domain names
While many small business owners have that nagging voice in the back of their heads telling them to build a website so they'll get more customers, it takes a little more effort than just building it. One of my clients had a book he had authored, with a couple thousand copies sitting in his garage waiting to be sold. He wanted a website to sell his book. The site turned out well, promoting the book appropriately, with excerpts and videos of how to use the book in an educational setting. The domain name was perfectly suited, matching the title of the book and also the subject matter. Google ranked it number one for a variety of searches. But the books didn't sell. Oh, he had a few sales from the Internet, but he refused to put in any more effort. He would go into schools and demonstrate his book, but wouldn't remember to tell them the web address. He had flyers and business cards, but he didn't want to spend the money to get the URL on it, not even hand-writing it on them. Despite all our conversations about it, not once did he ever make any effort to tell his customers his website existed. How are they to know they can buy his books online if he doesn't tell them? He eventually gave up on the website entirely, frustrated because although it looked good, functioned properly, advertised it appropriately and even ranked #1 in Google, it didn't succeed.
It is a common misconception to rely on search engines alone. Search engines are fabulous, they have their place, and they are necessary to the success of a website. But in reality, it's generally not what is going to drive your customers to your website. YOU need to do that. But it doesn't take much effort to make it a success; your customers want to see your website, you just need to let them know where it is. Put your website address (domain name) on:
- Business cards
- Invoices and receipts
- Printed materials (flyers, brochures, pamphlets)
- Free bookmarks or other give-aways
- A sign by your cash register
- A sign or banner on your wall
- Your store window
- The yellow pages
- Newspaper ads
- Shopping bags
- Press releases, magazine articles
- Use your imagination: t-shirts, mugs, dog leashes, Christmas cards...
Any time you mention your business name you should always have your web address listed. Every time a potential customer sees your name, you need to give them the opportunity to find your business online. To counter the above story, here's a success story from a very small effort. Winter months can be slow months for any business, so I decided to create a Facebook Fan Page for one of my retail clients. I even included it as a Facebook Fan Box Widget right on his website so people could see it. For the first two weeks he had four "fans" that were strictly friends and family (the only ones we had told). Last Friday afternoon he put a sign by his cash register that mentioned you could find him on Facebook, and by Monday morning he had 15 additional fans, and that number is steadily increasing. One little sign by the cash register is all it took to get people looking at his website. Do this yourselves!
What is a website host, and why do you have to pay hosting fees for your website? Website hosting is essentially renting a home on the Internet Freeway. The files used to build your website need a place to live on the Internet, so we rent lodging from a website "host." Just as some people prefer a one-bedroom apartment to a 4 bedroom house, depending on what functionality your site may need (streaming media files, shopping carts, etc.), we select a host and service package that offers the technologies to meet your site needs.
Your actual Internet Freeway address provided by the host is a long series of numbers called your IP address. It comes in a form similar to "123.4.56.789". Since that series of numbers and dots is difficult to remember, we use domain names, e.g. www.yourname.com. When you purchase your domain name and your web hosting, your webmaster will configure the nameservers. Those nameservers are big databases that associate your domain name to your IP address, allowing you to advertise your website address as www.yourname.com instead of 123.4.56.789.
You can read more about domain names here.
Your domain name is your presence on the Internet. My domain name is "ReevesDigital.com". No, the capitalization doesn't make a difference, but it does make it easier to read when it's written. Your domain name can be used for both your web address (www.reevesdigital.com) and your email address (info@reevesdigital.com).
Your domain name needs to be registered, and registration terms are annual. Domain names cost $10-$20 per year depending on where they are registered. If your website and your email both suddenly stop working, it's likely your domain name has expired. Never fear, most registrars will hold your domain name for an extended period of time, giving you a grace period to renew it before they offer it up for sale. Once it goes up for sale, it will most likely be purchased by someone else immediately, so you really don't want to let your registration lag. If someone else buys your domain name because you didn't keep it renewed, they become the new legal owners of it.
You can purchase your domain name for multiple years at a time. In addition to the cost savings (the cost of domain names will begin increasing this July and will continue to gradually increase for the forseeable future), there is another significant advantage to longer term registrations: The longer you have your domain name registered, the higher your rankings in search engines appear.
Curious about your domain name? You can view what information is publicly available about your domain name, including its expiration date, using the Internic WhoIs tool: http://www.internic.net/whois.html Contact your webmaster if you have any questions about it.
If I have registered or renewed your domain name for you, I will continue to manage this for you until you ask me to stop, so you don't need to worry about it. As I wrote in an earlier post, there are many companies that will contact you to register your domain name for you. It's a lucrative business for them with minimal investment, preying on the ill-informed. Please contact me if anyone wants to renew your domain name for you, as not all of them are legitimate.
One question I'm asked frequently is about renewing domain names. This is a service I provide my clients, but it doesn't keep malicious companies from trying to get their business. A popular one sent by snail mail (postal mail) is from Domain Registry of America. I hesitate to call it a scam because I've never tried to use them and they may very well be a legitimate business, but their letters are very deceptive and I warn everyone to stay away from them. There have been numerous complaints to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), but unfortunately the DRoA is still in business.
Domain Registry of America sends out letters to people stating their domain name is due to expire, sometimes as far in advance as 5-6 months of the actual expiration date. They state you need to renew your domain name right away, with a "reply requested by" date far in advance of when you actually need to renew. They're renewal prices are outrageously high, 2-3 times the standard renewal rates from more legitimate registrars. For example, the latest request they sent me arrived yesterday, quoting $30/year to renew my .com name, when checking out GoDaddy.com's .com registration rates today are $10.69/year. Domain Registry of America can quote considerably higher rates, I've heard some people writing a check for $300 or more. Don't be fooled.
The letters from Domain Registry of America often imply urgency is required, to keep your website alive you have to send them money now. That's not typically true. Read carefully, and then check with your webmaster to verify when your domain name needs to be renewed, and which registrar they recommend using. I'm willing to bet your webmaster will not recommend Domain Registry of America.
It looks like the same people who run DRoA also run Domain Registry of Canada, of Europe and of Australia. To read more about the DRoA, you can check out this blog post: http://blog.forret.com/2004/12/domain-registry-of-america-scam/
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