Go LIVE please!
I find myself in an increasingly volatile state. Allow me to winge and whine and vent. I currently have a number of exceptional students who simply fail miserably at the self branding starting point of their career. I recently asked two of my classes the question 'who owns their own domain?'. Three students (from 47) said that they had. Now names are not that unique. There are more of us in the world then we realize. There are at least three Neil Hairs on this planet (be afraid, be very afraid), one used to study at Sheffield Hallam University (with me – although I did not know him) as an engineer. One is a famous Astrologer in Australia. So I then ask how many have myfacebook or myspace entries – almost everyones hand went up. So then I'm asked how much a domain costs, how much it costs to host, and I'm distressed (granted I am tired but I'm also feeling protective). I'm distressed not by the competence of the student asking the question (an excellent student in fact), but because I've not managed to get to them earlier in their careers.
Let me take you back a bit to 1999, Fall quarter in my very first internet marketing class. I am very quickly dared by a forward thinking student to buy my own domain name as soon as possible - lest he buys it for himself as a means of making a profit or a point of ridicule. At that point I'm faced with a very difficult decision. I have no clue, where do you buy a domain? how much will it cost? who will then host the site and then how much will that cost me on a monthly basis? I ask around, and I come across http://www.clss.com/ as a local Rochester based enterprise. The domain name costs me 12 bucks, wonderful I think, neilhair.com is still available (the irony being hair.com was also still available and above my then limited radar) and I sit there wondering why I didn't do this sooner. I'm being asked the same questions in 2006? This upsets me. I want all readers – to go – right now, and spend 12 bucks on their domain name. Even if you don't put anything up on it – go and BUY IT RIGHT NOW – not a little later, not tomorrow, not next week RIGHT NOW!
Then we'll talk about the addiction of maintaining ones personal web space.
Dr Hair is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the E Philip Saunders College of Business at RIT.
© 2006, Dr Neil Hair. All rights reserved.
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It can cost half of $12 if you go through 1&1 (www.1and1.com). Each .com/.net/.org./.us/.name costs $5.99 for one year. I also use Site 5 (www.site5.com) for hosting, and I find all their hosting offerings to be reasonably priced.
I think generic domain names are a valuable investment, especially with the number of top level domains (TLD) that are being registered on a daily basis. And that is why my domain name portfolio consists of 18 domains as of now
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Updates – Go Daddy is now my preferred host, they allow me to use wordpress which CLSS unfortunately couldnt.