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| Feb 23, 2008 3:04 am |
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Choosing Inferior Domain Names Can Ruin a Business |
Andy Greider
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A website by any other name, would not be so sweet....or so says the cyber-bard. Many times when we're picking a site url, we fall prey to classic mistakes - here are the most common - and how to avoid them:
1. Buy a .net instead of a .com - and you will most likely send more than 15% of your potential repeat busineess to the .com - most likely a huge competitor.
2. Not buying the .net, .org, .info, etc of your own name - to protect it on down the line. Serious online businesses should own all, and all should point to the .com.
3. Using a number in your domain name, such as FreeAdvice4Life, but not purchasing the freeadviceforlife.com address.
3. Keep it short and sweet - urls of less than 7 letters or digits work well. Others are very forgetable. Phone numbers are 7 digits for a reason - and the world isn't getting any better at paying attention to details or retention.
3.5 Begin to branch out to other countries with a name that doesn't translate well. Nothing worse than being an url that gains traction here and then becoming a whole new entity in another country - it is, after all, the world wide web.
4. Using two different names - one for your company - one for the web address. Consultants R Us as the name, then CRUS.com as the web address...or worse yet - with hyphens consultants-r-us.com.
5. Getting too close to the bone on a new name - or too closely emulating a trademarked name with cache value - and a large legal department. Doing so can crush a young company. Just when you gain momentum, they notice you - and you go away.
6. Trying to come up with a word without a current meaning and then expecting people to recall it without spending millions on new ads.
7. Forgeting that a name online has to "paint a picture" - Sam's Flowers On Main doesn't work online. Trying for something that is online oriented works much better than simply transfering a brick-n-mortar name to the internet.
8. Buy only the singular or plural of bikes.com or bike.com - try for both and stop sending your clients to the competition.
9. Working on a new company name without first checking for the url availability. There is nothing worse than hitting paydirt on a great name to find out the url isn't available. Check all of them before deciding.
10. Not buying potential mispellings - especially if your web address is something easily mispelled. Most people count on the average web surfer to be a deft typist, and it simply isn't the case.
Andy Greider - Google Me (http://www.qalias.com/view_profile/Andy/Greider/126/0)
Radio Show Host, Author (http://www.uniquenessispower.com)
Home Business Owner and Coach (http://googleme.wordpress.com)
Entreprenuer (http://www.saveyourbottomline.com)Private Reply to Andy Greider (new win) |
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