I bought bootcamp.dev

Every year in Spring I organize a big course.

A very big course. My Web Development Bootcamp.

I first organized it in 2020.

I organized it again in 2021.

Both times, it was a great success in terms of number of signups and also in the results it got for my students, so I decided to run it every year.

It’s a 20-weeks-long cohort-based course. In there, I really give you all I have.

5 months where we dive into the fundamentals of Web Development, we learn vanilla JavaScript, React, Node.js, Next.js, and much more. With a great community.

The perfect course to get started in this wonderful world of Web Development.

Formerly known as JavaScript Full-Stack Bootcamp, I’ve changed the name to Web Development Bootcamp because it’s so much more than just JavaScript.

I used the domain thejsbootcamp.com for the past editions, but I wanted to find a new home for it, to account for the new name.

Yesterday I randomly searched for bootcamp.dev in Instant Domain Search, a cool site I use for searching domain ideas. I don’t know why, to be honest.

I saw the domain was available, at the price of 682€ (brand new, not used). Renewals will cost the same amount.

I never paid more than $30 for a domain name before, so that was quite a lot.

Then I remembered reading this Tweet by Pieter Levels where he said he paid the .com domain $102,000. And Tyler McGinnis wrote about paying $25,000 for a .dev domain.

It helps me reading those experiences because now I can think in terms of “I’m paying 150 times less than Pieter”. Of course it’s a totally different situation, but helps framing decisions.

I can also make my accountant happier since I have more business expenses to deduct (as a digital, solo entrepreneur in Europe taxes easily get up to 50% of revenue).

In the end for any business expense I actually pay half of the sum, considering I can deduct that from my taxes.

And this remarkable, memorable and cool domain is a benefit for my course business.

This 682€ will allow me to have a better branding for the course, removing 5 letters from the domain and having a nicer one, too.

And the Bootcamp starts from me, but as time goes on it could become its own big thing.

After thinking about it for 10 seconds, that was an instant buy.

Almost instant. Because you can’t buy a .dev domain anywhere, there are just a few options (each with a different price, so browse a little before purchasing). In the end I picked gandi.net which seems like a great choice.

Initially I considered Google Domains, which offered it at a similar price. But but but.. I remembered reading this post on HN about someone that was suspended by Google Domains and there was no support at all from Google, the only solution is to complain and being noticed on popular sites, like HN.

And this is one of the thoughts I have from time to time, I’m too dependent on Google? What happens if they ban me, maybe not because I did something stupid, but because their AI flags me for some reason?

If they ban my YouTube account, will the Google Domain be disabled too? You can’t just risk this with big, faceless corporations. You’re out of business.

So I decided to purchase the domain from an independent company that offers real support, instead. Gandi seems like that. Hey at least they have a “contact us” page and chat widget.

That’s also one of the reasons I moved on from Gmail and got other emails addresses from independent vendors like FastMail and Hey. To have a safety net in case things go south.