Thinking about starting a website/portfolio, but...

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John.D

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I'm thinking about starting up my own website. I'm not a professional but I thought it would be a cool endeavour, and my friend would host it so I would only need to pay for the .co.uk domain name which is only 8 pounds for two years!

Only the thing is, the name I was hoping to take, which is my own name, is taken by the .com adress, by, total coincidence, a photographer by the same name. The coincidence continues as he's an architect photographer and my father's an architect... Spooky...

Well anyway, I guess it would be OK to use the .co.uk adress, but even then his site 'title' is his name and then 'photography' which is ideally what i'd also have. So i'm worried it will basically cause a lot of confusion and problems, so i'm not sure what to do. I've thought about other website domains that venture out of just 'my name' but I couldn't find one to satisfy me and i'd much prefer just 'my name'.co.uk.
 
Is the other guy a pro and is he based in the UK? If so, then not only will there be confusion but he could complain to the domain registrar (Nominet IIRC) and get the .co.uk domain taken off you on the grounds that it's harming his business - if he is a UK based pro then he should really have registered both domains and pointed them to the same site.

As for choosing another name then do you have a nickname that you could use? Failing that try to come up with something that would be memorable and/or trips off the tongue - and also something with unambiguous spelling in case you tell someone verbally.
 
He is a US based photographer, he's a professional. I was speaking to him the other day, mentioning that we have the same name and it's a coincidence we're both photographers. I told him I was going to set up my own site, but didn't say anything about the name i'd choose. Last thing I want to do is cause a problem!

It's just annoying that even if I chose more of a nickname for a domain name, i'd still ideally have 'My Name Photographer' as the title, which is what he has. Unless there's something else I could title it. Talk about awkwardness!
 
Well, since he's US-based then there is less chance of confusion and since you have spoken to him already you could ask him if he sees any problem, or has any objection but personally I'd think up another domain name.
 
OK, I just emailed him. I will let you know of the response.
 
to be honest.
who cares
firstly you have the complete right to use any website name you wish
more so because it reflects your actual name
My boss for example was going to setup "starbuck group"
Starbucks (the coffee people) complained and he dropped it in favour of something less personal. He's nothing to do with coffee btw.
anyway apparantly he would have squashed their complaint as he is actually called Mr Starbuck. No-one in their company has that name. It's from moby dick isn't it?

anyhoo, take the name you want
out of a courtesy you can always have a "if you are looking for US based photographer "Name" click here"

oh yeah, the original reason I replied.
for simplicity? if you're lazy like me, I recommend joomla and simplegallery
you can't lose!
 
+1 more for Joomla with simplegallery

The domain names don't really matter, it just needs to be easy to type and easy to remember.
 
blazzer - domain names are big business and they do really matter ;)

John.D - Your in the UK, he's in the USA. He shouldnt complain that you have the same domain name. You can actually turn this into something positive by linking to each other, and posting on your site "dont get confused with .com as he's american" or something to that effect, and he can do likewise.

Go ahead and register it, you should have no problems with it.

:)
 
I was thinking the same. If anything, doing the link thing, and him back, would only benefit us :)
 
If he has got a problem with it you would have known about it by now! The domain you want would have been gone.

By contacting him you have given him at least a day to buy the .co.uk
 
I had the same problem, my name was taken for .com so I emailed the guy using it (sorry, NOT using it) and got no reply. So I just went with .co.uk - I could have had my name with 'photography' at the end for .com but decided I wanted as short an email address as possible.
 
I personally would choose something else, its just a name, why would you add to any confusion, its not particularly useful to confuse the users of the web after all.

I know domain names are big business but fredbloggs dot com ...is only valuable if your names fred blog ..to the rest of us its worthless...on the other hand fantasticphotos dot com has obviously got worldly appeal, but not having a good/cool/relivant domain name isn't going to make your site less findable, google knows all the good names have run out ages ago, and google also knows their are a wealth of fabulous sites under more unusual and odd names ...it gives them all the same relevance in response to a users keyword search.

Its the content not the domain thats important. :thumbs:
 
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