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Leah (13,000)
Leah
http://www.painfreemarketing.co.uk

How To Choose a Domain Name - What You Need To Consider

Posted Tuesday, June 23, 2009 (11 days 11 hours ago.) Viewed 53 times.

When choosing a domain name the main considerations are that it will be:

  • Memorable
  • Rank high in search engines


To ensure a memorable name ideally your domain name should match the name of your website or business. Assuming you've already chosen a memorable business name, when people search for you on the Internet, they'll nearly always enter your company name as their search phrase. They'll only search related phrases if they can't find your domain name that way and hope that you're ranked high enough for them to find you. What are the chances of this?

If you have a business name already then the choice of domain is easily decided...or is it?

What if that name has already been taken or you don't know what extension to choose, i.e. .com, co.uk, org etc. ? I was lucky in that my business name Pain Free Marketing was still available with my preferred extension .co.uk.

The reason this was my preferred extension is that I mainly provide services to people in the UK.

If I had a .com site, this would be less obvious and as a result in a list of search results people might not readily visit my site when they can clearly see that there are .co.uk sites in the list that they know for certain are based in the UK.

Select a domain extension that gives Internet browsers a clue as to what geographical location you provide services to.

But we still haven't resolved the problem of our business name already being used as someone else's domain name.

You can be creative and add a hyphen.

I.e., I have the website domain http://www.marketing-4u.co.uk,

This is good in that the search engine can better find the keyword 'marketing' but not so good in that people looking for my services may not recall the hyphen when typing in the domain name and wind up at a competitors site by mistake.

So hyphens are a double-edged sword. They improve your chances of being picked up by search engines, but can be cumbersome and difficult to recall by users.

Sites that sell domain names will come up with alternative domain name suggestions. If your business name isn't that common, you may strike lucky and find the exact domain name you need.

If you want a business name and a domain name

To grab a domain name that ranks high in search engines you could go for a phrase that is highly searched by Internet browsers for items relating to your business product or service. All you do is use a keyword checker tool to see what phrases are searched the most.

Then select a highly searched phrase form the list that you like and see if the domain name is available.

Good luck!


        Comments (1)

Expense Cheating MP's versus Benefits Cheats

Posted Friday, June 19, 2009 (15 days 2 hours ago.) Viewed 115 times.

Everyone in the UK is boiling over the expense scandal whereby dozens (if not hundreds) of our elected Members of Parliament have been claiming expenses for many things such as property's they don't live in, mortgage interest for mortgages that have been paid off and things like 'floating duck ponds'.

One MP, Margaret Moran claimed £20,000 for treating dry rot at her second home.

All of this, from tax payers money.

In the UK we come down hard on benefit cheats. If you work while claiming benefits you can face a prison sentence.

I am wondering why the same severity of punishment doesn't apply to  the dishonest expense cheating MP's.

Are they immune from fraud and theft?

Gordon Brown has apparently set up a punishment panel to sift through and boot out cheating MP's.

The linked source reports this:

"The Standard has learned that Elliot Morley and David Chaytor, who have both been suspended over claims for mortgages, will be the first to face the new body. Mr Brown's decision to make it easier to kick out MPs came after a rash of new revelations about claims for whirlpool baths, holiday cottages and bumper food bills made by his government whips.

The Labour panel, similar to David Cameron's own "scrutiny panel", will allow the Chief Whip, party general secretary and constituency parties the power to refer MPs for an investigation that could lead to their expulsion. Among MPs facing disciplinary action are Shahid Malik who claimed £66,000 over three years on a London home while renting a "main home" for an alleged £100 a week."

Suspension?

If this happened in a regular employment situation the employee would face instant dismissal and criminal charges.

What are your thoughts?






        Comments (2)

How to write Sales Copy that Sells - Mistakes People Make

Posted Tuesday, June 16, 2009 (18 days 2 hours ago.) Viewed 32 times.

It's not unusual for people to write their own sales copy whether it be for a website or a paper flyer. Some strike lucky and get the mood just right and others bomb out despite having great literary skill.

So what makes the difference between bad sales copy and good if it isn't grammar, spelling and literary skill?

First lets be clear about what sales copy is for. It is to sell products or services. It's purpose is not to convey the genius, humor or ability of the writer.

Being funny and charming is great if you can still sell products but not so great if your reader after having fun and being entertained still clicks away from your site without  buying anything.

Here are some mistakes people make when writing sales copy:
  • Trying to impress with big words and flawless grammar
  • Long paragraphs and sentences
  • Over capitalisation and prolific use of !!!!!!
  • I, Me and not enough about YOU the reader
  • Technobabble – baffling the reader with product jargon
The list is endless..

I don't use ‘proper grammar' for sales copy or any writing I do on the web. Reason being, it doesn't sell.

For copy to sell well, it should be written in a conversation style as if you are talking to your client, telling them the benefits of the product face to face.

This style works well for writing on the Internet. We already communicate with written words in email, on msn etc. so writing articles in 'chat style' creates a familiar sense of live communication.

In summary,  your sales copy should reflect a human voice.

We all know how dreadful those telesales people are when they phone up using a script. The best telemarketers bin that script and adapt their words to suit the client on the other end of the phone.

This is how it should be with written sales copy. It needs to suit the intended reader. If the intended reader is a ‘happening teenager' then the copy should reflect their 'style' and so on.

Keep your copy:
  • Concise - don't waffle. Where one word will do, use one.
  • Simply worded & jargon free - unless you're writing for the audience that uses that jargon daily.
  • Short sentences and paragraphs - Internet readers scan pages, short bites of information are easier to digest than large.
  • Break up the text with bullet points, images etc.
and so on

For more tips & advice on writing copy check out my personal blog
creativeblogger.org


        Comments (2)

How To Get The Most Out Of Your Copywriter - Listen to them!

Posted Sunday, May 31, 2009 (34 days 10 hours ago.) Viewed 110 times.


Imagine this scenario:

You ask a fireman for advice on putting out a blazing fire and then on reflection think to yourself:

" I can do it faster this way and it looks prettier'

The result is that the fire doesn't go out.

You then go back to the fireman and blame him for his poor advice.

Why are you blaming the fireman for poor advice when you largely ignored it?

Most people wouldn't be this daft fortunately.

But they can be daft when it comes to taking the advice of other skilled professionals which is of course is very frustrating for the professional as they are seeing failure when they can guarantee success.

Consider that,

Hairdressers get upset when a client wants a hair style that won't suit their face or hair type. Sending the client away from their salon looking like they fell out of hedge backwards is an awful recommendation for that hairdresser.

Builders become annoyed when required to use inadequate materials and work to impractical plans and timescales compromising the quality of their work. They will receive the complaints when things don't go to plan and have to endure them, knowing full well the problems could have been avoided.

Like other skilled professionals, copywriters want people to be successful, they want them to make money. Failure is not in anyone's interest. If the copywriter is a success, they get more business, so as well as genuinely wanting to see people do well, there is of course a matter of reputation and self interest involved.

However the problem of having their advice ignored, copy tweaked and colours, font, layout changed is fairly common. As too are the complaints that the copywriters copy isn't converting into sales.

If you alter a copywriters recommendation in any way, you cannot then hold them responsible for failure as the minor changes you made could make the difference between a sale and no sale. What turns readers on in terms of sales copy is very precise and ignoring what your professional copywriter advises is thus unwise.

To get the most out of your copywriter, simply apply what they suggest in terms of text, font size, colours and layout to the letter. Only then can you know for sure if their copy converts. If you want to make changes, discuss it with them first to see what the outcome might be.

You hired your copywriter as you believed that they were the best person to help generate more sales and a loyal customer following.

Get your money's worth and take their advice.

Good luck.

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