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Mike, I totally agree with you and it drives me crazy and has become a bit of a personal mission. My field is career development and so I work a lot with people

by hoppy44 14y ago

Mike, I totally agree with you and it drives me crazy and has become a bit of a personal mission. My field is career development and so I work a lot with people during their job search, and one of the first things I ask is "what happens when someone googles you?" Then I'll explain the value of having your own domain. I understood when older workers would say they didn't understand how to set it up, or were confused, etc so I often walk them through it. Then I went back and spoke at my college (I'm 42). I figured, well, these 21 year old internet whiz kids will certainly have this figured out. Nope. The number of people I met that owned their domain was about the same... consistently about 1-2 out of every 10 people I ask. So in tech geek/lean startup mode, I got frustrated with explaining it to people over and over, so I purchased a domain, bought a theme for $8, used my friend Jayme as a guinea pig, and in 1 weekend recorded a how-to video and built a site so I didn't have to explain it over and over. It's called GetYourNameToday.com. Look, I realize there's no way for me to not make this comment look spammy, and yes, in full disclosure there is a GoDaddy affiliate link on there (which I note in both the video and on each page), but I figured if it doesn't cost the person anything more, I am genuinely helping them out, and I can get a little something for my effort, why not. I'm very transparent with who I am on the site, link to my career development/new media blog to show that it is in sync with what I do for a living, and even tackle questions such as WHY to register your name and what to do if you have a basic name that isn't available. I'm with you... seems like there are very few reasons why someone wouldn't see the benefits of securing their name for the "investment" of $10. Would love to hear your feedback on the site and if you would have positioned it any differently or what I could do to improve it. Thanks! Jim

mikejarema 14y ago
Jim, thanks for the link and insights. I used to interview boatloads of interns for a couple companies here in Toronto, and the personal domain always left me with an improved first impression of an applicant. But yes, the ratio was quite low, especially considering I was interviewing CS students. I'll take a look at the link and send you some notes later.
- hoppy44 14y ago
  Thanks Mike. Wow, just went to your site and found Namevine -- what an awesome site. That's the logical next step for a lot of job-seekers... once they have their URL, they want a Twitter account and maybe a YouTube video. And obviously we're both in sync with the helping people/affiliate link dynamic. I'll be recommending this to people I work with. Thanks again.
  - mikejarema 14y ago
    Thanks Jim, Namevine is a fun side project of mine, and like you I'm hoping to monetize via affiliate links. Really the big win (for individuals) would be a one click unified domain registration, social media signup, @yourname.com email hosting and About.me setup. The video you've made shows the current path of least resistance to setup your online identity (at YourName.com), but I can't help but feel it requires more effort than it needs to. Eg. navigating GoDaddy's aggressive upselling, DNS management, etc. Have you seen IWantMyName.com? They're trying to simplify some of this. On the other hand, Flavors.me is like About.me but also offer domain registration as a part of the signup. Finally, when it comes to using a personal domain, my instinct (and most others I'm sure) is to find free solutions for every aspect of the domain where possible. On my personal domains I use: - Google Apps for email and private wikis (free, I'm well within the free usage limitations) - Tumblr for my blog (free, including pointing my domain to their service, I love that about Tumblr) - Montastic for monitoring (free, my needs are quite simple and they'll happily monitor a couple URLs at somewhat infrequent intervals) I think the point I'm trying to make here is that I'm onboard with you in terms of personal domain advocacy. However in terms of a business its probably tough to simultaneously offer a very low effort solution that provides a good overview/perspective on the individual using the service (eg. a nice default personal profile page) and make money given people's propensity to use free solutions for their own domain. Check out the recently launched BrandYourself.com, they're doing something cool that is really in line with your thinking, I wonder what their traction is like (I use the free tier - surprise, surprise).

by hoppy44 14y ago

mikejarema 14y ago

Jim, thanks for the link and insights. I used to interview boatloads of interns for a couple companies here in Toronto, and the personal domain always left me with an improved first impression of an applicant. But yes, the ratio was quite low, especially considering I was interviewing CS students. I'll take a look at the link and send you some notes later.

hoppy44 14y ago
Thanks Mike. Wow, just went to your site and found Namevine -- what an awesome site. That's the logical next step for a lot of job-seekers... once they have their URL, they want a Twitter account and maybe a YouTube video. And obviously we're both in sync with the helping people/affiliate link dynamic. I'll be recommending this to people I work with. Thanks again.
- mikejarema 14y ago
  Thanks Jim, Namevine is a fun side project of mine, and like you I'm hoping to monetize via affiliate links. Really the big win (for individuals) would be a one click unified domain registration, social media signup, @yourname.com email hosting and About.me setup. The video you've made shows the current path of least resistance to setup your online identity (at YourName.com), but I can't help but feel it requires more effort than it needs to. Eg. navigating GoDaddy's aggressive upselling, DNS management, etc. Have you seen IWantMyName.com? They're trying to simplify some of this. On the other hand, Flavors.me is like About.me but also offer domain registration as a part of the signup. Finally, when it comes to using a personal domain, my instinct (and most others I'm sure) is to find free solutions for every aspect of the domain where possible. On my personal domains I use: - Google Apps for email and private wikis (free, I'm well within the free usage limitations) - Tumblr for my blog (free, including pointing my domain to their service, I love that about Tumblr) - Montastic for monitoring (free, my needs are quite simple and they'll happily monitor a couple URLs at somewhat infrequent intervals) I think the point I'm trying to make here is that I'm onboard with you in terms of personal domain advocacy. However in terms of a business its probably tough to simultaneously offer a very low effort solution that provides a good overview/perspective on the individual using the service (eg. a nice default personal profile page) and make money given people's propensity to use free solutions for their own domain. Check out the recently launched BrandYourself.com, they're doing something cool that is really in line with your thinking, I wonder what their traction is like (I use the free tier - surprise, surprise).