Squatters have the damain I want!

what are the options?

[Woz]

Here's the situation,

I am thinking of a new site and want the domain name of, shall we say, mydomain.com However, squatters already have it and are asking a hefty price.

However, my-domain.com .net .org are all available, as is mydomain.net & .org.

Question? Should I

1. go hunting for a completely new .com domain, or

2. buy all five available domains as above and hope that I corner that domain area? This option would cost me about 1/16th the asking price for the prime domain.

However I am concerned that a) people will end up at the domain that is for sale by typing in the url without the hyphen by mistake and assume I have gone out of business, and b) if I do well with my-domain.com, someone could start up a competative site at mydomain.com and garner traffic from those that do type in the url without the hyphen by mistake.

Your opinions please?

Onya
Woz

[legster]

I would suggest hunting for a new name. Using hyphens is bad in my opinion, because it makes the URL hard to remember. It makes it less atractive in advertising, especially in radio. It also is harding to pass around by word of mouth.

Also just a word of advice, I would not post the names of a domain name you are planning to buy. You might find the people your asking for advice are the one registering that domain just hours before you do. I have had friend do this from under me, so strangers are the last people I would tell about a domain name I was planning on buying.

Don't pay the big bucks. I find theres still tons of great names available. Just spend a few hours at Network Solutions brainstorming. Good luck! =)

[rcjordan]

Type-ins are a major, major concern if this is to be a branded site, used for email, advertised in other media, or will be dependent upon repeat business. IMO, you're either going to have to pay the price, find a domain that they will swap for, or find a new domain. If you 'bracket' the domain, you're just going to drive the price up and -perhaps worse- make the domain attractive to a potential competitor if your site becomes successful.

A true story:
MyDomain.com was held by an investor who wanted 5-digit money for it. Wilbur started a site but would not pay the price, so he registered My-Domain.com and proceeded to promote it for the next 18 months... it became a very popular site. The investor set up a page that offered the domain for sale, but also linked directly to Wilbur's site. The type-ins and inquiries had become heavy enough that the investor set up an autoresponder to advise them of Wilbur's url and contact info. Also, the price went up. Wilbur didn't realize that approx. one-half of his traffic was really going to the investor's domain first, then being redirected to My-Domain.com in some fashion. Over the previous year Jack had been working on a competitive site that came in a distant third in traffic. He acquired the investor's domain and half of Wilbur's traffic. Wilbur's business never fully recovered.