The benefits of a dedicated domain name for small business owners are enormous. Not only does it increase your company’s credibility, offer a convenient point of reference for your products and services and reduce your marketing and advertising costs, but it also provides your potential customers with an easy access point to your company 24/7, totally at their convenience.
Just imagine having to field a customer inquiry at three am? You would be a hot mess if you had to do it yourself, but your trusty marketing machine, also known as, your website is happy to do it for you…never needing a toilet break or asking for extra vacation days.
Having a dedicated website is one of the most cost-effective business strategies available to small business owners today. So choosing the right business name is critical to your success.
- Choose a domain name that is short, succinct, and easy to remember. The fewer words the better.
- Choose a website that is easy to spell. And if your budget allows, register the common misspellings of your domain name as well. For example, since the whole “I before E, except after C” trips most people up when spelling, if I were to register the domain “weirdo.com” Not only would I register the correct spelling “w-e-i-r-d-o,” I would also register “ w-i-e-r-d-o.com” as well, to make sure that I capture all of the traffic intended for my site even if a potential customer misspells my domain name.
- Avoid the word “and” in your name if at all possible. If the word is essential to your name, then be sure to also register it using the ampersand “&” as well because folks are likely to use both when typing your website address.
- Make your domain name easy to say. You want it to have the sticky-ness of a television jingle that you just can’t get out of your head. This will also maximize its viral potential.
Now it’s likely that after you come up with a killer domain name, you find that it’s already been registered. But don’t be discouraged because you can easily get around this little hiccup by adding common extender phrases to your name like “the,” “my,” or the plural “s.” Try it out and see which has the best ring to it. Remember, we’re going for a name that’s easy to remember and easy to spell so those two rules trump any attempts to be clever.
If your dot-com is taken, you can also register the name using one of the next most popular extensions .net, .biz .info and .tv to name a few. “Dot-org” domains are typically reserved for non-profits so I would not recommend registering under a .org unless community service ambitions are in your future plans.
Once you’ve registered your domain name with a powerful registration and hosting solution, then it’s time to start marketing that puppy! Immediately set up your email account and put your branded email and website on ALL of your marketing materials. Even if your website is not up yet, you can create a simple landing page that says “coming soon” and include your contact information. Now get to work developing your site. Until next time, To Your Success!
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Let’s talk about the pros and cons of those free business card offers that you see floating around the internet. We’ve all seen them and even being a Designer myself, I freely admit that I’ve been tempted too. When you’re first establishing yourself, the list of “to do’s” seems so long that being able to check off business cards as “Done” is reason enough to be tempted by the quick-fix a free business card offer provides.
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