Posted By: Jade on Jun 4th 2009 @ 4:02 pm
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.
Sounds simple enough, right? It is. Just cover all your bases and play on player, play on!
Posted By: Jade on Apr 21st 2009 @ 4:36 pm
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!!
Posted By: Jade on Mar 25th 2009 @ 3:38 pm
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
Posted By: Jade on Mar 24th 2009 @ 1:36 pm
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!
Posted By: Jade on Mar 11th 2009 @ 3:51 pm
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
Posted By: Jade on Feb 4th 2009 @ 5:53 pm
Ahh….it’s that time of year again. Nope, it’s not tax season, not Christmas, not the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, but rather the end of football season. I’ve been informed it’s not officially the end until the “All Star” Game, but I still feel a small tinge (ok, fine, maybe a LOT) of excitement when the Super Bowl is finally over. This year, I went and saw “Revolutionary Road” during the game much to the relief of my liver. Anyway. The point of all this babble? The one good thing that football/the Super bowl does have to offer? Commercials. You love them, I love them, we all love them. So, for a nice little break from your monotonous workday- here’s a link to the 10 best and 10 worst commercials of 2009. My personal favorite- The Mr. Potato Head commercial. I actually emitted an “LOL” upon viewing it. So without further delay-
FoxSports.com 10 best/10 worst Super Bowl Commercials 2009
