5 Domain Name Tips for Entrepreneurs Trying To Name Their Startup

5 Domain Name Tips for Entrepreneurs Trying To Name Their Startup

1. Don't sweat the domain.  Figure out a name that works for your business, is not too abstract, and doesn't make everyone you mention it to scrunch their forehead and say "What?"
2. What's the domain doing now: If it goes straight to a parked page or it looks like it was designed back in '99, your brand name is probably safe and you have a much better chance at getting it in the future.  If there is someone using the domain and their website is unkept and they were not able to make a go of it, ask yourself why.  Just like a strip mall that has frequent turnover and a constant empty storefront, a domain name that failed in the past might be a good indicator that it is not the best name for your business.
3. Use a tag line for the domain.  String a few words together and you will start seeing more green checks on godaddy when searching for names.  So if you can't get the business name, go for the tag line.  If you business takes of and you can afford to buy the actual .com, awesome.  Use the tag line domain for your blog or just forward it on.  It won't be a waste of $10.  
4. Check the trademark then grab every social account name you can.  If you can get the twitter account name, facebook link, blogspot URL, and even a .net, .mobi, or .something else, you are ok for now and you have a leg up.  Gauge the seriousness of your startup before throwing a grand at a domain.  There are plenty of domains on the auction block that are up for grabs and most people are sitting on domains hoping for a windfall like color, but they would gladly take a few thousand bucks if you can make the offer before you get too big.  
5. Google It. This is an obvious one.  Probably the first thing you do when trying to come of with a good company or product name.  But go a step further and do a keyword search through adwords and find out what your company name would cost as a keyword with PPC ads.  If it is already highly sought after and the competition will cost you several bucks a click, you might have a good opportunity because people are looking for it, but make sure you budget for the traffic.

Terrible Startup names - and why it is not their fault

Every tried searching for a domain name for your business.  Yeah. . . you can buy most .Co's, and there are still plenty of available .biz and .us sites, but if you want to be taken seriously and attract any amount of investor funding, your really need a .com to show that you are legit.  Did you read the story from last March about the startup Color and the $350,000 they paid for color.com?  TechCrunch by Robin Wauters

They have since burned through a good chuck of the $41 million in VC and founder funding that they collected trying to figure out what they want to do.  So a domain alone doesn't guarantee success.  And the dotBOOM also showed that a domain alone does not make an internet success.  Here is a short list of failures:

5 ways to use Evernote on your iPhone

16 gigs on an iphone has quickly become not enough, so I am on a constant pursuit for free storage to save things. (Do you want to sign up for dropbox? I'd appreciate the free space. Plus it is good cloud karma for you.) A flaw of photos on the iphone is that after awhile, it can take some time to find your photos and there is not a good way to search. Awhile back I started using evernote, thinking it would replace the notepad on my iphone. But it has become so much more.

5.) Photo storage: Right...so I need one more place to put photos. Use number 3 makes evernote the perfect hub for your digital photos. Instagram makes them available to anyone who follows my grams (are pics on instagram called graandms?) Pinterest puts them out there for the world to search and repin. But evernote is just for you. Create a photos tag and use the geolocation feature to help you find your pics later. Easy way to share them with the people you want to and keep them away from the constantly crawling search engines.

4.) Take better notes: I have a stack of notebooks in my home office with quickly scribbled notes that I will never look through. If it were important I would have done something with it. Maybe. But you never know when a website or a phone number is needed and you can remember which moleskin it was in. You can put your notes into Evernote and tag them appropriately. The timestamp alone helped me fin the right note.

3.) IFTTT.com Ok so its not necessarily on the iphone, but setting up a fee recipes will save you time and keep you from saving a picture somewhere twice. There are some cool recipes on IFTTT that let you send something to Evernote. (read post on 5 crucial IFTTT recipes)

2.) Reminders without a deadline: Want to remember something eventually? Sometimes you take a courtesy reminder when a friend is insists that, "you gotta check this out dude!". Maybe I do, but not right now and probably not tonight. But someday I will watch your buddy eat a ghost pepper on youtube.

1.) Idea Notebook: I try to always have a notebook handy. You never know when a good idea or even a bad idea needs to be written down.

Download it, get it on all your devices. You will be more organized.

Android QR Code

This is an example of using a QR code as an attention getter. The colorful code doesn't actually work, but it gets you to look at the poster.

The Gamification of Tradeshows

Trade shows are fundamentally flawed. There is no accountability to the event holders. They sell space, promise a big turnout, take forever to report actual attendance data, and vendors have no repercussions if attendance is lower than expected or if booth traffic is poor. Trade shows are in the same marketing class as print advertising. No extended guarantees because it is up to marketers to produce a compelling call to action. Marketers spends thousand on concrete and displays with the hopes of getting more business then the cost of the event.

Some shows do a good job of encouraging and incentivizing attendees to visit your booth. Vendors do their part by passing out SWAG, but that is usually snatched up by those who are least likely to become a customer. Drawings for iPads and Kindles are easy targets for box stuffers. And when have you ever seen a key decision maker with serious buying power, standing at your reception counter filling out a form for a $100 itunes gift card? NEVER.

With travel budgets dwindling and marketing dollars shifting to online and direct efforts, how can trade shows stay relevant?

A good friend leads sales efforts for an IT security trade show that is invitation only. That ensures only qualified individuals. I believe that less is more with trade show attendees for anyone focused on B2B.

How to Make Money on Pinterest

Today articles popped up as some tried to paint picture sharing startup, Pinterest, as a shady site that makes money off your words. This New York Times post about pinterest is worth a read.


Is pinterest making money, quietly?

I am sure they are not making money, but they need some revenue to maintain the infrastructure so you can keep pinning.

How can you make money on Pinterest? Here are five tips to help you make money from your pins.
1.) be cool about it: pinterest does not have banner ads or search ads. They have built a huge following in a short amount of time by letting users share great content and keeping brands out of it.
2.) follow the affiliate model: this is how pinterest is making money. You can follow the same methods to monetize your pins. Have you notices the gifts link with price ranges? You can go for a similar result with boards that focus on a specific topic and make each image link to a product page where you get a kick back.
3.) promote stuff you like others will like it too. EBooks about penny stocks probably are not what your friends will repin. Consider your audience. Did you see 98% of pinterest users are women? I think you can save your football jersey pics for tumblr and focus on products that will appeal to the masses of pinterest. I've chosen to focus on baby stuff using the amazon affiliate links.
4.) link somewhere: posting pics from your phone can be interesting, but it won't be profitable. Pinterest (non-mobile) lets you enter a URL and select from pics on that page.
5.) repin and follow others

How to get Facebook stock for 6 Cents!!!

There is much discussion of whether buying Facebook stock is a good idea.  Speculators have guessed the opening price between $30 and $40 per share.  With a billion dollar profit in 2011, Facebook stock seems like a no brainer on the surface with current valuations of companies like Google (trading at: $607 on 2/7/12) and Apple (trading at $466 on 2/7/12), Facebook has the potential to reach 10+ multiples of the opening day price.  But how can you get stock cents a share?

Press Release: United States Postal Service Ranked No. 1 in the World

The Best Among Top 20 Largest Global Economies

WASHINGTON — A review of the performance of universal postal service providers by the Oxford Strategic Consulting (OSC) firm ranks the U.S. Postal Service the best postal service within the world’s top 20 largest economies for access to services, resource efficiency and public trust.
“We’re proud to lead the world in postal services and we will continue to deliver superior performance for future generations,” said Postmaster General and CEO Patrick Donahoe. “Our best days are ahead of us. I have no doubt the Postal Service will overcome its current financial challenges and endure as the world’s leading postal service.”

QR Codes at the airport

For the last two years marketers have been pushing qr codes and even though a majority of the content stinks, there are some great applications for QR codes so I hope they do not go the way of the laserdisc.

Of all the places I see QR codes, I think America's airports have the highest concentration of QR codes. And what place better for QR codes. Everyone has a smartphone it seems, theres plenty of time to waste, and ads are a big part of airport decor.

Do you have a jailbroken iPhone?

Give it six minutes, it is worth it.

Unseen Apps is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch of apps running in the background.  For example, someone calls you and their number is not in your phone, it automatically searches and displays a name, picture, and whatever info it can scrape from online directories.  Pretty cool for $20.

Square places huge outdoor ad in downtown Columbus

www.squareup.com

I was downtown this Thursday and snapped a picture of this huge Square ad promoting their free card swiper. I know quite a few columbus merchants that use square. This is a pretty mainstream ad for a company like square. The mobile payment revolution is well underway, but how does Square plan to change once EMV (micro-chipped) cards become a standard.