Upgrading a domain name
Until recently I owned the domain name 15-cornwall.com which I used for a small information site for the Jamie Oliver Fifteen Cornwall restaurant here in Cornwall. For various reasons I did not regard the site as a success and was on the verge of shutting it down. However, I then had the opportunity to “upgrade” the domain name, by which I mean I had the opportunity to register a better domain name for the website: 15cornwall.com.
Normally, I do not recommend changing the domain name on an exiting website as you lose existing traffic (although see my earlier post on redirection), but in this case there was not a huge amount to lose and a good deal to gain: traffic that arises from people just typing 15cornwall into the browser - the “real” restaurant website is fifteencornwall.com (why they did not register 15cornwall.com as well is a mystery to me).
I was able to upgrade this particular domain name at very reasonable cost, but I have just had an offer to upgrade the domain name for one of my other sites for $11,000 and it may actually be worth doing!
