Everybody should own their name.com. I may have said this before somewhere around here but I firmly believe it. For so many reasons, if your name is still available you should go out and buy it.
1. Professional reason – A lot of people and businesses I work with visit this site. I see there are a few “Andy Sweet” search engine referrals every day. Now, it might be some of the other Andy Sweets around the world that the person is looking for, but I frequently hear from colleagues that they read this. Thanks folks. Owning YourName.com gives people the opportunity to get to know you better. They get an idea of what you’re interested in and just how deep your knowledge base is.
2. Friends and family – You can post pictures and videos of family, vacations, etc…. You can post news updates about your life. All your friends and family have to do is type in YourName.com and they can be immediately updated.
3. Reconnecting – Friends, former classmates and former colleagues might drift away over time. They might lose your number or your email address. If you own YourName.com, they’ll always know how to reach you. I’ve had friends from ELEMENTARY SCHOOL search for my name, find this site and get back in touch with me!
4. Exclusivity – If you own YourName.com, it’s yours. For about $.02/day, you are the only YourName to have YourName.com. I bought AndySweet.com back in October of ’99. I’ll tell you, I will never EVER part ways with it. It’s off the table. Sorry Andy Sweets of the world. I will gladly provide a link to your site if you ask (like AndySweet.co.uk), but the .com is mine.
I’ve bought .coms of my friends so they can have it. Unfortunately, my parents’ names are taken, my wife’s name is taken (by the Hottest Redhead on the Net) and my son’s name is already taken. I’m reaching out to the current owners of those domains and trying to secure them for my family. I own the .net versions, but .com is where it’s at.
So, get out there and by YourName.com. Even if you don’t have a site to put there right now. Buy it now and you’ll always have the option in the future open to you.
7/29/07 Edit – Funny timing. Adam Strong over at DomainNameNews.com wrote about the very same thing the day before I wrote the original post. I guess there’s something in the new Entrepreneur magazine about it this month. Even more good reason to own YourName.com
The first GreatDomains.com premium auction starts tomorrow at 2:00 EST. Should be interesting. Will it be off the hook like the TRAFFIC auctions? I doubt it because it doesn’t have the energy of a room full of domain junkies. Will it fall flat like the recent Affiliate Summit auction? Again, probably not since there’s been a fair amount of attention pointed this way. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Some decent domains listed. I hope the reserves are reasonable. I hate seeing all those ‘passes’.
Which brings me to a quick thought… If a domain is auctioned and fails to sell because the reserve auction is too high, does it carry a red mark? I read somewhere today someone mentioning that (sorry, can’t remember where or I’d source it). There are some domains that I’ve seen moving around the auction circuit and never selling and I think people remember that sort of thing. After all, for the most part, the people bidding at one auction are likely the same people bidding at the next.
Just remembered yesterday that SNL skit a few years back about the bank that got the last domain available… www.ClownPenis.Fart.
So ahead of their time! The massive land grab for domains has shifted into high gear. You can’t miss domainers these days. Showing up in magazines and tv and taking space at conventions…. Everyone wants to be a domainer now!
Over on the DomainTools blog, a must read BTW if you’re interested in domains, Jay wrote a post regarding startups and domains. He cited a couple of examples showing the challenges that startups face when establishing their web presence.
He started off by telling the tale of Estately.com. The business was originally launched under the domain ShackPrices.com. Jay’s first comment was about the unintentionally implied meaning of the shackprices domain. “Does his company give prices for run down houses?” ShackPrices ultimately ended up buying Estately.com for a few thousand and rebranding. According to Jay, they subsequently started getting calls from VC firms.
Now, Jay is a much more knowledgeable man than myself when it comes to domains. MUCH more. But was the sole reason the VCs started calling the domain change. ShackPrices vs Estately? At least ShackPrices makes sense to me and uses real words. Estately? I don’t know what that provides. ShackPrices gets people in the door. You have a decent understanding of what it provides. Prices for real estate. Whether it’s prices for shacks or not, it will at least get you to enter. Hell, I’m at least curious to see how much a shack costs! As Jay said, once he got in the site, he was very impressed with the interface and functionality. ShackPrices.com is memorable and easy to spell. I understand the argument that people are not looking to buy a shack and would rather buy an estate.
Jay also pointed out Flickr.com/Flicker.com. Flicker.com is now reportedly receiving 150k visitors per month and just turned down a sales offer of $700k. Think about all that traffic Flickr may have lost. I say may because once they get to Flicker.com and realize that’s not what they’re looking for, they may back out and go to a search engine and find what they’re looking for. I agree with Jay. Flickr should have gone out and bought the misspelling (which is actually the RIGHT spelling). That’s basic web marketing right there. If you’ve got a domain, get as many related misspellings as you can.
But I wonder what Jay would have said had the founders come to him at the beginning and said, “We’re starting a photo sharing site and are thinking about getting Flicker.com.”
Most of those Web 2.0 domains drive me crazy. They’re just God awful. In my opinion, they’re really putting themselves behind the 8 ball from the get go with getting super obscure, misspelled domains. Sure, the folks in the Valley might remember some of them, but what about the larger potential user base?
Many of these startups all have the same response. “But all the common domains are taken and they’re really expensive now.” As some of the rich domainers say, “You’ve got to open your wallet now.” Domains have become a real barrier to entry for startups. Sure, you can get Hoobyjoobr.com for $8 but does that help you or ultimately hinder your growth? It all depends on what you make out of it. It’s not as good an easy generic, but not all of us have the cash initially to buy it.
I just see the ShackPrices/Estately and Flickr/Flicker decisions going in opposite directions. ShackPrices is going to a close-but-no-cigar generic but Flickr IS that close-but-no-cigar and should be moving to the actual cigar.
So, Galen at Estately.com…. if you’re down on ShackPrices.com and want to sell, just let me know
You are currently browsing the Andy Sweet weblog archives for the month July, 2007.
