Nelson Bates, Author Best Website: Simple Steps to Successful Websites
Most people who start an online business will spend far too much time just getting things set up and won’t have enough time or money to spend on the things that will actually make him or her money. It is important therefore, to get past many of the start up issues as quickly as possible, so you can focus on creating additional traffic to your website and improving your sales process.
Two of the most important decisions you will need to do, before you even begin to design your website, are to choose the name of your business and your domain name.
The Name of Your Business:In most situations I recommend the name of the business be the same as the domain name. It makes things much easier in general, as you'll see below.There are two schools of thought here: go with a keyword generated name or go with a name you make up.
My preference is to go with a keyword-generated name because it’s easier to target the search engines and it’s more recognizable in marketing campaigns that have the URL listed in it.
Examples of keyword-generated names are BuySellWebsite.com or BabyCribs.com and examples of made up names are Yahoo.com or Digg.com.
As another example, when I chose BestWebsite as the name of this business, I registered the domain name BestWebsite.com, then formed an LLC in its name (BestWebsite, LLC) and filed the Federal Trademark “BestWebsite.”
I also opened a Bank account in its name and set up a PayPal account in its name. The name also serves as my email account moreinfo@bestwebsite.com.
I think this is important because when people come to my site they like to see that the domain name is the same as the LLC name and when they make a payment they like seeing that the payment is going to the same business name as everything else.
Creating credibility with your website is certainly the most important thing when convincing people to do business with you.
The little things do matter.
And it is definitely worth it to expend the effort to set your business up this way.
Domain Name:In general, you should try for a two or three word domain name that contains the keywords of your industry.
An excellent way to discover the best keywords for your industry is by using the keyword service by WordTracker.com or KeywordDiscovery.com
They do a great job of showing which keywords are the most searched for and least competitive, giving you the best chance of success.
More often than not, the most searched for keywords in your industry will already have the domain name registered. However, as an example, if you really wanted BabyCribs.com, you could register myBabyCribs.com or BabyCribsHome.com.
Having an excellent domain name will definitely make things easier when it comes to search engine optimization and creating credibility when people visit your site.
For instance, the domain name BestWebsite.com had already been registered to someone else before I negotiated to buy it.
I knew it was exactly the name I wanted and was willing to pay a premium for it. You can find lots of premium domains for sale at SEDO.com or GreatDomains.com.
If you are just starting out, however, I recommend going to GoDaddy.com and registering a domain name as close as you can get to your keywords.
That way you only end up paying nine dollars for your domain name, instead of possibly thousands of dollars for a premium domain name.It's difficult to make a recommendation of what exactly to do without seeing your situation.
But a name is very important and carefully choosing the best name for your business is important. As a general rule-of-thumb, don't spend more than 10% of your budget on it.
You'll probably need every dollar you've got to make sure you get through the start up process. You can rethink the name when you’re profitable.
That might sound crazy, but businesses do it all the time.For instance, here is another example of choosing a domain name.
A friend of mine is building her photography website to sell her photography services. She has decided to use her own name, Sarah Martini, as the name of the business, Sarah Martini, LLC and the domain name is SarahMartini.com.
This arrangement is fine and works well for this situation.Know that the goal from here on out is to make sure you make it through the start up phase. To me, the start up phase lasts until the website can earn enough money to operate without any outside money being put in.
Only a very small number of people make it past this phase and in the Best Website book, my goal is to help you through it.Note: Be aware that when you are registering a domain name with GoDaddy.com, they will try to sell you a bunch of add-on services, like hosting, advertising and an anonymous listing to name a few.
I don’t recommend purchasing anything else from them. Also, there are certainly many other places on the Internet to register your domain name, such as NetworkSolutions.com and TuCows.com, I just have a preference for GoDaddy.com.
Most people who start an online business will spend far too much time just getting things set up and won’t have enough time or money to spend on the things that will actually make him or her money. It is important therefore, to get past many of the start up issues as quickly as possible, so you can focus on creating additional traffic to your website and improving your sales process.
Two of the most important decisions you will need to do, before you even begin to design your website, are to choose the name of your business and your domain name.
The Name of Your Business:In most situations I recommend the name of the business be the same as the domain name. It makes things much easier in general, as you'll see below.There are two schools of thought here: go with a keyword generated name or go with a name you make up.
My preference is to go with a keyword-generated name because it’s easier to target the search engines and it’s more recognizable in marketing campaigns that have the URL listed in it.
Examples of keyword-generated names are BuySellWebsite.com or BabyCribs.com and examples of made up names are Yahoo.com or Digg.com.
As another example, when I chose BestWebsite as the name of this business, I registered the domain name BestWebsite.com, then formed an LLC in its name (BestWebsite, LLC) and filed the Federal Trademark “BestWebsite.”
I also opened a Bank account in its name and set up a PayPal account in its name. The name also serves as my email account moreinfo@bestwebsite.com.
I think this is important because when people come to my site they like to see that the domain name is the same as the LLC name and when they make a payment they like seeing that the payment is going to the same business name as everything else.
Creating credibility with your website is certainly the most important thing when convincing people to do business with you.
The little things do matter.
And it is definitely worth it to expend the effort to set your business up this way.
Domain Name:In general, you should try for a two or three word domain name that contains the keywords of your industry.
An excellent way to discover the best keywords for your industry is by using the keyword service by WordTracker.com or KeywordDiscovery.com
They do a great job of showing which keywords are the most searched for and least competitive, giving you the best chance of success.
More often than not, the most searched for keywords in your industry will already have the domain name registered. However, as an example, if you really wanted BabyCribs.com, you could register myBabyCribs.com or BabyCribsHome.com.
Having an excellent domain name will definitely make things easier when it comes to search engine optimization and creating credibility when people visit your site.
For instance, the domain name BestWebsite.com had already been registered to someone else before I negotiated to buy it.
I knew it was exactly the name I wanted and was willing to pay a premium for it. You can find lots of premium domains for sale at SEDO.com or GreatDomains.com.
If you are just starting out, however, I recommend going to GoDaddy.com and registering a domain name as close as you can get to your keywords.
That way you only end up paying nine dollars for your domain name, instead of possibly thousands of dollars for a premium domain name.It's difficult to make a recommendation of what exactly to do without seeing your situation.
But a name is very important and carefully choosing the best name for your business is important. As a general rule-of-thumb, don't spend more than 10% of your budget on it.
You'll probably need every dollar you've got to make sure you get through the start up process. You can rethink the name when you’re profitable.
That might sound crazy, but businesses do it all the time.For instance, here is another example of choosing a domain name.
A friend of mine is building her photography website to sell her photography services. She has decided to use her own name, Sarah Martini, as the name of the business, Sarah Martini, LLC and the domain name is SarahMartini.com.
This arrangement is fine and works well for this situation.Know that the goal from here on out is to make sure you make it through the start up phase. To me, the start up phase lasts until the website can earn enough money to operate without any outside money being put in.
Only a very small number of people make it past this phase and in the Best Website book, my goal is to help you through it.Note: Be aware that when you are registering a domain name with GoDaddy.com, they will try to sell you a bunch of add-on services, like hosting, advertising and an anonymous listing to name a few.
I don’t recommend purchasing anything else from them. Also, there are certainly many other places on the Internet to register your domain name, such as NetworkSolutions.com and TuCows.com, I just have a preference for GoDaddy.com.