One of the most surprising mistakes that I see web site owners and sometimes even experienced web masters make is not checking domain name availability and grabbing their brand real estate when they have the chance.  What I am talking about are not only top level domain names (f.e. problogger.com and problogger.net etc.), but free sub domain names as well.

Whether you are starting a blog, web site or any web project for that matter, the first thing that you should do before registering your domain name check for availability across sites that offer free sub domains.  Some of these are blogger.com (yourdomainname.blogspot.com), wordpress.com (yourdomainname.wordpress.com) and StumbleUpon.com (yourdomainname.stumbleupon.com) amongst others.

If you don’t do this, you can end up loosing a piece of your brand real estate. Imagine how you would feel if you are the web master of new company web site or blog and you find out that after your registered a great domain name, most sub domains across free sites have been taken already ?

In the worst case, you’ll have to buy a domain name from the parents of a 12 year old who has been playing with the GoDaddy domain name search and used his Mommy’s credit card to register your brand name.

Now, the example above is just that, a colorful example, but it’s very possible. I have seen many annoying situations regarding domain names during my time as a freelancer.  Most of the headache is avoidable, this is an extremely simple tip.

Where do You Grab Brand Real Estate ?

I’ve only mentioned 3 examples where brand real estate can be grabbed.  Of course there are more.  The point of this blog entry is to build a comprehensive list together. So, where do you go in order to grab your online brand real estate ?