Domains⚓︎
I wrote an article last year about how the chase is better than the catch. I still consider this to be true, although I reference it not to rehash the points written in that article. Rather, I'm referencing it because in the context of domains, it can easily become an expensive lesson.
The Chase⚓︎
I want to begin by saying that finding a great domain is impossible not easy. If this were the early to mid 90s, you could get a domain name for just about anything you can think of. Fast forward ~25 years and it's almost impossible to find a perfect .com domain.
I have a handful of domains that I've bought over the last two years. Some of them are pretty good; others are worthless. This is an expensive lesson, and it's a trap that I keep falling into. I think it's because I haven't been able to find a domain that I truly love.
Maybe that's the wrong approach. Maybe it's more of finding the appropriate domain for what you're setting out to do. Maybe it's building a brand. Whatever the reason, the chase to find a domain I'm happy with has been a long road.
The Hunt⚓︎
To date, I've owned over a dozen domain names. This isn't really a lot compared to how some folks buy and sell domains by the truckload, but for me, it's quite a lot. My first domain name, was purchased primarily because I thought it was funny and it was cheap. It served me well for about a year before I realized I didn't like it as much as I thought I did.
I bought a second domain, and used it for a few months before I realized how much I didn't like typing...
subdomain.distributedcomputing.io
It was too long and didn't do anything for me. I decided to try to look for something that wouldn't change - my name.
Since my name is incredibly common, this is hardly an easy task. As it turns out, I'm 21 years too late for snapping up davelevine.com. Because I work in tech, I was able to find davelevine.io. I still have this domain and it's one that I don't see myself getting rid of. My dilemma is that I really want a .com.
I purchased a new domain recently, which definitely gets me closer to where I want to be. However, because this has become a hunt for the perfect domain, my mind is telling me, "that domain name is too long". This is extremely problematic because as these things go, the shorter the domain name, the more expensive it becomes.
Case and point, I was looking for my last name in a .com. Spoiler - I struck out. What I did find, however, was levine.xyz. This was very appealing to me because .xyz is a fairly popular extension, and since Levine is my last name, it's not something that will change.
The problem? The price tag. $2,185.
I immediately scoffed at this and said forget it. However, I kept coming back to it. I couldn't get it out of my mind, and a real fear of potentially missing out on this came over me. I thought about it for awhile before I finally couldn't convince myself that it wasn't worth it.
I pulled the trigger. 5 days later, it was mine.
Was it worth it? Oh yes.
Edit: On 4/26/21, I lost whatever was left of my mind after months of looking at it and bought levine.org for $11,640. No regrets, just a much smaller wallet.
The Catch⚓︎
I'm very happy with both levine.xyz and levine.org. I look at it as an investment in myself. They're domains I can keep and hand off to my son one day. I already acted fast and was able to get variations of his name in a .com...
I don't know which one he'll prefer when he's older, but I wanted to make sure I got both of them for him.
So what have I learned? There's no such thing as a perfect domain name. It's subjective to say the least. Do I still want some variation of my name in a .com? Yes, absolutely. Will I get it? It's doubtful considering most variations have already been snatched up. So with that being the case, I have to look at the next best thing - my name with other extensions. It's not the same, but this really does echo the sentiment...
The chase really is better than the catch.