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. Notice that those eventually moved to .com domains as they scaled.
How to brainstorm domain hacks
The key is knowing which TLDs exist. Many are short two-letter country codes that happen to match common word endings.
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 arti.st if they’re available. See the domain hacks resources page on getdomainbook.com 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. I can’t count how many times I had to explain betali.st in conversation: “It’s betali dot S-T… no, the dot goes before the S-T…” It gets awkward fast. They also rely on ccTLDs, which can negatively affect SEO and come with 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.