For the most part you will want to choose a domain name that is the name of your business. However, if your business has a long name such as Smith, Franks, Miller, & Johnson, PC you don’t want to use the full name.  In this case you want to find a shorter domain name that applies to your brand, product or service.

I recommend your domain be less than 15 characters. If it has to be longer try to use fewer words, abbreviate, or use acronyms. I’ve done this with my domain instead of “Small and Medium-Sized Business” or even “Small Business” I just use “smb.”

Brainstorm Possibilities with Ajax Whois

I use Ajax Whois when searching for domains because it is extremely fast to check on availability. Then I use Godaddy to actually register the domain. You can do this by clicking through to Godaddy using Ajax Whois and you can buy a domain for only $6.95.

Watch Ajax Whois Domain Search Tips Video
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXCcm77BNhY

If you can’t find a domain name available that makes sense, your last resort can be to buy one in the aftermarket. Godaddy and other sites offer services to buy and secure a domain name for you.

If you have a preferred domain name that is not available, and you visit that web address and there is no site there, you can try to inquire with the owner of the domain name as to whether they are interested in selling it or not. You do this by looking up the domain using WHOIS. (watch video above for tips on using WHOIS)

Don’t Stop Now, Learn More About Aquiring Domain Names

If you need more in depth help with finding a domain name, I highly recommend Killer Domains: Tools & Techniques to Find the Perfect Domain Name an ebook by Daniel Scocco which carries a full money-back guarantee. Daniel expands on the guidelines I’ve outlined above and provides methods to help you through the process of acquiring a good domain name.

Photo by: Zoe Volt

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In this digital age though you can never be too careful with your data storage. I always backup all of my important data to multiple locations and media. Until now I had yet to see a good easy solution to backup my Gmail and Google Apps email.

I found some old articles on Lifehacker explaining how to use Thunderbird or another mail client to POP down Gmail data. Then I saw that the featured download was maybe exactly what I was looking for Gmail Backup. Here is the original article from Lifehacker which provides a good overview of the software.

This software is now in the final stages of development. However, the software is available for download, it’s free, and for me it’s worked perfectly. There is a PC, Mac, and Linux version available. The installation is quick and painless. Use of the program is extremely easy. The only prerequisite is that you have IMAP enabled in your Gmail/Apps settings. All labels are preserved and the software will do incremental backups.

Let me know how it works for you!

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Recent History of Salesforce.com Evolution

Salesforce.com is best known for their easy to use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software that runs as a service that you pay for monthly. Their application is hosted from their servers and users access the service over the Internet.

Salesforce has been expanding on it’s CRM software by building a community of developers and organizations that are focused on providing their own Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications by leveraging Salesforce’s software technology platform Force.com and the AppExchange.

How Force.com Sites May Help Your Small Business

Today’s announcement is important for several reasons as some details emerge about Force.com Sites. Most of what I’ve gathered is from Phil Wainewright who is attending Dreamforce and blogs for ZDNet (See Phil’s post on Force.com Sites). 

Here’s the important news for small businesses:

• Force.com Sites will be a free add-on to existing Salesforce.com licenses provided customers stay within fixed pageview limits — up to 50,000 pageviews per month for Group Edition customers (most SMB’s will have less than 50,000 pageviews a month)
• Use your own custom domain (web address) e.g. “yourbusiness.com” instead of “force.com/yourbusiness/”
• Integration with Salesforce.com applications such as your CRM
• Manage complex content and data without programming? (I gotta see it to believe it)

Will This Be a Landmark Change?

It will be interesting to see the type of applications that are created using this new service. If it turns out to be as it sounds, the gap between public website and backend CRM or intranet will be shortened or eliminated. While it is possible to integrate backend and frontend it is difficult to do and requires programming knowledge.

If Salesforce can make the process easy enough for end users to publish and manage complex interactive data on their websites this would be a landmark shift as Phil suggests. However, as I see it right now, this still appears to be a developer intensive initiative at this point in time.

I’ll be watching closely as more info is released following Dreamforce. While the verdict is still out on Force.com Sites. Salesforce is definitely a company you need to be familiar with as a small business owner or entrepreneur. If you are interested in Salesforce software please contact me for consultation. The Google Apps/Adwords software ingtegrated with Salesforce CRM is a great combination for small businesses.

Sign up today for a free consultation and demo!

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Before you go and talk to a bunch of web designers and developers you need to take a serious look at how much money you can afford to spend on your website.

This is important because when you go to a web development firm or freelance designer, they are going to be trying to feel out how much your willing to spend and may try to talk you in to going with a preset solution that they offer for X dollars.

Figure out how much you can honestly spend and still feel good about your investment. This way when you begin to prospect potential agencies or freelancers you know going in what you can afford and what you can’t. This will save time for both you and them when you begin to discuss your project.

It’s Okay Take Baby Steps Towards Your Business Goal

Remember in the previous post we talked about achieving a business goal with your website. Sometimes you may have to take a baby step towards your goal. This is not a bad thing. A baby step can enable you to spend less initially and “feel out” any pros and cons of working with a company or individual.

The step to take will depend on your particular goal, but most firms will be more than happy to do this as they will also be concerned about what kind of client you are going to be. You will need to get some consultation with a web professional who can help you decide what a good first step would be to help you meet your goal. Ask me I’ll be happy to help!

You Get What You Pay For

In most cases you will get what you pay for. Your website is not something I recommend you skimp on. Sure there are low budget routes you can take, but you have to remember that your site is an extension of your business. Your website should embody your values, service/product, and professionalism. It is a powerful extension that can be a competitive advantage or it can be a weakness.

You can have a good site or a bad site. A bad site will actually hurt your reputation and drive away business. People will form an opinion of your business from your website, just as they do when they meet you in person, talk to you on the phone, see your TV commercial or newspaper ad.

Think about how much you may be willing to spend on these other media, if you do it right your website or blog can far outweigh these older mediums in the bang that you get for your buck.

Don’t Go Cheapo

If you have a lot of experience with web technologies then you may be able to save some money and do some work yourself. Otherwise, you need to rely on web professionals to get the job done and ensure that things are done right. This ensures that you get a quality site or blog that embodies your brand and takes a step towards accomplishing your business goals.

This post is the third post in the series The Path to Online Success for Your Business.

Photo by David Beyer

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If you don’t have a website you need one. Dell reported on their We Mean Business show that 63% of all small businesses have a website. I don’t know what the other 37% percent are spending their marketing dollars on, but they need to realize that it is 2008 and if you don’t have a website, you’re leaving out a critical aspect to sustaining long-term success for your business.

Old People Use Phone Books My Gen Uses iPhone

If you ask my baby boomer parents to look up the phone number to order a pizza they will grab the Yellow Pages. I in contrast will grab my iPhone or web browser and search. On the iPhone the phone numbers are actually links that will dial the number for me. The times they are a changing get on the bandwagon now, my generation has a whole different mentality. You need to have your business listed on Google and Yahoo and have a website so that users can learn about your product or service in detail.

Your Current Website Can Be Improved

Now if you do already have a website there are ways that you can make it better. In reality maintaining a successful website is a never ending job. You have to constantly evaluate metrics and conversions to determine what is working and what’s not. A purpose-driven website can be a real competitive advantage no matter what your market or specialty.

How to Determine the Type of Site You Need

So we agree you need a website. Now you’ve got to ask yourself one question:

Ask yourself, what business objective do I need to meet with my website?

I’m talking about a goal. A goal for your website. Can you think of one?

I can’t really answer this for you as it will vary depending on your business type and the current site you have or lack thereof. I’m not even going to offer examples. I don’t want to limit your imagination. Think about this and look at your favorite sites on the web that do things you think could benefit your business and accomplish your goal. Take your goal and favorite sites to a qualified web development firm or ask me for feedback.

This is the third post in a series on The Path to Online Success for Your Business Yes, I skipped over the MSN business listing post. Don’t worry we’ll come back to it.

Photo is of Toby a Springer Spaniel residing in East Nashville

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• Basic Listing (Free)
• Enhanced Listing ($9.95 a month)
• Featured Listing (starts at $24.95 and goes all the way up to $300 a month)

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In this day and age more and more consumers look first to the internet to search for services and products. Go above and beyond your competition by leveraging this free resource and using all of its features to promote your business.

Add your business to the Google Local Business Center today!

Have a comment or question? Feel free to critque, I want to help you succeed!

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Over the next few weeks I’ll be going through each of the following steps one by one. This series of posts will be a guide to creating a successful online presence. Think of this as a quickstart guide to getting up and running on the web. Even if you already have a website you can plug in on the step where your business is currently at. Here’s the topics we’re going to cover:

The Essential Steps

1. Create a Local Business Listing on Google, Yahoo, and MSN
2. Determine Why You Need a Website
3. How Much Money to Spend On Your Website
4. Choose a Domain Name
5. Gather and Create Content
6. Plan Information Architecture
7. Research Web Development, Hosting Companies and Freelancers or Do-It-Yourself
8. Install Google Analytics
9. Create Online and Offline Marketing Strategy
10. Maintain and Grow your Web Presence

Extend Your Success

1. Setup Google Apps or Zoho
2. Setup a CRM software
3. Engage with Social Networking and Media

Now is a great time to subscribe to this blog and get updates automatically in your feed reader. You can also bookmark this page if your interested in this series as I’ll be linking to each topic from this post. Please give me some feedback by leaving a comment or contacting me. I’ll gladly answer any questions you have!

Photo by alicepopkorn

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1. It’s Smokin’ Fast! - Web pages will load significantly faster than in FireFox or Internet Explorer. You will notice a difference. I work with tons of websites everyday and I’m amazed at the speed pages are rendering. Not only this but the program loads in a flash too.
2. Search or type a URL in the address bar (Omnibar) - The address bar doubles as a search with your chosen search engine. This was awkward for me for about 5 minutes. Now I’m used to it and it’s way more effective than from a usability perspective.
3. Start page - When you open Chrome you’ll see your 9 most visited websites as thumbnails. There’s also a search box to sift through your past web history or view your entire history. The interface for the history page is clean and fun to look through.

Time is money and you will save both by using this web browser. There are many more features that make this offering really awesome for web users. Google built the application from scratch piecing together the best parts of other web browsers. If you are interested in learning more view these videos from Google that cover all the cool features.

Are you having good results with Google Chrome? How does it stack up against the other browsers from your experience?

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This site is all about helping small businesses excel through the use of web technologies. Here is a little taste of some topics we will discuss and learn about here:

• Got a Website? If you don’t have one you need one. If you do have one it can be improved.
• CRM’s Customer Relationship Management software. (e.g. salesforce.com) Many businesses are still stuck in the 90’s with Microsoft Outlook contact lists. There is a better way!
• Google Apps. It’s email, documents, shared calendars, intranet and more all in one nice package. Best of all… it’s free!
• Confused about the latest web technologies and trends? Let’s cut through the hype and find the solutions and strategies that bring real value.

These are a few of the many topics we’ll talk about. This is a two way street though. Please interact, post comments and contact me. We’re just getting started so I’m “all ears” and want to hear what problems your organization is facing and let’s figure out solutions together. Over time this site will become a portal of knowledge that you can reference or in a pinch just ask for help.

Let’s join together, grow, and have fun making your business successful on the web. Together we can make this the best blog ever!

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