Losing Your Name

Good Morning,
A few weeks ago I read an article in the newspaper about how candidates in a local election could not get the domain they wanted. In fact someone else not friendly to the candidates had secured the wanted domains. Now the lawyers are involved. This could cost the candidate the election and it could have been easily avoided.
The same could happen to anyone who wants to start a business, or change or rebrand their existing business. Think about it for a moment; you spent months coming up with a great product or service and ironed out all the details. Then you and associates spent another large amount of time and energy to come up with a great name, even commissioned some design work. And then after all that, as you go to get the domain or the DBA, you find out that someone else just got it. But they might be willing to sell it to you for $$$. To prevent this from happening, all it takes is a little preplanning, leg work and learning to keep your and others’ mouths shut. Unless you like paying out large amount of money in fees.
Ok. How do you prevent someone from getting the domain or DBA before you do? First rule, you have to take action FAST; you cannot sit around and think about it! Once you get your idea and get some of it worked out, see if the DBA is available. You can go online and do an assume name search. As far as I know, it’s very hard to see what names other people are searching for. You have only a small bit of time, so use it wisely. Second rule, once you take any action, assume everyone will know about it.
Google the name you want and see what comes up. If so far so good, go to GoDaddy or any domain service and see if the domain you want is available. You want the .com first. If it’s available buy it right there and then. Get .net as well. Next get the popular misspelling as well as shorter or longer versions of the name. I like to get similar-sounding names as well. Here is an example using my business. I have My Marketing Cure.com. Then I get .net, plus Marketing Cure.com and .net. I also try for My Cure, My Marketing.com and .net as well as MMC.com and .net.
At the same time I get a few that might be somewhat similar, just in case. I only get them for one year with no add-on services. It’s a wise and prudent investment. Now I can go back and get the DBA. Next I get my Google Local(My Business) listing.
Within a day or two of getting your domain, you will be getting calls and emails from people who want to help you set up a website. Others that you will not hear from will be going after DBA’s, the domains and other sites that you want, hoping to sell them to you.
If you follow these steps you may be able to eliminate the problems that the local candidates had and get your business off the ground before your competition finds out.
Till next time.