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GrahamTheDev
GrahamTheDev

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Do you own a domain name without a purpose? Let me give you a project for it!

In a rush? Head down to the comments and share a domain name you own without a purpose, I (and hopefully some others) will give you a fun side project idea for it!

For those not in a rush!

I own quite a few domain names. I recently wrote about my emoji domain 👩‍💻👨‍💻.to, I also own a domain name purely for the fact it sits on the million dollar homepage and is a part of internet history!

I even bought a domain name a few years ago that I still think could be great for a codepen competitor - codersplayground.co.uk!

Oh and don't forget ultimatemot*******kingwebsite.com (Warning, do not click this link if swearing offends you), which is probably the naughtiest domain I own and actually use!

Today, for the first time in a while, I bought a domain name that not only fit a big side project beautifully, but would also work for loads of different use cases.

It is probably the "best" (best when talking about commercial viability and an obvious use case) I have bought. In fact, I am that amazed it wasn't taken it prompted this whole article!

The domain is:


[a2z.dev](https://a2z.dev)

I will be writing loads about that domain as it will feature heavily in my content creation strategy over the next year, but it had me thinking about all the domains I have bought over the years that maybe weren't as great!

Then I realised I can't be the only one with random domains (or really good domains that you are surprised weren't taken) sat idle and needing a purpose!

So that leads me to the question:

How many of you have random domains with no purpose?

As I said I have several domains that are good (and some not so good ones!), but have no purpose at the moment.

And I certainly can't be the only one.

So put your unused domain name into the comments below and I will come up with a fun project and possibly a serious project as well that you could build around that domain name!

I want to see who has a) the best domain name (can you beat a2z.dev?) and b) the silliest domain name.

Hopefully a bit of fun coming up with ideas for how to use a domain name will turn into a silly side project, that then turns into something beautiful and massive, and we can all say that it started here and we helped make it happen! 😁


Add your domain name(s) below that you want a project for and I (and hopefully others) will come up with a killer idea!

Top comments (145)

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jwanner83 profile image
Jonas Wanner

Oh man, I own a lot of domains without a reason. One of them is dail.one. I've thought about building a suite of web applications like notes, calendar, e-mail client etc. which then would all be placed beneath this domain but it turned out, I dont have this much time on my hand so I stopped 😅

I also have multiple Liferay domains (liferay.space, liferay.tech, liferay.blog, liferay.us, liferay.at, liferay.ch). I work in a company which uses Liferay to create digital workplaces for companies and I thought it would be funny to buy some domains and do something cool, but I really don't know what I should do with them 😂 Any idea is appreciated :)

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev • Edited

OK so these are some tough ones, I doubt I will come up with a sensible one but let's see!

dail.one

  • You create custom voicemail answer machine messages for people that are voiced by "Dail", a virtual AI, they are free, but if anyone ever needs support your whole phone tree requires you to press 1 varying amounts of times to get to the right department (Dial one!).
  • A URL shortener that only works for Daily Mail articles published on the 1st of the month.
  • You create a course called "Digital Access for Independent Living", you sell it to governments to get older people and vulnerable people online to help towards inclusivity goals.

liferay

  • You have a sunflower in a blacked out room. People send positive tweets to an account and every tweet adds 30 seconds to a UV light run time to give the plant some much needed "life rays".
  • A site dedicated to preserving the habitats of Stingrays and reintroducing them into the wild.
  • A site where there is a 24 hour feed watching a guy called Ray. Think Truman show!
  • A live feed of the sun with motivational messages popping up on the screen on how to live a healthy life.
  • Liferay.space - you set up a super powerful laser that people can control remotely. They can point it at a planet (solar system) using a star chart and send a message in morse code to that planet to see if you get a response.

I have to admit, I struggled as they are both super specific lol, I will see if I come up with a better idea as I am not happy with these yet!

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torik17 profile image
Tori

I love the sunflower idea from the positive tweets 🌻

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

I can be wholesome sometimes 😜🤣

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maddtech profile image
Eric Maddox

Wholesome as fuck!!

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l4znet profile image
Charly Escalona • Edited

Hi!
Recently i've bought leblogdesgensquivontauboutdesblagu... as a joke, but, in fact I dunno what to do with

(In same spirit I've bought lescuilleressontenrealitedespelles... than can be translated by Spoonsareactuallyshovels.fr.. don't ask me why.. dunno..)

(In english we can translate by Blogofpeoplewhogoafterjokes.fr, it's a very litteral translation, I hope you've understood the meaning)

Any idea?

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

As I think some of the meaning is lost in literal translation I am guessing this is about people who completely miss a joke and take it literally?

If not let me know what it should be and I will then come up with silly and sensible ideas!

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l4znet profile image
Charly Escalona

In fact you right, but the meaning was most, I’ll do my best for that joke « exist », to be more funny..

For example, I’ve created a website about spoons and showel because someone gave me the idea, but doesn’t think I’ll buy a domain and create a website.

In fact, the meaning of my domain was « A blog for all who do his best to make real a fictional funny idea »

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l4znet profile image
Charly Escalona

So, if you have any idea, I'll take it!

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moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair • Edited

The only random domain I have at the moment is littlest.website. I have a host called "the" so I could have the.littlest.website which is kind of a riff on The Littlest Hobo but that's as far as I got.

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev
  • A site for code golf tournaments. Think CSS battles but instead they are code golf battles.
  • A site that showcases any website that is under 20kb? A great way to discover random lightweight sites for people on low data plans.
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moopet profile image
Ben Sinclair

I was intending on getting something adjacent, like the.littlest.network and hosting a Mastodon instance but most of the good names like that are gone.

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embed profile image
embed • Edited

I have tons of domains I do not use, some I shouldn't use to be honest.
catgirl.design
femboy.us
racist.live
catboys.shop
femboy.creditcard
femboy.codes
zenithcoin.net
femboy.fit
owo.rocks
cock.trade (was my screenshot site and probably will make it my screenshot site again)

I've bought all of these as jokes and have never used them for anything. maybe I can do something fun with them

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev • Edited

Well as most of these are NSFW I think I will have to be creative here and fly close to the line a bit!

  • catgirl.design - A very out there brand of clothing (probably ideal for e-thots!) that has the slogan "nice pussy" and the logo of a cat-girl. (I know this isn't a catgirl but money is money!)
  • femboy.us - tips and tricks for people who identify as femboys to improve their femininity and a community forum!
  • cock.trade - an online market where farmers can advertise their prized roosters and offer them out for impregnating hens - similar to bull breeding!
  • racist.live - a serious channel where people can ask the questions they want to ask but are afraid people would think are rascist. "Do black people...", "are white people...". Then panel members can give a real education on what is stereotyping and what is true etc. A moderators nightmare and probably not suitable for any Social Media ToC, but could be an awesome resource to get past the "you can't ask that" fear people have that stops them understanding each other!

Unfortunately I think any other ideas would not be suitable for DEV! 🤣 With that being said I imagine you could build a nice interconnected community with some of these domains.

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embed profile image
embed

thank you! do really like the femboy.us, catgirl.design and racist.live ideas, maybe when I eventually have the bandwidth, time, and money to host them I will try some out!

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natalia_asteria profile image
Natalia Asteria

femboy.us should just be a forum for Astolfo cosplayers, rofl. 🤣

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oknoorap profile image
Ribhararnus Pracutian

catgirl design is suitable for NFT project.

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stealthmusic profile image
Jan Wedel • Edited

denksaft.de

It’s German for “thought juice” which relates to coffee. I thought about starting a German developer podcast but never did it because i found a very good one existing already 😅

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev
  • you create a coffee brand that is enhanced with vitamins and minerals that is designed to replace the energy drinks people drink with a healthier (not healthy!) alternative.
  • You create a site that asks a single, thought provoking / philosophical question each day and then people can add their answers. You can only add one answer a day and then you vote on answers you think are good and each day has a "top 10" answers section.
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stealthmusic profile image
Jan Wedel • Edited

This one question a day is actually a brilliant concept, I like it a lot! Just need some thought provoking questions 😅 but that could also be voted on…

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

I am glad at least a couple of my ideas have been decent, most have been silly!

I liked that idea too, I should stop giving away all my best ideas 🤣

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stealthmusic profile image
Jan Wedel • Edited

Lol, I wouldn’t be mad when you would register thoughtjuice.com and make an English version yourself. ☺️

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

thoughjuice.com is already taken domain name

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stealthmusic profile image
Jan Wedel

🤣

Someone was quicker!

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dilutewater profile image
Rachit Khurana

I own 3 proper domains & a couple of free domains.
Out of those 3 domains, 2 domains are in use. (1 for my personal website , & 1 for few other things like a cryptic hunt & a trivia quiz).

I have 1 more domain dilutewater.xyz
(DiluteWater is my pseodoname that I use for online accounts.

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

Right I will focus on dilutewater.xyz then!

  • homeopathy website (but you explain how homeopathy is a load of rubbish then redirect people to an actual online pharmacy for a commission)
  • you start a band that plays music under a waterfall on a couple of old string instruments (Di(2) Lute)
  • if you don’t mind questionable marketing You become the next “smart water” and market that your water is more wet than other water as it is more diluted.
  • you turn a pickup truck into a herb garden and sell speciality herb mixes to Australians that are dried and just neeed rehydrating (Dil(herb) Ute(Utility vehicle is AUS))

Yeah, I went silly with all of them (except the two lutes idea, could be the next 2 Cellos! 🤣

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dilutewater profile image
Rachit Khurana

if you don’t mind questionable marketing You become the next “smart water” and market that your water is more wet than other water as it is more diluted.

Nice Idea 🤣.
I will try to make when I get time

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theoparis profile image
Theo Paris

I bought this one originally as a joke:
throwouterror.com. (instead of throw new error). However, it sounds a bit weird when you put it together as TOE 😂 i had originally owned toes.tech but it expired and it would have cost $40 to renew.

I also own malware.design. I don't want to make something illegal obviously - but maybe a learning site for cybersecurity would be neat?

I have many more weird domains but these were the ones that stood out to me.

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

Throwouterror.com

  • a site where people boast about things they found “dumpster diving” that were worth a fortune and rub it in the faces of the people who threw it out in error 😜
  • a site where developers can showcase the worst error messages they have ever seen and how completely unhelpful they are.
  • Throwouterror is a new error reporting library that can broadcast errors securely to multiple API endpoints for different processing requirements.
  • a sports clip site where you showcase wrong calls by referees calling things “out” when they were “in”.

Malware.design

  • “cyber security” game where you level up a computer virus (think plague.inc) and have to infect the world!
  • epic custom geek and tech merch (Mal Wear)
  • A site for architects working in Malwa in India who only do redesigns!
  • you start an ethical hacking and penetration testing company?
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bleonard252 profile image
Blake Leonard

malware.design could just be a page where you go "poof, designed a malware just for you <3" or something, as a joke site

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

I mean the letstalk.dev (and spanish version) is an awesome domain name for streaming so I think you have a good purpose already (although a podcast would be great too obviously).

But that isn't the game so:

  • A site where developers actually use their voices to communicate...almost like this old thing called a phone call. Think voice notes in discord style / slack style chat threads.
  • A place where you can find out loads about your favourite developers (let stalk) and they post stories about their day to day activities so you can stalk them (get to know them!)
  • A Text to speech software platform that is optimised to read code in IDEs.

Those are my initial ideas! 🤣

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

So give me some ideas for:

  • codersplayground.co.uk
  • db20.org.uk

as they are two sites sitting idle at the moment. They can be super silly too if you want!

Oh and if anyone can actually come up with a good idea for how to use my 👩‍💻👨‍💻.to domain (good luck!) for something then let me know!

I hope we get some fun domains and some silly ideas for side projects in the comments!

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siddharthshyniben profile image
Siddharth

codersplayground.co.uk

  • CodePen alternative (like you said)
  • The site for a programming themed playground for kids
  • Site for learning codes like Morse or the Ceasar Cipher
  • Call of duty-ers playground?

db20.org.uk

  • Some sort of database hosting?
  • A site which can detect how many decibels any sound from the microphone is
  • All dragon ball episodes of 2020?
  • Top 20 news items? (daily bulletin)
  • The news from the Daily Bugle which was written on the 20th?
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posandu profile image
Posandu

codersplayground.co.uk

A Forem Community (Installing Forem is also a challenge! XD) + Code Challenges site. Focused on Javascript, CSS, PHP, Angular, React, etc

db20.org.uk

Top 20 items?

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dmoranf profile image
dmoranf

Wow! Such a great post!!! i own many stupid domains ... i give you this two!

doulove.me, always thought about making some crush app around facebook friends ...
networkingcrew.com ... maybe i was drunk when i bought this :D

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev
  • doulove.me - a virtual "they love me, they love me not" daisy petal picking game.
  • doulove.me - a site where partners can ask questions about their partners and see if they know the answers. Where this becomes fun is that you can play it with friends (probably while drinking) so the questions will probably get a little risqué and you learn if your mates know more about your partner than you do as you can all vote on / give the correct answer!
  • doulove.me - a site for housing stray animals, like the RSPCA.
  • networkingcrew.com - An online business networking site with a twist. You for "crews" with businesses that compliment yours (same customer base but not competitors). The site let's you build a mini site for your crew that you can each refer your customers too and find each other business.
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dmoranf profile image
dmoranf

Im very impressed by your creativity :D thank you so much!

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roneo profile image
Roneo.org

I just bought moon.codes a few days ago.
Any suggestions?

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iiviigames profile image
iivii

Ohhhh, love that one.

I've scooped up so many .codes.
My main site is in fact odd.codes. It's just a hub for all my outside stuff right now, but I'm overhauling it big time and will upload the revamped version all at once.

I don't know if you've heard of moonscript, but it's a neat branch on Lua. Don't know how they didn't grab that one!

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

Ok here we go!

  • moon is a language similar to braille so you could create a service that converts text into moon that you then print. Businesses utilise you for their blind customers needs.
  • Similar to how people can buy stars you let people buy moons discovered around other planets as presents.
  • A website with lots of free code, libraries and assets, the catch is you can only access the site when it is a full moon.
  • A website that lets you enter your code for linting and error checking. If it is great you get an "over the moon" message an animation, if it is awful you get someone pulling a "moony" at you and an offensive message!
  • You develop a type face that consists entirely of different moons, it can be used instead of lorem ipsum for prototyping.
  • You point a telescope at the moon and analyse the resulting image in super high detail, infra red etc. You then use this to create a true random number generator based on the noise in the picture etc. and sell it to casinos and other people who need truly random numbers.
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roneo profile image
Roneo.org

Thanks for these excellent suggestions!

moon is a language similar to braille so you could create a service that converts text into moon that you then print.

I'll get in touch with the community and check if this domain can be usefull to them first

A website with lots of free code, libraries and assets, the catch is you can only access the site when it is a full moon

I love this idea! I may run such a website, but let it available any time and just release updates at each full moon. I'll keep you updated (on a full moon of course) if this idea comes to reality.
Thanks!

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one profile image
Busari Ridwan

Hi, this is awesome 👌. Love every bit of this post. I also have several country specific domains which include code.ng, class.ng, class.africa, plus.ng, girls.ng and who.ng

Class.africa was meant to be platform where students uploads their test and exams past questions to get experts answer then and earn a point when other students rate the past question uploaded when they find it useful. But I have been very lazy with it. Would love to work with someone that can help bring this to life.

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

The problem here is that most of these seem like very wholesome domains.

But I suppose I can ruin some of them for you! 🤣:

  • Class.africa - premade classes for all Programming languages that support Classes. All it does is output "Africa is a Continent not a Country..."
  • who.ng - You can start the Nigerian Doctor Who fan club
  • plus.ng - all you sell is one decal, but at bigger and bigger sizes every time it is bought. The decal is simply a plus symbol and the phrase "That is a big plus". Eventually it scales to the size of a building and people bid on the next size up to out meme each other / show their support. All proceeds go to a suitable charity that has a positive impact within Nigeria.
  • code.ng - I mean, this has to be a job portal / freelancer network for developers in Nigeria!
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willsheppard profile image
Will Sheppard • Edited

How about these?

  • siteaboutnothing.com - bought back in 2000 when I wanted a domain name just because everyone else had one. I was inspired by Seinfeld's "show about nothing" idea.

  • compufer.com - really similar to "computer", right??? 😂

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev
  • compufer.com - a site where you showcase major computer errors due to a typo in code, you can rank them by how much that mistake cost.
  • compufer.com - when your computer blue screens or things just don't work you go to this site and it shows videos of people doing unspeakable things to computers that you wish you could do to yours. Hitting them with baseball bats, throwing them in a lake etc. You leave the site feeling better as you have "virtually" destroyed a PC.
  • siteaboutnothing.com - You spend forever writing a massive story that doesn't actually say anything important and doesn't quite finish what it is trying to. People read it and feel uneasy as you never actually say anything that they can relate. You just keep saying things that sound like they make sense but they. Your sentences get more manic as you continue to.
  • siteaboutnothing.com - seems like a great site to explore the "great beyond" and the after life. Are we reincarnated, do we go to heaven, do we just cease to exist. You can explore all the different theories, religions etc!
  • siteaboutnothing.com - ideal name for a site about Space, seeing as 99.9%+ of it is indeed nothing!
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willsheppard profile image
Will Sheppard

I love these ideas! Thank you 😊

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lucaszielke profile image
Lucas Zielke

I gotta domain that I'm not using, I bought it as a joke but would really like ideas for what to do with it. The domain is YoureTheOneTripping.org it's currently just redirecting to NA resources because that was the most relevant use i could think of at this time, but any advice is welcome

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev

YoureTheOneTripping.org

  • A perfect name for a site that generates kaleidoscope effects using generative JS techniques.
  • You sell CBD oil and explain the fact that it doesn't have the same effects as weed!
  • A site dedicated to videos of people falling down, on the side you sell anti slip matting to monetise the site!
  • You find all of the weirdest videos on the internet. But under each one there are fake comments that are written as if the video is perfectly normal. You send it to your friends to freak them out as they aren't seeing the same things as everybody else!
  • The Matrix but with colourful overlays and effects to make it even weirder. You release it to celebrate the new Matrix film coming out soon.
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davidilie profile image
David Alexandru Ilie • Edited

Let's see if you can find some good ideas as I have been scratching my head for the past couple of months

  1. thedavidones.live - Used to be my blog till I coded my own blog as part of my personal website. Don't have a use for it right now.

  2. wavlink.ro - An old company idea which has been discontinued.

  3. galaxygamers.ro - When I was younger, I used to run a Minecraft server with this domain, now it has no use.

All of these currently point to a 404 on my server. Any ideas?

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grahamthedev profile image
GrahamTheDev
  • thedavidones.live - So you do live streams where you are high on "E", (The David on E's). All your guests must also be high on a class A drug.
  • wavlink.ro - A simple utility that cross fades multiple .wav files into a single continuous track. Bonus points if it can match tempos and pitch adjust so it can act as a virtual DJ.
  • galaxygamers.ro - You are the online arcade games portal for anything space. Space Invaders, Asteroid, Solar Jetman...you name it, you have it!
  • galaxygamers.ro - You do reviews of Android games, but only on a Samsung Galaxy phone.

Sorry but I think my brain broke on these ones, I didn't have anything clever!