Website Wednesday: Picking The Right Domain Name

Picking the right domain name isn’t necessarily as important as you may think.  Unless you’re Coke, or Nintendo, or the American Broadcasting Corporation (and I think they all have theirs locked down by now) your domain name can really be anything.

Of course it is wise to have something that has to do with your industry and keyword rich, so if you can (and if it’s available) get something like that.  A good domain name should have something to do with your industry — like design for me — and something to set you apart from your competition — like start page.  Here are some good examples of good domain names:

1. Bakespace.com — a MySpace clone for chefs and cooks.
2. TempeCarWash.com — a local car wash company.

Now the next question is whether to go .com, .net, .biz, or what.  Here’s my personal opinion on that:  ALWAYS GET THE .COM!!!  If it’s available that is.  Most people using the web automatically think your domain name will end in a .com if they ever get confused or forget, so make sure you own it if you can.  You don’t want to be sending money to your compitors or to some adlink site, like the ones I mentioned on Monday.

That said, if you can bet the .net, .biz, .org, .info, .us, .mobi, etc., etc., etc., and you have the budget to get them, do so.  If you point them all to your main page, and rewrite the URL to the .com, you’re going to increase your rank and authority.

Another suggestion would be to buy the .net, .org, etc. of your competitors domain names.  Of course you probably shouldn’t do this if your competition is using a copyright, and even if they’re not, I’d point those domain names to the adlink sites (Sedo.com is great) instead of pointing them to your own site.  You don’t want to get into a costly legal battle over a $10 domain name.

So there are my 2¢ for the week.  Now go buy some domain names.

Finance Friday: Ditch The Phone Book

When was the last time you went to a phonebook to look up a local business?  Seriously, think about it.  Even before the days of Internet magic and finding things at the click of a button, many people used 411 rather than look anything up in this tome.

Today,  whenever a phone book shows up at my door it usually ends up in a recycling bin within five minutes (if that long.)  But, I did decide to browse quickly through one the other day just for old times sake.

I was amazed, astounded, thrown completely aback.  There are still companies that use the phonebook advertisements.  I couldn’t help but think, “What a complete waste of money.”

Marketing Monday: Know Your Audience

It should go without saying, it really should.  But I’m amazed (almost daily) at the number of companies that don’t really think about who their marketing to, and where they are.

Jumping Outside The Norm

I love the idea of bringing people to your business in new and different ways.  The web has changed marketing since its inception, and still today the classical marketers are trying to catch up.  One place where more and more of these groups are working in is through inbound marketing.

Now I could take a moment to brown nose and say that my favorite example of inbound marketing is HubSpot TV, but I’m not that guy.  I will admit that the reason for this post is the hope of winning a ticket to the Inbound Marketing Summit in April, but it’s an honor to just be nominated.

My Brother Andy Is Hilarious

I love both of my brothers equally, but I have to say that Andy is the funniest of the three of us.  Not only is he quick and witty, his randomness equals and tops even mine.  (And for those who haven’t met me in person, well, I have no response.)

Here is just one of the many examples of Andy’s hilarity.  Recently our mother forwarded us yet another in an ever growing series of FamSpam (sorry, Mom, but it’s true) as follows:

From: Around50previous@emailaddresses.com

To:  Justshortofamillion@recipients.com

Successful Failure By Cox On Twitter

I’m going to give Cox Communications a little bit of credit here.  I’ve criticized my need for cable in the past, but I knew I’d need to keep my internet, because, to be honest, I wouldn’t be able to survive without it.  So the other night, when my internet connection went out, I Twittered about it.  Someone over there was on the ball and tried to help.

Apparently @CoxTech1 Twittered me back mere moments after I posted my aggravated note with offers to assist and even giving me an email to send a support request to.

I appreciate that.  I really do.  But there’s a problem there.  You see, when my internet is out, I have no access to check my twitter replies, I can’t very well send an email now can I!?!?!

Ideally, the person working at Cox would have checked the content of my message:

Hey Cox Communications. If you’re smart enough to be on Twitter (which I doubt) you have an outage at University and Evergreen. Please fix. about 23 hours ago from txt.