I am looking into buying my first domain, and cannot for the life of me think of a domain that will work for my site that isn't already purchased but only being used for one of those search pages to just redirect people. I've been thinking about acquiring one of the domains I really liked, but I'm afraid of how much it could cost me. Are there stages where you can back out before it costs you to have someone look into acquiring a domain or does it cost to have them look into the domain even if you don't end up purchasing it?

Hello purple,

Welcome to the world of domain purchasing. I have had similar experience, only worse. Imagine knowing which domain will work the best for your company and not having the ability to register because it was already taken - then trying to buy it out... A painful process, but if you gotta have it - you gotta have it.

My suggestion is if the domain is not critically important, search until you find what's available. If the name you really want is for sale, then try negotiating. But make sure the price you pay is worth it.

Those darn domain name squatters have a way of ruining things for everyone.

I myself have had a lot of problems finding a suitable domain name.

Although I finally did find something that was good enough, it certainly took a while.

Anyway, the price of purchasing an already owned domain name can vary greatly, depending on who owns it and what way they are trying to sell it.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best with it!

It's really difficult to buy already existed domains. You can try but it's better to find the other one.

Thanks for the feedback, I've been making everyone I know help me brainstorm URLs so maybe I'll find something eventualy. At least I know its only a squatter and not a serious product. Better chance of a squatter selling than someone like Walmart.com

Don't forget that you can manipulate a name a bit if you really like the concept. Although hyphens aren't usually desire, if a name is great, adding a hyphen in between two words could do the trick for you. Changing the domain idea a bit and adding the word "and" or using a unique spelling could work, too. You 'are' adding a bit extra work for yourself because hyphens or weird spellings aren't as easy to remember, but if you make a name for yourself, then it's doable.

I think just for my personal website I took about 4 months coming up with a name that would fit, is easy to remember and worked for the theme of it all. Don't be discouraged if it takes sometime, some of the best things happen when you have patience.

If the domain name you want is not available you can always add something short and extra to the same domain and use it...thats wot everyone one else does without paying 100 times more

The problem I see with this is that the website name will become longer if you will add something to a domain name that has been used already. I would suggest to look for a synonym of the domain name that you wanted. This way, the description that you want can still be found in the synonym of the domain name you needed.