How to Choose a Domain Name

The very first thing that a new blogger has to do is select domain name. This cannot be an easy task when a number of the top domain names are already occupied.  But you need not to worry, just follow the tips given below to select the best domain name for your blog.

Use of Keywords: Use only those keywords in the domain name that best describe your website. The good domain name is the one that suggest the nature of your product or service. Just looking at the meaningful domain name, a visitor can get an idea of what the site is about. You can look for relevant keywords related to your blog’s subject through a website such as Wordtracker. For example if your website deals with selling and purchase of old furniture then you can select a domain name like www.buyoldfurniture.com.

Domain name should be easy to memorable: A good domain name must be easy to remember for your visitors because they are going to use it for revisits.

It should be readable: In-order to improve readability you can use hyphen in between the words. Consider the above example; if www.buyoldfurniture.com is already reserved then you can also try for www.buy-old-furniture.com. So it will improve the readability as well as it also helps in better search engine rankings.

It should not be too long: Try to keep the domain name as short and as meaningful as possible because it will result in less chances of error. Moreover, whether you want to place it on a business card or somewhere else, shorter domain names are much easier to place& remember.

Beware of expired domain names: You need to be very careful while buying a domain name because it might be possible that the particular domain name has been already banned by Google. If you do so then you will have a really bad start.

Look for future scope: It may be possible that you want to switch from blog to a regular website in future then you have to check, is that domain name still suitable? In order to save money some people start several blogs in folders but this is not the right way, you may lose most of yours’ valuable traffic.

It should be SEO friendly: Domain names with relevant as well as specific keywords can be easily tracked by Google search engine.

Make use of Domain Selection Tool: To check the availability of a specific domain name you can make use of Websites like AJAXWhois and Domjax.

Beware of using numbers in domain name: Use of numbers make it difficult to type and remember domain name. I would suggest not using spelled-out as well as roman numerals in domains, as both can be very confusing & mistaken for the other.

Avoid Copyright Violation: This small mistake can even kill a great business or a company. Just to make sure that you are not violating on anyone’s copyright with your domain name, visit copyright.gov& search before you buy.

facebook (Photo credit: sitmonkeysupreme)

Waddup Yall, this post is in response to something that I saw on my homey, Chris Neighbors blog. He entitled it, “Long Term Investment- Why Are Facebook Shares Doomed?”

Before I go into whether I think Facebook is doomed let me just say that I love the way that Chris layed out his argument.  It was well thought out.  Now hear things from a marketer’s perspective…

Although, I think it’s too early to say that Facebook (FB) won’t be around in five or ten years one thing that I will say is that if they are around then the FB of 2017 will be unrecognizable compared to the FB of today.

I mean, heck…we’ve seen FB unveil at least two to three sweeping changes every year since they’re been a household name.

Where I’d agree with Chris is that, yes, it’s inevitable that they will start acquiring more companies in the future. However, that in itself does not necessarily spell doom for FB. In the tech arena, we tend to see these of types of acquisitions as much as or more than horizontal buys:

1. Talent Acquisitions – Like when Facebook acquired Friendfeed in 2009. It is said that the reason they did this was because they really liked Bret Taylor and his uber talented team
2. Go-Away Acquisitions – Where the larger company swallows a smaller competitor only to later shut down the company shortly thereafter
3. Vertical Acquisitions – For ex. like when an automobile manufacturer buys a fiberglass supplier to gain tighter control of the manufacturing process

To me it seems that Facebook’s style leans more towards these three types versus horizontal buys, which is why I don’t have a problem with the idea of them going on a massive shopping spree over the next several years.

And yes, competition is always a factor to consider but honestly I think that with FB’s capital; competition is not as big of a threat to Facebook as Facebook is to Facebook (yep, I’m sorta kinda agreeing with you..sorta, Chris. That FB’s future could be uncertain…but for a different reason).

You see, the heavy handed approach that FB uses when they impose changes on their users at times feels like outright dictatorship.  Facebook’s biggest enemy is themselves, guys.

However, since all of our friends, former students, family, customers and so on and so on are on Facebook, FB knows that it’s unlikely that users would leave them site en masse…unless FB did something so egregious that the users’ felt like they had no other choice.

A while back I thought their user information policy issue signaled this type of infraction, but just as the anti-Facebook movement started really started picking up steam FB reversed their policies.

Even with all of this weighing against Facebook, Google is still concerned about Zuckerberg and Co gaining ground on them in ad spend revenues. But what’s interesting about that is that when I have my consumer cap on, my intuition tells me that these guys are on equal footing.

And I’ll bet many consumers probably think the same thing too. But the reality is that Google dwarfs Facebook, as of the time of this writing their revenues are ten times greater than Facebook’s.

Yet Facebook is still managing to give Google a run for their money. That’s impressive.

And as a career IM’er who has managed campaigns on both platforms, let me tell you…Google should be concerned. Where else can you advertise, online or offline, that gives you as much insight into the minds of your consumers than Facebook?

See Google lets advertisers advertise to customers based on the intent of the searcher. Whereas, Facebook takes it a step further by allowing advertisers to speak directly to what a person is passionate about and what their friends are passionate about.

Here’s where it really gets interesting from an advertiser’s perspective and here’s why Facebook might have the edge…

When you advertise on Google, you generally have one opportunity to turn your new visitors into customers. Because if the visitor clicks your ad, visits your site and then leaves..what do you have? Nothing!

Not an email address to tell the prospect, “hey, come on back”, not a telephone number and not even a name.

Meanwhile, if you spend the same budget to advertise on Facebook the person who clicks the Facebook ad gets added to your fan page and you get pretty much all of their information. On top of that you get to market to them as much as you like cause their part of your Fan Page.

And now that FB is rumored to be unveiling an improved search engine it’s possible that in the not so distant future they may be able to allow advertisers to target both intent as well as interests.

That being said although it’s not a guarantee that they’ll come out of the fight in one piece, I wouldn’t throw in the towel on FB just yet. There’s yet more fight in em’ than we think, ya dig !  Are they a good investment, that’s a different story, I’ll let you be the judge…Holla at me in the comments and let me know!

Thanks again for the sweet post Mr. Neighbors!

Google+ for Business

Finally Google has launched the business version for its social network Google+. Previously brands and businesses use other social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for their promotional purposes because they find Facebook and Twitter more hospitable.

But now, Google allowed business people to connect and interact with their customers, clients and fans. The Business page created by Google+ is unique and helps in successfully promoting it over internet. Following are some steps to create and promote Business Page over Google+.

Create Account

The first step towards making of business page is to sign up with email account, which will be accessible by everyone in the business team. Use of personal Gmail address is not a good idea. Business page needs separate email account for separate id.

Google also provides options for ownership transfers and multiple admin. As soon as setup for email account is finished, start navigation Google account creation page. In account creation page it is necessary to select category of business.

Various options like “local business or place,” “company, institution, or organization,” “product or brand,” “arts, entertainment, or sports,” and “other” are available in the list. After selecting main category select appropriate subcategories for business page. The subcategories are depends upon the selected main category.

Customize Profile

After selecting account type, the next step is to provide some details about the business and upload related photo of business. To remain consistent across platforms, it’s good practice to upload a logo of business or industry.

It helps in maintaining unique identity for business. Before posting Google+ business page over internet, it is worth to share some valuable links and create few updates of page so that customers and users don’t come across any blank page.

One can start sharing videos, blogs and documents related with the business or industry. If business customers or users are already present on Google+ then its good time to start making circles. It helps in advertising business rapidly.

Promote Page

When Business Page is ready for the launching, let people know where to find page by adding Google badge in business page. Make sure business page also supports emailing and tweeting facilities.

The +1 button and add to circle button are examples of badges. This will help customers to subscribe directly with the business page.

Currently these badges are available only for Google+ platform preview group, but now anyone can join this group. With the help of this group one can configure the badge code and copy it to business page. Another option is the use of Google+ icon. Google also provides one more technique for promotion called “Direct Connect.”

This feature helps people in finding Google+ Business Page simply by adding “+” after the Page name in Google Search option. For now, only selected partners have been given this feature, but sooner more people will able to access it. Google help center gives more information about Direct Connect.

Bottom line

As soon as the completion of Google+ Page, next approach is to create marketing strategy. The platform is new and it’s the best time to try things without any risk. Google+ provides the platform for promotion of business and industry.

Google will not charge anything from its users. Due to Google’s reach-ability power it’s always better to go for Google+ business page. Google+ provides an ultimate platform for business promotions.

Google Plus Privacy Concerns

As a user of Google products, most of us might be feeling pretty uncomfortable with Search Plus Your World algorithm change. For one, I as user feel forced into it.

1. If it’s all that awesome, why do I ‘Need’ to have a Google Plus profile to use all Google products?
2. Is my search a public thing now? What about my privacy?
3. I might be present on social networking sites, but I am not ALL that social as you presume. So, am I really going to pop up in search results with my personal search interests all the time? I am not quite sure I love that idea.

Image:Sean

Besides these, there are many other pressing concerns that raise doubts about how cool search plus your world is. I’ll simply pick them up as draw backs or disadvantages and list them down below:

1. Possibility of irrelevance

I love chocolate ice creams but I don’t like chocolate chips! When it comes to ‘tastes’ it’s not just edible items but a wide range of interests that may not match with each other. So, while I have a distinct taste of my own, how cool is someone else’s endorsement for me? Simply speaking, if I am looking to purchase clothes, I’d love to see what’s on sale, and which mall has the best deals. I may not necessarily fancy someone else endorsement ñ say my friend loved a mall that I hate stepping into! The Search Plus Your World, in this scenario, will simply be providing us with irrelevant results.

2. My Privacy

That’s something I already mentioned above. I don’t like the idea of appearing in search results of other people, even if they are my friends. Period. Why should I be forced into it? Privacy is hence, a pressing concern.

3. Spam Results

The other problem is bots and spam results. Because Google Plus is still not so advanced, it’s easy for spammer to attack users with their content. The poor user has to bear with information from all those people who want to send him information.

Also, say a link has been falsely promoted by bots and spam linking, such a link appears on the top of the search plus results page. The user is tricked into clicking it only to find out that the content is useless. Meanwhile, there are other people who fall for the same trap. The process goes on ñ the spam link, well, it only gets more hits.

4. Where Are The Social Sites With Real People?

Search Plus wants to bring a revolution and it simply isn’t including any real result, from real networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. These sites have loads of people, sharing content and interacting regularly. How can we afford to forget those references and interests and simply promote a site which may not even have real people on it! how authentic is search when it’s based on social results from only one site?

Surveys have already been carried out and results should that a majority of people aren’t all that pleased with these so-called improvements. Or to put it in different words, they are fine with the way Google used to work before. Almost a 45 % of people want to opt out of this ‘personalized search, where as 39% feel its okay and they are fine with it. the remaining percentage of people from the sample audience are either figuring it out still, are not on Plus as yet or are indifferent.

On this note, I shall end writing this post that has more questions than answers! Here’s to wishing that our interests aren’t being compromised and Google’s living up to its motto, ‘Don’t be evil’.