As with anything done well, your business success will generate people who want to feed off or piggyback on your success. This situation is especially true for web domain names and business phone numbers.
On one hand, you certainly can’t blame competitors for maximizing their own marketing ROI with this smart strategy. But it can be extremely frustrating and may mean losing potential deals and clients despite all of your hard work and dedication to growing your organization. Fortunately, you have the ability to stop the situation before it even begins!
First, you must understand how competitors can feed off your business phone number. Just as with having similar Internet domain names, other businesses can feed off your advertising, reputation, and marketing budget by acquiring similar business phone numbers to yours. For numeric numbers, this situation could mean obtaining similar numbers that could be incorrectly dialed. In terms of vanity numbers, competitors may try getting their hands on the same vanity numbers with different prefixes since dialing the wrong prefix is a common mistake by customers trying to call you, especially if you do not have the 800 number version. Worse, if you have a well known company name, but you do not have the matching vanity number that spells out your name, competitors might acquire it and be able to take large amounts of prospects and even current customers who were actually attempting to call your business phone number.
To protect yourself, begin by making sure you have a unified brand, including an easily recognizable vanity number. Then just as with reserving a domain name for your website, try to reserve as many variations of your business phone number as you can. Start with the 800, 888, 877, 866 and 855 prefixes and then move on to any other obvious combinations.
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So, you’ve found the perfect web domain name for your online business. Congratulations! But you’re not done yet. It is also important to consider domain name variations that will help you reap the full benefits of your initiative. Consider the following:
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Extension Variations – having a .com website is great. However, having a .co, .uk, .ca, etc. extension might prove to be even more beneficial. That's because the search engines are designed to give preference to “local” websites for searchers in other countries. Aside from this difference, registering the .net and .org extension of your site can prevent others from taking advantage of your hard work.
Plural Variations – Look into whether registering plurals will be a good investment or not.
Typo Variations – Not all Internet users are gifted with spelling skills. For example, they might spell “article” as artical and Google as Gogle. Register obvious misspellings if you have a long domain name.
These are just some of the must have web domain name variations that may be suitable for businesses. Other variations you can look into include transposing variations (for example, changing “domainname.com” to “namedomain.com” and phonetic variations). At the end of the day, it is up to you whether you believe registering these sites will improve your bottom line or not.
2010 has certainly seen its share of significant domain name transfers, further demonstrating just how valuable a good Internet domain name really is. Transfers include Dating.com for $1.75 million, Poker.org for $1 million, Guns.com for $800,000, BlackFridaySales.com for $90,000 and one adult-orientated domain name going for a cool $13,000,000!
Clearly a good domain name is the best investment many businesses can make. It could one day be worth more than the rest of your company’s revenue streams put together. True, most companies do not have that kind of cash to invest at start up, but those that do can lock in success from day one. Acquiring a winning web domain name from the start also makes attracting investors and obtaining funding much easier. It not only looks cool, but through evidence of existing and estimated web traffic, it can show that your new venture is a sure thing with revenues just waiting to roll in.
However, you can still be incredibly successful and even dominate your industry with a lower cost domain. Branding is key, and having an Internet domain name that unifies your branding can mean plenty of savings and help your marketing budget go a lot further. One way to guarantee your success and position your enterprise to grab up market share quickly is to acquire a powerful toll free vanity number and use the number as your web domain name. For example 1800FLOWERS.com.
Do not despair if all of your domain name choices are already taken or they are being advertised for high dollar amounts. A leading domain name search and negotiation firm can assist by using its expertise and honed strategies in order to get you the best deals on premium domain names.
Most businesses today would find it hard to function without a website. And the first step toward creating a compelling site is to register a catchy domain name. The process of domain registration itself is simple and straightforward. But before you can go to this step, it is important to determine the domain name that’s most suitable for your business!
The domain name can mean the difference between mediocrity and success on the World Wide Web. With this fact in mind, it is not surprising that some of the best domain names available have already been taken up. But don’t let that stop you. A bit of creativity can go a long way in helping you find a great domain name – below are a couple of tips:
.Com is Still King
Many types of extensions are available these days including .org, .net, and country level domains. Despite these, .com is still king if you want your business to have a “global” feel. On the other hand, those who want their sites to attain a local flavor can opt for .co.uk domain if you operate in Britain or .com.au if you operate in Australia, etc.
Catchy vs. SEO Friendly
When it comes to choosing a catchy name vs. an SEO friendly one, there’s definitely no right or wrong answer. It depends on the purpose of your website as well as the specific industry. Each has its own pros and cons. For instance, catchy names like “Yahoo!” have definitely made it big. On the other side of the equation are websites like “hotels.com”, “auto.com”, etc. that have gained success by virtue of their domain name as well.
Make sure you pick a domain name that matches your branding, is creative, but also clear about what your business does. A compelling and effective website can make or break a business, so choose your domain name carefully.
A huge explosion of marketing online has occurred across almost every industry in the last few years. This growth in marketing online has not only been due to advances in technology but also out of a need to expand into new markets, lower costs, and for individuals to launch their own businesses since the downturn in the economy. Unfortunately, as with any industry that booms, it also means that marketing online has increasingly become the new favorite haunt of fraudsters - well, in addition to the banking and foreclosure industry of course.
This situation applies both to scam companies selling a variety of services and products as well as companies offering marketing online, including SEO marketing online, website design, toll free numbers, and social media marketing online. Why? Certainly the current economic situation has made many people more desperate than ever before, and they are doing things to others they would have never previously dreamed of doing. However, many of the other fraudsters now jumping into marketing online are those who have been chased out of the stock market, car sales, and the mortgage industry. They are just looking for the next hot thing that is selling quickly and will allow them to take advantage of people - marketing online offers them that.
Another reason marketing online is so popular with fraudsters is that it is very hard to track them down. Anyone can now throw together a scam company in a couple of hours on the Internet, complete with a new Internet domain name and website. This process is even easier for those based outside of the U.S. Really, nothing can be done in most cases if you are scammed by fraudsters operating out of remote foreign countries. Even if they can be tracked down, the expense is just too much for law enforcement.
So what can you do to protect yourself from scams involving marketing online? Educate yourself a little. You don’t have to become an expert at marketing online, but you should look around and get an idea of what actually works and what doesn’t so you can recognize most scams when you see them. Next, take a couple of minutes to research companies before you send them your money. How long have they been in business? Of course, new businesses are necessary to grow in new directions, but it is certainly much wiser to go with a company marketing online that has been around for over ten years. At a minimum, make sure a company's website has real contact information posted, not just a web form. Look for an actual contact name, physical address, and business phone number.
Finding the right domain name for your business is crucial to launching a successful enterprise or re-branding an existing one. Obviously, a number of sources offer domain name lookup services. However, with the current boom in Internet businesses, it is harder than ever to find premium web domain names that are still available.
Who wouldn’t want to make money online? It offers flexibility in regards to your life and schedule while providing financial rewards at the same time. But most people who want to enter this business aren't sure how or where to start. Making money online on a tight budget is possible, but it may not be easy for some. Affiliate marketing offers a good solution.
Creating a brand today not only involves marketing products, services, and offers on traditional media, but having a strong presence on the Internet is important as well. The first step in this initiative is to choose a high-quality domain name that will let your company stand out from the rest. In your domain name search endeavor, many characteristics should be looked for, including:
Many savvy business owners have found that their unused domain names need not present a wasted expense. On the contrary, a perfect opportunity exists for you to monetize your unused domain names: domain parking. If you’re an active Internet user, it is highly likely that you’ve stumbled upon a parked page before even though you might not have known what it was called. Basically, it is a page that is filled with pay-per-click links. The domain isn’t being used for any particular purpose yet.
Your website is both one of the key places to feature your toll free number and also one of the key parts of your brand image that should mesh with your choice of vanity number. Ideally, you will have researched the availability of domain names, business names, and toll free numbers before registering any of them in order to develop the strongest brand identity possible. While it may not always work out, it is wise to choose a web domain name and toll free service number that compliment each other.
