If you don’t own your name, who does?

Hey fellow bloggers working on your branding. Have you ever thought about who owns your name in terms of the web? For example, if a client, prospective boss, potential follower, family member, or friend did a Google search for you, what would they find? If they don’t find you, who do they find? A competitor or just something completely wrong? If you don’t own your name, someone else will. Can you afford to let that happen?

For example, if I do a Google search for “Jes Cady” the first 6 results are me and my sites.

Another very popular and much respected blogger is The Pioneer Woman. Now P-Dub is not her Christian name. Her real name is Ree Drummond. If you do a Google search for Ree Drummond, her website, The Pioneer Woman, pops up but so does the url reedrummond.com. She owns her name. The url just brings you to a simple page with a rotating photo and links to her blog. It’s that simple. Now, no one else can utilize that url for something that is not associated with her or her brand. Are you doing this? If not, I strongly suggest you purchase your name as a domain name today. If you do nothing else with it for now, at least you have peace of mind that no one else is doing anything with it either.

Here are some sites you can use to purchase your name as a domain name:

Network Solutions

Go Daddy