My odd affliction with domain names

If you haven’t fallen down this rabbit hole yet, enjoy it.

I was always a bit mystified at how one would actually get their own domain. GoDaddy commercials during the Nascar races were about as close as I came to figuring that out (but I was still too young to care). However, I decided marketing myself started with creating my own website, and I quickly settled on nalvarez.net via Squarespace ($20/yr, switched to Google Domains for $12/yr later). And, for a while, I was content. Playing with all the DNS records, seeing what I could integrate with my home server, and just having my own website was my entertainment.

A year later, the domain itch came back… justifiably. My aspirations as a DJ had accelerated enough to the point I thought my own DJ website was necessary. Until that moment, I had been running everything from a subpage of my main site: nalvarez.net/dj. So, Google Domains once again received $12 from me as I purchased djnicky.net. This one had a bit of thinking involved. I could have held djlilnicky.com for the same price, but conciseness was key for me, and that one just didn’t roll off the tongue as well. I tried looking for a .dj domain, and did successfully find one, but they wanted something like $60/yr for anything with that TLD (top-level domain, ex. “.com”). No thanks.

I’ve got two domains and two websites, more than most anyone should need. Email service was also set up for both (thanks, Zoho) and I felt I was really starting to get established. But a mere four months later, the itch returned. This time, it was for my server. I didn’t want to run every little service as a subdomain — I wanted something definitively for the server. This is a name I’ll be keeping under wraps, but it involved a lot of deliberation. It had to be:

• short (<5 characters for the name, ideally <3 for TLD)
• not gibberish text (i.e. 4e8.com)
• avoiding numbers

Some solid contenders were nv8.in, nja.one, and sierra.place. Ultimately I was satisfied with my choice and am using that now.

And, most recently, I started digging on Namecheap for something more personal. I wanted my name. Just my first name. As you might imagine, a four letter word that is a common name was difficult to find. Not only did it need to satisfy the previous requirements, but a new one came to light: iPhone link recognition. If I send something from this new domain (we know .net, .com, etc all work fine because they are common), I want it to transform into a hyperlink without me having to qualify it with https:// beforehand. A lot of these new custom TLDs do not have widespread support yet. I don’t know how big the market is for a .pizza domain name. Link recognition with these new custom domains, combined with the popularity of a name domain, severely limited my options. ChatGPT had this to say:

Regarding the emergence of custom TLDs, it's a result of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) expanding the domain name system to include more options beyond traditional TLDs like .com and .org. The goal was to allow more creativity and personalization in domain names. This expansion started in 2014, and since then, a wide variety of TLDs have been introduced, including industry-specific ones like .tech or .store, location-based ones like .nyc or .london, and even more whimsical options like .pizza or .ninja.

The introduction of these custom TLDs opened up new possibilities for businesses and individuals to find domain names that better represent their niche, industry, or branding. It also increased the chances of finding a short and memorable domain that may have already been taken in traditional TLDs.

However, it's important to note that the adoption and recognition of these custom TLDs can vary. While some have gained popularity and are widely recognized, others may still be less known or have limited acceptance. It's advisable to consider the target audience, branding strategy, and overall online presence before deciding on a custom TLD.

Take note of that last part about the target audience. This new domain was going to be all-purpose for me, and if I tell a family member to go to nick.yachts, I don’t think they’re going to know what that means, nor would their phone recognize it as a link. In an odd turn of events, a Taiwanese TLD was both affordable and available, and that’s what you see on this site: nick.tw. Easy to say, easy to type, and instantly recognizable (despite me not having a lick of Taiwanese heritage). The other benefit here is its new use as a shortlink domain (remember bit.ly?). That has been extremely useful in my day to day operations.

I’ve had to fight myself not to buy more domains, especially with the recent release of the .zip TLD. I wanted dropit.zip (file sharing site maybe?) but somebody bought that out while I was still considering it. These custom domains are great because it gives people the opportunity to get something a little more personalized for cheap, but the lack of widespread support, at least in my case, can be a deal breaker.