[Heie]

So, I am currently the owner of www.alexjansenphotography.com and I have wanted for some time now to acquire www.alexjansen.com for a few reasons.


1) It's short and concise and thus WAY simpler, making it easier to remember as well as spell correctly
2) It has the added prestige of "I own my digital real estate" when presenting it to clients
3) Along with both 1 and 2, alex@alexjansen.com is a phenomenal email address if you ask me lol


BUT, It's considered "premium" (a status given to domains when they are previously owned and then traded/sold), so while it currently listed for sale (sometimes they just aren't available....PERIOD), it's $1800. For those unaware, it's relatively cheap when "JohnSmith.com" could be a $100,000 domain.


I offered $1000 and it was accepted, and even if I went lower to say $500, over 30 years, that amounts to a difference of $16 a year, which is nothing.



So my question is: do you think it's worthwhile to pursue it even if I am not a full-time photographer? You can see from my website that I'm a very competent photographer (for those that don't know me here lol), however I am actually an active duty officer in the Army with 7 years in service and all intentions to complete the 20 year career.



In about 2-3 years I do intend to get an MBA in Marketing (paid for as part of my army contract).


I have the money already in my PayPal account (sold a bunch of camera gear recently), so it wouldn't even be noticed on my checking/credit card, but it's still not chump change...


So yea..........thoughts?


-Heie

[MarkJerling]

To me, that's a heck of a lot for a domain name. But, for you, that may be different. Would they take $500?

[serothis]

Another option would be www.AlexJansen.photography

[RGlasel]

So yea..........thoughts?

IMHO, there is nothing wrong with alexjansenphotography.com , and I would save your money. If you decide to make your personal identity your business (say as a motivational speaker) then it would be worth the thousand bucks, but alexjansenphotography will get more Google hits if you want to market your photographic services. Surprisingly few people directly enter URL's and there are lots of ways to get alechanson (see what I did there?) wrong when typing in your "premium" domain name, especially with virtual keyboards on mobile devices. You would also be surprised how many people look up businesses on their smartphones, between Googling the pizza parlour that they drove by two weeks ago and checking the final score of basketball games, that covers about 97% of mobile browser use. Getting the shortest possible domain name is not worth very much, having something in the domain name that matches relevant search terms is worth something.

As for the email portion, it is a wash in my opinion. I have an uncommon six character last name and .com is the only first level domain that I'm missing. I have a mailserver on the .org domain and I can't say there are many (any?) benefits to having dirk@flavel.org as an email address. When verbally asked for an email address, I always have to repeat this one, because the person on the other end assumes they heard me wrong or I'm providing a fake email address. On the other hand, a domain name that looks like a business does have some advantages for email addresses, giving the impression that you have graduated from indistinguishable gmail.com and yahoo.com email addresses registered by adolescents on their older sister's laptop.

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Last edited by RGlasel; 05-24-2017 at 03:32 PM.

[Adam]

If you plan to maintain the site for a long period of time, I'd just go for it. Worst case you can put up a resource page with some ads, and it'll pay for itself over time. The new TLDs like .photography and so on aren't seeing wide adoption, and probably won't for a while (if ever). Alexjansen.com is also way shorter and super easy to remember.

[AggieDad]

I have a couple of domain names and I pay for them annually (at my age there are no long term investments). I have selected a .org and a .net suffix for my two domains as the .coms were taken (although apparently not used). Today we are all accustomed to a suffix other than .com, so all has been good for me.

[C_Jones]

I would not do it. How about jansenimages.com or alexjansenimages.com? I checked both and neither came up on the net. Good luck.

---------- Post added 05-24-17 at 08:15 PM ----------

I looked and alexjansenimages.com seems to still be available. Note shortcut below.

checkdomain.com - alexjansenimages.com (Commercial)

[cpk]

How about jansen.xxx, that is, some other suffix. My son Michael registered kinghorn.ca, and he is always on the first page of a Google search on the word kinghorn.

[pakinjapan]

IMO, it doesn't matter if it is a .com or dot anything. it is all about the short and easy to remember name and your marketing technique to get the name out.
I use .info for my site because it has a lot more available short domain name and it is very cheap (back then). For non US business, for example Japan, .co.jp does matter because you can only buy it after you register your business. it tells user, it is a regiment business, paying taxes etc.

I think, If you can find an easier domain name outside of .com, then it is good enough. Spend more time and resource (money) on the marking like FB, IG, Google advertising, etc

[ramseybuckeye]

That's a lot of money, but it's your money. Just make sure that you put a lot of meta data into your homepage so you are found on search engines. And I like your website, it's fast and easy to navigate.

[calsan]

I just checked the google analytics on my company's website. We get 18% of visitors who "directly enter" our website address - which may actually include things like clicking our address on our email signature. The rest come from search or referrals. So 4/5 of people don't care about our domain name and of the remainder, I doubt many actually type it in.
This is especially true now with mobile phones. No way anyone will bother typing an address. 25% of our visitors are on mobile - so it's worth making your site mobile friendly first. Five years ago, we would get about 1 mobile visitor per month.

[clickclick]

It's your name. Pure and simple. I'd say that's a no-brainer - don't you want "YOU" to own your name, not someone else? Especially if you want a business presence, even if not your bread and butter, yet - 13 to go, and then? Might be real nice to own it, and as just your name, it could be anything you do. And all said and done, you probably can off it if you decided you don't want it.

[Tamia]

Alex, you can't be sure what the future holds for you outside the military, and to own your own domain in your own name -- sans the "photography" portion -- could be very useful in future. Who knows, you might hit it lucky in some venture beyond photography, so having the simpler domain name would be an asset. If it was me, and if I had the money to spend, I'd do it.

[PJ1]

I can see your point. I think dropping the "photography" has its merits for overall impact. alexjansen.com is pretty slick (but alexjansen.net or .org would be fine as well). The cost issue is for you to decide. But, then, in thirteen years, will it matter if it is .com or .net?

[Fenwoodian]

I buy and sell domains. I currently own about 15 of them.

A good domain is short and one that is easily spelled. Your name is long and I would spell it with an son, not sen.

People won't find your website by typing in your name. They'll find it by either word of mouth or Google search. Invest your money in building a great site, promoting it, and becoming an expert in SEO.