information about your web presence

• The Value of a Business Web Site
  
  
• Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Business
  
  
• What's So Wrong With ISP E-mail?
  
  

The Value of a Business Web Site

How A Web Presence - Or Not - Affects Your Prospects

The question of whether or not to have a company web site is often asked by small to medium business owners who ponder the value of 'being on the web'.

However, more people search for goods and services via the internet today than ever before. Often they are comparison shopping, comparing the impression made by different businesses or just looking to be a little better informed before they come into your place of business, telephone or e-mail you.

By clearly, attractively and appropriately stating 'what you're about' on even a simple single page web site, you can win business from competitors and be assured that when customers call or walk in, they're already committed to doing business with you.

A web site also allows you to provide information about your business in a manner than is less expensive than printing and distributing brochures and flyers. Make sure you have your web address on your business card and hand out cards 'like confetti' - they're cheap and will direct people to find out more about you.

You can even make your business more efficient by answering frequently asked questions on your web site. For instance, if you have a tree lopping service but don't handle anything over 25 metres tall, you can say so in your 'FAQs' instead of you or your staff wasting time with enquiries that reveal after minutes on the phone that the tree to be lopped is a 50m gum.

Furthermore, a business web site provides a convenient and cost-effective means of direct marketing to your database (list of customer e-mail addresses) to tell them about special offers.

Your web site can also contain technical and trade information, terms and conditions, and even payment details to help you get paid quicker.

Why not find the right domain name for your business and create a web site hosting account right now? Just click here for Business Communications Management's competitive domain registration and web hosting packages.

Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Business

How To Make The Right Impression And Not Fall Into Common Traps

Selecting a domain name for your business can be difficult - but you can do with great results if you know how to go about it and what pitfalls to look out for.

The unfortunate fact is that many desirable domain names have already been registered and it is increasingly difficult to find combinations that match typical business names.

The good news is that the old rule of a domain name being as short as possible applies less today. Web users in general are now more used to dealing with longer strings of words running together and, when printing a long domain name, there are techniques such as mixing typefaces, bold and normal type or colours that can make them easier to read.

However, you should beware of the way in which words that are quite innocent when presented in normal title or sentence form can be misread when strung together. For instance, Therapist Finder is a genuine Californian web site for marriage and family therapists as well as other mental heath professionals. Their web address is www.therapistfinder.com

If your business or own name is not available in a common web 'space' such as com.au or .com, you can choose to use another space such as .net or .biz but be aware that, if a competitor occupies one of the common spaces with the same name, a potential customer typing it in may forget you were .net and go to your competition at the .com instead.

This issue particularly highlights the importance of looking for a domain name available in all the common web spaces and, if they're available, taking them all.

Also try to avoid the temptation to abbreviate your business name down to an unreadable or difficult to type domain name. If in doubt, test your proposed abbreviated domain name on other people first.

Remember, it's also not strictly necessary to have a domain name that is the same as your business name if it reflects instead what you are or what you do. For instance, at the time of writing, a male operator of a business that unblocked drains might have registered draincleanerguy in both com.au and .com

Also becoming increasingly popular are marketing phrases that are associated with the way a company sells itself or a product, such as myfun.com.au for Gold Coast theme parks or superlittlemodel.com for the 2008 Mazda 2 car.

It costs nothing to search for a domain name for your business right now. Just click here to go to our domain search page and try a few names on for size.

What's So Wrong With ISP E-mail?

Why No Business Should Use Free E-mail Accounts

Did you know you can own a domain name for your business and receive e-mail to, for instance, info@yourbusinessname.com.au without even having a web site? It's called e-mail hosting.

However, there are many businesses, particularly smaill to medium enterprises, that use e-mail accounts provided by their Internet Service Provider (ISP) or free webmail providers.

These may look like 'joesplumbing@bigpond.com.au' or 'cleaningco@gmail.com'.

However, if you're using ISP or free webmail, you need to ask yourself a question - 'do I want my business to look professional or not?'

An e-mail address at your own domain name reassures potential clients that your business is properly constituted, a reliable company with owners invested in success and doing things right by their customers.

Unfortunately, ISP and free webmail accounts hint at 'fly-by-night' or, at the very least, a business that doesn't care enough. It's like turning up for work in shabby clothing.

Furthermore, an e-mail address at your own domain name advertises your business every time you send an e-mail. Sending work communications from you@bigpond.com.au or you@yahoo.com advertises BigPond and Yahoo. Why would you?

You can find the right domain name for your business and set up your own e-mail hosting account right now. Just click here to find out more.