Find Out If the Name You Want Is Free, From Inside the Admin
There is a domain checker in your admin now. Type a name, see whether it is available across the extensions worth having, and get alternatives when it is not.
Why we built our own
Because the ordinary way of checking a domain is to type it into a registrar's search box, and a registrar's search box is a sales funnel. Some of them are worse than that: there is a long-standing suspicion that searching a name on certain services is a good way to find it registered by somebody else shortly afterward.
Our checker queries the authoritative registry directly. Nothing is logged against the name and nothing is passed to anybody.
What to search for, in order
- yourname.com. Still the one people assume. Worth having if you can get it.
- yourname.co.uk or your national extension, if you work primarily in one market.
- yournameactor.com or yourname-actor.com. Fine, and clearer than most alternatives.
- Middle initial or full middle name. Often free when the plain name is not, and it is genuinely your name.
When your name is taken
Which it will be, for most people. Some guidance that will save you an evening.
Do not buy a bizarre extension to get the exact string. A domain ending in something nobody recognizes reads as less trustworthy than a longer address on a familiar one, and you will spend the rest of your career spelling it out.
Do not add numbers or hyphens in the middle of a word. Both get lost when somebody hears the address rather than reads it.
Do consider the name you actually work under. If your professional name differs from your legal one, that is the one that needs to be findable.
Say it out loud
The real test. You will read this address into a phone, onto a card, and across a table more often than anybody will type it from a link. If it needs explaining, pick another one.
Once you have one
Pointing it at your site is covered in connect your own domain. Why it is worth having at all is in professional domain names: a guide for actors and personalized domain names.
Create your free actor website first. You can add a domain to it later.
