6 Guidelines for choosing a successful Domain Name

14 Mar 2010 at 19:48

Damien Viero

Domain Names

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A professional or business site is one where the primary purpose of the site is to facilitate business transactions. You can sell items directly online or exclusively offline, but the result is the same. You want customers to buy products and/or service directly from you.

To create a domain name for this type of website here are a few guidelines:

1. Shorter is better

2. Make the name easy to pronounce

3. Think long term

4. Stick to Categories and Topics

5. Do a trademark search

6. Always have a tag line

Shorter is better

If you want to make real money online, try to keep your domain name as short as possible. In the online world, the choices of where to shop and get information is overwhelming. A shorter name will instantly be memorable. It is always easier to remember short words and phrases. A shorter name is good for word of mouth advertising online and offline. Customers can easily remember the the URL and therefore they’re more likely to pass it on and return to the website. The name will also stand out when it is printed on brochures, business cards and other business collateral. Liz, Dick, Kate, Feds are all examples of our incessant need to reduce every term in the English language to three syllables or less.

Easy to Pronounce

If you want a short name, you must be very creative. To be creative and strategic make sure that your domain name is easy to pronounce. It is perfectly acceptable to create a name from scratch, but it must sound like a real word when you try to say out loud. Any three or four syllable term will do a long as it easily rolls off the tongue. If you are at a loss for words, try writing a description of your product or service on paper.

This is a very easy way to come up with those little words that you can use without losing the meaning of what you’re trying to say. You can also use a dictionary and a thesaurus to come up with additional words. You can also choose a longer word but shorten it or use acronyms only. When you decide on a domain name, say it out loud a few times. If it doesn’t sound right, go back to the dictionary and try again.

Think long term

You want a domain name that will last a very long time. If you pick a name that is a slang term or too cutesy, you could find yourself looking for a new name in a year or two. This is not the best way to proceed. Once you build a certain level of online success, the traffic will follow the domain name. You don’t want to mess with your brand and your online reputation with redirects and ‘we have moved’ notices. Online customer will buy, but only if your site makes it convenient for them to do so. If you don’t see yourself using the same domain name three to four years from now, get a new name before you set up your website.

Trademark Searches

Do a trademark search. If you build up your online business and domain name, you don’t want to find a court order ordering you to give it up because it belongs to another company. Remember, the traffic and therefore your sales will follow the domain name to the new company.

To do a quick trademark search go to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov) for domestic searches and the International Trademark Association (http://www.inta.org) for international searches. If your name is cleared, then consider getting a trademark to protect your business.

Tag line

Tag lines are the work horses of the marketing industry. An interesting, professional tag line can bring you more word of mouth advertising than you can ever buy from a search engine company. It will bring your name into random conversations in newsgroups, newsletters and casual conversations. This can help you save money on paid advertising and create the ultimate viral marketing campaign without very little effort.

Keep these six tips handy to brand your domain name and bring in more site traffic

Your Business Card is Crap!

20 May 2010 at 19:49

Damien Viero

Fun & Games

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Something to make you laugh!

What is Email Forwarding?

18 May 2010 at 22:09

Damien Viero

Email

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Email forwarding involves passing email along from one address to another. It can also be used to pass groups of messages such as listservs.

Our Email forwarding service can automatically forward all mail received at one of your addresses to another address. This can be handy if you have a web based email alias but would rather not have to surf to the website each day to check your mail. Using a forwarding service, the mail received at the website would automatically be passed to your main email addess (or another address of your choice). This allows you the convenience of utilizing multiple email addresses while keeping your main email address private, and still collecting all of your mail in one place.

Mail forwarding services are also handy for people that change their ISP (and therefore main email address) often. With some forwarding services, you are simply give out our one address no matter what ISP you have; the address might look something like: yourname@forwarding-service-provider.com. Friends will always have a current address to send mail, and when your main address changes you only have to notify one party (the forwarding service) rather than dozens.

Email Forwarding can be used with any domain and costs just $29 per year

Common Misconceptions about Web Designers

10 Mar 2010 at 21:59

Damien Viero

Web Design

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As a web designer, I’m proud to be a part of an Apple-loving, forward thinking, technologically advanced group of people that devour tutorials and web design blogs, hoping to create a stellar design that that gets posted in every CSS gallery out there. Yep, we’re a group of people that works hard, plays hard and strives to meet our deadlines, while learning something new along the way.

Common Misconceptions about Web Designers

We’re also a misunderstood group of people, viewed as gothic creatures that shun the daylight because we’re just tragic artists.

Well, I’m here to set things straight. Here are some common misconceptions about being a web designer that just aren’t true.

Web designers are a dime a dozen

Yes, your mom’s friend’s brother’s neighbor may know how to use Photoshop, or maybe he even learned HTML and CSS basics from a book, but that doesn’t make him a web designer.

A web designer is someone that designs professionally and knows the reason why you can’t use Zapfino for body copy on the web. They understand why using a red background with green text is a bad idea.

Anyone can learn how to create professional web designs, but not overnight, and certainly not by reading one book. Web designers have skills learned through experience, lots of practice, continual self-education, and working with clients.

It takes time and patience to be a professional web designer, and I’m sorry, but your mom’s friend’s brother’s neighbor is not one of them.

Web designers know nothing about art

Art basics are the foundation of every good design, and are ingrained deep in the heart and soul of every great web designer.

Composition, hierarchy, and color choices are what a design is composed of. Typography also plays a big role in the design. Fonts must be carefully chosen to compliment the style and feel of the site design. Body text itself has several things to think about. It must be legible so a designer has to consider size, color, font choice and style. Every choice affects the design, taking a design from mediocrity to greatness.

Web designers must be living large with how much they charge

I had a friend tell me this after she found out about my rates. I’ve heard the same sentiment from others. It’s a little disconcerting to hear someone say a website should be worth so little money. Your website defines your company and is often the only face people will see. It should certainly put your best foot forward, telling customers what you do in a professional manner, and communicating to them effectively why you deserve their business. These things take time and skills to complete and should cost money, since we do need to make a living. Although it may sound like a lot all at once—at the end of the day—it usually doesn’t amount to being rich.

Web designers make things pretty, not functional

American Designer Charles Eames once said, “Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.” A web designer’s job is to make sure that the design isn’t just aesthetically pleasing, but also usable. Web design is a craft born out of comingling art and science harmoniously.

A good user experience on a website is largely due to the design and how the designer planned the site. It would be silly to create a site without thinking about how it functions. It’s important to prepare by thinking about what users might do and how the design can move them around the site efficiently. The functionality and usability of a site and the design certainly go hand in hand.

Web designers have it easy, HTML and CSS are easy to learn

Yeah, and clients are easy to please too. The web runs on its own language, several of them actually. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Perl – this list goes on and on.

Learning each one is like learning another language like Spanish, French, or German. You must start with the basics and build upon the foundation, gaining more experience with time, slowly adding more and more command of the language to your repertoire until the day that you speak like a native speaker.

As with many professions today, there is much to learn, and with the ever-changing and evolving world of design, there will always be another skill to acquire or another language to study.

Although it may be more fun than learning French, it’s still something that starts out tough and only gets easier with time.

Web designers sit in a dark basement and hate to socialize

This may still be true for some, but I think it would be tough to gain new clients (and keep existing ones) by being unsociable. Networking is a huge part of collaborating and working well with others, as well as a great way to find potential new clients and spread the word about yourself as a designer.

Being social and getting out into the daylight is a big part of getting yourself out into the workforce and finding jobs. I’ve met tons of fellow designers at social functions, so I know firsthand that most designers may be shy, but certainly not against socializing.

Web designers aren’t progressive

This one is so false I don’t even know where to start. Web design has changed so much over the last year alone! The big push behind these changes and the group responsible for the way the web looks is—you guessed it—web designers.

Society as a whole plays a big part, with fashion trends, social norms and even the economic state playing a hand in where web design goes. But we are the people responsible for creating and maintaining the look, pushing ourselves to design something new and something the world will love.

Web designers work odd hours

I do know some designers that do work at non-standard hours, so I’ll tread lightly here, because for some, this may be their only choice or this is where they’re most productive. Working regular business hours allows me to be available for client phone calls, and gives me the chance to respond to emails in a timely manner. If I slept in until noon, half of the regular business day would be gone, which cuts my chances of networking and finding potential new business in half as well. I prefer to work regular hours and I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but I don’t think our group as a whole should be defined as people that work irregular hours.

Web designers don’t need any kind of training

I know some designers that have natural talent and are self-taught designers. Nevertheless, in a non-traditional way, they still received some training. It may have come from online tutorials, books, magazines, blogs or friendly coworkers, but I don’t think a single one of us can say we opened our eyes one day and knew how to be a great web designer without any kind of training whatsoever.

Formal training in a classroom setting was very helpful for me in my learning process, although it doesn’t fit everyone. As web designers, we have all been trained in different ways across the globe, gathering knowledge from many sources to become the designers we are today.

Web designers don’t work well with web developers

I consider myself a designer and a developer and I use the term web design loosely, combining the trades together. Many designers and developers do this, so it would be wrong to say we don’t get along. Even when designers and developers are separate, we are all after the same purpose. We want a greater web experience that allows users to find the information they are looking for easily and efficiently while feeling satisfied and amazed. At times, there may be disagreements between the two parties but in the end, we are all on the same team.

Web designers have a cushy job

Some people think that all we do is surf the web and making things look pretty all day. I do believe we have landed in a pretty cool field, and I won’t for a minute say I don’t love being a designer. But I also don’t agree that it’s a cushy job. The majority of us are diligently working to provide customers with a website that fits their audience, their needs and their services. We work hard to push our designs to a new level, accepting criticism and feedback to make our work the best it can be for the client.

Web designers can make tons of money right out of school

Now I know some of you may have been lucky enough to land a sweet job right out of school, or maybe even started up your own thing and it took off right away. I’m going to guess and say it didn’t just fall in your lap though, you probably worked hard and had a stellar portfolio.

For most of us, even with a great portfolio, it takes time, experience, and hard work in the real world to land a good design job and awesome high-paying clients. The first couple of years are a bit rough, and are filled with lots of learning, and maybe some coffee runs for the office. Kids right out of school are so hopeful that they will be the next big thing, but it just doesn’t happen like that.

What other misconceptions about web designers have you heard?

Myths about the web design world are all over the place, and I’ve only briefly touched on the misconceptions that I’m sure we’ve all heard. Keep educating your friends, family and coworkers about these things and help us spread the word about our great design community.

About the Author

Shannon Noack is a designer in Arizona and the Creative Director of Snoack Studios. Designing is her passion in life and she loves to create websites, logos, print work, you name it. She also blogs regularly here and you can connect with her on Twitter as well.

Communicating your needs to your web designer

09 Mar 2010 at 19:21

Damien Viero

Web Design

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Communicating with a web designer can be the most difficult part of the hiring process because you and the web designer don’t speak the same language when talking about the details of a website. This article explains how to get your ideas across to the web designer you want to hire.

Ok, so you’ve decided to hire a professional web designer to build your website. You spent some time looking for the right person. Eventually you found the right web designer that you believe will design the most “remarkable”, “extraordinary” website the internet community has yet seen.

So now what? Explaining to the web designer the layout design you have in your mind can be a very frustrating process. You will find that putting the “picture” in your mind into words can be a difficult task. Actually in most cases this is the biggest hurdle between you and the final outcome. No matter how talented the web designer is, if you can not communicate with him properly, in his own professional language, he will not be able to use his talent to achieve your design.

There are two possible situations you may face:

You know what content you want on the website but have no clue how to present it to the user.

You know what content you want on the website, and you have the layout in your mind, but you don’t know how to implement it.

In both cases you will need to explain your thoughts to the web designer. Although most people who read those lines are probably thinking that being in the second situation is better then being in the first situation. However, real life experience shows the opposite to be true. Giving a web designer the complete freedom of action regarding the web design based solely on the website content is usually a smart thing to do. You will find that explaining to the web designer what the nature of your website is, whether it’s a product that you want to sell or a hobby item, is much easier then trying to explain to him the temperate of the color schema or an undefined shape that you would like to have in the website header.

Actually for both of the situations, I would suggest you use the same approach, but with a minor modification to each situation. If you know of a website that has all the features you want or need and/or a site that looks the way you want your site to look, be sure to give the site’s url to the web designer. Doing so will give him some idea of want you want. You will both be looking at the same thing but will actually look at it from a different angle. Therefore, it may be better to give him more than one website as an example. The more websites you find that can express your feelings and/or needs, the easier it will be for web designers to understand your intention without you having to use a single “technical” term. Chances are that you won’t find a single website that has all of the feature you want. After all, if such a website already exists there would be no place for your new web site to be born. Use several websites to express the different features you want. Spend as much time as necessary until you find just the right websites to provide examples of your needs. Doing research at this stage will definitely save you a lot of time later trying to point the web designer in the right direction.

Although you are the one who needs to express your self to the web designer, you must learn to listen to him as well. When he uses technical terms, ask for their meaning. Do not finish any part of the conversation unless you are absolutely sure that both sides are on the same page. Remember that when a web designer speaks about the temperature of a color, he is not talking about the next day’s forecast.

Remember, you hired a professional web designer because you want a professional looking website and you couldn’t do it yourself. So, trust the web designer’s judgment when they tell you something you want won’t work or isn’t the best way to accomplish your goals. After all, you are paying them for their expertise. Don’t try to tell them how to do their job.

It is OK to require that a web designer gets your approval each step of the way so you can tell them if one of your goals isn’t being met. Also, if you really don’t like how something looks and want it changed, tell them immediately. Don’t wait until everything is done and then decide you don’t like it.

A final word about cost

You have agreed on what needs to be done and the web designer has given you a price quote. Simple modifications and bug fixes are usually included in the price. However, other major changes or outright revisions may or may not be included. Make sure the agreement states what is included, what constitutes a revision rather than a fix, and how many changes you can make after delivery without incurring additional costs.