What Was the First Domain You Owned?
February 18, 2009 :: Joe LoongI was just doing a WHOIS lookup on my primary personal domain (joelogon.com, and no, I’m not trying to self-promote myself — at least, not any more than usual) to double-check the expiration date (I’ve got a few months), when I saw that my domain will turn 11 years old this spring.
Eleven years old. My main domain is in the fifth grade now.
In the interest of full disclosure, I initially registered the domain with Network Solutions, though somewhere along the line, I transferred it to another registrar. I’ll have to check all my registrations to see which domains I have, and where they’re all registered. I’m not really sure how many domains I have — I think it’s under a dozen, and some of them are just placeholders, really.
I know folks who go through domains like they’re Tic-Tacs — it’s not so much for domain squatting or speculative purposes, but mostly because they can. (Check out Ryan Greenberg’s paper on “single serving sites,” which are sites that are specifically designed to do just one thing, like answer a simple question, e.g. “Is Abe Vigoda still alive?” Appropriately enough, the paper lives on IsThisYourPaperOnSingleServingSites.com. Also, Jason Kottke has a list of more single serving sites.)
Anyway, my oldest domain is still nearest and dearest to my heart. So now I’m curious — what was the first domain you ever owned? And I’ve got some followup questions. (Don’t worry, this isn’t some sneaky marketing survey or sales pitch. And if you don’t want to provide your domain, you can still answer the other questions. Or not, it’s up to you.) I will provide my own answers:
* What was the first domain you ever owned? How old is it now?
Like I said, it was joelogon.com, and it’ll be 11 in May.
* How did you choose the name?
It’s a variation of the online handle that I use for most things, which in turn is an anagram (actually, just a one-letter move) from my real name.
* What did you think you were going to use it for? Did you end up doing that?
First and foremost, it’s a vanity domain. It’s the primary hub for stuff that I do (and the site needs work, I know). I got it because my original ISP kind of imploded, so I wanted a space that I could control and move around as needed, that I would always be able to keep, and have a permanent e-mail and Web address for myself. So I’m still using it for that.
I guess it was for personal branding, too, before there was a “personal branding.”
* Are you still using it?
Well, yeah.
Anyway, there are my questions and answers. If you’d like to share your domain story, please feel free to leave a comment, reblog this, make it viral, etc. and all that good stuff.
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