I happened to run into an article today talking about the downhill skier Lindsey Vonn as she will be gracing the front cover of Sports Illustrated® Feb 8, 2010 before the Olympics start. Lindsey happens to be a pretty girl, a great skier and sponsored by several companies. One of those sponsors happens to be the energy drink Red Bull®. Not only is Lindsey sponsored by Red Bull, in a way… Red Bull owns HER!

Red Bull happens to be the registrant for the domain name LindseyVonn.com .

Although Lindsey has likely been skiing for a very long time and climbing the ranks, she did not appear to have the mindset to own her name as a domain name.

LindseyVonn.com was first registered in 2008 by Red Bull GmbH and has been since 1-11-2008, likely about the time she "signed on" with her Red Bull sponsorship.

Now there may or may not be "contracts" involved with the domain name but what happens if Lindsey and Red Bull decide to part ways some day? If there is no contact, Red Bull may likely be able to keep the domain name and continue to use the domain for their purposes due to the sponsorship they had.

This clearly could hurt Lindsey financially and branding wise if she happens to want to write a book called Lindsey Vonn. What if she wanted to use her name for a skiing school? What if she just wants to blog about what she is doing..  You see it often… A lot of people become famous and known by there name! This happens a lot with sports athletes. Since the internet is driven by KEYWORDS, your name becomes the keyword users search for. Owning the exact match domain name is not only important for SEO and the search engines returning the relevant results, but owning the exact match domain name is more official and professional.

If you can register your full name as a domain name, I would. If you can purchase it for a fair amount in the domain aftermarket, I would. It’s You! I use mine right now and simply forward it to my Facebook page. It’s much easier to tell people to visit JamieZoch.com then facebook.com/ajidoij/15748/do1684 . If I decide to use it for a site later, I can. You never know what may happen and your name may become famous one day! People know you as you, so using your name as a "brand" isn’t all that bad of an idea as well.

If you do happen to own your domain name, keep it that way! If you are sponsored by somebody, that is fine.. put up the sponsors on your site etc, but there is no reason for them needing to be owner of your domain! For Lindsey’s sake, I hope there is something in writing. Not owning your name and having your sponsor buying the domain because they understand the internet and the importance of it, may lead to issues for you down the road if you want it or need it.

Screen Shot from LindseyVonn.com