My wife and I are planning an online business selling paintings and photographs, mostly landscapes. After a lot of discussion and many searches that ended up in names already in use, of at reserved by leeches, we decided that Lens and Brush was a suitable name.

Of course, www.lendsandbrush.com was held by a leech but www.lens-and-brush.com was available so I grabbed it. In an ideal world you own all variations on your business name so I approached a domain broker enquire about the price of www.lendsandbrush.com. They declined the work because the registration was expiring shortly and told me to try again in December, which I planned to do.

Earlier this week I read an Engadget article about the best domain registrars. I noticed that one of the five listed (name.com) offered a “domain nabber” service whereby you could attempt to grab the registration of an expiring domain. Relaising that www.lendsandbrush.com expired yesterday I signed up at a cost of $50. It worked! Now www.lendsandbrush.com forwards to www.lends-and-brush.com, try it.