3 Industry Secrets From a Multi-Millionaire Domain Squatter

After brainstorming for hours… days… weeks… maybe even months… you’ve finally figured it out: the perfect name for your startup!

In a rush of excitement, you open GoDaddy (or your domain registrar of choice) and type in the “.com” version of your awesome new company name in order to register it. You have about three more seconds of euphoria until it vanishes in an instant, replaced by a familiar mixture of annoyance, anger, frustration, and melancholy. The page refreshes and, rather than a welcoming “Register Now” button, you’re staring at a soul-sucking “Domain Taken” message and a bunch of options to register the “.net” or “.biz” or “.who-gives-a-crap”. And you think to yourself, “What kind of a-hole already owns purplestarfish.com anyway?”

You type “purplestarfish.com” into your browser. You need to satisfy your morbid curiosity. Heck… maybe someone actually had the same idea as you for an awesome new startup and even chose the same name.

But what do you see when you get to purplestarfish.com? It’s not an incredible business idea. It’s not the next hot new web app. It’s not even some defunct blog from 10 years ago. It’s this:

The a-hole who owns your domain isn’t even doing anything with it. Instead, he registered it who-knows-how-many-years-ago for $10, and now he’s trying to sell it to a sucker like you. You don’t know the price, but you’re pretty sure it’s more than you’re able to spend.

Time to find a different company name for your awesome new startup idea. Who knows how long it’ll take to come up with another good one?

Problem is, when you do eventually think of a better name, if it’s halfway decent, I guarantee someone else will already own the domain. The reason is simple: behind every domain name you covet is a secretive industry most people don’t even realize exists. It generates hundreds of millions of dollars every year from entrepreneurs around the world who are desperate for a good URL.