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Ask HN: Review my website - HotNameList.com (hotnamelist.com)

12 points by jorgem ↗ HN
Does it seem like all the good COM domain names are taken?

There are still good COM domains for websites, blogs, or investment... HotNameList shows 100 good, AVAILABLE COM domain names every day. No auctions or parking. Search lets you look for key words or topics...

12 comments

[ 1.1 ms ] story [ 118 ms ] thread
Jasber
Nice concept and good implementation. My only suggestion is get rid of the ads. Paid lists will be a huge revenue generator, no need to scare people off with ads.

I'd suggest checking out Google Hot Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends) and finding available domain names against that.

I had a site like this years ago and it did quite well. Looks like you found the right business model as well, domain squatters pay big money for these lists.

The only reason I stopped doing it was because I felt uneasy contributing to the domain name squatting problem.

jorgem
>> no need to scare people off with ads.

Point taken.

>> I'd suggest checking out Google Hot Trends

Many of the "hot picks" come from there.

>> contributing to the domain name squatting problem

Trademark violations are a big problem. I can pretend to ignore the issue in the same way the gun makers say "We're not the ones pulling the trigger." But the difference is that many domain buyers are NOT really all that educated on UDRP and trademarks. I think I'll investigate automatically removing domains that appear to contain trademarks, or at least flagging them -- not sure how hard that will be.

toy99
Amazing resource
siong1987
I don't know why I have this idea to create something similar with twitter. I know someone out there will be amazed by the idea as long as it is TWITTER-related. Think of this - Twitter Username Suggestion Service.
jorgem
Interesting. So, kindof like a new domain every 20 minutes :)

Here is a prototype ticker with a new AVAILABLE domain every second: http://hotnamelist.com/ticker.html

siong1987
No. A new twitter Username every 20 minutes.

Or, you can create a twitter account that will update a new domain everyday and ask people to subscribe to the account.

jorgem
Yes, I was agreeing with you, just didn't say it well. The automatic TWITTER is a great idea.
jorgem
One of the big problems has been figuring out how to monetize it. The advertising isn't working (probably too much of that).

And the advertising networks don't pay reliably. I know the domains are getting clicked and sold, but there isn't always a commission at the end of the rainbow.

I have sold a few custom lists -- but I'm curious what other monetization ideas there might be...

rms
Do some pay more reliably? If Godaddy follows through well enough, I would just go with them and get rid of the other options, no one is going to click through to the more expensive registrar.
jorgem
None of them are reliable. But for different reasons. GoDaddy is best, but has issues, too.
jorgem
It just doesn't seem prudent to publicly disparage my best advertiser.