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Entrepreneur, August, 2000 by Amanda C. Kooser

No domain name for your business? Don't give up.

What's in a name? If it's a domain name... a lot. And with more than 10 million domains already registered through Network Solutions alone, getting the domain you want gets harder every day. While new e-businesses can get creative finding a domain name, established businesses can have trouble finding the right ones.

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Although prime domains may not be available for registration, they are available for purchase. GreatDomains.com is the biggest marketplace for buying and selling names. It typically features more than 600,000 names with an average selling price of $14,500. Although large corporations and well-funded start-ups can put up $800,000 for Drugs.com or $7.5 million for Business.com, those prices are way out of reach for entrepreneurs. GreatDomains.com does feature a budget-friendly category, the $500 to $1,000 "Bargain Showcase." Other auction and sale sites include Afternic (www.afternic.com) and HitDomains (www.hitdomains.com).

But if NoseHairClippers.com or com-merc-e.com aren't your ideas of great domains, there are other options. Non-".com" top-level domains like ".net" and ".org" aren't as sold out. But they're also not as easy to remember. On an up note, the latest Netscape and Internet Explorer versions are more forgiving about search syntax and likely to turn up other domains as easily as ".coms."

Internet business incubator idealab! (www.idealab.com) recently purchased the rights to the ".tv" domains from the small South Pacific country of Tuvalu for $50 million over the next 10 years. The domains will be sold through idealba!'s DotTV (http://www.tv). And ICANN, the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (www.icann.org), is considering adding such domains as ".arts," ".shop" and ".store." A new frenzy of registering means more opportunity for getting usable names. But it could also mean more domains you'll need to register to protect your name. To keep tabs on developments, check out ICANNWatch (www.icannwatch.org).

Business Services Industry

E-SCARCITY

Entrepreneur, August, 2000 by Amanda C. Kooser

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