Lately, I’ve been running across more and more press releases by domain name related companies trying to attach themselves to current events. This one caught my eye today, the title was “Spike Projected for Internet Domain Names as Holiday Gifts.” Although I can’t disagree that giving a domain name to the right person may be a good gift idea, it’s just comical to see a press release about this topic while searching domain name news. Obviously, this press release is a cunning attempt to get people to register domain names at domainregistrar.info right after they read the article.
Is a press release nothing more than a dressed up advertisement anymore? According to wikipedia: ‘A news release, media release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something claimed as having news value.’ It can be argued this kind of press release is good for the domain name industry. Any positive news headline about a product or service bodes well for that industry, however I’m afraid this isn’t ‘news’…
The entire article premise stems from a ‘survey’ domainregistrar.info conducted. From that survey we learn percentages of people that would consider giving a domain as a gift has risen, also the percentage of people that would appreciate getting a domain name as a gift has increased since their last survey… WOW more people will be happy to accept a domain name as a gift, newsworthy for sure! Then of course we are enlightened with the news that you can save 10% by using the coupon codes found in the press release!? ugh..
I’ve actually been giving people their .com as birthday gifts for the last couple months. I figure it’s cheap–$7.50 a pop–and some of those people I’ve been trying to get to purchase their darned name domains forever, so it’s sort of a cool thing to do. It’s also pretty damn unique. I’ll toss up a quick 1-page with their name + coming soon and tell them they get 3 hours of development time if they want it created into a blog or something.
Was going to make a post about it :P!
I agree that for some people domain names are good gifts. I have registered domains for family members as gifts however I wont just register all my families first+last .coms and say Merry Xmas!
It can be frustrating when you set up someone with a domain and install a blog on the domain for them to use and they never login to use it. If that’s the case the next year when renewal is up I usually ask the person whose domain I got for them if it’s worth keeping they usually say ‘aah nah, I’m probably not going to use it… thanks anyway though..”
If they do decide to keep and use the domain, do you transfer it to them? Then they forget to renew it.. or do you keep it in your account and renew it every year..? like the gift that keeps on giving! 🙂
Overall, I don’t really recommend registering domains as gifts unless they are specifically for someone who already understands domain names, their value and usability.
Thanks for your comment Sammy!
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