Lee Dewyze – American Idol

I’m not a fan of the show American Idol, but it’s been impossible to ignore all the buzz around Lee Dewyze.  He happens to be from my home town of Mount Prospect, Illionis.  This past weekend the town came to a screeching hault as the community rallied to welcome him home.  I haven’t seen him perform, but from what I have heard, he’s pretty damn good.  Just now, my wife and daughter are tuned into the program and I thought I’d use this time to get a post in.

The name LeeDewyze.com appears to be legitimately owned by the singer and the site is used to sell his music.  The .net was registered by a Jim Faile in January of this year and hosts a virgin Wordpress installation.  The .org doesn’t appear to be registered by the singer, but it looks like a fan site or an Adsense monetization attempt with some videos.  I’m not at all surprised that someone snatched up these names, but it’s good to know that Lee has the .com version which is most important.

I took a look at just the last name, Dewyze, and found that the .com and .org are both parked pages.  The .net is available at the time of this post.

You may not be an American Idol contestant but your name is your brand.  This is going to be more of a factor as social media continues to advance and more people build their careers and networks online as apposed to the limitations of the cubicle walls.  Owning your own name is an real asset.  Do yourself a favor and snatch it if it is out there.  Otherwise, find something, some variation, and start to build your personal brand around that.  It’s probably less important what your domain name is and more important that people think of you when your industry, niche, or particular skill sets are discussed.

Now maybe I’ll tune in and see what all the excitement is about.