Veteran domain investors know that having keyword domains that define a product or service can give businesses a huge head start in building a successful business and rising above the competition. I recently got a note from Stu Maloff, a New York State teacher who 

has run popular summer basketball camps for the past 16 years, that really brought that lesson home. Maloff started with just one small local upstate New York camp but wise use of domains and the Internet to promote his business has helped him grow it dramatically. 

Maloff told me, "Thanks to a wide array of basketball and camp domain names, I have been able to draw campers from all over the world. This internet presence combined with word of mouth from parents of campers that have attended, has helped draw campers from more than 30 states and 20 countries to my camps in upstate New York and Florida. Recently my corporation signed a contract with Walt Disney World to run my FUN-damental 

Basketball Camp in Orlando next summer at their Wide World of Sports." Maloff is using his OrlandoBasketball.com domain to promote the Disney camp. 

"That was one of the domains I have owned for years," Maloff said. "Some of the others that have helped promote my camp are NewYorkBasketball.com, BostonBasketball.com, ChicagoBasketball.com, MiamiBasketball.com and many more. The camp related ones include BostonCamps.com, SeattleCamps.com, BasketballCamps.net, BasketballCamp.us and BasketballCamps.us. Stu is such a believer in domains that he now loves this field almost as much as basketball and has even opened his own domain sales site at StupendousDomains.com. 

A lot of major corporations still haven't figured out the importance of domains as an advertising vehicle in an increasingly online world. It has always been a point of amazement for me to see so many MBAs and ad agencies missing a boat that small business owners like Maloff have been rowing successfully for years. 
(Posted Dec. 1, 2007)