Can't decide what domain name to buy for a personal blog. What do you guys think?

(Had to remove using periods with org, com, and net because it was flagging my post as spam)

The domain name I want is taken. The same person has had it for 10 years now. I thought I had it this year when it was going to expire in June and wasn’t renewed until the last day. I’ve been looking around online, and the only advice I can find is: “make an offer on the domain you want if taken”. The current owner wouldn’t let go of it, not even for $100. He countered with $10,000 (lol). I waited a month to see if he would ever come back with a reasonable price (I would have even been willing to pay a few hundred dollars to be honest) but he never did. When I reached out again, he held firm on the $10,000. As far as I can tell, the domain isn’t even being used anywhere. The URL leads to nothing, the nameservers point nowhere, and the MX records also point nowhere.

The domain I wanted was simply mylastname + com. I wanted it for a blog and for access to email addresses like firstname @ lastname + com.

lastname + org, lastname + net are also taken.
first initial + lastname + com, .net are also taken.

firstname + lastname + org is available
first initial + lastname + org is available

None of these are perfect, and I can’t decide if I want to buy one the initial/full name ones, or just come up with a blog name and buy that domain instead. Not sure what to do here. I wanted to be able to use this domain for everyday + blog email.

My recommendation is simply to choose whatever can be sounded-out most clearly to someone so there’s no confusion… then forward all mail to an email provider (eg Google, Yahoo, FastMail).

A friend who’s now a CSO for a large multinational - we’ll call her Lisa for purposes of this discussion - was in a similar position as you and she has a common surname. She ended up buying ThisIsLisa.com and has had it for over a decade for her personal emails, all forwarded to a Google account from which she can send emails using that domain.

That said, I know several very well-known people who simply use gmail addresses, without a custom domain. Custom domains for email are like vanity car plates, and just as essential. :wink: (I have several domains by the way, and several custom email addresses, but I’ve found that ultimately people just put them in contacts lists so their meaningfulness in general is somewhat muted.)

Did you try a domain for your country? Something like .ca or co.uk? Or may be .us?

Didn’t think of trying country (US). Just checked and it’s also taken.

You can find other alternatives, something like lastname.blog and lastname.email.

LastnameBlog + com or net?


JJW

Many bloggers use a nickname or handle: MacSparky, Dr Drang, Macdrifter, etc. It separates them from their freestanding professional persona and name. The distance between your blog and your professional or personal life might be useful to maintain. Also gives you greater latitude to chose a memorable URL.

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A custom domain does give you the ability to switch email providers without changing your address, so I’d argue it gives somewhat more utility than a vanity plate.

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True enough. That’s why I originally used one for when getting away from my old dial-up ISP’s mail, but then I just stuck with one mail provider and have been with it for 19(?) years now, so it turned out to have been less important than I’d thought.

I used to buy and sell domains, and I used catchall addresses for the domains I was selling to be forwarded to a gmail account, which does a great job at handling spam. I think that generally today people are aware enough of the better email services around, pay and free, so the need for a custom domain just for email has significantly diminished for most people. I still have them, but I generally don’t recommend them; my best friend was able to snag his surname… then forgot to renew his domain and lost it. Now he just uses a variant of his name at gmail and is mostly at peace with it.

I’d say go with a domain that says something about your blog, what it’s about, for instance.

I couldn’t get my last name either, so I just went for a domain I already owned because it’s fairly short, and all my personal email go to that domain.

But if you’re going to blog about your life in general, and you like playing the banjo for instance, why not go with something along the lines of

mylifewirhbanjos dot whatever you like, and is free, for instance.

A bit long, but I think you know what I mean, and it’ll make your domain stick out

How about your surname + i.us
e.g andersoni.us etc?

I would go for a com name. org has rather arcane rules that you are supposed to adhere to if you use it. Not that I think anyone is actually checking but it’s an issue to be aware of.

I would actually not like a domain name based on my name but that is me. I’d look for one that reflects what your blog is about or the geographic location where you are.

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