terms and word combinations as I read, usually trendy stuff, then bulk-check again

-Go to google Adwords keyword tool, find search terms for a given word, such as "real estate", then copy-paste the results to my WordWrangler, use some quick editing routines to get rid of numbers, spaces and so on, then copy-paste to domaintools bulk-check again

-Same as above with Wordtracker and OVT

-Copy-paste Scrabble dictionary pages to bulk-check tools (domaintools or Moniker) - don't do this much but it's a great way to find short unregged words

-Copy-paste lists of countries, cities, etc to WordWrangler, add prefixes or suffixes such as "hotel" or "travel" and again use a bulk check tool to see if any are available

-Go through droplists from justdropped.com and whois websites (and ofcourse dailydropped.com )and check the ones I like

-Find historical registration statistics by Google searches and check to see if any of the names from years ago have been abandoned. I've found many a good name with this method

Regardless of which of the above methods I use, I always check the following before registering a name:
-Google results
-OVT searches
-OVT bids

I usually want >500,000 Google, >1000 OVT/mo, depending on the TLD, unless the bids are >$5 in which case less Google and OVT are required

Even if the name doesn't pass those tests, if it sounds cool I'll register it anyway, such as TalkThings.com

I agree, the search is so addictive

My question: Are there any other good bulk check tools, apart from Domaintools and Moniker? I've exceeded my daily quota on domaintools quite often...

Keep looking!