Today I met with a new client who consulted with me about how to build their new ecommerce business online.

Interestingly due to the fact that he has a website representing his personal brand online, he is number one in the search engines here in Ireland for key words relating to his expertise.

You see although he is currently in employment i.e. he is on the payroll of an organisation, he realised the value in promoting his experience and his portfolio of skills online - he is using his own name as the domain name for his current website.

One of the tips I always cover in my personal branding workshops and consultations is to ensure that you purchase your own domain name - even if you have no plan to use it at this time to host your own business blog, website or career portfolio.

Even if you are employed in a company, the chances are that you won’t be in their employ in 10 years or 20 years time - but the one thing that will be constant is the need to ensure that you continue to nurture your personal brand and reputation online as many people search for us prior to or after meeting us.

An example of when not purchasing your domain name is the recent case of Shel Israel, author and social media consultant.

Shel is one of the contributors at FastCompany.tv. He would not position himself as being an expert in video or film production, however the expectations of his interviews with guests seem not to have been met by his audience as you can see from the video here and the accompanying comments where there is concern being expressed over the production values of the video.

You can read more about the story here at the Blog Herald and at Shel Israel’s blog.

What resulted is that someone create a website as a parody of his interviews - and yes you guessed it - the domain name for the site is ShelIsrael.com. You see, Shel had not purchased his own domain name so it was freely available for someone else to purchase.

You could conside it a form of online identity theft.

I am sure that Shel is kicking himself now - though it does mean that he is getting many people talking about him online - perhaps not for reasons he anticipated or would like.

But let his case be a lesson for us all - if you don’t own your domain name - please buy it even if you have no plans to use it at this time. And if you love your children - buy their names as domain names too. They’ll thank you for it in a few years time.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Here’s an article  about making sure that you have your own name as a domain name, published in the Wall Street Journal that I was quoted in called “You’re A Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well”.

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