Friend of mine's teenage son bought him a domain name for his birthday. Under ten dollars and only for the first year. The kid's no fool; and it's the thought that counts, right? The domain name consisted of my friend's first and last name. It was a dot-net.
What I found interesting and caused me to go out and register my own first and last name combined was that my friend's name is anything but common, and the dot-com version had already been picked off.
I've avoided buying my own name for some time. For one thing I'm thrifty and couldn't think of anything to do with it; for another, it seemed a bit egomaniacal; and finally I figured there would always be a domain extension available if I ever did come up with a good reason for it. I mean one domain extension is pretty much like any other, right?
But then I remembered how my friend felt. He was actually bothered that he couldn't have the dot-com, and I'd never known him to have any interest at all in domains or websites. I had to wonder how I'd feel if somebody got my personal dot-com; after all, a good part of my life and emotional capital is tied up in the web (as yours might be, dear reader, or you wouldn't be reading an obscure article like this one). I realized that at some level I'd feel violated if I saw my name on somebody else's website! Ok, Ok, that's a bit strong, but shoot, it's my name! Well, mine, and according to a Google search, about ten others. Time to make my move!
Why did I feel it had to be a dot-com? I've always insisted in previous articles that dot-com wasn't the only fish in the sea for a small business. You can get pretty much the same results with a dot-net, dot-bz or biz. Hey, if you work at the SEO and keep your eye on the line you can reel in big bucks with any domain extension. On the other hand we're talking about my name here, and like it or not there is something primal about dot-com. If nothing else it means you were the first...
So I registered my name. I'd like to have had my first name and last names as separate dot-coms, but I have a four letter first name and that had been gone forever; my last name had been gobbled up by some dude in Italy along with 14,000 others. Think I'm being alarmist? Find a domain search box and check it out! Unless you have an incredibly long family name, it's already been registered as a dot-com. I can't imagine a first name that hasn't been!
What I found interesting and caused me to go out and register my own first and last name combined was that my friend's name is anything but common, and the dot-com version had already been picked off.
I've avoided buying my own name for some time. For one thing I'm thrifty and couldn't think of anything to do with it; for another, it seemed a bit egomaniacal; and finally I figured there would always be a domain extension available if I ever did come up with a good reason for it. I mean one domain extension is pretty much like any other, right?
But then I remembered how my friend felt. He was actually bothered that he couldn't have the dot-com, and I'd never known him to have any interest at all in domains or websites. I had to wonder how I'd feel if somebody got my personal dot-com; after all, a good part of my life and emotional capital is tied up in the web (as yours might be, dear reader, or you wouldn't be reading an obscure article like this one). I realized that at some level I'd feel violated if I saw my name on somebody else's website! Ok, Ok, that's a bit strong, but shoot, it's my name! Well, mine, and according to a Google search, about ten others. Time to make my move!
Why did I feel it had to be a dot-com? I've always insisted in previous articles that dot-com wasn't the only fish in the sea for a small business. You can get pretty much the same results with a dot-net, dot-bz or biz. Hey, if you work at the SEO and keep your eye on the line you can reel in big bucks with any domain extension. On the other hand we're talking about my name here, and like it or not there is something primal about dot-com. If nothing else it means you were the first...
So I registered my name. I'd like to have had my first name and last names as separate dot-coms, but I have a four letter first name and that had been gone forever; my last name had been gobbled up by some dude in Italy along with 14,000 others. Think I'm being alarmist? Find a domain search box and check it out! Unless you have an incredibly long family name, it's already been registered as a dot-com. I can't imagine a first name that hasn't been!