Addicted to Domain Names?

There I’ve said it, I admit it and now I’m doing something about it!

Over the course of my online business adventure, I’ve managed to acquire quite a large number of domain names. You know the different dot.com’s that you use to promote different aspects of what ever you are doing online.

Well I sat down and started evaluating the different domains I had and man did I feel a bit foolish. I had so many that it was costing me a small fortune to renew them through out the year.

I don’t discount that at the time I purchased most of them, I had a specific need. But once those needs have passed…let it go!

The process of weeding out the ones I no longer want to pay for wasn’t too hard. I first checked each domain to see where it was pointing.

Once I knew that I had to evaluate if I really needed a specific domain for that page. Most of the time I didn’t and could house those pages on my main website.

The next step was checking to see if they had any pagerank or value. Much to my surprise several of them did. Those went on my keeper list and I knew I would find another use for them.

I also learned that when you have a domain name with longevity it becomes more valuable. So I had to consider those poorly thought out domain names I had purchased early on in my Internet adventure.

Honestly, most of those were chosen at a time when I didn’t have a clue about how to build a website let alone what keywords were. I’ve learned so much since that time that I let go of many of those cutesy domain names opting to keep the ones that were newer but keyword rich.

I ended up dumping probably 8 domain names and will now keep a watchful eye on the rest of them as they come up for renewal. And I’m putting those with pagerank to use for some of my promotional stuff and information sites.

One thing I also had to learn was that an emotional attachment to a domain name just isn’t a good enough reason to keep it. You know…the first domain I ever bought…I didn’t want to let it go, but the bottom line was I seriously didn’t have a use for it so I bit the bullet and let it go.

And then there are the “deals” you get offered when you are purchasing a domain name…I got a deal on what at the time seemed to be a great idea…instead I’ve come to realize that www.IGotLit.com (for my candle business) actually appears to be the domain of a heavy drinker and it’s mine until 2008!

Take your time when purchasing a domain name. Consider some good keywords to incorporate into the domain name and above all remember to let go of the ones that aren’t working for you anymore.