Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Register Your Own Domain Name


Registering a domain can intimidate some business owners. But this simple measure can save a lot of headaches down the line. Whether you’re considering a website project or just tossing around business name ideas, it’s wise to consider domain registration.

First of all, domains are not something you own. A domain registration is more like a lease or rental that extends over an explicit period of time. If you know you’ll need to maintain control over the same domain for several years, it’s wise to register for as many years as possible. This looks good to search engines, and it minimizes the danger that you’ll forget to renew and lose claim to your domain.

How to: Registering your domain is easy.

  • Step 1: Choose a domain registrar. Some popular options include GoDaddy, Network Solutions, 1&1, and 1 Cheap Domains.
  • Step 2: Do a domain name search. Be prepared with several versions of your ideal domain, as some are likely to be taken. Your best bet is to compromise on the domain name (accepting hyphens or a slightly different version) and snag a .com rather than settling for a .net or .us domain.
  • Step 3: Register your domain! You’ll have to start an account and enter credit-card information, but these companies are pretty safe, and it’ll be well worth it.

Protect Your Online Assets

Domain registration is very important, especially in business, for a number of reasons.

The most important consideration is any domain where you plan to host a website. Don’t be bullied into letting your web company have control over your domain. The reality is, any website provider should be able to work with a domain you’ve already registered.

Many companies offer free domains, and others will offer to purchase your domain for you. This may save you a bit of time or money, but it gives the service provider a potential strangle-hold on your site. You may lose your website or be forced to choose a new domain if you ever want to work with another provider. Insist on registering the domain yourself, no matter how good the deal sounds.

Domain registration is also not really restricted. Just about anyone can claim any available domain for an investment of about $10/year. An account and credit card are the only real requirements, so anyone can snap up domains related to your great idea if they beat you to the punch. When you attempt to purchase a domain occupied by a “squatter,” they can charge thousands to surrender the web address.

Reserve the opportunity to launch your ideas on the web by reserving appropriate domains for them. The most you risk is a fruitless $10 investment — but you gain the online real estate on which to build an empire. And, who knows? Someone may find you’ve already registered their million-dollar idea — and offer you a pretty penny for a domain you’re not using.

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Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Google Yourself


Google yourself.  Five years ago if you told someone to do that, you might get a strange look (or slapped).  Nowadays, it’s very important for people, especially business owners and their businesses, to be aware of what has been said about them online.  One way to become familiar with your online reputation is to go to Google, type in your name and your business name, and see what comes up in the search results.  Hopefully, there’s nothing negative in the results, and that is frequently the case.  But what if something negative does come up?

There are a lot of ways to protect your online reputation, but if someone wants to write a negative review of your business, or post negative comments about you, there’s not much you can do to stop them.  One way to counter negative online comments is to be proactive and create positive content for you and your business.  This positive content can take many forms, like blog posts, social media posts, and setting up online business profiles.  Once the positive content is on the web, it may prevent future negative content from making its way to the first page of Google.  Positive content can “bury” any future negative content in search results.  It won’t eliminate the negative content from the web, but it may push it to the 5th page of search results, which means it is practically invisible to the person searching for you and your business.

So what if a negative comment has already been posted about you or your company?  Often negative reviews are an opportunity to respond and interact with the online community.  Responding is something you should do as soon as possible, but respond in a positive way and try to resolve the issue.  Hopefully the person who posted the negative comment will post a positive review about how you handled the situation. 

There are many other ways to protect your online reputation and manage your online presence, but these items should help you get started.

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