Who owns the Web site address www.[your child's first and last name].com? Hopefully you do!
Internet domain names are hugely important in establishing identity and visibility on the Web. That’s why I registered my own name several years ago (and have it redirect to this site). However, I never registered the domains of my kids’ names, but I should have. I was reminded of how important this is during our last recording of the Cast of Dads, so I immediately went out and registered them. The cost is less than $10 per year per domain, and sites like GoDaddy and Dreamhost make it easy. My family’s last name is not common, so there’s little competition for related domain names (though my dad registered Kalehoff.com before I could). Still, I want to ensure my kids own their Internet domain names, so they can chose what to do with them, and nobody else.
I made their domain names their first name plus last name plus the domain suffix .com (i.e., maxkalehoff.com). People usually identify others by their first and last names, and that’s how they research them in search engines. There are numerous Internet domain suffixes — i.e., .org, .biz, .net, etc. — but I registered their names only with .com because it is the most ubiquitous and important. You could drive yourself crazy trying to register a domain name with every suffix.
In the future, I believe there’s a possibility that Internet domain names may become less important. But until then, I’d rather ensure my kids have first right over their Internet domain name — a key element of their identity on the Web.
To learn more, go listen to the latest episode of the Cast of Dads.
