This time last month, my wife and I had were afforded an extraordinary opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
The first bird was attending GoStrategic’s Transforum Event — a conference aimed at bridging the gap between spiritual truth and practical implementation.
The second bird was getting to spend time together with my wife and somewhat invest in our marriage together. ?
And what a weekend we had commencing Thursday night and convening late Saturday evening.
Arriving at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Austin at the corner of IH35 Frontage road and La Posada Drive, Transforum Conference kicked off Thursday evening with a cocktail and then proceeded with the night’s speakers.
While traveling from one side of the hotel — from the cocktail room to the conference keynote room, I stumbled upon exhibitors of a real-estate centric conference.
The first exhibitor I encountered advertised a geo service domain for its company’s services to advance your career and boost your bank’s performance with educational opportunities and exclusive resources: TexasBankers.com.
I then turned around and took a few steps to encounter a law firm, Patten Law Firm Texas American Title, based in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, and specializing in real title solutions and using a 5-Letter .com domain: PLFPC.com.
In addition to advertising PLFPC.com via its closing process documentation (see above), Patten Law Firm also had documentation on hand that used an interesting brandable domain: DocPrep911.com.
Based on visiting the website and reading the documentation on the table, I discovered DocPrep911 specializes in the preparation of standard closing documents with exceptionally quick turnaround times.
Although I’m not a fan of using alphanumeric domains of any type, this discovered domain use is an interesting domain due to it using “911”.
From September 11th also being recognized as “911” and “911” being associated with emergency call number, it’s fitting Patten Law Firm has branded “911” appended to the mainstay of their business: “DocPrep”.
As impressive as it was to discover a 5-Letter .com domain, the letters and order of them didn’t seem to resonate with me, leaving me wondering if there were other domain options available that were easy to remember and spell.
After a few quick domain availability searches via my phone, nothing in depth, I found the following (* denotes domains available at the time of publication):
- PattenLawFirm.com – registered and resolving to a company based in Orlando, FL
- TexasAmercianTitle.com – registered but not resolving to a website
- RealTitleSolutions.com – registered and resolving to a company based in Atlanta, GA
- RealTitleSolution.com*
- RealTitle.Solutions*
- RealTitle.Services*
- RealTitle.Tech*
- RealTitle.Technology*
- RealTitle.Company*
- RealTitleSolutions.IO*
Although a few of the new top-level domains are available, I don’t necessarily advise registering those since the .com for RealTitleSolutions.com is registered and placed in use.
After all, the last thing any personal or business brand wants to do is to inadvertently send their competition web traffic they’ve paid for or worked hard to obtain.
Now adjacent to Patten Law Firm’s table was another company specializing in Home Warranty or Home Protection Services: Old Republic Home Protection.
Although no persons were available at the previous tables, Old Republic Home Protection’s account representative, Kevin Brock, was a pleasure to have met and very well informed about his company and the overall industry.
Upon inspection of the various materials displayed at the Old Republic Home Protection, I quickly discovered a 4-L .com: ORHP.com.
Of course, the first thing I checked while waiting to speak with Mr. Brock was whether or not OldRepublicHomeProtection.com was available, or registered and resolving to a website.
Unfortunately, OldRepublicHomeProtection.com is registered but resolves to a “zero-click” ad page.
In the mean time, I strolled across the hall and discovered a company that offers advanced technology in lead generation, analytics and automation for successful real estate ventures: RealEstateIQ.co.
I immediately typed in RealEstateIQ.com to see if it was available and resolving. Unfortunately, it was registered, but resolving to GoDaddy Parked Page without ads.
I did notice the following other options registered and available at the time of publication:
- RealEstateIQ.TV*
- RealEstateIQ.IO*
- RealEstateIQ.Net – registered and resolves to a 500 internal server error page
- RealEstateIQ.Org – registered and resolves to an outdated version of WordPress, rending errors on page load
I very seldom encounter companies, especially IT and tech companies, using a .co domain as their primary web presence today, especially knowing most tech startups are currently drifting towards .IO domains.
Nevertheless, I made it to a fast filling conference keynote room just in time to stake out front-row Joe seating, and capture GoStrategic’s banner sporting a matching .org domain: GoStrategic.org.
Of course before the speaking sessions kicked off, I discovered GetStrategic.com was registered but not resolving while GetStrategic.net is registered and resolving to a Strategic Supply Company based in Luxemburg, Wisconsin.
Personally, I recommend opting for owning the matching .com when using a non .com domain as primary digital presence, including new top-level domains. Simply use the non .com address while redirecting the .com address to the non .com address.
While waiting for the first keynote to kickoff, I perused conference material and discovered an assortment of digital presence addresses used:
- Katherine Gallagher, Ken Negvesky, Dennis Peacock – GoStrategic.org
- Charles Flowers – Faith-Outreach.org
- Dr. Gerald Chester – StrategiesWork.com
- Adam Peacocke – Facebook.com/FeatherVine
- Dr. Patti Amsden – PattiAmsden.org
I thought it to be interesting to have discovered a domain using a hyphen as well as a presence using strictly Facebook! ?
If your personal or business brand solely uses social networks as it’s primary presence without owning a primary domain, then you’re asking for trouble should they discontinue your account — losing access to customers and content! OUCH! ?
And although you may use a different name for your company, it’s always in your best interest to own your first and last name in .com, .net, and .org — when possible. Also, pickup variations too (i.e., FullNameSucks.com, VoteFullName.com, etc.).
All in all, the Transforum Event was one of the best I’ve attending in regards to equipping believers to lead in the midst of a divide cultural and societal turmoil.
It was such a transformational experience filled with practical training, empowering teaching, networking, and connection with a number of folks from various backgrounds.
And the best part of the conference was realizing that true transformation in one’s household, neighborhood, church, workplace and the world begins with each of us strategically playing a transformative and active role to bring it to come to pass.
As a domain investor and business consultant, Alvin actively participates in daily domain auctions. Outside of auctions, he passionately shares his views, opinions, and vision for how businesses should and should not use domain names to generate greater customer growth and revenue.
