Branding Yourself
288 words | Last Updated: October 3, 2007 |
My friend asked me what domain name she should get, and got into a discussion about branding oneself online. Should your domain name be your company name or your own name? Your formal name, nickname, current name, or maiden name?
A lot of older people know me by my maiden name.
What about the people you deal with? The people you serve? Do they know you by your married name or by your maiden name?
By my married name.
Okay, then register a dot com name based on your current name.
But the older folks know me by my more popular name...
Do they go online? Are the younger folks, the ones you serve, the ones actually surfing the web? They won't search for your old name. Please register the new one.
But I prefer the way my old name sounds.
Okay... then register your maiden name.
Why not my company name?
Is that all you're into? Aren't you also involved in other fields? Other non-related fields? I suggest you register your name, blog regularly, create categories representing your various interests, and then later spin-off each major interest using their own domain names.
Okay... I'll register my maiden name.
Great! See you then.
Wait... what if people search for my married name?
Don't worry. We'll put your married name in the copyright notice that appears in the footer of your blog. That way, the search engines will still list your pages for the benefit of the younger crowd.
What about you? Have you registered your name a la JohnChow.com, CarlOcab.com, JanetteToral.com or are you the Problogger.net type?
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First Posted: October 3, 2007 | Filed in: Marketing
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I registered mine as Macuha.com hoping that I might sell it to any Macuha when the time to stop blogging has come. I'm sure, no one will be interested if it's MarhgilMacuha.com.
The longer you hang on to your surname dot com, the harder it will probably be to let go of it. Flipping websites is easier when the domain name is generic or not too attached to your person. Then again, things may change in the future.
I think what domain name you want depends on what you are trying to do. For your personal brand using you personal name is a good idea. You can as you state use that to brand yourself. Now if you want a site for your business then set up a domain for that too. It might well be that at first you don't have much for your personal site at first but that site can serve as a personal brand for your entire life (or even longer - I have one for my father, Bill Hunter).