Why You Should Own YourName.com
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
