So today I launched http://www.domainfriend.com/ I plan on building a lot more tools than just bustaname, and I decided that having a central place for it all would be good, so you can still go directly to bustaname.com now has a few of our first tools on it.

Whois The first bigger tool we are launching is the "whois". Not only does it display the domains whois info, it also shows you things like Alexa rank/chart, Compete rank, page rank, number of incoming links on google and yahoo, server type, geographical location of server, network provider... and we plan to keep adding stuff to this list. If anyone has something that they want on it, let me know.

E-mail Scrambler The e-mail scrambler lets you put your e-mail on your site without having to worry about it getting spammed. Give it a try.

We have a lot more tools planned, so again, be sure to check http://www.domainfriend.com often.

Ryan

So here's the deal: I think BustAName is a good service (and I should since I'm the one who made it), but the issue is that it's not getting much use compared to how many people look for domains every day. Now I know wanting to be the "go to place" to find a domain is a bit ambitious, but I think maybe after I launch a few more tools, it might be a plausible goal, or it would be if it wasn't for one little issue, "I'm not any good at marketing." So to compensate for the issue I have decided to release an affiliate program. You might say, "hey doesn't BustAName make its money from affiliate programs to begin with?"... The answer is yes, we make a commission on every domain sold through the site, when a person clicks on one of the "buy" links.

So the BustAName affiliate program pays you a commission off of our commission (at least 50%, usually more) just for driving people to the site. If you have a web site that gets tech savvy traffic, I would recommend putting up a link to BustAName and giving it a try. Hopefully this can be a win-win.

BustAName Affiliate Program

Ryan

After finding a domain, the second biggest problem when starting a web site is finding good hosting. There are a ton of hosting companies out there, but finding one that meets your needs without overpaying is tough. To solve this we created our new hosting search tool.

The hosting search tool lets you see a list of hosting plans from 20+ hosting companies (and we're adding more every day). It gives you easy access to the important things like disk space, monthly transfer, price, setup fee, and we even have a review/rating system. Most important is our filtering system which lets you set ranges for any numerical value (price, disk space, transfer, domain price (for companies that sell domains with hosting), number e-mail accounts, number of databases, cpu speed, and amount of ram. We also give you check boxes for specific features that you need, such as php, mysql, plesk, and a whole lot more.

The list sorts by price by default, and displays the basic info above. We also have a compare feature where you can select a few plans that you are considering and see every feature side by side (Note: this is cool, give it a try)

Our review system uses geocoding techniques to prevent the hosting companies themselves from leaving good reviews of themselves or as is often the case, bad reviews of the competition. When a user leaves a review, we show the geocoding data along side with the review. So you will be able to see the reviewers ip, network, and location (city, state) With that information, we can easily flag users submitting reviews from a hosting company's network. Reviews also have a ranking system, which lets you see things like uptime, tech support, customer service, server speed, value for cost, and an average of all of the previous values.

Lastly, we have a quick buy link so you can get up and running quickly. Please be sure to leave a review of your existing hosting plans so other users will know what they should buy.

Give our new hosting search a try.

So I finally got around to adding more TLD's. The first two up are .biz and .info From what I understand .info is growing fast and is expected to pass up .net at some point (maybe not, but that's what I heard) So anyway, give it a try, it works just like the other TLD's. Also, I haven't decided if I want to integrate this into the quick lookup. I think the plan is to make it so you can add an extension (such as .info), then the quick search would only display whatyoutype.info, and tell you if that is available. If you don't have an extension it will display .com, .net, and .org Any thoughts?

Ryan

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are increasing how often the BustAName domain database gets built, so this should be the first step in helping cut down on "false positives" on BustAName (where it says a domain is available and it isn't) Next up is a second check to check for domains without dns A records. I'll keep you posted.

Ryan