I Found The Perfect Domain Name! How Do I Get It?

If you're lucky and someone else hasn't already registered the name then all you have to do is get an account with a domain name registrar or reseller, type the name into their domain name search box, pay a rather nominal fee (dot-com names can be picked up for less than ten dollars), and walk away with your new name. If, however, someone has already registered the name, you are probably going to have to pay rather more than a nominal fee if you really want the domain.

Fact is that many of the best domain names actually have been registered by someone else. "Best" being defined as a name that is short (preferably one word), memorable (meaning easy to spell and pronounce), and having a dot-com extension. "Sex.Com" is the perfect example of what a "best" domain name might be. And it's been sold on several occasions for more than ten million dollars (if you have really deep pockets you might be interested in knowing it is on the market again).

Don't panic! The chances are you won't have to pay ten million dollars to get the domain you want. You probably can pick it up for half that...just kidding! How much will you have to pay? As always, it depends. It depends on what the registered owner thinks he can get for it. How do you find that out? Get in touch with him by going to WHOIS and getting the contact information for the domain name's administrative contact. The admin contact is probably the owner; and if it isn't, he'll know who it is.

What the heck is WHOIS? That's an query protocol originally developed by the military in the Internet's infancy to trace web addresses. Google it; there are a number of different entry portals, any of which should work fine. Type in the domain name. Contact the administrative contact and negotiate a price. If the administrative contact is a private security company you can try contacting it but it probably won't talk to you. At this point you might want to go the the domain's website if there is one and look for contact information there. But chances are if you've picked a domain name that the owner wants to sell, he will have made the admin contact available.

Then all you have to do is make the contact and negotiate a price. If negotiation is something you'd rather leave to others, than you can get a broker to take care of the whole thing for you in the same way a Realtor helps buyers get a house. There are a number of companies that do that sort of thing including one of the best known and most reputable, SEDO. For a price they'll do it all. Good luck with your search.