It's usually pretty easy to get a .com if you're willing to put a prefix like "get" or a suffix like "app" on it or something -- or both ("getbluebirdapp.com" isn't taken). Or combine the brand name with the product class ("bluebirdhumidifiers.com"). Or any non-obvious two-word combo, really.
But yeah, if you want a .com that's a single-word brand name without any prefixes/suffixes, basically everything's been taken for a long time.
Definitely! You need to be a bit creative / flexible, but it's quite practical. I probably have about ten, all in active use and most of them registered within the last five years.
I have been in your shoes and I honesty feel your pain.
I'm trying [0] to fix that and hopefully be a part of the solution. Renewal price increases won't magically prevent people from squatting, so that's pure milking by the VeriSign monopoly.
I've registered multiple 5 letter brand name .com domains in the last five years. They are out there, it just takes time and creativity to find them. 6 letters and more are even more abundant.
It could also indicate that it’s relatively cheap to sit on domains for 20 years, patiently waiting for someone to pony up. It’s not like valuable domains are more expensive to renew.
then maybe it should be forbidden to renew domain if you haven't use it for a year instead of increasing prices for everyone, how convenient for domain registrars
How would they define “using it”? I’m guessing there would be easy ways to skirt around any automated system that checks for whether a domain has been used. Update the text on the “for sale” landing page? Look, I used it!
I’ve never been able to secure a .com for a project, they are all squatted and being sold at a massive (like 1000x+) markup.