Help me choose a domain?

<p>I bought a smugmug site a couple of months ago as my first site to aid me selling some prints locally. I'd like to buy a domain basically just to get rid of the .smugmug.com part. Fairly tedious, I know, but I've never bought one before and don't seem to be able to make a decision!<br /> <strong>rharris... ?</strong></p>

<p>rharrisimages<br /> rharrisimage<br /> rharrisart<br /> rharrisphotography<br /> rharrisphotos<br>

rharrisnap<br>

rharrisnaps</p>

<p>These are the ones that are available that came to mind. What do you think? Thanks for your help!</p>

<p>I've never been a fan of using one's name in a domain name. To me, it's awkward for people to remember, and doesn't really reflect one's vision, or does it?</p>

<p>That said, from the choices, I'd go with 'rharrisart'.</p>

<p>If you display a proposed domain name publically, without registering the name, someone else will register it and charge you handsomely to get it back. This will happen even if you inquire with one of the domain registrars (I think it's an insider thing).</p>

<p>You can probably cross every name off the list in your OP and start over again, in private.</p>

<p>Edward, could you please explain more? As I dont want to make a big mistake here/lose lots of money. I've gone to smugmugdomains.com (powered by godaddy.com) and searched for .com's that are available. If I buy that, is that not registered to me then? I'm very confused.</p>

<p>Thank you both kindly for your help.</p>

<p>Basically what Ed means is - some of the <em>'find out if this domain is available' </em> online tools/sites actually pre-register the domain you enquired about <strong>as soon as you type it in</strong> , and then say <em>'its not available but we can obtain it'</em> and then charge you $60 for it when it really only costs $9 and you could have registered it yourself easily. In addition to that scam, putting what you just put online here is a potential rip-off opportunity for folks - who can go right now and register some or all those names and then charge you a lot to get one back.</p>

<p>...oh and I'd drop the 'r' and just have harrisphotos - the 'r' will just confuse people. And in reality the biggest aid to selling is not your name its the quality of your work.</p>

<p>(mind you my own name/domain name is not exactly easy to spell/remember for those of a non-celtic persuasion!)</p>

<p>Reputable domain registrars do not premptively register any name you search on. I've done lots of domain searches on names I thought might be good for projects I work on and sometimes I've registered names weeks or even months after an initial search when I wasn't sure about them at first.</p>

<p>However if you think of a great name, find it's not been registered and then ask for opinions on it in a public forum you might well find someone beats you to it. That's unlikely to happen though, since all the really good names (photo.net, photography.com etc.) have already been taken. You're usually left only with unpronouncable words that contain your name.</p>

<p>I wrote a short article on (photo) domain names here - <a href="http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/website/domain_names.html">http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/tutorials/website/domain_names.html</a>. I think the basic rules are to keep it short, keep it pronouncable, keep it with conventional spelling, don't use spaces or dashes and get the .com version if at all possible. All these things make it more difficult to find a name, but there are still a few reasonable names that haven't been registered. You just have to work to find them.</p>

<p>If you can drop the leading "r" from the "rharris" string and still get the domain you want, I'd go for that, though since harris isn't an uncommon name you may find all your choices have already been registered.</p>

<p>If anyone is charging you more than about $10/year for domain registration, they are ripping you off. All you can lose is $10, even if you never use the name.</p>

<blockquote>

<p ><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=14630">Bob Atkins</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"><img title="Admin" src="http://static.photo.net/v3graphics/member-status-icons/admin.gif" alt="" title="Admin" /> <img title="Subscriber" src="http://static.photo.net/v3graphics/member-status-icons/sub10plus.gif" alt="" title="Subscriber" /> <img title="Frequent poster" src="http://static.photo.net/v3graphics/member-status-icons/2rolls.gif" alt="" title="Frequent poster" /> </a> , Sep 12, 2009; 05:02 p.m.<br>

Reputable domain registrars do not premptively register any name you search on.</p>

</blockquote>

<p><strong>Worth stressing though that some disreputable registrars do though. </strong> I've tried it by making up an unlikely .com domain, checking on the whois database to see if its available, and of course it is, then typing it into less-trustworthy registrars sites and immediately been told <em>'that domain is not available but we can obtain it for you, for xxx$'. </em> When I could in fact have registered it with a dependable registrar for a fraction of that quoted cost.</p>

<p>Well, that doesn't necessarily mean they've just registered it.</p>

<p>I've found a number of sites that showed domains were available which in fact were not - and vice versa. I presume they're using an old database or a less than perfect search.</p>

<p>I suppose some sites might just tell you the domain is unavailable in the hope of extracting more money from you!</p>

<p>Unless you find a domain is available via 2 or 3 independent sources, then you get told it's not available, then those same 2 or 3 sources now report (after giving enough time for DNS propagation) that it's taken, I'd probably guess that the problem lies in incompetence rather than a shady website registering every name you search on.</p>

<p>As for the OP, "photosbyharris" appears to be available as is "photoharris", "harriscan" and "harrispic". At least they were available...</p>

<p>what does th r stand for. Might be a great self promotion tool if you are a freelance photographer. Also, try using godaddy or 1and1 for a reputable registrar.</p>