Are all the good domain names already taken?
No, they aren’t! Millions of the best, most valuable website domain names are lying around unclaimed. Ripe for the picking — waiting to be registered by someone just like you.
You’ve heard the opposite. The world is full of pundits telling you that all the good website names are already taken. But they’re wrong. It’s baloney, and you don’t have to fall for it.
I spotted this goldmine a few weeks ago during an informal, completely unscientific survey of my friends. What I realized is that most of those friends still have time to register their own names as web domains. The way I did when I added “.com” to my name and claimed *GaryMatthews.com*.
And if your name is available as an unregistered dot-com (or even as a dot-net or dot-org, or preferably all three), then that web domain is — to you — the most valuable of all domains.
It’s of course true that a lot of good web domains are already taken. Exxon.com is taken. Disney.com is taken. Just about every word in the dictionary is registered as a web domain: Love.com, Business.com, Pinochle.com. Most catchy phrases are taken: LoveConquersAll.com, HeartToHeart.net, AstonishedTamale.com. (Okay, I threw that last one in to fake you out — but it is taken.)
If you have a common name, like Mary Smith, or Jimmy Jones, or Gary Matthews, then your name probably is already registered by someone else (unless you had the foresight to snap it up yourself, a long time ago).
But like I said, when I survey my friends, I find that most of them have names that are just itching to be registered as web domains. And since that’s true of most of my friends, I assume it’s true of most of yours. Maybe it’s even true of yours.
Which means most of the most valuable domain names — potential website names — remain as low-hanging fruit, waiting to be plucked.
This won’t stay true forever. No matter how unique or distinctive you think your name is, there probably are 16 other people on LinkedIn with the same name, all trying to figure out how to “brand” themselves on the social web. Sooner or later, one of those will figure out that putting up a website, under their own dot-com name, is by far the most effective way.
Or maybe your name really is unique: You’re the only person on earth named “Kite Weatherby”. If you’re a rising star in your field, this fact will be apparent to the domain name brokers who buy up web-names in hope of reselling them. If you haven’t already grabbed it, one of them may snatch it from you . Then the price won’t be 99 cents. It will be — who knows? Maybe thousands of dollars.
If you’re being considered for a job, a promotion, a marriage proposal, or almost anything else — you will be googled. If you don’t want those drunken party pictures to pop up first, it will pay you to have your own website where you put your best foot forward.
But I’ve explained before why you should own your own web-name, even if you never are going to have a website. And in future articles I’ll show how you can use your personal web domain (once you’ve registered it) to acquire a website at no extra cost. Like, free (or at least already included).
Whatever you decide, please don’t ever, ever believe that rubbish about all the best web-names being already taken. The best web-name, when and if it’s available, is your own name. Most of those names are still lying around. Own yours before it’s too late!