Do you own the domain name for your name? For example, I own mikemaddaloni.com and own a few names with just my last name, Maddaloni, as the dot-com name is owned by someone else.

Owning the domain name may seem vain, but it is an important component of your personal brand. What you say – personal brand? Yes, just as a company brands itself and its products and services, individuals should do the same. If you think about it, if you are a jobseeker or have your own business, you are doing this to a certain extent. By developing a personal brand you are making a constant and consistent effort to market and promote yourself.

Recently I have seen several references to personal branding, including this article on a brand trainer in Forbes as well as Chicago networking guru Jason Jacobsohn who has been writing and speaking about it. A service from a Chicago company called Naymz allows you to develop an online profile and a link to it will appear as a Google text ad – try Googling me and you will see it.

So what do you with your personal domain name? You can create a personal Web site and use it for your email. If you are not ready for a Web site yet, you could forward Web traffic to another Web page, such as your blog or LinkedIn profile.

Business • Domain Names • (7) Comments • Permalink