I’m sorry, but the 7th chapter of Proverbs simply does not speak to me, with its continuing admonitions against consorting with adulteresses. Of course, my alert readers have already recognized that this exercise of blogging about the 31 chapters of Proverbs in the 31 days of August has less to do with Proverbs than it has simply to do with the self-discipline of my becoming a more regular blogger.
With that, allow me the flexibility to write today about a topic near and dear to my heart …
The Importance of Registering Your Own Domain Name
I am a domain registrar. I am a GoDaddy. I became a domain registrar simply because I am a consumer of such services myself, with two or three dozen domain names of my own. Years ago I recognized that, since I consume such services, perhaps my clients would benefit from them as well. (I became a Web hosting provider for similar reasons.)
A domain name stakes your claim on the Internet. It is a way to brand yourself—to promote yourself—to advertise yourself. Brand recognition is key; ask any “Mad man” on Madison Avenue.
Given that, why would anyone want to brand AOL or Hotmail or Comcast or Verizon or Yahoo or even Google (Gmail)?
What am I talking about? Here’s a challenge for you. If you’re like me, you’ve accumulated a stack of business cards from networking events you’ve attended. Flip through them and look at people’s email addresses. How many of them are SoAndSo@aol.com? How about MyFabulousCompany@gmail.com? What further baffles me is that many of those business cards also show a legitimate Web address of MyFabulousCompany.com. Why in heaven’s name don’t they use their domain name in their email address, as in joe@MyFabulousCompany.com?
There are so many reasons to avoid generic or ISP-based email addresses. The most obvious is the incredible hassle that ensues when you change your Internet service provider (ISP) next week. In my own case, in the eleven years that I have lived in New Hampshire, my ISP-based email address has gone from xxx@attbi.com to xxx@comcast.net to xxx@verizon.net to xxx@myfairpoint.net to yyy@comcast.net. Note that in that same time frame, I started with Comcast, switched to Verizon, and switched back to Comcast. My printing bill would have been enormous, except that my email addresses all along have been carl@cejco.com for business purposes and carl@carleric.com for personal purposes. Thank God that I knew enough about domain names to register cejco.com and carleric.com while they were still available.
Even more important than the hassle of having to print up new business cards, let’s face it: fuzzybunnyslippers222@aol.com does not convey quite the same professional image as me@myfabulouscompany.com.
Case in point. I met “Pat” at a networking event several years ago. He was the featured presenter, and he gave a great presentation. Afterwards I went up to him, thanked him for the excellent information I got, and asked for his business card. To my surprise, I read PatWatever1234@aol.com. AOL is notorious for its overeager spam filters, so I was surprised to see a professional actually using an AOL address on his business card. (Sadly, he has probably lost half of the emails sent to him over the years. I know this from my own experience of emailing people with AOL addresses and learning after the fact that they never received my messages.)
As a domain registrar, I did a search and found that PatWhatever.com was taken by a Realtor in Colorado, but PatWhatever.net was available. (Yes, I’m changing the name to protect the innocent.) I convinced Pat to register PatWhatever.net.
A few months later, I noticed that PatWhatever.com was not renewed. When it came available, I snatched it up, knowing that Pat would thank me. To my surprise, he really didn’t care.
When it came time to renew, I let PatWhatever.net expire, and Pat paid me to renew PatWhatever.com. Still, he did nothing with his domain name, and I noticed that he still used PatWhatever1234@aol.com on his business cards. Sigh.
Just last month, it came time to renew yet again. I sent out my usual reminder notice, and the response I got back was that he was no longer interested in his domain name and I should simply let it expire.
I was dumbfounded.
Pat Whatever was not interested in owning PatWhatever.com.
As I write this, I am still in disbelief.
If YourName.com is still available, register it immediately, whether through me or through another registrar. Even if you don’t see yourself using it immediately, you will want to use it in the future, at which time you’ll thank me for my advice.
Here is a strategy that works quite well:
- Register MyFabulousCompany.com for your website.
- Register a shorter variation, such as FabCo.co for email purposes. (The .co top-level domain just recently became available … at a premium price. I charge $30 per year, as opposed to $11 per year for .com/.net/.org.)
- Register MyFirstLastName.com for your blog.
From a Web hosting standpoint, you can host both MyFabulousCompany.com and MyFirstLastName.com on the same hosting account. I can help you set this up; just ask.
Most Web hosting providers also include POP3 email as a free service (I certainly do), so there’s really no excuse to continue to use AOL or Hotmail or Gmail or Yahoo or Comcast or Verizon for your email address. Again, contact me and I’ll be happy to advise you in accordance with your needs.
Just don’t let someone else grab MyFirstLastName.com out from under you, should you be lucky enough to see that it is still available.
