Acquiring a Domain Name

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  kellyinthekitchenblog · Member · Jun 25, 2017 at 4:12 pm

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  I am interested in acquiring a domain name that is similar to mine (it is ‘Kelly in the Kitchen’) and mine is currently ‘Kelly in the Kitchen blog’. I have reached out to the blogger but have not heard back. It does not appear that the site has been active or posted on since 2014. What other steps can I take to getting this domain as my own?

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  akumarjain · Staff · Jun 25, 2017 at 6:59 pm

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  I have reached out to the blogger but have not heard back.

  You can register a custom domain (if available) and that’ll give you more advantage.

  There is nothing else you can do.

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  themagicrobot · Member · Jun 25, 2017 at 7:25 pm

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  kellyinthekitchen.com may not have been updated in a while but it is currently hosted by Godaddy and hosting is still being paid and isn’t due for a renewal payment until March 2018.

  https://kellyinthekitchen.wordpress.com/ hasn’t been used since it was set up in 2009 but as it hasn’t been deleted that isn’t available either.

  As @akumarjain suggests, you could register a domain with that name using a different suffix (such as .org although I don’t know how that may confuse visitors to the site or search engines by having a site with an address so similar to one already existing.

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  kellyinthekitchenblog · Member · Jun 25, 2017 at 7:29 pm

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  Thank you both for your advice! Is there anyway to figure out who the owner of https://kellyinthekitchen.wordpress.com/ is and contact them? That one has NO posts or information at all. Does WordPress provide any support for this kind of matter?

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  themagicrobot · Member · Jun 25, 2017 at 7:42 pm

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  WordPress.com never deletes/gives away any existing dormant sites, with content or without content. As well as my main site I have two 8 year old unused sites that I may or may not use in the future. I’d be annoyed if they were just taken away from me because someone else fancied the names. There is always the chance that the email address used to set up the WordPress.com site is still in use and if you leave a comment it might be seen.