Domain Hacking Is More Than Just Being Cool	1.5/5.0 (2 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
James Helliwell July 07, 2016

It can be quite frustrating when every domain name you come up with is flagged as being already in use. Sure, you can come up with variations of the name if you want to stick to your branding plans, but you soon realize the very purpose of branding is to be different. So, what do you do?

Well, the truth is that since the introduction of domain names in 1983, millions of websites have cropped up, taking advantage of the simplicity offered by domain names – as opposed to the number strings that preceded them - to stamp their identity on the World Wide Web.

The first domain name extensions, also called the legacy extensions, were the .com, .net, .org, .edu and .gov extensions.

The .com and .net extensions were mostly used for commercial domains, while .org, .edu, and .gov were generally used for non-profits, educational institutions and governments respectively.

.com soon became the best-known and most used extension. Millions of websites came up with several variations of words, phrases and sentences with .com extensions to get visible on the World Wide Web.

Today, it is quite hard to think up a reasonable, usable and brandable .com domain name that isn’t already taken or trademarked. Enter domain hacking.

Domain Hacking

By hacking here, we mean being clever and creative, not breaking and entering. Domain hacking simply means coming up with a domain name that suggests a word when the dot is removed. For example, blo.gs suggests blogs.

Although domain hacking is only just starting to gain popularity, it has been in existence since 1992 when inter.net was registered.

Since then, people have taken advantage of the opportunity domain hacking offers for branding, to come up with quite catchy domain names. Drivesafe.ly is both a domain name and a brand name for a company, iSpeech, which sells text-to-speech and speech recognition solutions.

How to hack a domain

Today, there are more than 800 extensions from which you can choose and create your unique domain name.

Many people opt for open Country-coded Top Level Domains – which are made up of two letters - because of the URL shortening they offer.

For example, meet.me is formed from the .me country-coded domain of Montenegro. And you may know Matt Mullenweg’s Ma.tt domain name which was formed from the .tt country-coded domain of Trinidad and Tobago.

You can also go for other extensions that aren’t ccTLDs, such as .name, .active, .press, and so on. Stay.active is likely to resonate with fitness enthusiasts.

Important tips for domain hacking

• Keep it short and memorable – The aim of domain hacking in the first place is to stand out from the crowd and create a domain name people will remember.

Keep it short, and make it relevant to the purpose of the website if possible. That way, you create an effective brand that stays in people’s heads.

• Try to make it pronounceable – This is very important for people that will type in your domain name in a browser, or refer friends and family to you. If your hacked domain is not pronounceable, people may have difficulty remembering your exact name. They are more likely to make mistakes typing your domain name and may just come up with variations that belong to another domain entirely.

my.name is always better than myna.me.

• Register the domain name – If you have chosen a ccTLD as an extension, you need to be aware that not all ccTLDs are open for international registration. Also, each country chooses the domain registrars that can register their country domains.

Be sure to engage a registrar that has a comprehensive portfolio of domain extensions.

Some registrars like www.domains4less.co.nz will provide you with a comprehensive list of open ccTLDs, as well as variation suggestions to find your best fit.

• Protect it – Register your chosen domain as a trademark, and where applicable, buy up similar variations of it to prevent squatters from benefiting from your genius.

If you choose me.name, see if you can buy up mi.name.

• Advertise your new domain – For the foreseeable future, the .com extension remains the most used extension in the world. Get word out and let people know your uniqueness. It is also important to do this because many internet users are yet to fully trust domains that do not have the commonly known extensions.

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