Branding Your Business (or Yourself) with Your Own Exclusive Domain Name
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Jim Neessen April 04, 2007
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Jim Neessen |
Jim Neessen is the CEO/Owner of "iPodiums.Biz" - a customizable LEAD
CAPTURE page system for promoting ANY product, service. or business
opportunity. The "iPodiums" lead capture pages are currently being used
by Internet marketers & independent reps from over 100 different
companies world-wide. For more information on how you can easily set up
and customize your own lead capture page for less than $5/month, please
visit iPodiums. |
Jim Neessen
has written 1 articles for DomainInformer. |
View all articles by Jim Neessen... |
It’s hard to see why anyone today would NOT want to register their
own personal domain name. This is your piece of “Internet Real Estate!”
Grab the perfect name, word or phrase that best describes you or your
business. Registering a domain name is easy, very inexpensive and can
greatly increase your level of professionalism. This is especially
important if you are advertising an affiliate program or replicated
website. Sub domains and trailing slashes “/” can weaken your image.
Also, instead of a long URL (web address) like:
"http://www.ipodiums.net/members/proleads/newmember.html", you can
register something short and catchy like: "www.ProLeadCapture.com". Of
course, you'll have to see if your domain choices are available. This
brief article will address some of the benefits of registering your own
domain, tips on choosing your domain name, and ideas on how you can get
the most out of having your own personal domain name.
BENIFITS of having your own Domain Name:
• Eliminate the "/" from your website address and make it shorter
• Brand yourself and your business… and look more professional
• Easier to verbalize and remember (when telling someone to visit your web page)
• Looks better in print (on business cards, labels, letterhead, etc.)
• Brand your email address to match your domain name (ex. if your
website was "www.yourdomain.com", you can use the following as your
email address: "[email protected]" or "[email protected]").
Most domain providers offer free e-mail forwarding with your domain
registration. You can use your domain email and have your messages
forwarded to your primary email account. (ex, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL,
etc.). You’ll want your prospects to see YOUR domain name in your
e-mail address, instead of giving “AOL” free advertising.
TIPS on choosing a Domain Name:
GOOD Example: "www.ProLeadCapture.com"
BAD Example: "www.Generating-efficacious-Leads-4-U.ws”
• Keep it simple, short & easy to remember
• You may want to avoid numbers and letters in place of words (like
in the example above). If you verbally give someone your website,
you'll have to remember to tell them to use the number "4" and the
letter “U” instead of the words "for" and "you".
• Try to use words or name that are easy to spell ("efficacious" may
be easily misspelled and therefore you might lose a customer. For
example, "Google" also registered "Gooogle.com" just in case someone
typed an extra "o" and they didn’t want users sent to another site).
• Avoid hyphens ("-"). Unless you are only using the domain for
Internet marketing, where prospects are only clicking links, people who
type your domain may leave the hyphens out and inadvertently go to a
competitor's website instead.
• Try to get a ".com". This is the most common extension. If you
can't find a ".com" with the name you want, the next best option would
be a ".net". But, make sure that a competing site isn't using the
".com", because people you send to your site may mistakenly go to
someone else’s website instead. A ".com" should always be the first
choice. I would rather settle for a longer domain name than choose a
shorter one with a different extension. The following are some of the
most common extension choices available: ".com", ".net", ".org",
".info", ".biz", ".ws", ".us".
IDEAS on how you can get the most out of your Domain Name
Once you register your domain name, you can easily “Forward” it (or
re-direct it) to any URL web address you want. Most domain providers
have free forwarding services included with their basic domain
registration, which, by the way, should NEVER cost you more than $9.99
per year (unless you’re adding on web hosting). If you have a
replicated website or an affiliate page, you do NOT need web hosting
because you’re just forwarding the domain to a page that is already
being hosted on the web.
Another FREE service that most domain providers offer is “E-mail
Forwarding”, which I like to call “E-mail Branding”! This lets you
brand your email address with your domain name. This way, every time
you send an email to someone, you are advertising your domain… and your
website. For example, if your domain was “www.YourDomain.com”, your
email address can be “[email protected]”. And, you don’t have to
get another email address. Your “domain e-mail” will simply forward all
your e-mail messages to your “AOL” account (or whatever e-mail service
you are using). It looks much more professional to have your “domain
e-mail” and your “domain website” on your marketing materials than
displaying a free e-mail address, like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc..
Generally, with “e-mail forwarding”, you have two options: “Catch
All” or specific e-mail forwarding addresses. There are pros and cons
to each:
PRO: With “Catch All”, if someone sends an e-mail with anything
before the “@” sign, it will still get forwarded to your main e-mail
account. This is especially beneficial if someone misspells your name
in your e-mail address, because the message will still get forwarded to
you. For example, if someone sends an email to:
"[email protected]" instead of "[email protected]" it would
still get delivered.
CON: "Catch All" e-mails are more susceptible to being SPAMMED
because SPAMMERS can easily get a list of domain names and just put
common words like "info" or "contact" in front of the "@yourdomain.com"
expecting that many of their solicitations will get delivered.
SUGGESTION: Use a "Catch All", but only advertise a single e-mail
address. This way if someone misspells the word before the "@" sign, it
will still get through to you. And, if you find yourself getting too
much SPAM with other words being used before the "@" sign, you can
always switch back to a single e-mail forwarding address using that
single word. This way you'll be able to stop the SPAM and won't have to
worry about missing e-mails from all the other e-mail addresses you
might have advertised. Another tip, if you're not using a "catch all",
is to avoid common words that SPAMMERS use to SPAM domain names. For
example, "[email protected]", "[email protected]" or
"[email protected]". You may want to use something less common, like
your first name (ex., "[email protected]"). This way if someone sends
SPAM to "[email protected]" it will NOT clutter up your inbox.
There are still lots of good “.com” domain names available. Take
your time looking for those that are just right for you… and grab them
while you still can!
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