It’s hard to believe summer is coming to an end. Like a blink of an eye, what was once the end of a school year is now another school year fast approaching, only weeks away.
The upcoming new school year approaching was finally made real for me as we prepared for our oldest son to begin his academic journey into Kindergarten.
With only one week before school begins, my wife and I attended a number of school-specific playdates scheduled throughout Northwest Austin this summer, as well as parent/student orientation and screenings at his soon-to-be school at the end of last year.
This is certainly new territory for our family. Our little guy’s entering into the world of academia is exciting and scary — as numerous thoughts raced through my mind while attending orientation.
Speaking of orientation, things have changed quite over the last 30 or so years since I, too, started Kindergarten. Shopping online for clothes and school supplies was unheard of back in 1986 — yikes, I’m old and dated. 😀
Nowadays, most schools direct parents to websites and social platforms for the PTA and purchasing school supplies, as shown below.
While I was quite impressed with the EducationalProducts.com domain and website, our neighborhood school could stand to select a more memorable domain name instead of PSE.My-PTA.org.
The former domain exhibits all the textbook qualities of a .com domain, yet the latter exhibits and highlights all that could go wrong when selecting a domain for one’s digital presence — using multiple acronyms, hyphens, non .com, and a nonmeaningful subdomain.
Not long after completing and leaving parent/student orientation, I was reminded of EducationalProducts.com when encountering a yard sign advertising yet another school supplies website: 1stDaySchoolSupplies.com.
Much like EducationProducts.com, 1stDaySchoolSupplies.com shortcuts the process of buying school and grade-specific supplies by simply entering your zip code and school code or name. Both websites are quite easy to interface with.
While EducationalProducts.com is a more traditional two-word keyword domain, 1stDaySchoolSupplies.com is certainly a mix between a keyword and brandable domain.
The biggest concern I held strongly in my mind about 1stDaySchoolSupplies.com is that it did not pass the radio test due to using an alphanumeric abbreviation for first (i.e., 1st).
But the thought of not passing the radio test soon dissipated when typing FirstDaySchoolSupplies.com into my phone’s web browser, and it redirected to 1stDaySchoolSupplies.com.
1stDaySchoolSupplies.com certainly redeemed itself with this decision that most businesses overlook or are clueless about the makings and attributes of a domain name that passes the radio test.
And of course, I couldn’t help but search domain variations that came to mind as possible alternatives to 1stDaySchoolSupplies.com, discovering the following results (*denotes domain names available for registration at the time of publication):
- 1stDaySchoolSupply.com – registered and resolves to Sedo page
- FirstDaySchoolSupply.com*
- FirstDaySupply.com*
- FirstDaySupplies.com – registered and resolved to an error page
- SchoolSupply.com – registered and resolves to an error page
- SchoolSupplies.com – registered and resolves to an error page
- BackToSchoolSupply.com – registered and resolved to Afternic page
- BackToSchoolSupplies.com – registered and resolved to Uniregistry page
In closing, both EducationalProducts.com and 1stDaySchoolSupplies.com have likely been busy since the end of the last school year and are well into peak season as many schools throughout the US fast approach their start dates.
Back-to-school shopping was once a treasured scavenger experience in searching for every listed school supply across every nook and cranny shop throughout cities and towns throughout America.
But that’s now a thing of the past since the internet has seamlessly desensitized an experience to a simple click of the mouse.
And with that, I wish you and yours a blessed and happy school year. That’s all for now!
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.
