The World of Webhosting

So you’ve picked the perfect domain name for your online business only to find out that it’s already been taken. There are a few different options you can follow to get around this problem and end up with a domain name that works for you.

One is to simply alter your domain name, which of course depends on how strongly you feel about the exact form of your proposed domain name. You can often find the domain name you’re looking for with a different suffix like .net, .org, .biz or .info. Or sometimes you can find a .com version of your domain if you change the name slightly.

So if “mybusiness.com” is already taken, you might find that something like “my-business.com” is available. However, using a domain name very similar to an existing one may result in trademark infringement, which could lead to a court order to stop using the name and pay money damages to the other domain name owner.

If you’re adamant about getting the domain name you originally wanted, there are a couple of different options there as well.

Companies like Sedo (sedo.com) and GoDaddy’s The Domain Name Aftermarket (tdnam.com) keep close tabs on the secondary domain market and offer services like domain name auctions and domain brokerage for individuals and businesses that are intent on getting the domain name of their dreams.

Sedo has a Marketplace Auction where many expired or high-demand domain names are placed for auction and sold to the highest bidder. The process is pretty straightforward, an auction runs for a maximum of one week and in the end, the domain is transferred to the new owner through Sedo’s secure escrow service.

The only limitation here is that just because the domain you want is up for grabs, doesn’t necessarily mean it belongs to Sedo, so you should double check who owns your desired domain name first and then go to the registrar that is listed under or the location that it is parked. You can easily search for these details through a “WHOIS Lookup” (whois.net).

Sedo also offers a domain brokerage service for to help acquire domain names that belong to someone else. Domain professionals conduct extensive research and analysis to provide you with a comprehensive evaluation of the domain’s fair market value and then assist you in determining a reasonable budget to pursue the domain.

Your broker then begins negotiating to secure the domain at the best price while preserving your identity and once there is an agreement of sale, Sedo’s transfer technicians step in to facilitate the domain transfer ensuring security, transparency and a quick change of ownership. You can utilize Sedo’s brokerage service starting at $69.

GoDaddy’s The Domain Name Aftermarket charges a little differently and requires interested domain name sellers and buyers to subscribe for the domain name aftermarket service with an annual fee of $4.99 that enables customers to place bids on expired domain names in a seven-day public auction, backorder domain names so that they’re owned the instant they’re available, as well as make an offer on a domain name and instantly notify the seller, who then has the option of accepting or countering your offer.

One advantage with GoDaddy’s service is that it also offers a 100-Name Domain Monitoring Pack where users can monitor the status of any domain name regardless of the person who registered it or the registrar it belongs to, enabling interested domain buyers to have an overall advantage with all soon-to-expire domain names.