Domain Names

I'd pick another penname

Buy it from whomever owns it.

You can register it as pen-name-author.com or pen-name-writer.com. Or try a variation on your chose pen name, Bob instead of Robert and so on.

Or simply pick a different pen name.

Jeff

So here's a thing I was told: If you're going to buy a domain name, don't google it first to see if it's available. When my company was rebranding, the higher ups let us in on the contenders for names and asked for a vote, but they warned us not to google any of the terms or to see if the domain was available. They said (and the marketing firm we were using told them this), that there are companies/individuals whose business is (to run algorithms or something) to see whenever it looks like someone is interested in a name and then go buy all the possible variations of it up so that the other party has to do what WeaselFire is suggesting.

Is that true?

There are a dozen or more extensions now so most names are still accessible. But I'm wondering why you would want penname? It sounds rather generic, not sure of the benefit of that.


I have domains for my business name, my actual pen name and my tentative book title.

Like Lisa said, if possible, I'd pick another pen name. Though, to Laura's point, that can be hard to come by these days since it always seems like your wicked cool ideas are taken, right?

Even if you get a variant on penname.com (.ca, .org, .whatever), you're going to be competing in search space with the other variant that's already out there, at least to start. Meh. Why hamper yourself like that? It would also be good to check out what you'd be competing with - i.e. If the other site is offering something you don't want to be associated with...(do you want your brand possibly getting mixed with other brand that's out there with that name).

Differentiating with "author" in the domain name is a nice way to go about it, if you're okay with the other brand name out there, but still want to differentiate yourself. Because then you have "author" automatically associated with your name, which helps signal to people they are in the right spot

Doing a google search can result in other companies who reverse engineer that sorta stuff and start squatting on names. There are ways to battle such scum, but usually its easier to find a different URL/pen name.

Perfect example is my name - fairly common (like Smith), so getting a domain with just my name is next to impossible. Never mind that the guy who registered it never did anything and is essentially squatting.

As an alternative, if you just try the URL.com in a browser directly, that usually doesn’t run a google search.

heza said:

They said (and the marketing firm we were using told them this), that there are companies/individuals whose business is (to run algorithms or something) to see whenever it looks like someone is interested in a name and then go buy all the possible variations of it up so that the other party has to do what WeaselFire is suggesting.

Click to expand...

Hasn't been for any I've registered and I've been doing it since the early 1990s. But, if you're searching and find one, register it. Go to GoDaddy, or any registrar, try to register your preferred name and see what options pop up if yours is already taken. My personal name is taken, has been for years, and several of the main characters I use have been taken. But I found several pen names I might use and registered them quite a while ago.

My primary domain, zina.com, has been registered for more than two decades. It's my wife's name.

Jeff

tiddlywinks said:

Differentiating with "author" in the domain name is a nice way to go about it, if you're okay with the other brand name out there, but still want to differentiate yourself. Because then you have "author" automatically associated with your name, which helps signal to people they are in the right spot

Click to expand...

There's also a .author top level domain, so you can register pename.author. Or use a pen name like JJ Art and register it as jj.art.

I've also seen things like bobsmithbooks.com for the author Bob Smith.

Once you have the name, make sure you do a decent web site.

Jeff

That's a good solution. I had to go with jeffbondbooks.com myself after the guy with jeffbond.com (not at author, or doing anything in particular with the domain himself) demanded big bucks for the name.

heza said:

Is that true?

Click to expand...

Hi
It is free to register domain names, but you need to be a registrar to do it . The registrars do use software to register every available domain name. It is possible to track what people are searching for , you can see the adds after you have looked for something. So I would guess it might be possible for registrars to do the same ?

One possibility is to use your middle name in some way, such as MiddleLast.com or FirstMiddleLast.com. Some famous authors used or added their middle name as a pen name, such as Philip Jose Farmer.

Another is to use initials for one or more of the given names. FMLast, FMiddleLast, FirstMLast. (A real one is PJFarmer.com.)

Do you have a nickname that you aren't ashamed of? Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones Jr. might use IndianaJones.com. "Red" Ryder could use RedRyder.com, "Ace" Hanlon AceHanlon.com.

Really. You are a CREATIVE artist, for God's sake. Use your imagination!

Late to this party, but one suggestion when googling stuff like this: use www.duckduckgo.com as your search engine. They don't track your searches or share that information.