Im looking to set up a new website. Let's say the name I wanted to use for this new online business is ThunderReport (not my actually name, just 2 words I randomly generated to use as an example). However the domain "www. thunderreport .com" is owned by someone but not in use. I want to stick with the name ThunderReport. I have identifed 2 possible alternative domains that are free, "www. thethunderreport .com" and "www. thunder-report .com". Which of these would people think is the best domain? Or is there any other alternatives people would recommend? Also I have approached the person who owns the domain that was my first choice. They are valuing at $8,500 dollars. There is no way I could afford to pay that price and further negotiations were unsuccessful. I dont even know if my site will take off but on the off chance that it did become successful I would only then consider paying the price to get the best domain (eg. thunderreport .com). But as of right now I need to just find the best alternative! What would people here recommend?
Don't use hyphen in the domain, it is not user friendly. Make sure the brand name you have chosen is available everywhere. I mean check if there is a facebook page with the same name, twitter with the same name, other tld domains with the same name, look everywhere on the internet and make sure the brand name you chose is not taken on any other social platform. If it is think of a new name.
As well as the .com, the domains .eu, .info, .co and .co.uk are also registered using the name I want. However none of these domains are actually being used. As for social media pages, I have the name on Facebook and Instagram. But it was taken on Twitter. But like the domains, the twitter page is not active.
Right now my choices are down to: thethunderreport .com thunder-report .com thunderreport.net But I'm still open to other suggestions. Also one reply here has adviced me not to use a hyphen in the domain as it's not user friendly, so I may need to reconsider using the 2nd option I have listed above.
The first and third would be best. I think the hyphen looks unprofessional, cheap. Another option, that may not be a good option is to use numbers in place of certain letters. I think this has rare circumstances that it would be good, but maybe in your case. Let's say you have reporting software called Thunder 3. You could call it Thund3r.com or Thund3rreport.com.
Wouldn't go with .net, you risk to lose some of your traffic to competitor and owner of .com You should consider, that every time you register not a .com, you are increasing the .com owners value. Depending of how you want to monetize it, you could also go with .org or something, like thunderreporter.com or thunderrep.com? Dash is a "no", "the" is my choice here.