What do celebrities like Oprah, internet businesses like Google and advertising agencies have in common? They buy domain names.
Which celebrities and businesses buy domains? The smart ones, that’s who. Quietly, under the radar, going about their business building their assets. That includes celebrities like Kanye West, advertising agencies, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble and other businesses large and small.
I’ve noticed advertising agencies simply buying domain names to add to their portfolio so they are ready when new clients needs arise. Now that’s smart! Let’s say “XYZ Ad Agency” has a client launching a new travel promotion and the client wants a good domain to make a splash in the market place. Rather than scrambling to search for an adequate domain that they can get quickly, they dip into their own portfolio of good names that they have already acquired and use one of their own good domains for their client’s campaign. The client is happy, and the ad agency looks brilliant for being able to supply such a good domain name on short notice. Better domain = more business for client, and happy client = more business for ad agency.
Businesses like Google and Microsoft also acquire domains related to new products or services they may or may not launch – that’s just good planning and good business smarts.
Celebrities are in business too. Oprah purchased Own.tv for her network (redirects). Kanye West purchased WatchtheThrone.com for his album promotion.
We can learn something from this. All of us have ideas for projects we may do in the future. Whether we do them or not, it’s smart to try and get the domain name for them now. Get the domain – either by registering it new or making the existing owner a reasonable offer. Domains are unique, so the chances of getting what you want now are a lot better (and less expensive) than 1 or 3 years down the road when you get around to that project. Do it before someone else uses the domain you want or the price gets out of reach. And it’s also a good idea to try and get the Twitter handle and Facebook name for the same domain name.
Investing in your future by gathering your domain assets now – whether you are in business or not – is just being smart.
