Following are the steps that we suggest you follow to secure domain names:

Step 1: Develop a list of potential candidate names and/or words.

Step 2: Check which of these domain names are still available under .com, net, org. You can also search names under other extensions.

Step 3:

Case 1 Domain name available. You should register it immediately. To protect the value of the primary domain name, we also recommend that you register "close substitutes". If the name consists of more than one word, you should consider also registering the hyphened "-" version. Also consider permutations of multiple names. If you are considering, for instance, submitonline.com, we recommend that you also register onlinesubmit.com. You don't want someone else to register a domain name that can be easily confused with yours.

Case 2 Domain name already registered. Our domain availability software performs the following checks:

(1) Whether the domain has an under-construction page or is a developed site. Owners of domain names with under-construction pages are more likely to sell their domains.

(2) Whether the Registrant address starts with "Available at". If so, it represents a signal that the domain is available for sale.

(3) Whether the domain is listed for sale with us.

(4) The administrative contact of the domain. This is the person you should approach if you are interested in buying an already registered domain name.

In addition, you can increase your chanses of registering expired domain names as they become available.

Step 4: You can protect the intellectual property of your domain name by adding your trademark to the Whose-TM database.

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