Claim Your Virtual Real Estate As Part Of Your Blog Planning Process

So you spent $8 on the dot com version of your domain name, got yourself a $20 a month hosting account, uploaded wordpress with a great free theme and you’re in business.

That’s poor planning. Very poor.

Today, there are so many other services out there with opportunities for branding and promotion of your new blog it’s almost mindblowing.

There’s a Twitter plugin available for wordpress. It automatically posts a blurb to your Twitter account when you post to your blog. You DID check with Twitter before registering that new domain name, didn’t you? Was twitter.com/yourdomain available and did you secure it as part of your planning process?

What about a Youtube.com/yourdomain url and account. Myspace.com/yourdomain? What about yourdomain.blip.tv or a skype, Y!IM, MSN Messenger and AIM accounts with your name or a slight variation… and the list goes on. yourdomain@gmail.com (@yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc)

Not to mention, if you’re really serious about securing your name online, registering different .??? versions of your name, like .tv, .org, .net, .us, .ca, etc.

Enough. You get the picture. And posts on blogs by people who have unexpected popularity finding that their domains or slogans have been grabbed or are for sale to the highest bidder should paint that picture more vividly for you.

Of course, it’s not necessary. All you need is a domain, hosting and wordpress… but that’s short term and short sighted.

Get serious and spend a couple extra hours of preparation on your business, blog and brand by signing up to as least the most popular (or growing) services out there with your new domain. Heck, check all those services first before securing the domain itself.

Imagine being able to sell your site or blog in the future and having the added bonus of handing all those associated accounts over to the new owners. You’ll look a lot more like a serious player and those few extra hours of prep could pay off hansomely too.