Web Design, like design in general, is subject to changes and trend influences. Words like “fresh, modern, innovative” seem to conquer the world of design while artists strive to discover new directions. Websites are different: objectives, resources and users are the factors shaping the profitability of a site. For a site to be successful, designers need to go ahead of the rules. Breaking the rules is not a problem. Not being able to find something on a website is.

The truth is that web design is not easy. There are several factors shaping the web layout and the architecture of a site, some see them as rules, others believe there are no rules at all. Yet, as far as business websites are concerned, there are some guidelines.

About Us and Contact Us
The role of a business website is to represent a company and its products on the web, describing the company’s objectives and providing enough information for the users. Users want to know who they are dealing with. The “about us” area should enclose general information about the management team, company history and company philosophy. This is also the right place to display photos of the team and the managers for a simple reason: pictures enhance credibility, so people believe that you are not trying to hide.

Some websites show within the “about us” category maps and addresses for the company, while others use a “contact us” area where they display contact forms, phone and fax numbers or department emails. For some users there is nothing more annoying than being forced to fill in long contact formularies or registrations. Try to avoid such practices. Let your users decide if they want to fill in all the details or if they’d rather save some time and fill in a short form. Provide options, be flexible.

Products and Services
Depending on what a company has to offer the “products” and “services” areas describe goods or services that are either sold on the website or advertised there in order to be sold somewhere else. The categories should be clearly structured, the descriptions simple and relevant, if necessary illustrated by related pictures or graphics. Too many images, though, distract users from the content. Use them carefully.

News
This is quite simple: what’s new about your company or products and services? Do you have any recent awards or events worth a web presentation? Write a text and publish it in this category. Keep it simple and try to use as many business related keywords as possible. More: distribute your news and press releases on relevant web outlets and drive traffic to your site.

Try to get testimonials from your clients and display them online. Sometimes even a critique shown online can bring you positive reactions. People will appreciate your honesty, and will trust you more than they trust companies which praise their own success too much. Be realistic, careful and show concern for the users, not for yourself.

Disclaimer or Privacy Policy
This is not a rule: it’s a must. Companies deal with clients; people who wish their privacy to be protected and sometimes other sites can provide illegal or harmful information. Wikipedia defines a disclaimer as follows:

“A disclaimer is a legal statement which generally states that the person/group authoring the disclaimer is not responsible for any mishap in the event of using whatever object or information the disclaimer is attached to.” The privacy policy is, according to the same source, a disclaimer as well: “A privacy policy is a disclaimer placed on a website informing users about how the website deals with a user's personal information.”

Put simply, maintaining audience expectations and delivering usable content are the main factors influencing the success of a business website. But the website architecture has to be followed by a cutting edge design and reliable ways to increase users’ loyalty.

Newsletters
Sites with fresh content that changes often offer users the option to sign up for eNewsletters. These should not be sent too often: studies show that too many reminders become an annoyance for many clients. Due to the fact that they feel more personal than websites, email newsletters will generate different emotional reactions for the users. The subscribe and unsubscribe options allow companies to measure success: how many users are interested in receiving periodic information and how many lose their interest?

The key to successful eNewsletter campaigns is simple: do not spam. Let people go if they choose to unsubscribe. If your messages become annoying, the negative feelings from one client will easily go to another.

“Verba Volant!”
As with website design, the newsletter design should be uncomplicated and user friendly. People should be able to find what they are looking for fast. Even the subscribe and unsubscribe processes should be fast: the longer the time needed to subscribe or unsubscribe, the higher the loss of customer satisfaction.

So keep the newsletters simple, useful and easy to deal with. Do not overload clients with information. Just tell them the basics and, if they are interested, they will certainly come to you, email or call, requesting more information. To succeed, write good subject lines that will help users distinguish the newsletter from spam. Each headline has to make sense and preferably be followed by a short abstract of the general content. Plain language is the best approach. People don’t need to get the feeling they are teased or led on. For reference visit Pamil Visions and get the “Writing Newsletters” *.pdf document you can find in the downloads area.

Other Issues
Branding your business doesn’t refer only to stationery and printed brochures. The website is an ideal means to promote your business visual standards. Include your logo at the top left of all pages and respect your corporate colour scheme. Have a consistent look and feel in all your pages. Again, I encourage you to visit Pamil Visions for advice in this matter, or other branding and public relations related sites.

Consistency is a powerful tool. When things are the same users know what to expect. They will not feel intimidated by new approaches or exasperated by unnecessary artifices. For example, Flash collected the bronze medal for annoyance. Let it out. Why should you open your site with an intro most of the users will skip anyways? The same goes for pop-ups.

Make the site easy to read. That means you need choose the fonts and their colours carefully: not too big or too light. The most legible fonts are standard serif and sans-serif (Times, Arial; Verdana). The pictures and graphics should have small file sizes to avoid slow loading pages. Optimise your pictures for the web.

Content you write for the web should be short, scannable and to the point. Some business sites are afraid that users will copy their valuable texts and use them somewhere else, getting commercial advantages. For this reasons they ask the designers to display texts as a picture. Wrong: have you ever heard of print screen? If someone wants to copy your work that will happen anyway no matter if we talk about text or graphics.

About the Author
Mihaela Lica is the founder of Pamil Visions - pamil-visions.com. She is now a freelance writer, public relations consultant and an artist. Previously she used to be a respected TV redactor, working for the Romanian Ministry of Defense. At the moment she works with small and new business helping them in their branding efforts.

Over the years we have come to learn that development of a designed corporate graphic identity is much more than a mere benchmark denoting successful arrival in business. A clearly defined and easily recognized identity has, in fact, become a critical success factor in today’s highly competitive business environment.

Here are 10 simple statements that briefly explain some of the primary benefits that can come from a thoughtfully designed and developed corporate image.

1. It’s easier to know who you are, which means:

2. It’s easier to know what you do. (Helps develop goals)

3. It’s easier to know how to do it. (Helps with implementation)

4. Less energy is expended overall. (Creates efficiency in communications)

5. Team building occurs naturally when staff can identify with a common symbol, common language and therefore common goals. (Sports uniforms are a good example. Every player feels part of the group)

6. You can match your image to your clients' needs or views of the business. (A simple matter of “give’em what they want.”)

7. With a clearly defined identity you communicate more efficiently with your customers, and they remember you more easily. (Memorability is easier when everybody clearly knows who you are.)

8. Enhancements in the overall quality of your product or service. (Consistency always counts.)

9. Benefits and unique qualities of your business are communicated more clearly to your clients thereby increasing sales. (Marketing tool)

10. Helps set identifiable standards of quality in your product or service. Helps with a sense of reliability by developing a “brand identity.” (Brand names are trusted.)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Tim Kenney: Creative Director and CEO of Tim Kenney Marketing Partners, has 33 years of experience in the design industry. Tim’s work has been published in two volumes of American Corporate Identity, Logo 2000 and Logo 2001 and, under his direction, his agency has garnered 100 prestigious design awards... and still counting. (c) Copyright 2007. Tim Kenney Marketing, http://www.tkm2.com

I watched Roy Williams in a quite literally amazing presentation about society's 40-year Pendulum recently. His presentation was a delightful hidden bonus in the agenda from the Call to Action seminar hosted by Bryan and Jeff Eisenberg at the Wizard of Ads Academy 1 in Buda, Texas.

Roy´s presentation explained a phenomenon that happens every 40 years where folks´ attitudes gradually shift over time in an opposite direction to that of the previous generation. He finished by predicting that in the next 2-3 years we´re going to see radical shifts in the way people buy and what they are influenced by. I am labeling this shift for the purposes of this article Reality Branding.

The shift starts with the arts
Roy described how music and art is the first indication that ´times they are a changing´. Typically music precedes this social shift before the whole idea goes mainstream. If you think about it, looking at music and the arts is a reasonable indicator of what people think. I´m not talking about the reaction to one hit wonders, but the general trends. Why does everyone suddenly get the same kind of groove, coast to coast, continent to continent?

I remember reading a CaveChat (bulletin board) thread from 5000BC 2 a few months back where one post compared Eminem to Elvis. I thought it was a strange comparison at the time because it was not explained in the context Roy described. I now understand that it wasn't that these icons were comparable as artists; it was that they are comparable in the shift they reflected in the "mainstream" in society.

Take Elvis. Since the late 50's we've had rock and roll in one form or another and it all started in 1957 with Elvis Presley curling his lip and shaking his knees in a fashion that made the young ladies of the time pass out with excitement.

Or did it? Rock and roll has its roots well before Elvis as I´m sure all the musical historians will tell you, however when Elvis and his iconic charm came along the music went mainstream and that is the point. For the next 40 years music was in one form or another, an iteration, imitation, categorization, blend or copy of a rock and roll based rhythm.

So what about Eminem? Eminem and probably a few others brought hip hop to the masses. In 1997 (40 years exactly from 57 when Elvis emerged on the scene) the hip hop generation was becoming very popular. Eminem was one of the emerging talents of the time, but the white guy in a predominantly black musical genre signaled the approach of the mainstream.

It reads like a script when you compare how Elvis before him was preceded by less famous Rock and Roll artists that were the true pioneers. Eminem and Elvis can be compared because they hit the scene around the time that people were ready for it and made history. Ever heard the saying ´there is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come?´3 Eminem's brash, hard hitting, realistic and edgy approach has the latest generation of young ladies screaming "That sh-- is bumping" 4 but they wouldn´t pass out because it isn´t cool.

And it´s ´what´s cool´ that´s the point isn´t it? What do hip hop artists sing about? Trouble on the streets, too many guns, poverty, sex, saving the world, where is the love - The Black Eyed Peas ´ and their rap about social conscience?

In addition other bands which aren't hip hop are of a similar vein in their lyrical content. Think Coldplay from the UK and their lyrics in Lights out.... "Come out upon my seas, curse missed opportunities (am I) A part of the cure, or am I part of the disease". Am I a part of the cure or a part of the disease??

Right now, it´s cool to be talking about real problems people have or reflecting on the reality surrounding them. Fantasy is out of the window, dreaming is for hippies, Can you imagine Coke releasing ´I´d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony´ without causing an entire generation to throw up? In 1971 people actually sang along!

Cool right now is all about reality and social conscience, where as for the last 40 years we've gone from individual rebellion (rock and roll), to free love (individual dreaming), to rebellion (punk rock), to material girl (the individual success story) to free your mind (90´s acid rock).

Interestingly if you take Madonna as a survivor of this social pendulum notice how her style and lyrics have changed? She started off as rebellious material girl, all vogue and power icon but now has shifted to a real mum with a social conscience (Ray of Light album).

Social conscience and getting things done
We´re switching from an idealistic society where it is Ok to dream, to a social society where getting things done is more important. The shift in society will have profound effects on branding and advertising over the next 20 years at least.

You´re now in a generation that doesn't respect individual achievements, rebellion or going it alone, mocks hype and doesn't think James Bond is da man! You're now in a generation where people are tired of hype, tired of dreams and want to work together to get things done. Your peers want to do things that make the world a better place to live in rather than just dream about it. They recognize the problems around them and seek solutions to make things happen.

Stars today wear ordinary clothes; remember Elvis on stage in his glittery white suits? Now think Eminem and Coldplay. How do they look in comparison? Today´s stars want to be portrayed as real. Notice the sudden trend in reality TV shows? Paris Hilton and her pal in The Simple Life? I bet when you watch the Simple Life you think Paris and her pal are morons.

Is that because they are morons? Or is it because you think that living the false lifestyle of credit cards, flash cars and a $10,000 Louis Vuitton handbag is crass? It´s an interesting question. Would today´s reality focus have worked back in 1971 when all we were dreaming about was giving peace a chance?

Reality branding is what´s cool today
Understanding this shift in social attitudes is the good news because now you can apply that to your own business. Relentless repetition used to be the only requirement to drive the branding message home, now it isn´t quite as easy as that.

Dove is a great example of this shift in thinking. Yes they still do repetition, but they get the message across to real women by showing them ads with real women in them. Gone are the stick like models, because our social conscience won´t allow us to let our daughters grow up thinking that skeletal is beautiful. In are normal looking women with real curves and different types of skin showing that Dove is good for them.

To communicate with today´s audience who are completely sick of advertising, you need to communicate facts and real benefits, not features and value based statements.

Communicating facts and benefits in your copy
If you write copy like your business school teacher taught you 20 years ago you will be out of sync with the current trend of thought. Below, Roy Williams describes how value statements can be seen as hype.

Modern advertising overflows with values-based statements: "Big selection." "High quality." "Low prices." "Easy credit." Even though these statements may be true in the mind of the advertiser, the public has heard them all before.

The left hemispheres of our brains detect fact-based statements and prefer them to statements that are values-based. Having been suffocated by hype for the past 40 years, we hunger today for statements of fact.
Roy Williams Monday Morning Memo 5

Values based statements still have their place but backing it up with facts will cut through the clutter more effectively. If you see ´low prices´ in website copy will you read on? Maybe, maybe not, but if you see a price which is attractive for a product you want then you´re looking for your credit card.

Take your PPC ad which says ´MP3 players' Exceptional quality, high storage capacity and low prices´. That might and probably will attract a lot of people who are seeking information about an MP3 player. However selling the same product with fact based statements you could give your reader a much better idea and make your ad stand out from the crowd ´MP3 players ´ High quality with 100GB storage for thousands of tracks $399´.

Of course the second ad will attract far less traffic than the first because you´re pre-qualifying people. Hmmm, well isn´t that what you want from a PPC ad? People that know what you have and wants to buy what you sell?

Sources
1 The Wizard Of Ads Academy
2 5000 BC Post on the membership forum.
3 Victor Hugo French dramatist, novelist, & poet (1802 - 1885)
4 Wikipedia - A list of slang terms used in the Hip Hop culture.
5 Monday Morning Memo for September 26, 2005

Author: Steve Jackson, Editor - Conversion Chronicles Steve Jackson is CEO of Aboavista, editor of The Conversion Chronicles and a published writer. You can get a free copy of his e-book sent to you upon subscription to the Chronicles web site (conversionchronicles.com).

is finding the right positioning—to drive the advertising and other marketing tools. It doesn’t have to be complicated or weird. In fact, if it’s good and effective, it’s simple and will follow this “Rule of consumers” — “You are what you appear to be.” This position, or ‘brand’ is really an identity (not in your mind, but in your audience’s) — a way people can sort through all the confusing information and summarize what they think about something.

What do you get with a brand identity?

Over the last 25 years we have come to learn that the development of a brand identity is much more than a mere benchmark denoting successful arrival in business, or its evolution and growth. A clearly defined and easily recognized identity has, in fact, become a critical success factor in today’s highly competitive business environment.

Just to lay some “groundwork”, here are ten reasons why doing so can have a strategically important effect on your bottom line.

• It’s easier to know who you are, which means:

• It’s easier to know what you do. (Helps develop goals)

• It’s easier to know how to do it. (Helps with implementation)

• Less energy is expended overall. (Creates efficiency in communications)

• Team building occurs naturally when staff can identify with a common symbol, common language and therefore common goals. (Sports uniforms are a good example. Every player feels like a part of the group.)

• You can match your image to your clients needs or view of his business. (A simple matter of “give’em what they want.”)

• With a clearly defined identity you communicate more efficiently with your customers, and they remember you more easily. (Memorability is easier when everybody clearly knows who you are.)

• Enhancements in the overall quality of your product or service. (Consistency always counts.)

• Benefits and unique qualities of your business are communicated more clearly to your clients thereby increasing sales. (Marketing tool)

• Helps set identifiable standards of quality in your product or service. Helps with a sense of reliability by developing a “brand identity.” (Brand names are trusted.)

So, what is a brand anyway?

As we begin the process of making recommendations for developing a brand identity let’s talk about what we really mean by “brand.” What is it, why does it work, how does it work and who makes it work.

Philip Durbrow, vice chairman of the international design firm of Frankfurt Balkind Partners, recalls, "When I first started working in branding, it became obvious that there were no clear universal definitions of key words like marketing, strategy, identity, image and brand. I've developed specific definitions so that we are clear on what we are talking about. Fuzzy words yield fuzzy thinking and fuzzy brands."

Some Definitions
There is very little consistency in people's understanding, or usage, of brand terminology. For clarity, we offer the following definitions:

A Product: is something that is produced to function and exists in reality.

A Brand: has meaning beyond functionality and exists in individuals' minds.

Product Quality: has major influence on Brand Qualities.

Brand Qualities: are the thoughts, feelings, associations and expectations created by a Brand Identity.

Brand Identity: is the way in which a brand is expressed visually and verbally.

Branding: is viewing every customer related activity as part of the branding process and managing it accordingly. Everything a company does that affects its customer, affects the value of its brand.

Marketing: means making it easy and motivating people to buy your product — through product design, pricing, packaging, distribution, advertising, etc.

Brand Marketing: is pushing beyond product benefits to fulfill a strategic core promise. It means looking past the tangible to the intangible, accommodating buyers' practical needs while resonating with their deeper feelings.

Brand Strategy: means deciding which brands are going to be used to deliver which products and services to which customers. (This may involve usage of global brands, umbrella brands, megabrands, subbrands, flanker brands, brand extensions and brand families.)

Brand Equity: is the present value of the future combined purchases that are a result of the preference created, or the premium paid, for a brand's products.

Why do we want a brand?

All brands start by speaking to the needs and aspirations of an audience. The aspiration is the brand identity: that's a projection of how the brand wishes to be perceived by its target audience (as opposed to the brand image, which is the way the brand is, currently perceived).

Knowledge and appreciation of this core concept will allow the steward of the brand to develop the mission, build and nurture the market, maintain the brand philosophy, strategy, overall look and feel of the brand and, of course, the logo. What is the audience going to be satisfied with or disappointed by with the message coming from the brand? What is going to help build a strong brand identity (what would weaken it)? How can the aspirations for the brand identity be reached?

Who's Minding the Store?

The brand steward, usually senior executive from the parent company, must protect and cultivate the immutable core of the brand (about 50%) in order to ensure that the brand remains strong. The steward manages the part of the brand that must remain fluid (the remaining 50%) in order to keep the brand relevant and exciting. Typically we see a freshness and evolution in the brand's advertising and packaging, that's the part of the brand that is constantly evolving. The steward is responsible for overseeing the advertising agency's efforts to promote the brand, to develop brand segmentation internally (that is, the sub-brands) and to direct the packaging of branded products. The overall responsibility of the brand steward is to keep the brand on course and profitable.

Companies that have broad, strong brand recognition can diversify through their sub-brands more than narrowly focused companies. For instance, Brit Richard Branson, a courageous babyboomer, started his first business in 1968 at the age of sixteen, and has cultivated companies in the entertainment area ever since, under the umbrella Virgin Group (virgin.com). First came Virgin Records. Ten years later Branson branched out to form Virgin Atlantic Airways, then a year later added Virgin Holidays. Two years after that Virgin expanded to include Virgin Airship & Balloon Company, Virgin Publishing and Virgin Hotels, among others. Branson, a highly visible and consistently strong leader, is the very essence of pioneer spirit and innovation. Consumers 'get' Virgin's abstract brand identity because Virgin's broad target audience identifies with Branson and all he stands for: unencumbered global vision and maverick style. He is a self-proclaimed Virgin for life.

Durbrow offers this wisdom, "There is no long-term advantage to having a brand image that is greater or lesser than the brand really is. If the image is greater than the reality, people will be disappointed whenever they encounter the brand. If the image is less than the reality, the company will never benefit from all its hard work, i.e., the brand won't command a premium or create a preference for the company's branded products."

The Brand As Asset

When included on the balance sheet, the brand's equity is an intangible asset like good will. Its value brightens the parent company's fiscal picture: this is one big reason why companies are eager to develop strong brands. An enhanced financial picture allows the parent company to generate revenue, grow and expand. The brand, which is structured to be easily separated from the parent company, may be sold. The brand may be segmented to increase the market by creating sub-brands which appeal to more specific consumer needs, further increasing the value of the brand.

In the long term, it's the brand's core message that must be honored. All the strong brands — CocaCola, Nike, Calvin Klein, to name a few — give the impression of unswerving confidence, through their billion dollar advertising campaigns. This is exactly the kind of motivational leadership our emotionally charged culture craves. "The branding statement has to be honest, relevant. For example, the Coke brand is the value of constancy. The contour bottle and Spencerian script are promises that the Coke you'll have in Thailand is the same as the Coke you'll have in Oakland. The challenge for us is always to find ways to make something change and stay the same." People have a strong emotional attachment to CocaCola — it's something they grew up with. Coke is a part of the history of America. Waterbury adds, "The CocaCola headquarters and museum in Atlanta are a testament to excellent management of a global brand: A brand that makes a personal connection for almost everyone."

How Brand is Different from Product

Many organizations use the term "Product Manager" interchangeably with "Brand Manager." While most of us could think through the semantic difference between a "product" and a "brand," it seems that (with a few exceptions) the two concepts become indistinguishable when it comes to their management. This confusion may explain in part why there are so few brands and so many products.

The product is defined by its form and function, what it is and what it does. The product is physical attributes, such as price, performance, ease of use, design and style. What a product is can be relatively easily communicated, rapidly changed and effected in the short term using a number of tools: just add a new ingredient or change the shape of the packaging and you have a new product or, at least, a different one. A good product/marketing strategist is one who can distill a large amount of data about the consumer, the market, his competition, distribution, and boil it down to the few essential premises that will form the backbone of a focused marketing plan. He should be able to distill these premises even further to write an effective communication strategy which, as any honest advertising person will tell you, must be based on a single minded selling proposition. This ability to distill facts down to their simple essences presupposes an excellent knowledge and understanding of the product's consumer or end-user and buyer.

The brand is almost the opposite on all points. Whereas the product has a form, the brand does not have a physical embodiment: It is merely a promise, a covenant with the customer. Some say that the "logo is the brand"... but this isn't so. A logo is meaningless if it does not communicate the brand's covenant with the consumer. And, whereas communication of a product's physical attributes is straightforward and fast, communication of brand values is inherently circuitous and slow. Like the character of an individual, brand character is most difficult to communicate proactively: The individual cannot tell what his character is; the observer must figure it out for himself... an indirect communications process which requires time and absolute consistency. And, contrary to product communication which is best based on one single minded forceful proposition, brand character, like the character of a person, becomes better defined as it gains in complexity. Lastly, whereas the product manager must gain a superior knowledge of his consumer to be effective, the brand manager's success is in great part based on a thorough knowledge of the idiosyncrasies and the values professed by his company and its long term corporate players, i.e., its top management.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Tim Kenney: Creative Director and CEO of Tim Kenney Marketing Partners, has 33 years of experience in the design industry. Tim’s work has been published in two volumes of American Corporate Identity, Logo 2000 and Logo 2001 and, under his direction, his agency has garnered 100 prestigious design awards... and still counting.

(c) Copyright 2007. Tim Kenney Marketing, www.tkm2.com

by: Jim Neessen

It’s hard to see why anyone today would NOT want to register their own personal domain name. This is your piece of “Internet Real Estate.” Grab the perfect name, word or phrase that best describes you or your business. Registering a domain name is easy, very inexpensive and can greatly increase your level of professionalism. This is especially important if you are advertising an affiliate program or replicated website. Sub domains and trailing slashes “/” can weaken your image.

Also, instead of a long URL (web address) like: ipodiums.net/members/proleads/newmember.html, you can register something short and catchy like: ProLeadCapture.com. Of course, you'll have to see if your domain choices are available. This brief article will address some of the benefits of registering your own domain, tips on choosing your domain name, and ideas on how you can get the most out of having your own personal domain name.

BENEFITS of having your own Domain Name:

• Eliminate the "/" from your website address and make it shorter
• Brand yourself and your business... and look more professional
• Easier to verbalize and remember (when telling someone to visit your web page)
• Looks better in print (on business cards, labels, letterhead, etc.)

• Brand your email address to match your domain name (ex. if your website was yourdomain.com, you can use the following as your email address: "info@yourdomain.com" or "yourname@yourdomain.com"). Most domain providers offer free e-mail forwarding with your domain registration. You can use your domain email and have your messages forwarded to your primary email account. (ex, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, etc.). You’ll want your prospects to see your domain name in your e-mail address, instead of giving “AOL” free advertising.

TIPS on choosing a Domain Name:

GOOD Example: ProLeadCapture.com
BAD Example: Generating-efficacious-Leads-4-U.ws

• Keep it simple, short & easy to remember

• You may want to avoid numbers and letters in place of words (like in the example above). If you verbally give someone your website, you'll have to remember to tell them to use the number "4" and the letter “U” instead of the words "for" and "you".

• Try to use words or name that are easy to spell ("efficacious" may be easily misspelled and therefore you might lose a customer. For example, "Google" also registered "Gooogle.com" just in case someone typed an extra "o" and they didn’t want users sent to another site).

• Avoid hyphens ("-"). Unless you are only using the domain for Internet marketing, where prospects are only clicking links, people who type your domain may leave the hyphens out and inadvertently go to a competitor's website instead.

• Try to get a ".com". This is the most common extension. If you can't find a ".com" with the name you want, the next best option would be a ".net". But, make sure that a competing site isn't using the ".com", because people you send to your site may mistakenly go to someone else’s website instead. A ".com" should always be the first choice. I would rather settle for a longer domain name than choose a shorter one with a different extension. The following are some of the most common extension choices available: ".com", ".net", ".org", ".info", ".biz", ".ws", ".us".

IDEAS on how you can get the most out of your Domain Name

Once you register your domain name, you can easily “Forward” it (or re-direct it) to any URL web address you want. Most domain providers have free forwarding services included with their basic domain registration, which, by the way, should never cost you more than $9.99 per year (unless you’re adding on web hosting). If you have a replicated website or an affiliate page, you do not need web hosting because you’re just forwarding the domain to a page that is already being hosted on the web.

Another free service that most domain providers offer is “E-mail Forwarding”, which I like to call “E-mail Branding.” This lets you brand your email address with your domain name. This way, every time you send an email to someone, you are advertising your domain... and your website. For example, if your domain was “YourDomain.com”, your email address can be “YourName@YourDomain.com”. And, you don’t have to get another email address. Your “domain e-mail” will simply forward all your e-mail messages to your “AOL” account (or whatever e-mail service you are using). It looks much more professional to have your “domain e-mail” and your “domain website” on your marketing materials than displaying a free e-mail address, like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc..

Generally, with “e-mail forwarding”, you have two options: “Catch All” or specific e-mail forwarding addresses. There are pros and cons to each:

PRO: With “Catch All”, if someone sends an e-mail with anything before the “@” sign, it will still get forwarded to your main e-mail account. This is especially beneficial if someone misspells your name in your e-mail address, because the message will still get forwarded to you. For example, if someone sends an email to: "John_Do@yourdomain.com" instead of "John_Doe@yourdomain.com" it would still get delivered.

CON: "Catch All" e-mails are more susceptible to being spammed because spammers can easily get a list of domain names and just put common words like "info" or "contact" in front of the "@yourdomain.com" expecting that many of their solicitations will get delivered.

SUGGESTION: Use a "Catch All", but only advertise a single e-mail address. This way if someone misspells the word before the "@" sign, it will still get through to you. And, if you find yourself getting too much spam with other words being used before the "@" sign, you can always switch back to a single e-mail forwarding address using that single word. This way you'll be able to stop the spam and won't have to worry about missing e-mails from all the other e-mail addresses you might have advertised. Another tip, if you're not using a "catch all", is to avoid common words that spammers use to spam domain names. For example, "info@yourdomain.com", "webmaster@yourdomain.com" or "sales@yourdomain.com". You may want to use something less common, like your first name (ex., "Jim@yourdomain.com"). This way if someone sends spam to "info@yourdomain.com" it will not clutter up your inbox.

There are still lots of good “.com” domain names available. Take your time looking for those that are just right for you... and grab them while you still can.

(c) Copyrighted by: iPodiums.Biz

Product naming is a key aspect of branding. The name you ultimately choose will reflect who you are, your company’s personality and vision. But more importantly, it must unforgettably embody the promise of your product’s main benefit to your potential customers. It can dovetail generically with your competition, but ideally, it should stand out from the crowd. Where to begin? Here are some basic guidelines.

If the field’s too crowded, be unique
MSN Search, Netscape Search, AOL Search, they all stayed in the same category, so you could play it safe and go with Stupendous Search or Super-Duper Search. This works for a time, but as soon as the field gets too crowded, you’ll be lost in the mush of sameness with ever diminishing name recognition. If you’re in it for the long haul, better to break away from the crowd with a name like Google, Yahoo, or even Dogpile (though I’m not a fan of going into the scat category just to be unique). Even Kinko's—the founder's nickname (he had kinky red hair in school)—is different enough to be memorable.

Avoid tongue twisters
There’s a little part in all of us that hates to be embarrassed. When we ask for a product or talk about it with friends, we want to sound literate and not fumble over pronunciations. So be kind to your potential customers and avoid tongue twisters, or any name that’s unusually long or foreign sounding. If you can’t find a single-word name, don’t go over two or three syllables.

Alliteration can help with longer names
Okay, so the president of the company likes all the longer names on your list. You can make them more memorable and/or easier to pronounce by using alliteration. Consider Circuit City (originally, the incredibly bland, monosyllabic, Wards). Or Downtown Disney, or the most famous brand in the world, Coca Cola. All four syllables, yet they roll off the tongue with surprising ease.

Avoid abbreviations
Abbreviations lack personality and communicate very little in terms of benefit or brand character. Sure, IBM, MCI and ABC have big recognition and identity, but they also spent years and millions in virtually all media to promote their image—using images of people and situations that were warm and fuzzy. Even billionaire Bill Gates chose Microsoft over MS (which has some undesirable connotations).

Convey an implied benefit
If you don’t have a lot of media dollars to spend on name recognition, try for a name that conveys a benefit or describes content. Snapple started out with a name that combined two of its original flavors: Spice N Apple. Silk—the soy-based milk brand—combines soy and milk. Benefit-oriented names include EasyOff oven cleaner, Miracle-Grow plant food, and Hearthwarmer (a fireplace insert).

Lost in Translation…or worse!
Most of us have heard the story of Chevrolet introducing their "Nova" in Spanish-speaking countries. The car tanked because 'nova' means "doesn't go." Fiat found they had to rename their "uno" in Finland, since "Uno" means garbage in Finnish. Canadian products require labeling in both English and French, which is why on some cookie boxes, the English phrase "without preservatives" has been unintentionally translated into the French "sans preservatives," which means "without condoms." ‘Nuff said.

Shun fads
The shelf life of a faddish name is short and sweet. It rises to the stratosphere of recognition then nosedives into obscurity faster than you can say, “radical,” “tubular” or “outta sight.” Another problem with fads is they’re often limited to one demographic or clique. In a market as broad and diverse as the U.S., it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Protect your image
If you’re like most companies, you worked hard and spent some real money creating the image of your company. So it only makes sense to protect your investment with a product name that’s consistent with your existing brands and image. Rolls Royce had to pull the name of its newest addition to the Silver Cloud line, which they tentatively named the "Silver Mist," since in German, "mist" means manure. So build on what you have. A good example: Google’s entry into online shopping with Froogle. Incidentally, if you’re wondering where “Google” came from, it’s a variation on the math term googol, a huge number with endless zeros.

Don’t forget legal
Once you’ve settled on a few ideal prospective names, hire a good lawyer to make sure they’re not already being used or are confusingly similar to someone else’s in your industry.

Hopefully, this brief overview will help guide you through the subtleties of product naming. Remember, try to be unique and benefit oriented without being confusing or offensive. Avoid fads, abbreviations and tongue twisters. And, by all means, protect your image.

About the Author
Alex Kecskes is a former ad agency Copy Chief who has created effective copy and concepts for a wide range of ad agencies, Fortune 500 companies and startups. As owner of ak creativeworks, Alex provides brand names, as well as strategic copy for brochures, mailers, multimedia, articles, newsletters, PR and web content. He has published articles in a variety of publications about health, business and technology--this includes copy for over 130 different products and services. He has won such national awards as the Andy, Belding and One Show. For more information and samples, please visit: http://www.akcreativeworks.com