I’ve bought and registered the Mclinden.com domain. It’s taken me more than half a lifetime, but I’ve finally got it. It’s something I thought I would never be able to do.

I’ve been trying for a long time

It all started back when the Internet was young. This new thing called an email address was invented and nobody knew what they were. Even Google wasn’t really Google back in those days. Search engines were called Lycos, Alta Vista, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves etc. But, from 1986, you could register your own domain. Or in other words, you could create your name as a website like I’ve done, with a .com at the end – like www.mclinden.com. And that meant you could have an email with your actual name in it – like [email protected]. Cool huh?

I’ve been trying since Andy married Fergie. That’s a long time ago. His profile changed a bit since then.

But I wasn’t quick enough

Now, if you’ve got a name that lots of other people have, like Patel or Smith or something, then someone else had probably thought of that before you. They’d have snapped it up and you couldn’t have it. That’s okay I thought. McLinden ain’t so commonplace, I’ll be able to get it. But …….. I couldn’t. Some web hosting / genealogy site had got in before me and had registered www.mclinden.com.

So, I registered Mclinden.co.uk instead. Not as cool, but cool enough and that’s what I’ve been using for more than a third of a century.

Oh I tried lots of times to buy mclinden.com from the owner, but they wouldn’t let it go. Although, I think they did ask for about £4,000 one time to transfer it to me. I thought about it. My IT company could have paid that, but I didn’t do it. And then the offer was withdrawn!

When it comes to domains, there can be only one!

Stalking is a thing where domains are concerned

So, about 20 years ago, I registered my interest in the mclinden.com domain with a large number of Internet domain reseller agents and asked them to send me a notification if it ever came up. Every time I came across a new reseller agent, I registered with them too.

All good things come to those who wait!

And then there it was. I received an email from dan.com a little known domain broker, saying mclinden.com was available and offering me the domain – for next to nothing. Just a small admin fee. A few clicks, a tiny dent in the credit card and then wait 7 days for the sale to process? Was this a scam? Would I really get hold of it?

The proof of the pudding is that you are looking at it now! Okay, depending how you got to this page, and which part you’re on, this may be the page that is served up by mclinden.co.uk – but .com is mine and I couldn’t be happier.