People use the internet first when looking for a business

In a recent survey, I asked the question: Where do you go first to find a service business. Not surprisingly, most answered the Internet.

The world wide web is quickly becoming a far more important medium in advertising and searching for businesses. But how do you know the businesses you search for are not scams?

How to find out if a company is a scam

The Internet if an amazing tool in finding out everything there is to know about a company. Practically any information written about a business can be found. One of the best ways to do this is a simple search. Simply type the company name or domain to get results. You may want to view several pages to see if anything sounds fishy about the company. If nothing seems wrong, try phrases like “scam”, “ripoff”, or “complaints” with the business name. In this case, “Generic Credit Repair” is the suspect business:

• generic credit repair scam
• generic credit repair ripoff
• genericcreditrepair.com complaints
• “generic credit repair” scam ripoff

Some of the more tricky scams will actually spam the search engine with words such as “spam” and “ripoff” when they actually own the sites or wrote the articles themselves. They often ask the question “Is Generic Credit Repair a scam? Find out here.” The site, post, or video is actually made to make you believe the company is legit. It may have a person who said he/she thought it was a scam and found out that it was a good company. There may be pages of these sites for the more elaborate scams. If something sounds strange, it is best to doubt the company. A search with such keywords as “scam” and “complaint” should usually be objective and should be a real complaint.

You can use sites such as ripoffreport.com, the Better Business Bureau or other such sites to research a company. Keep in mind though, that even the best company will have complaints, but these should be the exception, and not the rule.

I recently conducted a survey on Buzzdash asking users opinions on toll-free numbers. The question was whether 1-800 numbers makes businesses feel more professional. Of the 95 responses so far, 72% agreed that this is true. In another survey, I asked which of the other toll-free numbers was better. Of the 84 responses, 57% felt that 888 was the better non-800 number. But how can you get a good toll-free number to complement your website or small business?

There are a few good choices to get a toll-free number. If you have Vonage, you can add a toll-free 888, 877, or 866 number to your line, but you have little or no choice as to the number. You will get 100 free minutes for $4.99 after which you will pay 4.9 cents a minute.

How to pick out a good toll-free number

AT&T Toll-free lookup toll offers a service where you can look up a certain number. You can look up by number (e.g. 888-234-5678) or word (e.g. 800-CALLATT). You will immediately see if the number is available. If you find an available number, AT&T gives you 10 minutes to secure it. During this time if a search for the same number is made, the number will appear as unavailable. There is also a tool to look up so-called vanity toll-free numbers. These are numbers with words (e.g. 1-800-PLUMBER)  that make them easy to remember. Most of these are taken but you may find one available. The rate varies according to your location and if you have another plan with them, so inquire about the costs and per-minute fees.

My favorite site to find a good toll-free number is Kall8. They offer a list of available toll-free numbers and are economically priced. 888, 877, and 866 toll-free numbers are only $2 a month, not including a per-minute fee of 5.9 cents for domestic calls. 800 toll-free numbers are $5 a month and 888, 877, and 866 numbers with repeating digits are also $5. Vanity toll-free numbers are available from $15 a month and “premium” toll-free numbers start at $25 a month. You can also look up custom numbers and get a quick reply by email. These are $10 a month if available. This tool, like AT&Ts tool, allows wildcards (*) and letters. On Kall8, it would be good to periodically check the numbers, because they change frequently and you may find a good number that wasn’t there the day before. Also, check the lower-cost toll-free numbers first. You may find a repeating number here.

I hope this helps you find a good toll-free number!

The very point of ads is to get customers and sales. A person may be an expert at writing ads and knowing where to display them, be it newspaper, car, tv, radio, or Internet ads. The graphic design may be outstanding. And yet the advertisement may not get the desired results. We will look at a crucial element in getting customers through ads, namely, how the domain name is written.

www dot what?

A well done ad also includes an easy to read domain. It is still amazing how many ads display hard to read domain names. You will not get visitors to your site if they cannot quickly read your domain name and remember it. The domain is better short, with fewer words. Words should be clearly visible as well. Consider the following examples:

• www.aedebtconsolidationco.com
• WWW.EZTAXADVICE4U.ORG
• www.rendezvoussouthcenter.net
• southernutahdreamhomes.com
• fixitutilityfree.com
• www.vrcllc.net
• www.taxadvantage.jlweb.com

These are some examples of how not to display your website. It would be amazing if you get any customers at all with such domains displayed. All the more so people read ads extremely fast and do not want to think about it any harder than is necessary. This is especially so on car ads where the other drivers should not be distracted and get very little time to read the domain name. Many still display surprisingly small words which are made smaller by the angle of the view of the widow or door.

I saw an example of a bad domain ad on a rear car window the other day. I was stopped at the light behind the car and even after studying it I found it hard to remember. It consisted of 30 characters with dots. It looked like ‘www.*********strides.**web.com’ The domain was actually a subdomain of the main website, which also has to be remembered.  This, along with the fact that the spelling of one of the two words is actually a play on words, makes the ad for the domain name totally ineffective. What can be done to make your displayed domain easy to read and memorable?

Isolate words in a domain

If you must have a long domain, you should make words clearly visible. Leaving out the ‘www.’ makes it even easier to read. Examples:

• www.southernutahdreamhomes.com -> SouthernUtahDreamHomes.com
• www.whatarethelaws.com -> WhatAreTheLaws.com
• www.hondaautoorlando.com -> HondaAutoOrlando.com

You may also use the popular method of changing the color of certain words, especially in the middle.

• AtlantaAutoCare.com
• MedSpaAtlanta.com

Avoid misspellings and numbers for words when possible

Other than confusing potential clients when they try to remember where to find you on the Internet, deliberate misspellings make your company appear less credible and professional. If this describes your domain, you may want to seriously consider getting another one. Examples:

• WWW.EZTAXADVICE4U.COM -> EasyTaxAdvice.com OR EasyTaxesForYou.com
• sk8ingclub.net -> SkatingClub.net
• www.flute-4u.com -> FluteForYou.com

Avoid many letters in a row if they are non-readable

This may seem like a good option because it may be possible to get a short domain with five or six characters, but can the reader remember these letters. Actual examples of domains that have expired:

• www.bkislm.com
• xpwdia.com
• www.r3cds.net
• www.opmldb.com
• ctkda.org

Avoid difficult words in your domain name if possible

Of course you may have to use a word easily misspelled like the above mentioned ‘rendezvous’ or ‘camouflage’, ‘necessary’, or ‘hors devours’, but try to go without it.

Should you use ‘www.’ or leave it out?

This is usually more of a personal choice, but in most cases, the ‘www.’ which usually precedes the domain is entirely unnecessary when displaying your domain name. The ‘www.’ (which stands for world wide web) is actually a subdomain of your domain. Search engines accept the site either way and most web hosting companies allow you to use either. The ‘www.’ is more tradition than necessity. Many are still used to tacking on a ‘www.’ before the domain.

When displaying the website in your ad, you can’t save yourself some space and leave the ‘www.’ out. Other than making the potential client think he has to remember 4 extra characters and say 10 extra syllables (duh-buh-yoo, duh-buh-yoo, duh-buh-yoo, dot…), it takes up ad real estate and makes people type extra characters to see your website. The site will show regardless of whether the ‘www.’ is types or not. Simply get your webmaster to use a 301 redirect in the .htaccess file to display one form.

Thanks for reading and look forward to more tips on web design and marketing!

A previous post gave some good advice as to how to choose a domain name. This post talks further on the subject of buying a domain name.

Maybe the domain name is not taken

If you’ve decided on a domain or several domains, first check to see if they are available. You can:

• Type the domains in the web browser address bar: ‘example.com’. If unavailable the website will appear: ‘http://www.example.com’. Sometimes you get a custom ‘does not exist’ dialog, likely from your Internet service provider, which tells you it may be available.
• Try PCnames or another ‘ajax domain search’ tool. These allow you to instantly check availability by typing the domain into the tool. It must be noted that, although super quick, these tools aren’t usually 100% accurate.
• The most popular method is to use the domain search tool provided by registrars. Simply type the domain into the search form to find out if it is available.

There are many such registrars, and prices for registration vary from $.99 per year for .info top level domains to $35 per year for a .com top level domain. You should expect to pay about $8-10 a year for a domain at most registrars.

Registrars all do one basic thing, which is to allow you to use the domain for your website for the amount of time paid for. You do not buy a domain per se, you lease it from the registrar. If you stop paying the yearly fee, you lose it. Other than doing this one function, registrars differ greatly as to customer service and functions which can be used for the various domains. You can find a list of top rated registrars on NamePros.com (Look at the top rated registrars with many reviews).

Of the registrars, GoDaddy is by far the most popular, although their clumsy site design and many ads make it difficult to register just the domain you want. Other registrars, like NameCheap, Moniker, and Fabulous, are excellent choices.

Don’t let your domain be held ransom

A shady tactic used by some less reputable registrars is domain tasting of searched domains. This is the practice of registering a searched domain that isn’t bought and holding it for up to 5 days to see if it is worth keeping. It is in fact a loophole in the domain buying rules that states that a buyer can return the domain if he changes his mind in less than 5 days. In the meantime, the shady registrar will demand a fee for the domain. The potential buyer thinks someone has bought their domain and that he needs to pay the fee. If this happens, just wait a few days while the domain tasting period ends and then check availability again.

The key point to remember is this: If the domain you want is available, buy it immediately. Do not wait to buy it in a couple of days. Although most registrars do not engage in this shady tactic, it’s better to be safe.

Domain name aftermarket

This is the term used for domains that have been registered but lost. These domain names are more likely to be valuable because the previous owner thought that it was a good name when he bought it and the domain may have traffic. The most famous marketplaces for domains that have been dropped are auctions.godaddy.com (formerly tdnam.com), snapnames.com, pool.com, and namejet.com.

GoDaddy auctions have some good deals if you know where to look. The initial page is usually filled with overpriced featured domains. These domains are not actually dropped domains but are owned and the current owner feels he can sell it at this price. You need to look at the ‘Expiring’, ‘Ending soon’, and ‘Closeouts’ categories. The ‘Expiring’ and ‘Ending soon’ categories include listings of domains that will soon be dropped and can be bid on, starting from $10. The ‘Closeouts’ category has the best deals. For $5 you can buy the dropped domain (not including registration fee).

Snap Names, Pool, and Name Jet are similar, although more expensive. The starting bid for expiring domains is around $70 and can go into the $100’s or $1,000’s if the domain is good. These sites do not own the domains. They find expiring domains and attempt to grab the name as soon as it is available. If you find a worthy domain name you can bid and the site will try to secure the name. You do not pay anything if you do not win, so it is a good idea to bid on all three sites, since it is impossible to know which one will grab the domain. If the site gets the domain, you will be apart of the bidding and the high bidder gets the domain.

This domain, dreamwebdesigns.com, was bought on snapnames.com for a little over $300 in a bid with one other person. After the winning bid, snapnames.com quickly registered the domain to one of their many partner registrars. Initially, you can’t choose the registrar, due to the nature of acquisition of dropped domains. But after a certain waiting period, I changed registrars to my registrar of choice.

Buying a domain from the current owner

You are unlikely to find a good .com domain available for the registration fee. All three-letter .coms are taken and most four-letter .coms are taken. Most words are taken in .com, .net, and .org and many two-word domains are unavailable. If you want one of these, you can check to see if it is available on sites such as SEDO.com or auctions.godaddy.com. You can type the domain name into the bar and if it is for sale often you will clearly see this.

SEDO is a very popular place to buy and sell domains. For descent names, however, you will often have to pay thousands of dollars. Many sellers have the idea that the domain they are selling is worth far more than it is in reality. Many domains for sale do not include a price, simply the words ‘Make Offer’. You may find a domain you like and bid on it. They owner may or may not answer back. The answer may be an agreement but more often it is a counter-offer. The counter-offer may be reasonable or may be outrageous, at which point you may counter-offer or end negotiations.

As an example of how negotiations may fail because of differences in opinions of the value of a domain, an attempt was made to buy a non-hyphenated version of a domain registered for the standard $9 a year fee. It is a fairly good name but slightly better is the non-hyphenated version. An offer was made to the owner for around $600 with no response (The domain was listed as ‘Make Offer’). Several times this was done, the offer being about that price. Finally the owner countered with $999,999, clearly an overinflated price. A counter was made for around the original offer of the high hundreds and the seller countered with $999,888. Only a few domains have been sold for $1,000,000 or more. Clearly, this owner doesn’t know the value of the domain and the negotiations were canceled.

You have to be willing to let a domain go if the owner does not want to negotiate. Most domains for sale are not worth the thousands or more the sellers initially want. This is a starting price, because starting low will make it very hard to sell higher. Look at lists of domains sold to see what you should pay, and don’t be pushed into paying much more than you can afford.

With thousands of web designers and developers, it certainly can be a challenge to know which one to go with. Web standards are ever more important and websites done poorly do not show well on the Internet. With a little research you can make a more educated decision and learn a little about web design yourself. Here are some marks of a good website (and a good designer).

Limited or no Flash

Flash has somewhat gone out of style in recent history. And no wonder. Flash-based sites rank very poorly in the search engine results, as well as taking a long time to load. Websites should not be entirely Flash unless the content is extremely interesting and would draw traffic just because of this.

Websites should NOT have an intro Flash. Nobody will want to come back to your site if a designer forces potential clients to wait 30 seconds as they watch an unimpressive, poorly made mini-movie while they look for the ’skip’ button. This is a big no-no in designing good sites.

Good titles and descriptions

Any good designer knows the importance of proper titles and descriptions for each page. The designer’s portfolio of websites should show that this was done. Many business owners wonder why their website does not place well in the search engines. Often times it comes down to poor search engine optimization. Important elements of websites, such as titles, readable directories, and descriptions do wonders for the sites visibility on the Internet. Beautiful design also does not matter if these are missing.

Valid code and ‘SEO’ grade

Web designers should strive to write code that is standards compliant. You can check the validity of the sites code at w3.org’s validator. Simply enter the sites url: ‘http://www….’ Some errors and warnings are usually admissible but more errors usually indicates a lack of skill.

Another method for determining good site design is to use an SEO grading tool. It may be hard for the ‘untrained eye’ to see flaws in good site design, but a search engine optimization tool can help. One we recommend is Website Grader, which rates the site on a scale of 1-100. Although newer sites will often have a lower score, consistent low grades are indicators of problems in web design methodology.

Be careful of suspiciously low-priced web design

Good website design is not something that can be done too quickly. It takes a good amount of time to work out color schemes, graphic design, page structure, page coding, keyword research, optimization, testing, and debugging. Usually sites that a low-priced are templates that may or may not be done well. You may be able to get what appears to be a well-made site quickly but this can have drawbacks. Templates still need to be optimized and checked for coding errors. They are often difficult to change or expand and often have an unprofessional look or a Flash movie that quickly grow old.

Another trap is the high-priced hosting. Web hosting should not cost more than $7 a month for a standard site. For this price, you can get unlimited bandwidth and storage, and host hundreds of domains on one account. Some sell ‘discounted’ web design but charge $15-50 a month for web hosting that offers a lot less.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Look for more such in the future.