I guess the answer to that question depends on what your name is.
I began thinking about the whole .com thing a couple of years ago.
There are other people named Kathy Cassidy. I know this because I occasionally get emails from pre-teen girls asking me for autographed pictures. I have yet to oblige them and send one, but I’m sure the author Cathy Cassidy is glad to do it. Since I wanted to be the one to control the digital footprint of my name, I decided to take the plunge and buy a domain name.
At that time, kathycassiy.com had been purchased by someone, so I bought kathycassidy.ca (.ca stands for Canada, not California) and just parked it, meaning to get around to doing something about it eventually. The problem was that I was not sure which of my online spaces I wanted the url to point to. I began thinking about it again this spring when my two years of payment were coming to an end, and I was getting renewal reminders.
By this time, kathycassidy.com was available again, so with the encouragement of Dean Shareski, I bought it for about $13.00/year from 10Dollar.ca. I decided it should be a portal to many of my online spaces. Some advice from Gail Lovely on Twitter led to my making the site on Yola, and then I used the 10Dollar site forwarding (which was free of charge).
So now I have a place to collect my digital identity with my own domain name. I’m not positive what I will do with it, other than point people to it who ask about what I do online. It’s a work in progress. I’m not totally happy with my site, but I’m learning as I go. Suggestions are always welcome.
That’s what’s in MY .com name. What’s in yours?
I opted for .ca because I figured .com was for commerce. Apart from pimping myself, I’m not selling. I go back far enough on email that I control stange@sasktel.net somebody grabbed stange.ca before I could. Your space and Shareski’s gave me a starting point. It is starting to come together.
By: Alan Stange on June 7, 2010
at 10:16 pm
The .com ending can certainly refer to commerce, but in my case it definitely does not. I chose it because it is still the the most common and the one that people think of most easily.
I do know people who don’t understand what the .ca ending means, but everyone is familiar with .com.
By: kathycassidy on June 8, 2010
at 12:22 pm
Hey Kathy,
I snapped up my namesake domain a couple of years ago, and your predicament is something that I’ve struggled with for a long time – now that I have this site, what do I do with it?
I wanted to have my own little corner tucked away somewhere safe on the internet so that I could collect and share resources. But how to design it? What fits in this space that can’t be posted in any number of other places around the web?
I ended up designing a very basic portal, that could lead people down the path of their choice by exploring some of the blogs, wikis, podcasts & websites that I’ve had a hand in creating. While the resources I’ve chosen to share at mckiel.ca are by no means a comprehensive collection, it is nice to access all of them with the click of a button.
I, too, registered my domain with 10dollar.ca and also paid a bit extra for one of their hosting plans. I get a bunch of e-mail accounts, more space than I know what to do with, and the ability to tinker with design ideas behind the scenes. I have way too many websites buried within my domain that will never see the light of day
Having said all of this, I’ve spent a great deal of time over the last six months in deliberation – my ‘brand’ needs a serious facelift… what to do?
I’ll be paying close attention to what you (and @shareski) do with the design of your own domains, as I think I sense a little summer project developing!
By: Andy McKiel on June 8, 2010
at 2:40 pm
Now I’ll be watching yours, too, Andy. It has a great look so far. The email accounts option looks interesting, as I signed up too late to get a decent one on google.
Thanks for the info!
By: kathycassidy on June 8, 2010
at 3:04 pm
I think that is really cool to have your own domain name. It will be interesting to see how you develop your domain.
By: James Marshall on June 30, 2010
at 11:22 pm
I thought I had already commented on this post besides the one above, but I cant find it. I am from Dr. Strange’s EDM class at the University of South Alabama. I will be posting a summary of some of my comments and thoughts about some of your blog posts. Here is a link to my blog. My blog Our class blog is here
By: James Marshall on June 30, 2010
at 11:49 pm
[...] was my continued effort to create and protect my digital identity. About a year and a half ago, I purchased the url, and had it point to a site that was a collection of links to my online “stuff”. The [...]
By: I’ve Moved! « Primary Preoccupation on January 17, 2012
at 7:46 pm