If the .com you want is taken, you’ve got three choices. You can buy it on the aftermarket, settle for a .co, or bend the business name around a .com you can actually get. I was shopping for a domain name not long ago, so I did the research. My advice is to pick the name you can secure on .com, as short as you can possibly get it.
Why can’t I find a good .com domain anymore?
If it feels like you can’t get a good domain anymore, it’s because you can’t get a good domain anymore.
Every two-letter .com is gone, and so is every three-letter one. Now the four-letter domains are gone too.
Should I buy the domain I want on the aftermarket?
You can try, but the aftermarket is kind of a scary place. Sometimes the owner has listed a price and you can see what it costs. Other times you have to use a domain agent to negotiate for you.
There was one domain I really, really wanted, and the guy wasn’t even using it anymore. They wanted $500,000 for it. It’s a good domain and all, but I’m a guy in his house office. There’s no way I’m spending $500,000 on a domain name.
Is a .co or .biz domain good enough for my business?
Your customers are conditioned to go to .com. If you’re on yourname.co, some of them are going to type yourname.com and land on somebody who isn’t you. That traffic is just lost, and that’s the first risk.
Collectively, we’ve all given .biz the side eye, like it sounds like a scam. People remember .com, they’ll tolerate .co, and .biz is kind of eh.
Should I change my business name to match a domain I can get?
When you’re naming a business, you pretty much want to bend the name around the .com domain. I’ve tried to get pat.com, by the way. It’s very expensive.
If you can’t get the .com for the name you love, you may want to come up with another name you can secure. When I’m really deep into naming something in an Idea Slam, we pull up the domain search while we’re doing it. We want to make sure we can secure the .com, as short as we can possibly get it.
What should I do with all the domains I’m never going to use?
I saw a tweet that made me laugh because it’s painfully true. Domain name renewals are just a humiliation ritual for all the projects you never started. I’m Pat Miller, and I have too many domain names.
If you’ve got the junk drawer of domains like I do, remember that somebody else may want what you’re not using. There’s no reason to let a good one expire and give it away. List it on the aftermarket, and the domain fairy may bless you with a couple thousand dollars you weren’t expecting.
What should I do this week?
Here’s the homework. Get into your registrar, whichever one you use, and look at the domains you’re never going to use. List the good ones for resale.
Then check the domains your business actually runs on. Make sure they’re locked down, set for renewal, and the credit card on file isn’t going to go sour. If you lose your home base, if you lose your front door, you’re going to lose some trust, and your clients aren’t going to enjoy it very much.
This came from Businessing with Pat Miller. Watch the full June 25, 2026 episode.