Yes I am one that also finds a hyphenated domain name difficult, however there is really no evidence to say that they are bad and I have seen many top sites in very high search engine listings with a hyphen in there their domain name. i think it all comes down to preference and how well you can market your site, after all as you said a lot of the good quality domains may already be taken in your selected niche market.

I think having one hyphen in your domain name is really not going to hurt you but once you start getting two or more the impression is not one of professional website so it can start to hurt your online presence.

Yes i am the same there is only so much you can do in a day, however I do keep a small eye on certain domain names that i have an interest in but i don’t actively pursue them as it can be very time consuming. having the word file or .txt is a very good idea for keeping track of things as well.

I’m settled now on the domains that I own and am not looking hard to purchase others. For the last year or so, though, I was buying lots of domains. I created a Word file with the domains that I wanted and then entered the list into Godaddy’s bulk registration form to see if they were available.
John Soares recently posted..Selling Information Products Weekend Reading 2010-06-18 (dofollow)