Getting Creative with choosing your domain name
Choosing a domain name is a difficult task. Domain names are the foundation of a website’s existence.
A bad name can create a negative impact on branding and the ability to strengthen the domain value. A good domain name is essentially priceless in name, branding, ease of understanding, and sketchiness.
A strong domain name is the key to your Internet presence.
You need to think of different domains and possibilities for your sites. Domain names are not a lackluster industry, it is a hidden industry that is vital to the success and maintenance of the Internet.
Your domain name should be recognizable and relate to your business name, brand, product, and/or activities. Make sure it fits on a business card and is easy to remember whether seen in print or mentioned over the phone.
The first thing you need to decide is: are you going to register a name for business or personal?
Once you’ve picked a name, it’s time to buy the domain for that name. If there’s no domain available for that name, pick another one. Your domain branding is really important.
Depending on your strategy, your URL is going to be extremely important. Of course if you run a one person business I would recommend that you buy your domain name, yourname.com. If that isn’t available, try for on the .net or .org equivalents, in that order.
The goal of the URL is to have something you can freely promote and that people can remember.
With so many websites out there, you often need to be creative to find a domain name that isn’t already taken.
Tools to Help you Brainstorm Names
- NameStation - Generates a list of available domains based on a submitted word.
- Dot-o-mator – Dot-o-mator is a domain name suggestions tool.
- Domaintyper - Checks domain name availability instantly.
- Domain Pigeon – See what others are looking to register as a source of inspiration.
- Domainr – Type a work and it will find “domain hacks”.
Choose a domain name you can be proud of. Imagine shouting it from the top of a mountain.
15 Must-Do Business Boosters for 2013
It’s the start of a fresh new year, with 2013 less than two weeks old. Here are 15 actions to do over the next few weeks to make sure your business gets off to a flying start for the year ahead.
- Call one of your biggest clients and wish them a happy new year. No catch, no sales spiel, simply call and thank them for their business and wish them a happy new year. This will be genuine and a great way to reinforce your relationship.
- Schedule in a time in your calendar every week to spend on marketing. It could literally be half an hour to write a blog post, or an hour a week to attend a networking event.
- Cast a critical eye over your business website. Can you spot any improvements that you should be making? Schedule some time over the coming month to get these done, and make sure your website is in tip-top shape for 2013.
- Schedule your leave for the year. Plan when a good time would be, and mark your calendar with the dates now. It gives you a goal to work towards, and ensures you take time to refresh yourself.
- If you have employees, take a moment to share your vision for the year ahead.
- Write a list of goals for the year. Take time to have an action list and stick to it.
- Start a new healthy habit. Maybe an early morning walk or making time for a healthy lunch each day. Whatever it is, the start of the year is a good time as any to build a new habit. Healthier means more productive and happier too.
- Buy a book on a topic you want to learn about this year. It could be about anything, a how-to do or about productivity knowledge – order it now and start reading it as soon as it arrives.
- Call a client that you haven’t done any work for in the last twelve months and say hello.
- Look at your top ten clients (point two above). What makes them different from those further down your profitability list? Look at ways you could advertise or market yourself to more of those sorts of clients, and less of the low spenders.
- Thank your employees. A big complaint among full-time workers is the lack of appreciation they often feel. Take a moment to verbally thank a colleague or employee for their hard efforts – they will appreciate the gesture.
- Ask a colleague to check a recent proposal or pitch document. Get them to give critical feedback on what works and what doesn’t. Make changes to your documents to make them sell and read better than the ones you used in 2012.
- Look at the list of goals you had at the start of 2012 – is there still one or two you haven’t crossed off? Make a point to dive into these straight away.
- Take time to enjoy life – your world shouldn’t just revolve around your business. Learn a new language, take up a hobby or visit with friends more often.
- Plan for 2014 – Think how do you want to see your business in 2014
If you complete all 15 of the actions above, I am absolutely positive that you’ll be putting your business in a better stead for the coming year. Best of luck with 2013!
Tips to help protect your information online
It’s very important to protect your information online and avoid risks to yourself, your friends and family.
There are more important things than which antivirus program you use (or anti-spyware, or firewall, or any security software), or even if you don’t use one them at all, these are the practices that make up your online behaviour.
People who do risky stuff on the Internet will get a virus, sooner or later, regardless of how good their security software is.
We recommend using a recognised security software, selecting a unique password could help protect information on your computer. but only as a safety net – something to pick up the slack when we make mistakes, not a first line of defense.
The thing with security, online or anywhere else, is that it’s always a trade-off between protection and convenience.
These simple tips below are sufficient to help protect your information against online frauds.
Use security software - Install software like anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and firewall products and make sure they are up to date. There are many antivirus programs available. Do your own research to find the product that suits you best. And if you don’t have any antivirus software installed on your system (shame on you), or if the software has stopped working or it isn’t active. Then immediately get offline, unplug the wires do whatever it takes to stop your computer from communicating via the Internet.
What is a Firewall?
A firewall is a tool that monitors communication to and from your computer. It sits between your computer and the rest of the network, and according to some criteria, it decides which communication to allow, and which communication to block. It may also use some other criteria to decide about which communication or communication request to report to you (either by adding the information to a log file that you may browse when you wish, or in an alert message on the screen), and what not to report.
Install all security updates - you need to install security updates as quickly as possible upon release. If remembering to do this isn’t something you think you’d be likely to do, set your computer to automatically download and install updates. Keeping up-to-date is essential to keep your information safe.
Do not download any file from unfamiliar sites - if you’re intending to install something that you’ve downloaded from a site not so famous to your computer, you have to know that only people / sites you trust have had access to it. Downloading from unfamiliar sites might not be a safe bet. If you think a website looks suspicious leave the page immediately.
Do not click links in emails - It’s very easy to hide the real destination of links sent in email by using HTML /CSS. This is how phishing scams work – you think you’re going to your bank’s site, but really you’re going to a page designed to look just like your bank’s login page but hosted on the mean people’s server.
What's a phishing scam ?
Phishing scams are emails scams that try to get your personal or financial information from you. You’ll usually be urged to visit a convincing-looking fake web page and enter personal or financial information.
What do I do if I receive a suspicious email?
If you’re concerned or just not sure about an email and it looks suspicious you should do the following:
- Do not reply to it
- Do not open any attachment or click on any embedded links
- Do report it
- Do delete the email from your system
Choose a good password and change it frequently – Remember to update your password and use different character and number combinations. Use different passwords for different sites.
Using a strong password is a simple way to help protect yourself online by making it harder for someone to guess your password and then access your personal information.
Some recommendations for a strong password:
- a minimum of eight characters long
- contains a mixture of letters, numbers and special characters, such as @#$%^&
- uses a mix of upper and lower case letters
- looks like a random string of letters, numbers and other characters
You should change your password regularly for most websites. For extra security you should never use the same password as a previous password. By follow the rules above, chances are, you’ll be just fine.
For staying safe on your smartphone Read: Top 10 Security Tools For Your Smartphone