When Choosing a Domain Name, Think About the Future

This post is part of the Friday Q&A section. If you want to ask a question just send it via the contact form.

Kaitlin asks:

I thought of a great blog name, but the .com is already taken by a pizza business. For clarity’s sake, let’s say the domain is BigSlice.com, and I want to start a blog that has nothing to do with pizza (a lifestyle blog) that’s called “Big Slice.” My question is: Would you ever buy a domain like BigSliceBlog.com if BigSlice.com isn’t available, or would you give up on the name?

The answer is no. I probably wouldn’t buy a domain like BigSliceBlog.com for one single reason: it limits the scope of what you can do with that site, and it also limits how far and wide you can expand it in the future.

Let me illustrate this point with a different example. Suppose you want to start a blog about funny and humorous T-shirts. You decide you want to call it “T-shirt Spot”. That domain, however, is already taken, so you end up going with TshirtSpotBlog.com. Fast forward a couple of years and your blog is really popular, and every time you write about a specific T-shirt a lot of people end up buying it.

You figure it would be a good idea to transform the blog into an online store to sell the T-shirts, moving the blog itself to a sub-folder (e.g., domain.com/blog). It’s a great idea indeed, but you would have some problems branding the store because your domain is TshirtSpotBlog.com. In other words, you got trapped by your domain, which is limiting the scope of your site. Had you decided to use something more generic like TshirtSpot.com, you would now be able to expand the site in any direction.

If the domain you want is already registered, therefore, keep looking until you find something you are really happy with, because the domain is one of the few factors you won’t be able to change on your website.

Finally, remember that it’s also possible to buy registered domain names. You just need to contact the current owner and make an offer. Sometimes with as few as $200 you can buy great domain names, and this will be one of the best investments you can make.