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ishfillet
ishfillet

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7 Actionable tips to finding a brandable domain name

Everything starts with a domain name. Whether you're starting a side project or a full-fledged SaaS business, a domain name is essential to your overall branding. But when we hunt for a domain name, it feels like all domain names are already taken. We've all faced this before.

Last week, while searching for a domain name, I made this framework to find great domain names that stand out. I will keep it short, and concise.

These are the tips for you:

  1. Take a popular English word, and change one letter.
    e.g. Binance (Finance), Zillow (Willow), Zomato (Tomato), Ikea (Idea).

  2. A Word you love + ly/ify/able/sy/zy
    e.g. Shopify, Grammarly, Mashable, Stocksy, Coinzy...

  3. Take two common English words and join them together.
    e.g. MakeSumo, HubSpot, FireBase, GlassNode, BaseCamp...

  4. Create a unique 2/3 syllable word that is easy to pronounce.
    e.g. Figma, Envato, Vercel, Discord...

  5. Your niche + Animal names
    e.g. FoodPanda, DataDog, MailChimp, SurveyMonkey, CoinGecko...

  6. Try adding b/e/i/u/un before words you love.
    e.g. Udemy, Unsplash, eBay, iStock, bCast...

  7. Change the spelling of a common word/phrase, but make it sound the same.
    e.g. Lyft, Lyst, Reddit, Flickr, Digg...

  8. Add a verb to your domain name.
    e.g. GetPocket, UseFluent...

  9. Go for ccTLD first, and later buy the .com at a premium price.
    e.g. notion.so, foundation.app, copy.ai, codepen.io, dev.to

  10. Omit a word or two from a known word.
    e.g. Canva (Canvas), Spira (Spiral), Notio (Notion)...

  11. Use local translation to make a word.
    e.g. Vue (french translation for "View"), Dukaan (Hindi translation for "Shop")

Hope it helps. Follow me on Twitter @ishfillet for more actionable tips on UI/design/business. xD

Also, this is my first post on here - react and share it if you like it.

Top comments (5)

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vinayhegde1990 profile image
Vinay Hegde

Very creative way to find the right domain name @ishfillet

What would you suggest if the name one wants in a particular TLD isn't available and/or too costly to be bought.

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ishfillet profile image
ishfillet

Just change the name a bit and play with letters, puns, etc...

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ishfillet profile image
ishfillet

Also try using these tools:
instantdomainsearch.com/
panabee.com/

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shainetsou profile image
Pei-Hsuan Tsou

Thank you for writing this very helpful post!