Short matters more than .com
The fastest growth-era brands optimized for short, brandable names — even when it meant .ai, .io, or a creative .com workaround.
If you can get the exact .com under five figures, take it. If you can't, a short, brandable .ai or .io paired with a great name beats a clunky long .com every time.
Cheap availability tricks that actually work
Use 'get', 'try', or 'use' as a verb prefix (gettrove.com, tryhalo.com).
Add a category suffix (haloworks.com, halolabs.com, halostudio.com).
Invented words (lyra.com vs. fictionalname.com) consistently outscore descriptive ones in trademark searches.
Avoid the silent killers
Names with hard-to-spell roots, easy phonetic confusion, or hyphens. Every extra second of confusion costs you signups.
Don't pay for a domain you can't pronounce on the phone.