Would you buy from someone with an @yahoo.com e-mail address I wouldnt. And the clients Ive had the most trouble with use yahoo addresses or other free addresses. I understand that you dont want your regular e-mail address in ads that your run on free ad sites to prevent spam, but lets use some common sense here.
If you dont buy anything from yahoos off line why would you buy from a yahoo online If youre serious about your business you have to show it in your actions. The first action to take is to buy your own domain name and use it for all of your e-mails.
Lets say theres a Bob Jones who starts up an online company. Will you be quicker to buy from him and trust him if his e-mail address is bob@starpower.com or if you read an ad from bobjones711@yahoo.com Hes the same guy, but which address makes you trust him more and believe hes a legitimate business
Even if youre not ready to put up a site (which you should be if youre marketing online), at least create a professional presentation with your e-mails. Theyre your main form of communication online and its the main brand people see when you communicate. Everytime you send an e-mail youre advertising. Do you realize this Youll never make decent money online if your e-mail address ends with @aol.com.
When you come up with a great name for your site or business get a .com, not a .net or .info or .tv or .someotherwordpeopledontthinkoffirst. If you cant get a .com for your name, then come up with another name.
Since my main site is www.NetMarketingMastery.com and thats a bit long to type out, I also use www.nmmastery.com for people to get to the same site and use sopan@nmmastery.com for my e-mail address.
There are 877 and 888 numbers that do the same thing as 800 numbers, but what do you think of first
Have ever you ever heard anyone talk about 888 numbers How many times Okay, now how many times have you heard people talk about 800 numbers 888 and 877 numbers are known as the step brothers and sisters of 800 numbers.
Similarly, when you want to send a package overnight what company do you think of first Probably Federal Express because they were the first company to do overnight shipping. You can use UPS or Airborne Express or some of the other smaller companies, but FedEx is the company that gets the most business because theyre thought of first. You need to have a .com domain because thats where visitors will go first no matter how many new domain endings are created years and years from now.
If you have .net domain name then youll be setting yourself up to lose visitors to whoever has the .com domain for your name. Outside of earthlink.net how many .nets come to your mind right now On the other hand, how many .coms can you think of
When you hear about a cool company and want to see if they have a website do you try their name with a .com or with a .net or .info or .tv 0r .anythingelsebesidesa.com Ill bet money that you try the .com first everytime and you always will because its always going to be your first choice.
So if you havent already, go buy a domain for your birth name and get crackin on coming up with a great name for your business and go buy a domain for that name before its taken. Honestly, were talking about a $15 a year investment. If youre not willing to invest $15 into your business then you dont have a business. If you want to be taken seriously you have to have your own domain name or you will die online trying to make money. Period, end of story.
About The Author
Sopan Greene, M.A. is a marketing & life coach & editor of the Net Profits newsletter. Grab Your 2 FREE eBooks & a FREE report: Million Dollar Emails How To Start Your Own Traffic Virus & The 13 Deadly Internet Marketing Mistakes Almost Every Business Is Making... mail to:
What is a domain name A domain name is the location of your website on the Internet. Your domain name will be what you become known by online so its important to get it right.
Each website on the Internet is labeled with something called an IP address which is the actual address of the website online. A typical IP address looks like this: 159.134.27.64. Remembering a string of numbers like that is difficult so a domain name translates all those numbers into something like amazon.com. This is far easier to remember.
#1 Dot what
Each domain has whats called an extension. The most well known of these extensions is .com. This, however, is not the only type of domain extension available. There is also:
.net
If you cant find your preferred .com domain name you could always choose the same domain with a .net extension. It might not have the same ring as a .com but is still as just useful as a .com.
.org
These domain extensions were orginally designed for educational and more formal websites. Anybody can register a .org however so you have more options for domain selection.
.info
A more recent introduction to the domain name game are .info domains. Many of the valuable .info domains were bought up overnight but theres still a huge range of good .info domains available. With a little creativity you could really make a .info work for you e.g. www.moviereview.info.
Bear in mind that most web surfers tend to remember .com more easily than anything else.
#2 Branding vs Business Name
There is an age old debate on the whether or not you should establish a brand name online or use a domain that more actually reflects your real business. Lets look at Amazon as an example. Amazon sells books online. Most people setting up a business would have chosen say www.booksonline.com instead of amazon.com Amazon has since established itself as a brand name of global recognition - proving the value of building a brand name.
Youll need to choose between the two. Brand name or your own business name. Consider how your domain sounds, how it might look on a business card and how well it relates to your business.
Theres no one right answer to this question. You need to choose what makes most sense for you, your website and your business in general.
#3 Hyphenated or not
This is another area of debate. Should your domain be one single word or should the words be separated by hyphens There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Single word domain names can be easier to explain, use on header paper and lend themselves to brand names very well.
Single word domains are in very, very short supply.
Hyphenated domains names can be slighltly more difficult to explain, may not look as well on headed paper and possibly harder to establish as a brand name. Theres no shortage of multiple word domains.
The single biggest advantage a hyphenated domain has is that search engines can read the domain more easily. For example in a domain like foreignholidaysonline.com the search engine can only read the first word foreign and thats it. It cant tell anything else about the website domain name.
If you hyphenated that to foreign-holidays-online.com the search engine can read foreign, holidays and online as separate words and therefore knows that this website is about foreign holidays.
A well chosen hyphenated domain name can be just as effective as a single word domain name.
#4 Your Domain Registrar
These are the people you pay to register the domain for you. There are dozens if not hundreds of these companies out there so which one do you choose This takes some research but things worth checking are:
Shop around for domain registrars. What you really want to find is a previously satisfied customer to ask questions before you buy.
#5 Cheap Domain Names
You can save a lot of money on the domain names you purchase. A typical .com domain costs about $15 to register from most registrars. However you can get the same domain for as little as $7.95 from other, very reliable, companies.
Oddly enough some of the cheaper domain registrars are more reliable, have fewer horror stories and offer equally good customer service as their more expensive competitors.
Are there any disadvantages in using a discount domain registrar Will it affect your website in any way The answer to both is a definite No.
This article was provided courtesy of Domain Tutor where youll find tons of information on how to register a domain name