The domain name I wanted for my site is taken! What can I do now?

Q: The domain name I wanted for my site is taken! What can I do now?

A: Most likely, the only thing that you can do is come up with a new name for your site. It's not a good answer, but in most cases, it is the answer.

Domain names are bought by two differen types of parties. The first type intends to legitimately use the domain name for a website. The second type - who we personally think need to find something better to do with their time - intends to extort people who actually want to use that domain name by selling it to them for an outlandish price.

No matter which of the two types bought the domain name you want, you're not likely to get it. If it was the former, then they're using it, and if they are willing to sell it, it will likely be at tremendous cost. If it was the latter, then it's going to be at tremendous cost, because that's what those people do.

Now, there is a chance, however small, that if someone's squatting on a domain name that is the exact name of your legitimately registered business, then you could sue to get the domain name from them. You've got to deal with lawyers at that point, which almost always degrades a situation, but it's at least technically an option. Defenestrating yourself is also technically an option, but just because something is an option doesn't mean it's a good option.

So since we're not paying metric tons of cash for a ten-dollar .com name, we're not calling any lawyers, and nobody's flying out of a window, we're back to picking a new name. Go back to the drawing board and be creative in finding something that works for you. If the original domain name was the name of your business it might be a little difficult for you, but if you shift your paradigm to making the site host to an advertising campaign for or wing of your business rather than the business itself, you might have better luck.

It's possible that you can add a trendy prefix or suffix onto your domain name to make it viable for you, too; my-, your-, the-, and -online are popular examples. GoDaddy always suggests options like that when your domain name is taken since they want you to buy something, and it's actually quite a helpful resource. Also never underestimate the power of the dash in separating multiple-word domain names.