Domain name tips

In this last session of this domain name workshop, here's a few final tips on buying and using domain names. We'll look at buying for insurance, domain names as an investment, the importance of renewal and other issues.

Buy for the future
Think carefully at all the possible business areas that you may be covering over the next few years. Are you thinking of diversifying? Have you got a few ideas that may come to fruition?

If so, then buy domain names now that you might possibly use. They are cheap enough and, remember, once someone else has got a domain name, it may be impossible (or very expensive) for you to get it.

Buy defensively
Look at domain names that your competitors might find useful. Are they available? Then buy them.

Please note, we are not talking about buying up brand-name domain names; you would probably lose a legal fight to get such a domain name away from you. But think about generic domain names that your competitors might find useful. Buy them!

Buy for investment
This is becoming big business. There are hundreds of web sites selling generic names that someone might find useful. Most of them are rubbish.

But there are still some gems available if you think creatively. We were amazed a short time ago to find that variations on the "marketing sparks" name were still available. We bought them, partially because we might use them ourselves, but also because they are names that someone else might find useful - and would be prepared to pay for.

Buy many variations
It's worth protecting a good domain name by buying variations on it. If you own "joe-bloggs.com", then consider buying "joe-bloggs.net", "joe-bloggs.biz", "joe-bloggs.org" - and so on.

Then think of country variations that might be useful to protect. Large companies go wild in this respect, buying every possible country variation that they can get their hands on. Maybe your pocket isn't as deep. But get hold of as many variations as you can. It's "domain name insurance".

Buy now!
If you find good domain names that are still available, don't hang about - buy then now. We've had at least two clients who hesitated for only a week or so, and found that someone had bought the names in the intervening period. (Note: there have been cases of some unscrupulous registration companies who have noted from their logs which names people had been searching on, and had then bought them to re-sell at a higher price).

Don't miss renewing your domain names
It's easy to do, and not all ISPs / registration companies are good about reminding their clients when domain names are due for renewal.

Don't rely on other people. Keep a record yourself of when your domain names are due for renewal, and act promptly.

Well, that's the end of another workshop. We hope that you have found it useful. If you have any tips or advice on domain names that you'd like to pass on to other people, please use the feed-back form below. We'll give you full credit for anything we publish.

And we do appreciate your comments on these workshops. Please spend just a minute giving us feedback on the form below.

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