A much appreciated gift for the future

Advice I’ve been giving parents of young children:

Purchase your children’s domain names ASAP.

When my kids were born, I purchased claradicks.com and charliedicks.com. I’ve also purchased elyshadicks.com and the many variations of my own name.

I’ve also been known to purchase the domain names of friends and the children of friends as gifts.

When it comes to your children, there is a good chance that someday, far in the future, they will be thrilled to own their own domain name. It might take two decades or more for the investment to pay off, but when it happens, it’ll be worth it.

In all things, play the long game.

Also, purchasing their domain names will prevent anyone from nefariously purchasing their domain name to create problems for them in the future.

It’s also relatively inexpensive. You’ll probably pay about $10 per year, but it’s even cheaper when you pay for multiple years at a time.

As an added bonus, try to get your child’s name as a gmail account, too. It looks like gmail is here to stay. Both of my kids have their names as gmail accounts, as do do Elysha and I.

Very convenient.

If your child’s domain name has already been taken, try including their middle name, their middle initial, or some other sensible variation of their name.

They will be just as thankful in the future.

And if you really want to make them happy, maybe throw in a copy of Storyworthy or Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend or Something Missing, too. Or maybe just purchase all seven of my books, plus you can preorder of Someday Is Today, publishing on June 7, wherever you get books.

Really make the gift of a domain name sing with some fine literature.