If you have a new business and you plan to sell in multiple countries you’ll naturally want to the a .com address. One of the most painful experiences you can go through as an entrepreneur is trying to find a good .com. People hoard domain names in the hope in the future someone will want it bad enough they’ll pay an exorbitant fee to get it. In this article we’ll go through how to come up with an idea for a domain name and how to register it.
The pain of finding a .com
Because it is so difficult to get a .com you’ll see a lot of new companies using names which have little or no meaning in everyday language. eg instagram, airbnb or deliveroo. In order to select a company name you will either have to combine English words or use words which have no meaning. Then over time through marketing you can associate meaning with your company name.
The name for this website was selected because it’s aim was to introduce business owners to software and tools which could help them run their business better. We use a website called namemesh. We entered “soft” as a word we’d like included and it can check which domains are available. When we saw softintro.com we bought it straight away as it perfectly summarised what our website is about. We were incredibly lucky. Normally this process can take weeks. When you actually find a .com you like it feels like winning the lottery because they are so hard to find.
Another way you can find a .com is looking to foreign languages. Using words in a foreign language can help finding a domain name quicker. For example, one project we have planned in the future we scrolled through the Irish dictionary and found the word “Culra” (it means background) and the .com was available.
Another domain we were able to get was already registered. But through Godaddy we were able to contact the owner. We were very lucky as he wasn’t greedy and had no use for it and sold it at cost price. Often on Godaddy people try to sell domains for above $1,000.
When you win the lottery
When you finally find your business name you need to then buy the domain name. I would recommend namecheap. We use them to buy SSL certs and are now transferring our .com domains away from Godaddy and Register365 to namecheap. The cost is roughly €8 per year. Just be careful when buying a domain name because I’ve found with Godaddy and Register365 they automatically add services to your order which you do not need.
If you are only selling locally in your country it is often better to go with your countries domain name tld. For Ireland it’s .ie. Unfortunately namecheap do not support .ie domains. However you can get one from letshost.ie currently on sale for €5.99 for the first year only. Currently we use register365 but will change in the near future due to the higher cost.
Register your business name legally
If you are trading under a different name to your own or the legal name of your company in most cases you need to register a business name. If you live in Ireland you can do this on core.ie. The process is very simple. You complete a form, make a payment of €20 online. There is a summary form you sign and post it to them. You only need to register before you start generating revenue.
If you are based outside of Ireland please check your local laws and or speak with a legal adviser or accountant.
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