I started 599CD.COM back in 2002 with a mission to provide quality beginner computer training lessons on CD for $5.99. I initially planned to just offer a ton of different beginner lessons on a wide variety of topics, and keep all of the lessons priced at $5.99.
Well, after a year or so it became evident that certain topics were much, MUCH, more popular than others. So I decided to specialize mostly in Microsoft Office products. Word, Excel, and Access are, to date, my most popular subjects. It became necessary to make intermediate and advanced lessons for these subjects.
Unfortunately, as you get more and more advanced with any type of training, you get fewer and fewer students (just look at any university: undergrads far outnumber graduate students). So, unfortunately, in order to make producing advanced lessons cost effective, I have to charge more for them. I still keep all of the beginner lessons at $5.99, but the name "599CD" doesn't always apply.
In addition, back in 2002 very few people had access to high-speed Internet. Now, in 2012, a LOT more people do. Over 95% of all of my students now either download or watch their lessons online. We ship VERY few CDs anymore (which is why we only ship orders once a month). So, again, "599CD" doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
So... here's where you come in. I've been trying to find a good NEW domain name to change the web site over to. I've researched a ton of different possibilities, but all of the cool ones seem to be taken, especially the ".COM" names.
I'm not terribly convinced that it's NECESSARY to stick with .COM, but it would be nice. I have looked into some of the alternatives. ".TV" might be cool, since my training is all video-based (my wife says it's dumb, though). There's also a ".MS" top-level domain, which kind of implies "Microsoft" without saying it.
I do have a few other domain names that I use for specific products. For example, I have ExcelLearningZone.com and AccessLearningZone.com, which are my 2 most popular products. I'd still like to eventually move EVERYTHING under one, cool-sounding, blanket domain name.
I've got a list of ideas. I don't want to post them here, publicly, because I wouldn't want someone to go out and grab them on me. I really, REALLY, hate domain squatters. There are a lot of cool domain names that I would love to buy, but they're registered and "parked" by domain squatters... people who just grab up domain names and don't do anything with them because they want to sell them for outrageous amounts.
So I'm going to have a contest... send me your ideas for new domain names for the site! I would PREFER ".com" names, but that's not necessary. I would prefer SHORT names (under 8 characters or so) and names that are easy to remember (catchy). You can use a site like BulkRegister to check and see if the name is available.
Here's what's in it for you: in addition to me eternal gratitude, I will give a $500 gift certificate to whomever comes up with our new domain name. In case the same name is submitted by multiple people, they will split the prize. So try to come up with something unique, catchy, short, and says something about what the site is about.
You can SUBMIT YOUR IDEAS HERE. Don't hold back. Submit as many ideas as you want (just please make sure they're not already used by someone else).
Thanks!