You Need to OWN IT!

In journalism class yesterday (thanks Dr. Kelley), my teacher talked briefly about owning your own dot com. It's a way to brand yourself, to upload works, and to have a professional identity.

So, today I searched the web (links: Yahoo!, Yahoo! Answers, Google, About, MSN)for the best way to get my own web address.

I cannot honestly say I was given clear information about how to appropriately do the process. Most sites recommend starting with http://www.godaddy.com/

So, I went there and their site is confusing. There's a too many different things leading to too many different places. However, they automatically figured out how to tell me that [YourNameHere].com is taken and you (which would be me in this case) need to pay a fee to try to buy it from somebody else. Sadly, I just gave up on them.

Another link I tried was Yahoo! Small Business. To date, my experience with Yahoo! (which started in 2003 with my first e-mail address) has been smooth. I have Yahoo! Alerts that come to my Blackberry and my lastest e-mail account with them is going great. So, I was eager to see about their process of acquiring a domain name.

Their process was very clear.
1. Enter the web address you're seeking. If it's unavailable, they'll offer substitutions. They also offer a service to keep your information private since all registered domain owners must have their information in a database.

2. Enter your billing information for payment.

3. Confirm your domain name and payment information. Then, you own it!

total cost = $10

http://www.ronalddanielsonline.com/

I OWN IT!
That's ONE step in the right direction.

What do I do next? Any suggestions?

LEAD LEAD LEAD!

As I scanned Yahoo! News (one of my fav news sources), I found this article and fell in LOVE with this lead:

"A steel-gray sky dimmed the sun but not the excitement on Hollywood Boulevard as 'Slumdog Millionaire' headed into Sunday's Academy Awards as the surefire favorite."

We ALL know that the lead can make or break the rest of what you have to say. This lead effectively described the setting for what is known as the biggest awards show ceremony of the year. And, from this, I know the rest of the article will be about this year's biggest movie, Slumdog Millionaire.

You can read the article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090222/ap_en_ce/oscars