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Domain
Name Speculation
 Similar to stocks which can be purchased
cheaply at initial offering prices then sold later for greater prices,
promising domain names will most assuredly continue to increase in value.
Unfortunately the best names are all gone, but this will lead to a predicted
surge in the popularity of short phrase domain names such as doityourway.com
and whatshappening.com. Since the internet is still in its infancy, we
believe this is only the beginning of the domain name investment phenomenon.
Over time, most companies will conduct a significant amount of their
business over the internet, if not all of it.
A name isn't just a name online, it's an identity. With more than six
million domains already registered, it's increasingly difficult to find a
catchy, memorable name, but it's not impossible. When at all possible, buy
domain names in groups. If the owners of Pets.com had also registered
petstore, petcity, petshop, petdepot, and a few other alternatives at the
same time, they could have kept the competition from using some highly
brandable similar names. In addition, you could use each of the names to
point to the same web site if desired.
Consider these tips when searching for a memorable name: Don't get stuck in
the ".com" mindset, ".net" is perfectly respectable.
Avoid ".edu" and ".org" as these are generally reserved
for educational institutions and nonprofit organizations. If "yourfavoritename"
is not available try mixing it up with dots or dashes, ie. "your.favorite.name"
or "your-favorite-name". Add an "I" or an "E"
to the front of your name or use digits instead of words ("4"
instead of "four"). If you haven't been able to find an available
name you like on your own, visit some online domain name listing sites like
ours.
Once you have found and registered your favorite name, you should consider
registering it as a trademark. As domain names increasingly become the
cornerstone of businesses, more and more companies are registering DNS
compatible trademarks. Domain names as trademarks reportedly grew by 636
percent in 1999 - eight times faster than the 83 percent growth rate in
1998. Registering your name as a trademark will provide legal protection for
your intellectual property. Keep in mind that it may be helpful to do a
trademark search before you register any domain name to be sure that you are
not infringing upon anyone else's rights or you may run the risk of losing
the name.
To view some interesting domain name statistics click
here.
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