Posts Tagged ‘google’

Desirable domain names are a hot commodity and the prices are going up, up, up!  Have you tried to register a domain name just to find out it has already been taken?  Desirable domain names, also called Premium Domain Names, are being marketed more aggressively than ever and people are paying a fortune for some of them.  We are not talking about the multimillion-dollar domain names here, we are talking about every day names that you might want to use for your business.

If you have a company name or product name and that name is available already, that is an obvious choice.  This article is about what to do when your first choice brand name is not available.

What Makes a Good Domain Name?

There are two important goals for most websites.  First is to be memorable to visitors.  Brand recognition and stickiness is very important.  Second is to help train Google.com in order to get more visitors redirected from the search engines.   To be clear, your domain name is a very small part of your overall search marketing strategy, but it is an important one.

To train Google.com, your domain name should include useful keywords.  If you are an attorney that specializes in divorces, some of your keywords would be:  divorce, attorney, lawyer, custody, settlement, alimony, etc.  You could choose a domain name by combining good keywords, such as: DivorceAttorney.com, DivorceLawyer.com, etc.  Those are very memorable and include great keywords.  Of course, someone else already registered those names.  What happens if you use more keywords, such as DivorceAttorneySettlementChildCustodyLawyerSpousalAbuseAlimonyFamilyLawOffice.com? That has many keywords in it, but it hardly solves our first objective of being memorable.  Well, it is very memorable, but not easily memorized.

What Variations Should I Try?

If you have decided on an one or two ideal domain names and they are no longer available, what do you do?  The first thing to do is to try a few variations.  Try and stay with .com style names.  Avoid adding dashes.  Add things like "Houston", "Texas", "My", "Your", "Offices", "Blog", "Store", etc.  This gives you a lot more options.  Using our example domain, DivorceAttorney.com, we have a lot more options: HoustonDivorceAttorney.com, MyDivorceAttorney.com, DivorceAttorneyOffices.com, and so on.

There are many alternatives to the .com extension.  These are less desirable for several reasons.  Mainly that your customers will probably go to the .com version.  It is not as big of an issue as it used to be, but .com names are still considered the premium choice with .net, .us, .biz, and .tv as decent second choices.  Do not choose .org unless you are a non-profit because that is what people expect from a .org site.

How do I Buy a Premium Domain Name?

You can easily determine who owns an existing domain name using a service called "WHOIS".  The "WHOIS" data is available from many places including most companies who provide domain registration services.  Send an email or call the official contacts associated with that domain name and see if the domain is for sale.

Many domain names are registered for the purpose of being resold at a profit.  You can usually tell from what happens when you try to visit the website.  The site looks strange and there is a link to inquire about purchasing the domain name.

Once you contact the domain owner, they will either say "not for sale" or they will give you a price.  Negotiate that price.  I’ve talked down every domain I’ve ever purchased.  One domain was offered at $5000 but I paid $1000.  Another domain was $1800 and I paid $800.

You can also purchase a domain name appraisal from GoDaddy.com for a few bucks and that will give you negotiation ammunition if someone’s asking price is too high.  There are a number of factors considered in pricing a domain name.  Use of popular keywords, extension, and many other factors influence the price.

How do I Pay and Not Get Ripped Off?

Never pay someone for a domain name without protecting yourself.  Many domain sellers are overseas and taking legal action against someone in another country will not be worth the trouble.  If you are buying from a reputable company such as GoDaddy.com, then there is little to worry about.  But if you are buying from an individual, you MUST use an escrow service.  I suggest www.escrow.com .  They charge about 3% and they manage the transaction.

An escrow service takes your payment, but will not release the payment to the seller until the domain name is properly transferred.  It also protects the seller because you cannot get your money back very easily either.  There are dispute resolution processes if necessary.  Generally both parties feel safer with an escrow service holding the money during the domain transfer process.

Transferring the Domain Name

Finally, there are some administrative headaches in transferring a domain name.  This takes an attention to detail and a little experience is helpful.  You should get the help of someone technical just to make sure everything is properly transferred and to confirm you have 100% complete control of the domain name before releasing escrow.  There may be several steps to the process.  The exact steps will vary from registrar to registrar. It is usually a process.

In case you have not noticed, video is exploding over the internet.  YouTube.com is one of many sources that have made video simple and affordable to produce.   We have all seen the skateboard accidents and other funny videos.  Have you also noticed the number of commercials and information videos?  Have you noticed how many video blogs are out there?  Yes, video is here and it is time for you to get in on the action.

Your First Video

Video is a big topic if you want it to be.  How do you reach your customers?  How do you make it interesting?  Should you hire a professional?  Can you do your own thing with a webcam?  These are all great questions and all have the same answer, "it depends".

If you are already accustomed to giving your "elevator pitch" about your company, that’s a great start.  You can also prepare a quick elevator pitch for each of your products or services.   If your business is centered around you and your personal credibility, then do your own videos.  If your business is built around the products and services, then at least consider using someone attractive with a captivating personality to represent your company.

For most companies, your video should be focused on marketing and not too educational.  No showing off!  Tell people that you can help them and focus on what they need and why they need it now.   No video resumes.  Focus on your client’s needs or on your differentiators.

Shoot several versions and change them up a bit.  Then ask your friends and colleagues to help you choose the videos that work the best for your business.  You can have several.

For web video, any camera will do.  Take the time and trouble to work on sound quality, lighting quality, etc.  You do not need special equipment, but you do want your video to look fairly well done.  It is not necessary to focus on high definition or tricky special effects.  Just get a video online and then upgrade it when you are ready.  It you want something really fancy or if you are producing a companion DVD, etc., then spend the money on professional help.

Publishing Your Video

Your video should be from 30 seconds to five minutes in duration.  These are easily hosted on YouTube.com.  Upload your video to YouTube.com and they will provide you with the codes to help put it on your website.  It is very simple.  Put a different video on each page of your website and make sure the YouTube.com descriptions include keywords, product names, or whatever else.  Google will read the YouTube.com descriptions and use those to drive traffic to your videos and to your website.

If you do not use YouTube.com for your video, there are easy ways to have your video placed on your website.  The important thing to do here is to create the XML required to teach Google.com what the video content is so Google.com can send you search engine traffic.  Google calls this XML file a "Google SiteMap".  To create a Google SiteMap, go here:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=80472

I am sure that Google SiteMaps are generated by some video editing software.  There are probably other tools to help you do this as well.

Great Video Commercials

If you go to YouTube.com, you can search and find all sorts of videos.  One of my favorite examples are the videos from the BlendTec blender company.  These videos are built as a cross between a video blog and an infomercial. Search youTube.com for "Will it blend" and you will see well made videos of a guy grinding up all sorts of crazy things in his BlendTec blender.  These videos are designed to do several things:

Create a viral marketing buzz.

Demonstrate the quality of the product.

Sell blenders.

These commercials do all that well.  It is worth a look to get some ideas on how to do it right.

Are you tired of these high gas prices?  So are your customers.  Now is the time to take a serious look at online services that save time and money by helping you accomplish more online.  Your customers will appreciate not having to drive to your office, or store, and you will appreciate the increased online business because of today’s gas crisis.  High gas prices mean more online sales.  Get ready.

Online sales tools are very popular for business-to-business relationships.   Do not overlook business to consumer possibilities, especially on higher priced items.  Helping a customer through pre-sales options online might save them time or money.  Imagine, as a consumer, being able to select color and material options in advance.  It could reduce two or three trips to the store down to just one.

Build an Online Sales Environment

• Free Conference Calls – Free conference call services are quite good and they really are free. Use these for sales demo calls, staff meetings, etc. Search Google.com for “free conference calls” and find www.FreeConferenceCall.com and many others.
• Free Video Conferencing – Check out services such as www.NowLive.com, www.SticKam.com, and other video conferencing services. Some cater towards entertainment but work fine for business and sales presentations. Search for “video conferencing” or “free video conferencing” or “free video chat”. There are plenty of choices.
• Webinars - Webinars allow you to share your computer screen with participants. Have callers join a conference call and then login to the webinar site and you can conduct presentations online. Search Google.com for “webinars”.
• Online Sales – Provide the ability to order any of your products or services online, over the phone, or through the mail. Make sure the whole process is painless. Include FAQs, guarantees, privacy notices, anti-spam notices, etc. Make sure the entire online sales process is secure and comfortable for your customers.

The bottom line is that gas prices force consumers to do more shopping online.  It costs too much money to drive around all weekend.  The upcoming Christmas season will certainly set new records in online sales while retail sales will be dismal.

Now is the time to get your website cleaned up and ready to sell more products and services online.