Too Cheap to Get an Extra Domain Name? Too Bad.
Lets be straight. Domain names are cheap. Compared to server hardware, custom website design and even WordPress templates – domain names are very, very affordable and most of them including our own .me will cost you less than $10 a year. A YEAR .
So explain to me why you haven’t reserved a nice domain name for that social media campaign you’ve invested thousands of dollars in? Why haven’t you gotten all the variations of your brand?
…or lets just think of the following scenario:
Got the hosting. Got the domain name. Got the website created. Marketing planned. Staff in place. Bloggers waiting to promote it. Community managers ready to tweet and post on Facebook and Google+. Ah, finally – and they said we needed those other domain names. Hah.
What? No, that isn’t how you spell our website. Wait, why aren’t we getting that social media campaign traction we planned? Damn Internet, why didn’t we spend those extra $50 on those mission critical domain names?!
Yes, some of you might get premium domain names that cost hundreds, thousands or maybe even millions of dollars but must of us aren’t in that camp. We have a website, webshop, startup or blog and need to keep it profitable.
Domain Naming
We’ve concluded that if you’re not buying a very special and short domain names, getting some extra domains won’t put a strain on your budget. As for your time? It takes minutes or maybe, just maybe an hour of your time if you’re buying in bult on most domain registration websites such as Blacknight or GoDaddy.
Fast and affordable. Why, you ask? Here’s just 5 reasons you’ll use to get those 5 extra domain names:
- 1. Spelling. – Is it Google, Gooogle or Gooooogle? Doesn’t matter because Google has them all and even if you’re not sure at first you’ll end up at the world’s biggest search engine. While all of us now know how to spell Google, think of the good old days when Google was just a new startup. Could they have taken the rist. If you have a hard to spell brand or maybe a number, don’t be cheap. Get the one and 1!
- 2. Brand protection – If you’ve gotten a trademark on your company name, you better protect it. Sending a letter to bloggers didn’t work for bloggers in the case of the Xperia brand so be proactive. Get all the possible variations of your domain name you can so people don’t missuse it or squat the domain name before you trademark the brand. Since you have to inforce your trademark, think about the ways you can protect your fans without having to take the domains of their fan sites. Digg used a limited license that they gave to fansites and tools that used “digg” as part of their name for free.
- 3. International expansion – This may be a bigger challenge than expected since a lot of country-specific domain names have strict rules on their use. Never the less, get those international domain names that are easy to register. If you didn’t know, .Me also stands for Montenegro so if you’re expanding to this market – get your .me!
- 4. Give your campaign/project an identity – Yes, you want your website to get all the link juice it can get from hundreds of backlinks to your new internet marketing campaign or contest. But do you really want that long URL on the banners, Twitter and across the rest of the social web? No, you want it to be short and memorable so your potential customers and users don’t miss it. Get that extra (.me? ;)) domain name and if you’re not going to build a special landing page at least redirect it to your website. You’ll thank me later.
- 5. Your reason – Don’t be lazy. Look at your website and business plan and see the specific use you could have for that special domain name you were looking at.
It’s the holidays – buy yourself that damn domain name.
