hoppy44

Thanks Mike. Wow, just went to your site and found Namevine -- what an awesome site. That's the logical next step for a lot of job-seekers... once they have their URL, they want a Twitter account and maybe a YouTube video. And obviously we're both in sync with the helping people/affiliate link dynamic. I'll be recommending this to people I work with. Thanks again.

Mike, I totally agree with you and it drives me crazy and has become a bit of a personal mission. My field is career development and so I work a lot with people during their job search, and one of the first things I ask is "what happens when someone googles you?" Then I'll explain the value of having your own domain. I understood when older workers would say they didn't understand how to set it up, or were confused, etc so I often walk them through it.

Then I went back and spoke at my college (I'm 42). I figured, well, these 21 year old internet whiz kids will certainly have this figured out. Nope. The number of people I met that owned their domain was about the same... consistently about 1-2 out of every 10 people I ask.

So in tech geek/lean startup mode, I got frustrated with explaining it to people over and over, so I purchased a domain, bought a theme for $8, used my friend Jayme as a guinea pig, and in 1 weekend recorded a how-to video and built a site so I didn't have to explain it over and over. It's called GetYourNameToday.com.

Look, I realize there's no way for me to not make this comment look spammy, and yes, in full disclosure there is a GoDaddy affiliate link on there (which I note in both the video and on each page), but I figured if it doesn't cost the person anything more, I am genuinely helping them out, and I can get a little something for my effort, why not.

I'm very transparent with who I am on the site, link to my career development/new media blog to show that it is in sync with what I do for a living, and even tackle questions such as WHY to register your name and what to do if you have a basic name that isn't available. I'm with you... seems like there are very few reasons why someone wouldn't see the benefits of securing their name for the "investment" of $10.

Would love to hear your feedback on the site and if you would have positioned it any differently or what I could do to improve it. Thanks! Jim