Written by: Shéamus Bennett
On his site, John Chow has written a short (and admittedly fairly amusing) guest post (originally written by Xavier Lanier of Notebooks.com).
You can read it here:
As said, it’s brief and not much more than a distraction, but the point it raises is valid. If you don’t currently own your own domain name - and by ‘your own’ I mean literally that, your real name (i.e., www.yourname.com), then do it now. Registering a domain name is easy and inexpensive, but the cost of not doing so could prove to be enormous down the line.
Why? What if you hit it big? What if you invent or do something that becomes a huge deal. Then what? I tell you what will happen - as soon as your name becomes even moderately famous (or infamous, thrill-seekers) somebody will register it. And then you’re pretty much screwed. Buying that domain name back - assuming, that is, the person even wants to sell - could end up costing you a small fortune.
It’s up to you - pay a few pounds now, or potentially a few thousand pounds in X years from now.
Heck, somebody may even have registered it already. Check here to find out:
While there is a real and genuine financial risk to not owning your own domain (not to mention the possibility for ridicule or embarrassment - what if somebody sets it up as a porn site? Or worse, uses it as a platform for something like racism), there are also some other things you should do that won’t cost you a penny, but again may prove fruitful down the line: register with each and every ‘next big thing’ that hits (or has hit) the Internets.
What do I mean? Pretty much anything that’s popular, or potentially will be down the line. Anything and everything. Certainly the main hubs on world web. Even if you don’t plan to use these services, have never heard of them and don’t think you ever will use them, register your name there, and while you’re at it, your business name too. Again, you never know when your current circumstances will change. If you were to ever go on to a life of fame and wealth, those services will not only be potentially beneficial, but there is a real chance that somebody else will register as you (or your business).
Registration is quick and simple, and you can get the following list done in less than half an hour.
Don’t delay. Get it done now. And while you’re at it, don’t forget your domain.
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Click here to read more by Shéamus Bennett
This post is tagged Domain Names, Google, Identity Theft, Tech, The Internet
One Comment
There’s a strange phenomena that has began to take place over the past few weeks and months, and that is people selling their own blogs. It struck me as a bit odd at first, because who would buy something that has been so personally shaped by another individual? But what the investor is buying is the audience.
Some examples:
JohnCow.com, a site which has only been active for less than a year, and was basically started as a spoof of JohnChow.com. Currently valued at $33,000.
WPDesigner.com, a Wordpress themes site, which sold at the end of last month for an undisclosed amount (but likely to be in the high five-digits, given that it was ranked #1 amongst all design sites.)
BloggingExperiment.com, a site that was set up simply to see if a blog could make money online in nine months, which it did, and then was promptly sold for five figures, by a guy who specialises in buying profitable websites, making them better and then selling them on.
In both of the latter cases, the new owner has continued the ‘theme’ of the site, which of course is essential if he is ever going to get a return on his investment. If somebody stepped in and just started spamming the place with viagra and penis enlargement medicine, that audience would be gone in five minutes. Alas, this very thing will inevitably happen at some stage, as your common or garden spammer doesn’t care about people ticking the NO box. If enough click on YES - and by ‘enough’ it’s usually just a handful of per cent (or even a fraction of one), it can be worth their while if the overall numbers are big enough.
Up until now, however, we’ve seen fairly clean transitions.
And it gets odder still: Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron is currently selling his Twitter account on eBay.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/12/twitter-account-followers-for-sale-on-ebay/
This is a first. The same reasons apply - with 1481 followers, some of whom have come aboard since this announcement was made, there’s a ready-made, tailored and dedicated audience for the investor.
Current asking price? $510. Get in there while you still can.
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