One of the best business decision of my life was to buy timsanders.com back in 1999. Glad I did. There are many Tim Sanders in the world, but I own my name dot com. I own my advice blog’s natural name (Sanders Says) dot com too. Last year, Jacqueline and I cofounded Deeper Media. I had to buy deepermedia.com, but it was a worthwhile investment.
This is a dummy check for anyone reading this. If your name dotcom is available, buy it today. If you don’t have a website, redirect it to a site related to you such as:
1. Your blog
2. A page about you on your company’s website
3. Your MySpace page
4. Your favorite charity
Trust me, if you have great luck (like getting on American Idol or writing a book), someone will buy it and then sell it to you at a grossly inflated price. When I wrote my first book, an announcement of my signing led some squatter to buy loveisthekillerapp.com and it made me crazy. Eventually, they let the agreement lapse and I got it back.
Here’s the advice:
1. .com is the best. .net is second best. .us is third best
2. If your name dotcom and dotnet are already taken, go to the WHOIS part of Network Solutions and see when their registration expires. Either put that date in your Outlook to buy it or sign up for their SnapNames services (that’s how I recovered loveisthekillerapp.com).
4. Do this for you kids today!!!! Owning their name dotcom will be an assett that they can value in the future.
Your name is pretty easy for people to learn and remember. That is why having your name as a dotcom address is good marketing. As with anything else in life remember; location, location, location.
