Ok – I admit it. I’m a bit of a domain collector. It may be a moment when inspiration strikes, or it’s an idea for a product or service I want to create, or just because it’s a domain that strikes me for one reason or another.

So, if you’re a collector like me, and you’re registering something new and you’ve not picked these up you will want to take a look to see if these are available before you check out. If they are, then you need to make sure that you’ve got registered no matter what.

Your kid’s names

If you’ve got young children I recommend highly to get their personal names registered. It may be several years before the domain gets used, but it will be great to have it once they’re old enough to make use of it.

Maybe they will want to use it for a school project. Or maybe they want to create a blog or some kind of cool online project that you can work on with them. Whatever it is, it’s vital to get those domains registered.

Your Spouse’s Name

Similar to having domain names reserved for your kids, it’s important to get your spouse’s domain registered too. Even if your spouse couldn’t possibly care less about being online there may be a time when they’re looking to make a career switch and an online resume would be something to help them set themselves apart from the crowd. Trust me – as one who’s looked at a lot of resumes over the years, a really well-done resume site can go a long way to make you memorable, but I digress…

Family Name

This one may be hard to come by, but it’s worth a shot to see if you’re family name is available.

Why You Need A .com

Say you’re in a conversation with a potential client, and you give them your domain verbally because you’re in a hurry and don’t have any business cards with you. You quickly blurt out your domain followed by .us, or .info.

It’s a very easy mistake that I’ve seen many, many times, for that potential client to enter the .com because they’re everywhere and it’s easy to drop a .com at the end of your domain by accident. You’ve just inadvertently sent them to another site that could be your competitor or something entirely unrelated.

Many of the most memorable domains end in .com. But don’t let that stop you if you find something that fits really well, is memorable and works for your brand.

So we’re looking for a .com domain as a rule. It’s the most widely used and popular of the available domain options.

Variants Of Your Primary Domain Name – .com, .net, .us

If you haven’t done so already, register all the possible variants of your business’ name with all the top level domains – .net, .com, and .us. If you could possibly have variant spellings for your business grab them too.

A great example is Dan Miller’s 48days.com. If you check the possible variants of that domain you’ll see he’s got them all and they’re all pointed to his various web properties site.

Your Social Handle

You’re already at least partially assured of it being available being that you’ve chosen it as your username on various social sites across the web.

Paul Boag is a great example of this. Paul is @Boagworld on Twitter and his site is at Boagworld.com.

Jeff Robbins is another great example. He’s on Twitter @jjeff, and the same for his personal site, jjeff.com.

If you’ve chosen a username that you use from site to site then it’s a good idea to have it registered so that it’s available to you should you ever decide to do something with it. Plus, having a universal username makes it easier for people to remember you, carries your persona from site to site, and establishes your credibility and fields of interest and expertise.

You don’t want someone else trading on your name. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous people who will do their best to ride on the coattails of your hard-won success.

And you never know what future use a domain name may have. I’ve got numerous domains that I’ve registered for this very purpose (along with available variants). So make sure you have these locked up.