Why You Should Own www.YourName.com

Have you ever thought about getting the website domain with your full name in it? We have a few recommendations that may help you in the future that might convince you it’s time for www.myname.com.

When a business starts or considers rebranding to a shorter website domain name, we are often tasked with helping coach our clients through buying a new new domain. We search for options that best fit their business name or idea, their product, or sometimes even their mission. There are millions of combinations, but the inventory of short, clever and usable domains is getting shorter each day.

More than 99% of domains in the United States finish with .com, .org, .us, .net or .edu. All the new hip top level domains like .guru, .horse, .xyz, .club are rarely used vanity names. The number of available extensions is getting close to 1,000. With nearly 1,000 available extensions, finding a desirable name like www.liontree.design might seem like a good idea, but the public is generally distrusting of sites that wander too far from the big five. It may be another decade or two before we all consider .christmas a standard domain extension.

One piece of advice we can offer is that wherever you are in your life, you should consider purchasing yourname.com domain. Why you wonder?  Here are just a few reasons:

YOU RUN FOR OFFICE

Every election cycle we hear about a candidate getting burned by a domain troll trying to extort money for a website address. In fact, in January 2018, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin announced his candidacy for Wisconsin Governor only to find SoglinforGovernor.com and Soglin2018.com already taken. The asking price from the domain owner: $30,000. You might be asking why he isn’t using www.PaulSoglin.com for his campaign, well, that’s because it’s owned by his competitor. Soglin is running as a Democrat and www.paulsoglin.com is owned by the Republican Party.

YOU BECOME RICH OR FAMOUS (or both)

You might be laughing now but you never know what life brings…  think about it, if you are young or just in your 30s, you have no prediction of your future. It is very important that you secure your own name, in case it becomes your own brand. In some cases personal brands, like Trump and Dell, carry enormous value. Professionally, businesses named after the ownership, like law firms and advertising agencies, are often stuck with awkward website names due to availability constraint.

YOU PROTECT YOUR OWN CONTENT

With your own domain, when somebody “looks you up” on Google, your domain will most likely show up in the top results. This allows you to control the information that is presented on the search engine (at least to a degree). You are pushing other results lower in the rank, and that matters. A good general practice if you are starting to develop a brand is buying all related domains. In our case, we purchased www.liontreegroup.com, www.liontreegroup.net, and www.liontreegroup.us to prevent impersonators in case we make it big! 🙂

YOU PREVENT SOMEONE USING IT AGAINST YOU

You had a bad breakup or fired someone who is not a huge fan of yours…if your name domain is available, they can purchase it just like you and use it against you. Again, it’s always a good plan to be a step ahead of everyone else.

YOU GET THE BEST E-MAIL ADDRESS

Yes, when you own your name domain, your can have an amazing e-mail address as well. This is a huge advantage when you are trying to impress future employers.  Big careers require bold statements and @yourdomain.com e-mail is one of them.

IT’S INEXPENSIVE

Owning a domain is one of the least expensive purchases you will make. It will cost you about as much as the Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino. There is no doubt that this is a very wise purchase and a long-term investment into your own brand.

You can purchase your domain from Lion Tree Group here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marlena Cavanaugh is the CEO of Lion Tree Group, a Madison-based Advertising Agency and Strategic Design House. For more than 15 years, she has been providing engaging website development and graphic design services. She regularly blogs at her blog, The Bark and Roar.