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A great article from Donna Gunter…
~ Cindy
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A friend of mine calls me the “Domain Queen”, since at one time I owned around 50 domains. I’ve let many of them go (I own only 22 now) as my business has changed and developed, or I’ve just simply lost interest in the project. I’m often asked how I go about picking effective domain names, so as the “Domain Queen”, I’ll share my thought process with you.

1. What’s the purpose of the domain name? Are you planning on using this name as the main website for your company, as a one page sales letter site, or squeeze page site? If the domain name will be your primary company website, try and find the closest version to your company name that you can. If you’re just starting out, choose your business name and domain name with care. When I started my virtual assistant practice, I chose the name SOHO Business Solutions, as I thought everyone knew that SOHO stood for Small Office, Home Office. I think I’ve run into 2 people in my 7 years in business who knew what that acronym stood for. If I had it to do over again for this business, I would choose a business name and domain name with virtual assistant in the title, like InternetMarketingVirtualAssistant.com, a name I just recently purchased.

If the purpose of a domain is for a one-page sales letter site or a squeeze page, think ahead as to how you might promote this site. Because content is king in today’s internet marketing world, there’s little chance that either of these types of sites would be picked up by the search engines on key words. Therefore, your best promotion strategy is PPC, or “pay per click”, where you’re buying keywords for placement in search engines. If you’re buying keywords from Google, for example, the paid listings appear at the top of a search in a blue box, or down the right-hand side of your screen. You want to be sure that the info displayed there is compelling enough to get someone to click and visit your site. So, for example, I’ve created a squeeze page, GetMoreClientsOnline.com, which has a compelling solution to a common problem that my clients have, as a side door gateway to my OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com coaching website.

2. Brainstorm a list of ideas of the problem you’re trying to solve or the solution that you have. A domain name that clearly indicates what you do, or a problem that you solve, or a solution that you have to a problem will give a visitor a fairly clear picture of what s/he’ll find on your website. What I typically do is go to my domain registrar, www.UltraNetDomains.com, and just start plugging in the names I’m brainstorming until I come up with 3 or 4 that are available. If the domain name that you type in isn’t available, the service will come up with 10 or so alternates for you to consider. I found this alternate listing quite helpful recently in picking the name of an article directory site that I want to create.

3. For SEO (Search Engine Optimization) purposes, it helps to have your keywords in your domain name. Marla Regan, who’s a professional organizer, has put two keywords in her domain name, OrganizedTime.com. Retirement Coach Lin Schreiber has her keyword niche in her domain, RevolutionizeRetirement.com. Consultant John Reddish has the desired outcome keywords in his domain, GetResults.com. I own a domain that I haven’t yet developed for house sitters, BecomeAHouseSitter.com. Before buying your domain, make a list of keywords that someone might use to find you online. This list could include your industry, your target market or niche, a problem your target market has, or a solution that you can offer.

4. Shorter is better, if it’s to be your primary domain. I haven’t always followed my own rules here, as I tend to have business names that are quite lengthy. If the domain name is going to be your primary domain where your primary email address will be housed, you want your domain name to be as short, catchy, and memorable as possible. After a few times of spelling out your lengthy email address, you’ll come to appreciate the beauty of a short domain name. Your domain name can contain up to 67 letters and numbers, although I would encourage you not to have one of this length, and can contain no special characters other than hyphens.

5. Purchase your your given name as a domain name. I typically tell my clients not to try and brand their given name as their business name, as that takes many years, much money, and lots of hard work to have the name recognition of Oprah, for example. However, it still pays to purchase your given name as a domain name, as well as any common misspellings of your name. Many people think my name is Donna Gunther, with an “h” in the last name, but I’ve been unable to register that common misspelling of my name, as a photographer in Venice, CA, has owned in since 2000. Once you’ve purchased your name as a domain, you can redirect it to your primary website. This means that when someone types in a domain, they land at the website to which you pointed that domain. So, currently DonnaGunter.com redirects to OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com because I don’t want to use my name as a website, although that might change in the future.

6. Buy the .COM version of the name if it is available. When people hear a domain name, they “hear” .COM whether it’s .NET or .BIZ or .ORG or whatever. So, it pays to find a domain name that you like that is part of the .COM family. If you just can’t get the name you want, try a hyphenated version of the .COM name. For example, when I was seeking a domain name for my Self-Employment Coaching Gym, I really wanted SelfEmploymentSuccess.com, but it wasn’t available. However, Self-Employment-Success.com was available, so I grabbed that. Many SEO specialists state that search engines like hyphenated names, and many online business owners use hyphenated keywords in their domain names to be more attractive to search engines. I don’t have a clear answer as to the validity of this theory, so I just advocate going this route before having to resort to the .NET or .BIZ of the name you desire. Some domain name holders may be willing to sell you the domain name that you want. You can find out who owns a domain name by checking the WhoIs Registry at Internic, http://www.internic.net/whois.html. For info about country codes (two-letter) top-level domains (.UK or .CA, for example) visit http://www.uwhois.com/cgi/domains.cgi?User=NoAds

7. Consider owning other versions of your primary domain name. If you are registering the .COM version of a domain for your business, you may also want to secure variations of the name, alternate spellings, common misspellings, and the .NET and .ORG versions of your domain and repoint them to your main site to keep them out of the hands of your competitors. You can also go broke very quickly by purchasing all of these variations, so exercise some restraint in your purchases and don’t go crazy with purchasing every single variation of your domain name. For my coaching company site, I own both the OnlineBizCoachingCompany.com and OnlineBusinessCoachingCompany.com and decided that was good enough.

Your domain name is the beginning of the establishment of your presence online, Take some time and put some thought into the process so that the domain name serves you well in the years to come, and is an effective tool for helping you get more clients online.

(c) 2007 Donna Gunter

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com. Read about running an online biz at our blog, http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com.

As an admitted procrastinator who works well on a deadline, I found this week’s article by Robert Middleton speaking directly to me!
~ Cindy

Bet Your Car

Last week I talked about your intentions for the New Year. But now that it’s here, what are you actually going to do?

In my Marketing Action Groups, a participant would often set a goal to perform a marketing activity such as writing an article or setting up a speaking engagement. And frequently they would get stuck or go off track.

When this happened I often used my “bet your car” strategy:

“You’ve said you’d do this for several weeks and you haven’t. I realize you’re stuck. But I also know you know what to do. So I’d like to make a bet with you. I’d like you to bet your car that you’ll get this done this week. Are you willing to bet your car?”

“You mean, if I didn’t get it done, you’d get my car?” (Realize that a dozen or more other participants were listening in on the conference call at the time.)

“Yes. I’d get your car. Are you up to it?”

“Well, yeah, I guess I am. I’ll do it. I’ll bet my car that it will get done!” This was followed by loud cheers from the group on the call.

And guess what? It always got done. Usually with a lot less effort than they had expected.

The lesson is simple: When you make a promise with real consequences, something changes. Reality sets in. The mind’s homing mechanism goes into action. Since there’s no way they’re going to give away their car, they find a way to get it done.

The thing is, you can’t keep betting your car. (What if you actually lost it?!) This is a useful wake up call. But it’s easy to slip back into the comfort zone of doing only what’s necessary to get by. Before you know it, you’re stuck and off track again.

So how do you get unstuck and stay on track?

There are some very practical and powerful ways to do this. Here are some that have worked for me and my program participants.

Action or Consequences
This is just a variation on the theme of betting your car, except the bet is smaller and it’s for real. If you don’t take the action, you pay the consequence. One of my favorite is paying $25 to a political party you don’t like if you don’t take the action.

Make a Public Promise
Declare that you will be doing a particular marketing action by a definite date. Make it public to a group of your peers (such as in a mastermind group.) And ask them to hold you accountable. Don’t let each other off the hook. Be ruthlessly supportive.

Write it Down
Intentions that get written down have a much higher chance of getting completed. Put the goal on your master projects list; create a detailed action plan; put specific action steps on your daily to-do list. Keep them on the list until done.

Put it on the Calendar
If you want to do speaking engagements or teleclasses, book them first, then promote, then develop the program. Most do it in reverse, perfecting the program before committing to a date. This can lead to procrastination through perfectionism.

Get Support
Sometimes it’s not just a matter of doing it, it’s a question of how to do it. You may need input, brainstorming, guidance or consulting before you’re ready to commit to getting it done. But my recommendation is to commit first, then get support.

Question your Thoughts
Once you commit to something, your resistance just may kick in.
And you’ll find a way to talk yourself out of it. Thoughts that say, “I can’t do it, I can’t find the time, and I’ll only be rejected anyway,” are worth close examination. Don’t believe everything you think! Be your commitments, not your thoughts.

Create a Bigger Vision
This may be the most effective of all. I’ve noticed that clients who have a burning desire to create a successful business don’t get easily stopped by challenging marketing activities. They just find a way. Think big and your enthusiasm will carry the day.

The More Clients Bottom Line – It’s often less important what marketing activities you do than it is finding a way to carry them through to completion. Master this and you’ll be unstoppable.

© 2006 Robert Middleton, All rights reserved.
By Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert’s web site at www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.

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