Domain Hacks

A domain hack is when the TLD becomes part of the name itself, forming a single word or phrase. Instead of treating the dot as a separator, you use it as part of the spelling.

One of the original examples from the Web 2.0 era was the social bookmarking site del.icio.us — the domain spelled out “delicious.” My own startup discovery site, BetaList, started out on betali.st because I couldn’t afford the .com at the time. Other well-known examples include bit.ly and instagr.am.

How to brainstorm domain hacks

The key is knowing which TLDs exist — there are over 1,500 of them, and many are short two-letter country codes that happen to match common word endings. You can browse the full list at getdomainbook.com/resources/tlds.

But you don’t need to do this manually. There are tools that automatically find domain hacks for any word you type in. Enter a word like “artist” and they’ll show you options like art.ist or cre.at — if they’re available. See getdomainbook.com/resources/domain-hacks for recommendations.

You can also work backwards: browse TLDs that match common word endings (like .st, .ly, .io, .al, .er) and see if any of your keywords end with those letters.

The trade-offs

Domain hacks are fun and memorable, but they come with real drawbacks. Trust me — trying to explain betali.st to someone in conversation gets awkward fast. “It’s betali dot S-T… no, the dot goes before the S-T…” I had that exchange more times than I’d like to admit. They also rely on ccTLDs, which can have SEO implications and registration restrictions.

Think of a domain hack as a great starting point, especially when you’re on a budget. But plan for the possibility that you’ll want to upgrade to a more standard domain down the road — as I eventually did by upgrading to betalist.com.