Buying variants of your main domain name

[Asia_Expat]

I know we've had this topic before but I want to pose the question again.

As well as the original .com version of my domain, I also secured the .net .org and a typo of the .com
As my website grows (and considering an old rivalry) I noticed that the plural of my domain and the .info had been registered by someone but are now deleted and available again. I'm positive it's not a coincidence because the domain and the branding are quite unique.

I also noticed that a few other variants of my domain have been registered and still are. I'm flattered in a way but it has made me think about how far I should go in securing typos, plurals and TLD's in order to protect my brand.

I probably won't bother securing the .info now it's available again but the plural has made me stop and think... and now we have the .asia TLD. This could start getting expensive...

[edited by: Asia_Expat at 9:53 am (utc) on Mar. 17, 2008]

[jwzumwalt]

Variations are really unlimited and people have more coincidence than one might think. I once taught a programming class and had two students have similar typos and nearly identical subroutine names. When I talked to the students, they were able to convince me that they had uniquely arrived at the same basic solution.

Your site names will always be vulnerable to numbers and short cute extensions. It's a mad-mad- world!