Help me brainstorm a domain name for a site offering Latin/Greek classes

December 13, 2021 5:00 PM

Also, should I stick with .com, or go for a cheaper .net/.org/.ca/etc. domain?

I'm an experienced teacher of Latin and ancient Greek at college level, and want to set up a site offering Zoom-based group classes in these languages at various levels. The model would be something like this (though I won't be offering that many classes, at least at first, since I have a day job).

This question has two parts:

1. Please throw ideas at me for a domain name! My first thought is some word or phrase in Latin or Greek that is reasonably familiar (at least for my target audience, i.e. people with some background or interest in the languages), easy to spell, and not already taken. But it doesn't have to be in Latin/Greek -- all ideas will be welcome!

2. What are the drawbacks of choosing a non-.com domain? For example, I thought about glotta.com, but got a quote of $25K for the domain. On the other hand, glotta.net and glotta.ca (I'm based in Canada) are both available and cheap. So the choice might be between a less-obvious domain name that's .com, or a more suitable name that isn't. Is there any reason not to go org/net/ca/etc.?

posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

A couple years ago I registered quid.fit, intending to make a Latin-language mastodon server, but I never got around to it and the registration expired, so now it has a GoDaddy landing page. Hopefully they won't see a reason to charge an extortionate price for it... but who would ask that much for glotta.com either?
posted by xueexueg at 5:07 PM on December 13, 2021

You can't get the .com, but there are plenty of tabula.xyz domains—semi-recognizable, easy to spell, millennia of association with teaching Latin.
posted by Maecenas at 5:13 PM on December 13, 2021

You are exploring .com names that someone has thought to register, which is why they're charging a fortune for them now - domain names are largely first come first served. They feel they have a property worth money. They actually have a property worth exactly as much as they can get someone to pay, but it costs them $25 or so a year to hold on forever for the magic person, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

Whatever your top level domain, .com or otherwise, try and find a domain name that no one has yet registered. They don't have a buy-in price, just the annual registration fee (typically under $25, as above).

And typically .com is landgrab territory more than others. For a small business it really doesn't matter what your TLD is just so long as people can remember it. Some TLDs are region or purpose locked (.eu requires you to be in the EU) but most are not (.io and .cx have been open to all and popular for years, for instance).

Also, find a reputable domain seller that is widely used. I can't make recommendations but I'm sure others can.
posted by How much is that froggie in the window at 6:56 PM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

How about classicsclasses?
posted by NotLost at 7:16 PM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

A drawback of non-.com domains is that some fraction of your users will default to .com when entering your address, and you can't control what they'll see when they do. As a teacher (but at the middle/high school level) who occasionally hosts content for my students, I opted for a .com domain to minimize the risk that my website could in the future be confused with, say, a porn site. The cost of sticking with .com was having to come up with a domain name random enough to not already exist (as a squat or otherwise); you're not likely to get anything short that has any obvious connection to the purpose of the site.
posted by aws17576 at 7:43 PM on December 13, 2021

For a domain like glotta.com, I'd be a bit surprised if they aren't willing to sell lower than $25k — it's not exactly a common word or compound word or anything. There's very little harm in just offering something a bit under the most you'd be willing to pay and seeing what they say. Domain names are a weird market, since they can go for a lot, but unless a domain is really valuable, demand for a specific domain is so inelastic that people can be willing to sell lower than they'd like just because if they don't, they might not have a chance to sell it again.

NotLost's suggestion of appending "classes" or similar words is a good one as well, since that makes the domain name more descriptive to people seeing it without much context.

.com is good for the reasons people mention here, but if you want a non .com domain, there are lots of better options than .net — for instance, there's a .school TLD, and many other options (the full list is here, although not all of those are available to the public). I'd only go with .ca if your classes will not be available to people outside of Canada, which would be surprising to me if you're doing it on Zoom?
posted by wesleyac at 8:46 PM on December 13, 2021

NetTuBrute.com?
posted by fairmettle at 1:04 AM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

I would avoid more obscure TLDs. People just aren't used to them. I own NAME.ca but when I started my company, .ca wasn't available so I went with .to (I'm in Toronto).

People just don't understand. I'd tell them name.to and they'd say, "So, name.to.com?" I even had business cards made up with the site on it and gave one to someone and a year later I ran into her and she said, "My daughter and I were thinking of visiting your store and we looked at your card and couldn't figure it out. How do we get to your website?" They literally defaulted to not just punching the URL into a web browser to check. I was flabbergasted at this.

Thankfully .ca became available.

The drawback of .ca is that it's only available from a limited number of registrars. So I have 15 different domains that I own all at one registrar, which I love and has a great interface, but my mainly-used domain, .ca exists elsewhere with a shitty interface for dealing with anything (renewals, admin changes, etc.).

I think you'd be fine with .ca or .org and maybe .net (though personally I hate that one), but anything else I would avoid. .com is definitely the best if you can get one, but certainly not worth exorbitant amounts.
posted by dobbs at 5:06 AM on December 14, 2021

LatinGreek.com
posted by Lanark at 8:33 AM on December 14, 2021 [1 favorite]

You could attach your name to it, which will both raise the odds of a unique domain name and potentially play into your branding (I assume you'll introduce yourself on the site, talk about your expertise, etc.). Something like HoistClassics.com .
posted by trig at 12:01 PM on December 14, 2021

.ca gives people based outside North America a useful heads-up that your Zoom classes are not in their time zone. .com, not so much.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 3:34 AM on December 15, 2021

Variations of (all)greektome.com have gtfo domain squatters asking for $3k - $300k ...

latintome.com is available though.
posted by protorp at 6:24 AM on December 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

[FamousGreekWriter]to[FamousLatinWriter].com
[FamousGreekBook]to[FamousLatinBook].com
[Doric]to[Italic].com (sorry if this one's nonsensical!)
posted by trig at 6:36 AM on December 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Also if you prefer easy to spell/remember, readingtheclassics(.com) seems to be unregistered as of this writing.
posted by trig at 11:58 AM on December 15, 2021 [1 favorite]