out of the blue

At the end of December, we discussed how to play the Domain Name game and choose a smart url for your company’s business.  Now, you heeded my advice, picked the best name available, and are currently rolling around in money due to the popularity of your website, right?

Well, stand up, dust yourself off , put that money in the bank, and make sure that you have checked off one of the most important rules in the game.  That’s right- you’ve been playing the game, now it’s time to check yourself. And the question is…

1) Have you secured any and all relevant domains  relating to your current domain name?

Huh? What?  Blank stare?  That’s what I thought!  Read on so you don’t lose that pile of money….

One of the most important things to do when you buy a domain name is to ensure that you have obtained all relevant domain names so those imposters cannot invade.  This includes, but is not limited to, .com, .net, .info, .us, and .org.  Example:  You own Elephantcake.com and are enormously successful, but *shock*, someone notices, buys Elephantcake.net and makes a killing (although not as big) off your idea.   Obviously .com is the most important/popular domain name, but you can arrange it so that oddball who types in Elephantcake.info will be directed to Elephantcake.com.  As your mother used to say, better safe than sorry, right?

2) Make sure your domain name’s relatives are secured as well.

I know you are probably scratching your head at who your domain name’s relatives are but I’ll clue you in.  Any name that is similar to your own such as Elephantscake, Elephantcakes, Myelephantcake, etc., should be purchased.  If you’re planning on really making a killing with your name, some other crafty entrepreneur no doubt will recognize that and scoop up their opportunity to make it big off your idea.  In the same way, if you have a unique spelling, make sure to get the original spelling to ensure that your people are coming to your site.  And once again, all domain names can be directed to the one specified site that you desire.

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In Michigan these days, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to run across good news.  Which is why when I ran across a contest that could help some of you Michiganders out there, I had to blog!

By now we all know the importance of having a good website on the internet, especially during a recession.  While many people are giving up their vacations, cable, and other luxuries, the one thing they’re not going to give up is the internet.  Think job search!

Therefore, it is increasingly important to make sure that your business, organization, etc. has a clean, attractive functioning website.   It does not have to be top of the line right now, just able to advertise your product appropriately.  Once the money comes in, then you can make the necessary additions.

But a lot of people don’t even have the money right now to get a lower-end site started and this is understandable.   It’s a catch 22 because you don’t want to have a free junky website representing your business and giving the wrong image to the customer, but you can’t make the money until you start to represent your business on the web…it’s a vicious cycle.  Two possible solutions for a new business owner:

*Enter the GreenLite Web Contest.  GreenLite Web, a web design company in East Lansing, MI recently launched a contest to design a site to a deserving business or organization.  Click here for more details.

*Go with a BizWebMachine site.  Your very own DPro Marketing in Rochester, MI has an affordable solution for starting websites for companies.  It’s a modular-based web design program that allows us to quickly and effectively build your company a website that looks profession and is not a template.  The finished product will look top-notch and compete with the best in the industry while at the same time, remain affordable enough for you.  For examples, check out ValhallaLodgeMi.com or Intelliroast.com.

Whatever you decide to do,  just hang tough.  Good times are ahead!

When checking my Google Alerts this morning, I came across a site worth sharing.  The flavored water company, Fruit2O, just launched their new site at fruit2O.com and it’s marketing at its best.  The colors are vibrant and the site navigation is flawless- easy for even the simplest of simpletons (me) to understand.  It doesn’t bombard the potential customer with useless information.  It just makes you want to drink Fruit2O.  Or look at the website- I must admit, the colors are so enchanting, I find myself clicking back and forth between Dproblue and Fruit2O just to look at the colors.  Check it out- you can get some good ideas for your own site- or just admire a good site.

When searching for controversial commercials today on YouTube, I was initially surprised to see Burger King’s “I Like Square Butts” commercial.  But only for oh, maybe .2 seconds.  Then I stopped to think about it and thought, “Hey, what were they thinking??”  But now I realize, maybe Burger King is smarter than all of us (well, all of you…).

If you haven’t seen the commercial yet (and by the looks of things, you may not because it is in danger of being pulled and understandably so), it basically is a spoof remake of Sir Mixalot’s “I Like Big Butts” music video of the oh so lovely 90s.  The difference?  The girls in the video are shaking square butts with the King watching them and rapping.  The point?  Burger King is advertising for their 99 cent kids’ meals that currently have SpongeBob Squarepants toys in them.  If you want to watch it before continuing on with my rambling, click here to see the YouTube video.

I guess the controversy that this commercial brings up pulls in the whole element of audience.  Is Burger King advertising to parents, children, or a different crowd entirely? If the answer is parents, they are clearly barking up the wrong tree.  Burger King is not this stupid.  They know children will think the video is hilarious, as well as childless adults.  So even though the commercial is supposedly for a kid’s meal, this is not really Burger King’s goal.  They are following the lead of Victoria’s Secret…advertising their product, not necessarily to the intended audience, but with the same outcome- more customers.

Think about it.  If you are a 20something childless adult (in the legal sense anyway), and you see this commercial, first thing you do?  Laugh.  Next thing you do?  Think, I want Cheesy Tots (or a Whopper, Chicken Sandwich, Burger Shots, etc).  Then you drive your ass to Burger King without a second thought about the commercial EXCEPT to maybe sing “I Like Big Butts” or call your friends and reminisce about Sir Mixalot.   Burger King’s goal-met.

If you’re a kid and see this commercial, it may go over your head or not, but either way you a) want Burger King b) want Burger King or c) Burger King.  Although your parent may be slightly peeved over the commercial, you know, as a child, that only a slight amount of pleading will get you your Burger King.  Particularly if you sing the Square Butts song until your mouth is occupied with the sweet success of fried food.  Burger King’s goal- met.

So, either way, parents are not the direct audience but they are nonetheless reached.  They will be pulled in by their children to the Burger King drivethru despite their proclamation that they “will never visit that restaurant again.”  Please, spare me.  We all know that they’ll forget about this commercial the very next time something remotely controversial hits the land of media advertising.  Burger King will survive… and prosper.

Looking for some great music to use with your website that doesn’t have all that legal mumbo jumbo attached to it?  Well, I cannot entirely eliminate the jumbo, but I can help you out…check out Jamendo!! It’s a great site that has thousands of artists and their songs all available for YOU to use.  The catch?  All songs are licensed under CreativeCommons.  What is CreativeCommons you ask?  Basically it’s a free way of licensing your music that allows others to use your music for free, provided that they follow the restrictions that you place on it.  The most lenient of these licenses is the Attribution license.  It allows anyone to use your music (for commercial or non-commercial) provided that they give you credit.  It’s THAT simple.   There are a lot of CreativeCommons licenses, so it’s best that you read about them BEFORE you use Jamendo.  So to tidy up this article for the lazy:

Do you want to put music in a video or website you are creating?  Yes?  Continue…

1.  Go on to CreativeCommons and read about the different types of licensing and what they mean.

2.  Go to Jamendo and pick out your music using the simple CC Icons on the side of the site as your guide.

3.  Use the desired music and credit/license it appropriately.

Hope this helps!!

If you’re looking to turn SWAG (stuff we all get) into SYGO (stuff you give out), this is the article for you.  Figuring out how to make SWAG work for your business is an important marketing technique that should not be overlooked.  Simply throwing a pencil with your logo on it at your potential customer will not do any longer.  Not only may you poke someone’s eye out (if the pencil is pre-sharpened), you risk being thrown in with the millions upon millions of pencils and pens already out there.  Some tips for SWAG to work for you:

*Be creative.  Think beyond a pencil.

*Be attractive.  Ugly is not good.

*Link it back to your product or service.  If you are a microwave company handing out oven mitts, something is wrong.

*Size Matters.  What was that you ask?  Size matters.  Make sure your logo stands out. 

*Avoid stickers.  Stickers are cool…when you’re six.  Is your potential clientele six?  Awesome-then spring for the sticker!  The exception to this rule is if your sticker has convenient information on it that needs to be handy at any given time.

*Remember the web.  When people see your company logo, they will go online and search for you.  If your waterbottle reads “Hydra Blast” and your logo in reality reads HyDrAbLaSt!, your client may be confused.  Plan accordingly.  Oh, and while you’re at it, make sure you took down all those drunk HyDrAbLaSt!,weekend excursion pictures…yeah, you know what I’m talking about.

Some ideas to get you Swagging….

 *post-its

 *paper

*waterbottles

*cups

*Thumbdrives

*Mousepads

*etc., etc., etc…

Some sites to order Sygo:

*Branders.com

*Zazzle.com

*Throwthings.com

Ahhh….the economy.  I don’t think we can go a single post without some sort of mention or reference to the lovely Recession that we are in right now.  Of course, there are silver linings to every cloud, and the Recession is no exception.  Today’s silver lining:  Crowdsourcing.  Crowdsourcing is simple.  An obvious play on the dreaded outsourcing that helped land us in the Recession, crowdsourcing is utilizing the undiscovered talents of amateurs at minimal to no cost.  People of today are especially willing to work for free if it means getting their name out their on a worthy product.  So next time you need a fresh look or new idea, put the word out there.  Start a contest with the winner receiving credit for his or her work.  If need be, you can throw in a small cash prize as well.  Undiscovered talent is your best untapped resource-use it!

To learn more:  MSNBC Article on Crowdsourcing

As a follow-up to last week’s “You’ve Got Mail”, I decided to research the best times of the day/week to send out email blasts.  The results, as expected, were inconclusive.  After all, it’s next to impossible to analyze the email habits of millions of people and define a “good” time to email anyone!  A good second, however, is to read up on the theories that people have.  Here’s a good place to start:  New Insights on Time of Day for Email

In order to be a good blogger, I’ll add a few of my own ideas as well.

*Monday is always a bad idea:  Mondays, just like any first day back in the office, are a horrid time to send anyone anything, particularly an email blast.  The first thing I do when I see that my inbox has 120 messages is figure out which 100 can be deleted without even glancing at.  We live in a world filled with SPAM, plan accordingly!

*Lunchtime is probably not a good idea:  Lunchtime, while it seems like a good time to send an email, is probably not.  Most people are going to be using that 30 minutes to Facebook or MySpace and do not want to be bothered with anything remotely resembling work that they are not on the clock for.  The exception is, however, if you are sending an advertisement for something that I would actually care about reading about in my free time (such as a Swedish Massage or something of the sort).  Just keep in mind that people like their free time.  Plus, if they don’t check their email during lunch, they are most likely to return to a full inbox much like a Monday.

These are just a couple of my own ideas.  Feel free to post your own.  Whatever time of day or day of the week you decide to send that email out, just remember it does matter!

One of the most effective marketing techniques on the web in today’s world is email marketing.  Email marketing is simple:  obtain a list of prospective or current clientele and send them an email (duh) with current special product features.  Such emails can include links to websites or contain exclusive offers.  There was a time when you could send anyone anything without consequences (ah, the glory old days of the internet) but that time is long gone.  SPAM, thank God, is being reduced by law.  Therefore, it is important that you follow the strict guidelines set by the government in regards to spam.    To read more about email marketing and the laws to abide by, click here:  Intro to Email Marketing.

Keep in mind the following tips when creating an email “blast”:

*Short and sweet

*Don’t overload your email with graphics; many people have them turned off on their email

*Be conscious of what time of day you are sending the blast out at.  Different times of days will affect if your blast is immediately deleted or not.

Lastly, it is important to use a professional company when sending out email blasts.  If you’re going to put a lot of time and effort into this form of advertising, it’s best to use someone who knows what they’re doing so you can maximize the success of your campaign.

When building your company’s first website, it’s important to keep the old KISS in mind…keep it simple stupid.  The reason? The answer:  The economy, of course!

Now, we both know that your company is going to take off with flying colors and sell more products/services than ever…but in today’s lovely unpredictable economy, it’s important that you stay based in reality and not sink all of your money into a website that no one will ever see besides your mother.  It’s of course important to build a website, but remember, websites can always be expanded upon in the future. Build a simple, professional website.  It’s a good base to have.  In the future when you sell a million of those legged blankets, you can have the all-out site that sings and dances and even emits smells from the screen….but for now you don’t need that much!

For your simple website, just make sure you have the basics. The basics would include:

*A clean, attractive homepage

*Working links/navigation throughout the site

*Enough information regarding your company to entice potential clientele

*Contact info

That’s it! That’s all you really need!! Just get your product/company out there and see if you have the stuff to move forward (alright, I know you do, see if people have the intelligence to recognize this…better?).  Once your website takes off and you’re rolling in money, THEN you can shell it out to build the amazing website.  But WAIT until this moment has arrived for you.

DPro has a good program for starting a basic website: BizWebMachine.  It allows for the quick and simple creation of a website that is not necessarily customized to the tee, but rather designed in a general manner allowing for the look and feel of your company but still allowing minimal cost.  In short:  it’s easy to build, but still looks amazing.

Check out one of our BizWebMachine sites:

Valhalla Lodge BizWebMachine Site