Grabbing a good domain name is getting harder and harder as the pool of good .COM domain names thins in the raucous ether of everyone with an internet connection wanting a personalized website.
Not every domain name requires a website. In fact, grabbing a domain and then pointing it to an existing website can be an effective means to propagate the idea of your brand beyond a single thought.
Here are some examples of domains I grabbed — only purchase what you love! — and they all happen to point to this WordPunk blog. Go ahead. Click on any of them and you’ll be zinged right back here.
(UPDATE: As of March 26, 2008 all the “RelationShaping.com” domains now point to a whole new blog hosted on pair Networks using Movable Type 4.1.)
I grab most domains with the intention of creating them into standalone websites. I prefer pointing “in limbo” domains to an existing website rather than just having the held domain point to a dead “parked” page.
I own a lot of domains. I find many domains are related to thoughts and values I have already established on some of my sites and that’s why forwarding the new domains works so well.
Having domains forward — instead of being parked — also lets me see if others have had the same “brilliant domain” ideas. I can quantify how my visitors arrive on my established sites and which forwarded domain they used to find me. That is valuable click-and-show market research.
I chose Memeingful.com because I like its “meme” base and its forward, invented, emotional, meaning.
The whole “RelationShaping” score of domains are based on an idea I’ve been working on for some time now, and I expect those forms to take thought in the clear, new, future.
If you can find, or invent, a domain name you like — make sure you grab it before anyone else tags along your same path.
A good idea — as a good domain name — never lasts long in a free market world, so pay now and ask yourself why later.
