Can’t believe it’s been one year since last Memorial Day and giving for the honorable men and women graciously deciding to serve and protect the United States of America, many having lost their lives. ??
My family and I kicked off Memorial Day quite early than many folks — literally our day started just before 6 am CST.
As we did last year, we made our way down to Auditorium Shores to support our friend and spiritual daughter as she participated, competed, and placed 3rd in the Sprint Course for her age group at the Annual Memorial Day CapTexTri.
Of course, the CapTexTri event is her first race back since taking a month off after competing in IronMan’s The Memorial Herman North Championship held in The Woodlands, Texas.
Although she didn’t qualify for Kona at this year’s North Championship, she did shave off nearly an hour off her 2017 time.
So, placing 3rd at this year’s CapTexTri event was just the thing she needed to progress towards competing in Denmark later this summer via USA Triathlon team.
Nevertheless, between her transitions of swimming, biking, and running, you’ve gotta know by now that I keep my eyes on the lookout for domains. ?
The Joy of Downtown Austin Parking
One of the first spotting I discovered was driving east on Barton Springs Road on our way to park at the Austin Public Works Department: AustinTricyclist.com.
Talk about a good geo service domain to build a triathlon specialty shop in the heart of downtown Austin since 1995.
Although geo service domains are known to limit a business and niche at times, I really like the use of AustinTricyclist.com — seeing it includes the phrase “Austin Tri” and focuses on an expensive part of every triathlon: biking.
I also LOVE the fact that the business chose to prominently display the domain as the name of the business on it’s building — eye-popping yellow text and a red background. ?
In addition to needing a mobile-friendly website, I encourage business owners of AustinTricyclist.com to also defensively register the following domains available at the time of publishing:
- AustinTricyclists.com
- ATXTricyclist.com
- ATXTricyclists.com
- ATXTrikes.com
- ATXTrike.com
- AustinTrikes.com
- AustinTrike.com
Even if used for nothing but simple redirect domains, possessing aforementioned domains serves as protection against brand dilution. Owning and using additional domains also allows for abbreviation of the primary domain.
Nevertheless, we secured a parking spaced and made our way over to Auditorium Shores. A miracle in and of itself.
Never a Dull Walk From One Street to the Next in Austin
Leaving the parking lot of Austin Public Works Department, I stumbled upon a gentleman advertising a movie due hit screening August 31st about the harm of circumcision to babies with two banners that touted two different domains: YourWholeBaby.org and CircumcisionMovie.com.
Of course, seeing YourWholeBaby.org, I whipped out my phone to see where YourWholeBaby.com would lead me.
Fortunately, YourWholeBaby.com redirects to YourWholeBaby.org, a mobile-friendly website aiming to end the cutting of all babies’ genitals at birth.
As for CircumcisionMovie.com, it too leads to a mobile-friendly website. However, after a bit more research and keying in on the use of Twitter handle @circmovie, I discovered Circ.Movie is available at hand-reg fee (at the time of publication).
.movie is one of the 1200+ new top-level domain extensions available to the general public for purchase and use.
In my opinion, I recommend purchasing, and redirecting or developing Circ.Movie into a website because it’s shorter, catchier, and plays well with matching the current Twitter handle. I did check, and Circumcision.Movie is registered.
In addition, I also checked the domain availability of alternative domains to be owned and used (* denotes available at time of publishing):
- AntiCircumcision.com
- AgainstCircumcision.com
- StopCircumcision.com*
- BoycottCircumcision.com
- EndCircumcision.com*
- CircumcisionHarms.com*
- AbolishCircumcision.com*
We didn’t wait long at the light to cross the street and be on way. But little did I realize that I would discover the next domain walking past what looked to be a self-service bike rental stand: AustinBcycle.com.
You’ve likely spotted numerous of these bike rental stations throughout downtown Austin allowing folks to tour, view, and take Austin by its handlebars.
With an interesting domain hack missing an “i” selected to represent it’s digital presence, Austin B-Cycle is a clever non-profit that rolled onto the scene during SXSW to offer one of the most successful bike-sharing programs in the country to date.
Of course, my first instinct was to discover whether or not AustinBicycle.com and AustinBicycles.com were registered and developed. Both are registered, but simply resolve to pages with parked advertising links displayed as well as “This domain is for sale.” messaging.
I’m not certain how much the owners want for either, but I’d be interested in knowing how much traffic AustinBCycle.com misses due to folks inadvertently inserting the eye and arriving at AustinBicycle.com.
Although domain hacks can be quite clever and affordable to purchase, they also can be quite expensive in terms of revenue and opportunity lost due to folks misspelling it.
That’s why it’s important to own correct and incorrect spellings of one’s selected domain, regardless of whether or not it’s a hack, brandable, keyword, geo — whatever the case, own the variations.
And speaking of variations, I discovered the following domains available at the time of publishing as it pertains to AustinBCycle.com:
Just in Time to Start the CapTexTri!
We the tribe (as we refer to ourselves and displayed on our tribal teal shirts) finally made it to Auditorium Shores, a few minutes from the AustinBCycle.com station, to discover a large number of tents, spectators, first responders, sponsors, athletes, and others excitedly moving about the grounds.
As we waited our daughter’s heat to make their way into the water to start the competition, I spotted two things a I needed most: a portable potty and water station. And as you see, both are prominently advertising domains. 😉
Just as I was arriving back from stops at both, I discovered our daughter had begun her sprint course journey with a swim in Lake Austin, also known as Town Lake, Lady Bird Lake, or Colorado River.
We then proceeded towards the intersection of 1st Street and Riverside in hopes of finding shade as we waited to see her pass by while cycling. While in route, I discovered a few more domains:
And if Medicine in Motion looks or sounds familiar, it’s because of an encounter earlier in the year during soccer season.
As for CityLimitCycles.com, what a great brandable domain for a small business owner with decades of experience at a bike mechanic.
James, the owner, is not just any ole’ mobile bike mechanic, but premier mobile bike mechanic for the United States of America Triathlon Team for the last 14 years as well as the 2016 United States of America Paralympic Triathlon Team.
In most cases, folks would have named their business after themselves — think JamesBikeRepair.com (registered and resolves to a parked page). I’d choose and recommend business owners to go the route that James did with selecting a brandable domain name that can easily grow with the business.
Sure, James started the business, but growing and even franchising the business is more advantageous using CityLimitCycles.com as opposed to JamesBikeRepair.com.
Cheer, Wait, and Celebrate did the Tribe
The time came and went to see her pass on the bike, and she did so in style and vigor, eagerly peddling her way towards the final stop: the run.
As we moved towards home to encourage her and belt out “kick strong, and let’s go home”, I spotted a few domains on various tents.
Some of them were good, others bad, and still others were downright ugly like the AASA-ATX.com domain (yikes!). ? Don’t get even me started on its use geo abbreviation, hyphen, acronym, and not passing the radio test. ? NEXT!
However, I thought Austin Triathlon Club’s domain use of AustinTriClub.org was acceptable after discovering AustinTriClub.com and AustinTri.Club were both registered and resolving to parked GoDaddy pages.
But again, there are always other domain options available for consideration by others to register or to defensively register as shown below:
Then there was use of an action-oriented domain: VisitBicycleWorld.com. Such domains in my opinion invoke immediate action by potential customers and casual person, especially in this day and age of immediate internet access via mobile devices.
Even most intriguing was discovering a State Farm Insurance tent at this event promoting a keyword domain based on its slogan of “Like a Good Neighborhood”: NeighborhoodOfGood.com.
Most brands, especially national and global brands, rarely stray away from using their primary domain to promote its digital presence when marketing.
In fact, most businesses tend to only focus, and with great tunnel vision too, on solely in owning, developing, and promoting one domain. What a loss of opportunity such actions are!
In my opinion, it’s great to see an insurance conglomerate creatively using keyword domains to connect with event attendees.
Using clever secondary domains to promote business could also shed great insight and clarity on how well an event produces customers and revenue long after the event has passed.
And speaking of passed, our daughter almost passed me on her way to the finish line, placing 3rd in her Sprint Course age group! ??
Well, I’ve gotta run now to catch up with her on the podium for a quick family pic! That’s it until the next event!
Happy Memorial Day and 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.
