I’ve always been a domain name collector. The first thing I do when I have an idea for a business or product is check to see if the .com is available. I have hundreds of domain names and I’ve sold a few over the years too – my biggest sale being VapeBot.com for $17k in 2015.
A little over a year ago, when I started thinking about selling my business, I also started thinking about what I’d want to do next.
Somehow I stumbled across ExpiredDomains.net. Every day 100,000 domain names expire and this site is a searchable database showing the names that have recently expired, others that are about to expire, and the expiring domain names that are at auction.
I saw a few domains that I thought I might be able to flip for a profit, so I bought them. As I set out to learn more about reselling domain names, I found podcasts, forums, books, and online courses dedicated to this topic. I consumed everything I could.
Over the past year, I’ve added to my portfolio and made a few sales, but I find myself drawn toward domain names that I could build something on.
That’s how I came to own SundayShrooms.com. It was an expired domain that I bought for $11 in December. I had no plans to start a newsletter. No idea what I’d even do with it. I just liked the name.
Weeks later, when I was thinking about writing a newsletter and what I might call it, I started looking through my list of domains to see if I had something that would work. There was Sunday Shrooms.
It felt like a natural fit for a weekly newsletter that goes out on Sundays. After writing what would become the first issue, the tagline “a weekly microdose from Matt LaPrairie” popped into my head.
I picked up another expired domain recently. However, this one was purchased with a specific purpose in mind.
We needed a new name for our business. Although we were selling the website, trademarks, inventory, and other assets, the business entity (the LLC) would remain with us under a new name.
My #1 rule in naming a business is that I must be able to get the matching .com. But instead of trying to think of names and checking to see if they’re available, then getting discouraged because “all the good names are taken,” I decided to flip the script.
I used ExpiredDomains.net as a discovery engine by searching for domains with specific keywords. We started our business in Phoenix, so some keywords we looked for were Cactus, Phoenix, and Arizona. Gary grew up on a ranch in Montana and -something- Ranch feels like a fun business name, so Ranch was on the list. We liked the word Cosmic, so we added that to the list too.
Some names we considered, but didn’t buy:
- Native Cactus
- Cactus Kush
- Cosmic Beta
- Cosmic Surplus
- Dank Ranch
- Phoenix Texas
Then I came across PhoenixMade.com – a domain that someone first registered in 2010. I have no idea what they intended to use it for, but they let it expire in July 2022 and it felt like a good fit for us. So I bought the domain and even made a little logo for our new company name.
Since we’re on the topic, here are some other fun domains I picked up last year (all .com of course):
- Rent Jets
- Tax Brackets
- Reference Checks
- Blunt Wraps
- Hash Course
- Shroom Course
- Witch Retreats
- Copywriting Jobs
- Kopy Bot
I don’t know what my next business will be, but there’s a decent chance I already own the domain.
