Introduction

You’re working on a new project, and you come up with a great name. You try to register the domain name, but it’s already taken. Back to the drawing board. You come up with another name — also taken. Then you get a third idea. This time it’s available, but it’s a premium domain with an insane price way outside your budget. Sounds familiar?

Although it seems like all the great domain names are already taken or priced exorbitantly, I’m here to tell you that it’s actually possible to get a great domain name for your project within your budget.

Over the years, I’ve registered hundreds of domain names, often really good ones that had a substantial positive impact on my business, and I got them for a reasonable price. Sometimes by being creative and coming up with a name that was still available. Other times by tracking down the owner of an existing domain name and negotiating a deal that fit my budget. Along the way, I’ve helped many friends do the same, and I’ve developed a set of techniques that consistently work.

I acquired startup.jobs — already in use at the time — for $2,500. It now gets a million pageviews a month, primarily through organic search. I tracked down the owner of RoomAI.com and got it for $2,000, while similar AI domains were selling for 10x or more. And I got wip.co for $1,400 — after the owner quoted $22,000 — by using a backordering strategy that most people don’t even know about. In this book, I’ll show you exactly how I did each of these — including the actual emails I sent.

Why domain names deserve your attention

Your domain name is often the very first thing people see — in a search result, a shared link, or a social media profile — before they ever click through to your site. It shapes their expectations before they’ve seen your homepage, read your copy, or tried your product. A short, clean .com signals that a company is established and credible. A .ai domain conveys that you’re building something cutting-edge. Even a playful extension like .pizza communicates something about your brand’s personality.

There’s also an underappreciated effect on you, the maker. Securing a good domain name early means you know with certainty that you can use this name. Without that certainty, it’s surprisingly hard to think clearly about the product itself. A good name doesn’t just label your product — it shapes how you think about it, and it makes you more excited to work on it. Don’t underestimate that.

What you’ll walk away with

The techniques in this book aren’t widely available. They’re the kind of thing you’d normally only learn by doing this for years, or by hiring an expensive broker to do it for you. I’ve spent a long time helping friends and fellow founders with their domain names one-on-one, and I finally decided to put everything I know into a book.

By the end, you’ll have a skill you can use for every project you start from here on out: the ability to find or acquire a great domain name, without overpaying for it.