Many people do not look at a "word list" and instantly think… I wonder if that term is available as a domain name. I do! Domain names are very important, because they give you options. They give you brand protection.

People post lists of all different sources for many reasons and a lot of times these lists can actually include valuable domain names. Valuable? Yes, because people naturally search for the term because of one reason or another and these people want something. Providing it to them or having the option to use a website with the term can be a goldmine.

What do I mean? Lets take a list that Time.com created today of the 140 Best Twitter Feeds.

This may not be the best example to use as a word list, as many of the names Time displayed do not match the users ID on Twitter, have trademarks etc. but Time did a nice job by posting the names of the people behind the list and those names can also be valuable. They may be authors, business people, fictional characters and much more.

So how do you take a list of words and convert them into domain names?

Copy the list you wish to turn into domain names and past it into Wordpad.

Remove any "spaces" by clicking and dragging your mouse to highlight the space you wish to remove, click Edit and then Replace. Past what you copied into the top box and leave the second box empty. Then click Replace All. You may need to do a couple more similar removals like . or – etc to end up with the clean list you are looking for.

You should have a list that has removed any spaces and end up with a list looking similar to this:

RLStine
JenniferWeiner
MaureenJohnson
ColsonWhitehead
WilliamGibson
SusanOrlean
MargaretAtwood
NeilGaiman
PaulLaMonica
DanPrimack

Convert the above list into domain names? Using this free domain name filter tool from DomainPunch.com, I described earlier how to convert lists to domain names by adding a TLD of your choice. See bottom of article titled Adding A TLD To A Wordlist and you will end up with a list like this:

rlstine.com
jenniferweiner.com
maureenjohnson.com
colsonwhitehead.com
williamgibson.com
susanorlean.com
margaretatwood.com
neilgaiman.com
paullamonica.com
danprimack.com

You can add any TLD to the above list that you want.

I now take that list and do a bulk available check using the DRT Software do not purchase the DRT software at this time, it appears the owner is not responding to emails and is making it very hard to contact them. (not free, but a powerful domain tool. One Time $129 DotWeekly Pricing) or you can use a bulk available check at a domain registrar like Moniker.com / find domains / bulk search and of the full list that Time published, which included 141 "names" 9 were available as matching .com domain names.

paullamonica.com (Paul La Monica)
heidinmoore.com (Heidi N. Moore)
instantnetflix.com TM (Instant Netflix)
jerksuperman.com TM (Jerk Superman) (fictional character)
newyorkacademyofsciences.com (New Your Academy Of Sciences)
joseafonsofurtado.com (Jose Afanso Furtado)
tanehisicoates.com (Ta Nehisi Coates)
baratundethurston.com (Baratunde Thurston)
oldhossradbourn.com (Old Hoss Radbourn)

As I said at the start, the above example may not be the best example to use, but you get my point! JerkSuperman.com could be turned into a business, but currently the "creator" is stuck using only Twitter.

The same could be said about the fictional  OldHossRadbourn.com. Converting Twitter followers and readers to a website only makes sense to me. You build a brand around a name, it only makes sense to have a website to use as well. Heck, at a minimum, use the domain name and redirect it to your twitter page for easy promoting of your Twitter page! NewYorkAcademyOfSciences.com is really a no-brainer for them to own, but they do not. They use NYAS.org, but they should still own the long version .com because it is an exact match to the full name. That "full name" is a term many will use on search engines to find them, aka Keywords. Secondly, it’s brand protection in owning it!

Don’t think people search for terms like "Old Hoss Radbourn"?

They do!

The reason I use the DRT Software to run the lists to see if they are available is because the software adds metrics of your choice to the terms. So you can see search volume and many other metircs that are very helpful. A better example of taking a word list and converting them to domain names, would be a Most Popular Baby Names for year X. These can be wise investments.

I hope this article makes you think next time you see a list created by somebody and now you can take that list and convert them into domain names and see if they are available. It will be up to you to decide if they are worth registering as an investment or development project.