When Naming, always be Thinking Domains

There has been a lot of coverage of Apple’s newest product announcement today, the iPad. However, shortly after the keynote ended, Robin Wauters wrote an article on TechCrunch titled Apple Doesn’t Own A Single iPad Related Domain Name pointing out that Apple currently doesn’t own any iPad domain names. None of them. Not the .net, .org, .biz, .mobi, .tel, or even any country-code TLDs. And they definitely don’t own the .com.

In Apple’s case, this certainly isn’t the end of the world as they have ample funding to buy all those domain names from their current owners for however many hundreds of thousands or even million dollars they might cost. However, for your average new company, small company with a new product launch, or individual with a great idea, paying large sums of money for a domain name is out of the question. This is why it can be critically important to include domain name availability searches as a part of any product or business name brainstorming.

When naming, try to find a .com that’s available, though for more common names you may have to think about settling for a .net or other alternative if you’re set on that particular name. When you include domain searching as a part of the early-brainstorming for a name, you can include that in your decision-making to come up with a great name that also has a domain available to register. If you wait until later to check the domain name, you may find yourself torn between a name you’ve become attached to and finding out the domain is unavailable.

Once you’ve got the perfect name in mind, make sure you register the domain before someone else has the chance. Dotster makes it affordable at only $15.95 per year for a .com and $8.99 for a .net!