It’s possible to change your domain name, but it’s easier to start with the right one.
Silicon India has a slideshow (God, I hate those things)Mashable has a recent post titled “8 Successful Companies Who Changed Domain Names“.
It covers:
Ask Jeeves
Facebook
PayPal
Twitter
NBC News
Google
Perez Hilton
Overstock
It makes for fun reading, but it brings up a serious dilemma faced by many businesses.
I’m starting a business, but I can’t afford the domain name I want.
This is a tough one.
In most cases you can afford a good domain, even if it’s not your top pick. You might be able to lease the domain or do a payment plan. Or perhaps you have the money but you need to shift it from other parts of the budget, such as marketing.
But in some cases it just may be you don’t have the money. I get it.
Now that I’m using a non-optimum name, is it worth switching?
That’s another tough call. Let’s face it, changing domain names is painful. Especially when you’re successful. At that point it’s probably not the cost so much as the education and SEO.
In an ideal world you get the right domain to begin with, even if you have to stretch. But it’s possible — as many of these companies showed — to make a switch.
George Kirikos says
Compare that Silicon India article to an article at Mashable.com that came out 2 days earlier:
http://mashable.com/2013/01/08/business-domain-names/
It looks like the Mashable article is a more appropriate one to link to…..
Andrew Allemann says
Sigh…
Thanks George.
rob sequin says
Wow. That brings me back.
I signed up with Paypal when it was X.com and I saved my X.com debit card. May be worth some money someday as an Internet antique 🙂
Andrew Allemann says
@ Rob Sequin – I recall you go something like $20 free in your X.com account when you signed up.
Ron says
I used to get $5 for every paypal person I signed up, that was huge money back then, when they signed up in droves. I also got free stock in TZOO for signing up newsletter people. Also got paid to surf the net, and sign up people, wow money sure flowed back then, and now pennies form ppc.