One of my father’s business associates of 20+ years has a company I will call “J. Smith”. Most of their products are sold via private label, but they do use their brand for some direct to consumer sales, although they are always sold in retail stores as they are a wholesaler. Today, I navigated to his website, “Smith.com” and got an error page. I did a Google search and found that his company website is actually “JSmith.com.” I did a Whois search, and lo and behold, “Smith.com” was previously registered but now remains unregistered.
I called my father’s friend on the phone to talk about a couple of things and to catch up. During our conversation, I told him he should really buy his last name .com, either for his business or so nobody could do anything with it. Since he doesn’t use the domain name for anything other than email and a placeholder, he was reluctant and didn’t seem interested. I told him if he didn’t want it for his business, he should buy it for his son who might want it down the road. He said he would tell his son, but who knows if he will.
As savvy as I have become, I’ve found that there are many people who don’t realize the importance of a domain name – especially their own last name! Anyway, I am wondering if I should register the name for him. What do you guys think?
