Build trust to build your Brand

Would you part with sensitive information like credit card details or your social security number, without any assurance that the information will be kept confidential? Neither would I, especially in an online environment.

So how does an entrepreneur gain the trust and confidence of his customers? Especially if he wants to boost his sales and cater to a larger market, without having to spend too much time and effort in building a trustworthy brand.

Various studies have revealed that a large amount of customers abandon a site for lack of security. The smaller the company, the greater is the customers’ concern. Surely, nobody would knowingly want to turn away a potential customer. To get a step closer towards building a brand that is trusted, a wise choice would be to invest in an Digital Certificate.

An estimated 59.8% of online shoppers abandon their purchase process resulting in a loss of a substantial amount of money.* When it comes to parting with sensitive information, Digital Certificates have the highest scope to minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment, especially during the check-out process. Simply because it is widely known that Digital Certificates encrypts the sensitive information entered unintelligible to all but the parties involved. Thus, increasing the motivation for customers to shop online. Another important thing that Digital Certificates do, especially now days with advanced browsers, is prevent a “security pop-up” from appearing during the purchase process.

This is precisely why Digital Certificates have become such an important aspect of every online business.

At VAIOWEB, you will find Thawte Digital Certificates – A Verisign Product; only difference being the prices are much lower than what Thawte themselves offer, or anyone else for that matter. The “trusted seal” logo that comes with Thawte Digital Certificates will be positioned on the website, thus escalating the brand worth in the minds of the customers many times over.

As Internet communication throughout the world, and thus the domain world, gets stronger, the development of IDNs, an acronym for Internationalized Domain Names, with their use of non-ASCII (Latin) characters, have become a forerunner in domain expression. By employing local characters with various Top-Level Domains, people throughout the world are now able to access their local language when searching through their browser.

The Afilias Registry has already gathered an extensive list of localized character sets. With the newly announced addition of Spanish characters to the list, the .INFO extension is receiving quite the cultural face-lift.

.INFO was the internet’s second unrestricted top-level domain, following its big brother, the .COM. The unrestricted and ICANN approved top-level domain, has gained favor with informative websites and originally helped to ease the overpopulated .com. Beginning on January 19th, the Afilias Registry will be offering 13 Spanish characters in association with .INFO. This is an exciting collaboration of the popular top-level domain, Spanish characters will help to ignite a deeper communication across the internet.

Although the most widely used language on the internet continues to be English, more than half of internet users worldwide are non-English speakers. With internet access stretching across the globe, cultures and languages are merging together via the internet platform. The new developments arising with internationalized domain names are helping to address the specific needs of non-English speakers.

Cheap domain name registration and cheap web hosting has in the years become very common place. You get massive disk space and much more.

Thanks to the low cost of domain names and hosting fees it is possible to own several websites without breaking the bank. You can get good hosting plans for as little as EUR 23.88 per year and domain names for just EUR 1.99!

Cheap Domain Name Registration

Cheap domain name registration is freely available these days. There are hundreds of registrars and their prices vary considerably. Although registrars are closely regulated, they are permitted to offer their services through third parties; so many web hosts offer a domain name registration service even if they are not a registrar. Domain names are usually registered for a minimum of one year.

Cheap Domain Web Hosting

Once you have purchase your domain name, in order for your site to be visible online you will need to have your site hosted. For this you will require the services of a domain hosting company. Here again, there are hundreds of hosting companies and fees vary considerably. If you are not aufae’ with the various technologies / functionality that a good domain hosting company should provide don’t be alarmed or put off. The easiest option is to go with a large, well branded host, like VAIOWEB.

If you prefer you could contact various domain hosts and enquire what technologies are offered with their package. Remember here, that these companies offer a range of packages … so you need to choose a package that suits YOUR needs. Typically packages differ in functionality and storage space. eg. a more expensive package will allow for a shopping cart and a credit card processing facility. If you do not intend selling products from your site then this is not for you; many domain hosting companies offer you the option to upgrade at a later stage so don’t feel you need to have all technologies / functionality upfront.

After sale support is, in my opinion, of the utmost importance when deciding on a hosting company to host your newly acquired or transferred domain name. If you are opting for a lesser known hosting company this factor will be hard to gauge upfront. Hence it is my opinion that you stick with the better know, branded names. These are hosting companies that enjoy a large portion of the market share, people have being using them and can vouch for their reliability.

Managing Multiple Domains

There are several ways to manage multiple domains so it is important to know what your options are and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

The most basic choice when administering multiple domains is whether or not to do so with the same host. Most hosts offer packages which can be set up to allow several sites on one account, or allow individual sites to be operated under separate accounts.

You may have an existing website and are happy with the services your host provides. If you decide to start a new website using the same host, you will have the reassurance of dealing with a company you are familiar with and trust. On the other hand, using a new host for a second (or third or fourth) website can allow you to compare the quality of hosting offered by different companies. In addition, separate hosts will provide each of your web sites with a different IP address.

Having different IP addresses can be an important factor if you plan to link the sites together to aid in search engine optimization. Incoming links are an important indicator of the importance of a website, so a site with a lot of incoming links can get a higher position in search engines like Google. If all the links are coming from the same IP address, however, their value may be discounted. For a yearly fee each website can have its own unique IP address. This can help with search engine ranking and is also needed if you want to have a secure connection (https) on your site.

A Few Word Of Caution About Free Domain Name Registration and Free Domain Web Hosting

Remember that cheap domain name registration and web hosting does not mean that you may opt for the free options out there. Free hosting is definitely an area you will do well to stay away from. Free domain hosting almost always mean no customer support, unreliable up-time and alot of dowm-time. Free domain name registration means that you DO NOT own that domain name but merely ‘renting’ it via a third party … a definite no … no.

SSL branding is synchronous with Trust. It’s been repeated time and again that customers will definitely not doubt your ’sincerity to do business’ once they see you have certified and secured your website with a SSL certificate. Which directly translates to – using a trusted Certification Authority is essential for an effective Online Business.

Purchasing from proven, established vendors, specially in case of security products such as Digital Certificates, brings up the inevitable – How do I choose a SSL Certification Authority (CA) that my customers will Trust?

There are several things that buyers should look for when purchasing a certificate:

* Reputation and Credibility of the CA
How long have they been in business?
Consumer Awareness?
* Ubiquity of the Root
Is it embedded in all of the popular browsers?
* Root is owned by the CA
And not chained like Third Party SSL certificates.
* Lifecycle Management Tools
How easy is it to install, renew, reinstall and revoke if compromised.
* Ease of Acquiring the certificate

For instance, Thawte provides their esteemed list of clients, that include Google, 3M Company, Honda Canada, Hershey, American Airlines, Credit Suisse Group, among others, with Root Certificates.

Removing all elements of doubt, Thawte has obtained the Trust Factor by successfully implementing the highest encryption and authentication standards recognized today.

Your domain name is the .com, .net, .org or some other dot something that people use to get to your web site. affiliateblog.com is mine.

A group of investors headed by Jake Weinbaum (the guy behind Disney’s go.com) paid $7.5 million for the name Business.com back in 1999, aiming to make it a showcase B2B site. According to their own press they have succeeded. Yes, it’s a terrific name short, sort of descriptive and easy to remember. There’s some cachet there, but is it $7.5 million worth? That cash could have bought a lot of promotion or branding for whatever name they could have had for ten bucks, or a hundred, or two hundred grand.

Each year for 15 years The first $500K in profit goes toward amortizing the cost of that domain name. That could also pay for a terrific affiliate program, a truckload of banner and PPC advertising, and a nice BMW lease for Mr. Weinbaum (who probably doesn’t need a BMW).

But the Business.com thing has set off a wave of domain name speculation that staggers the mind. People are snapping up domain names and ransoming them off to wide-eyed entrepreneurs with business plans and dreams of riches. Being a hardcore capitalist I am torn about domain name speculation ‘ I am tempted to applaud the person making a buck by getting there first and grabbing up the good names, but I am annoyed at the restraint of commerce that takes place while someone negotiates with one of these guys to get the right name.

So if I look at the top 50 websites on Alexa, most of them should be easy to remember names, right? Wrong. I would argue that only one, match.com, is an easy-to-remember name that describes what the site is about.

I keep hearing that the reason these so-called generic or descriptive domain names are so valuable is that some people just type domain names into the address bar of their browser rather than using a search engine. This fact seems to be intuitively false. I find it hard to believe that someone looking for information on a particular business would type in www.business.com. Furthermore, if I look at the top 50 websites on Alexa only one, match.com, is an easy-to-remember name that describes what the site is about.

I wondered how many people actually type in their address bar (address bar?) instead of using a search engine anyway. I didn’t find the answer, but Jupiter Media tells me that 64% of people looking for something use a search engine.

That means that 36% of people use something other than a search engine. What makes me believe that people typing stuff into their address bar doesn’t happen much is this simple fact of the people using search engines last November, 43% searched for common websites like Ebay. In other words, instead of typing in http://www.ebay.com, people Googled Ebay and clicked on one of the results. That is absolutely hysterical. And totally believable.

What do all these facts mean? They mean that as far as getting the person there the first time, everyone starts off on the same square. If your domain name can get the minority of people who just type into their address bar to your website without a search engine, it’s worth more than someone who can’t.

Here are some of the legendary domain name sales in the past several years, according to Zetetic:

$14,000,000 – 2006 – sex.com
$7,500,000 – 1999 – business.com
$5,500,000 – 2003 – casino.com
$5,000,000 – 2002 – asseenontv.com
$5,000,000 – 1999 – korea.com
$3,500,000 – 1996 – worldwideweb.com
$3,350,000 – 1999 – altavista.com
$3,300,000 – 1999 – wine.com
$3,000,000 – 1999 – eshow.com
$3,000,000 – 1999 – loans.com
$2,750,000 – 2004 – creditcards.com

All of these with the exception of eshow.com (computer networking) should get address bar traffic, because people who type will type in the descriptive names – if I’m looking for sex-related stuff, I’ll type in sex.com. Where my mind gets boggled is in ROI. If you’re selling something on asseenontv.com that nets you $25, you’ll need to sell 200,000 of those George Foreman grills just to pay for your domain name.

It also dawned on me that if you pay $12,000,000 for sex.com, the free publicity generated is probably also worth millions.

So now everyone gets dollar signs in their eyes and thinks they can make a million with their domain name. Here are some examples of asking prices from Ebay:

6usiness.com (yes, that’s a 6) – $7,000,000
ajobformom.com – $3,500,000
Exbay.com – $1,000,000

What does this mean for you? Well, there’s some good news and some bad news. Remember back a few paragraphs when I said that everyone starts on the same square? That’s really the good news. You can choose a pretty good domain name, put together some terrific content, employ some simple Search Engine Optimization and buy some keywords or exchange some links and you have a pretty good chance of getting people to your site the first time. Since most of them are coming via a search engine they’re not going to notice your domain name until they get there anyway, so your domain name means the same thing (nothing) to the majority of people using the search engine.

One last thing: if you’re hoping to be close to the top in the search results (the so-called organic SEO), having your keywords in the name of your website gives you a huge boost. For example, if you’re looking for affiliate blog, we will be in the top five search results. In this case, Google ignores TLD unless you tell it otherwise. Affiliateblog.info will come up before us because their pagerank is higher (that’s a discussion for another day). So if you think getting near the top of the organic search results is more important than having someone type your name directly into the address bar (and you very well could be right), then grab yourkeyword.cc or yourkeyword.to. I’ve done it, and I’ve suggested it to others.

Once the user comes to your site the name just needs to be memorable enough so they type it in to get there the next time. Or they may forget and Google you again. I do it every day. No matter how great your name is, if the content is lousy they won’t come back anyway.

So should you buy a domain name?

I would try to come up with my own name before I bought someone else’s. Here are some tips:

1. Try to go with a .com. It’s the name everyone associates with the Internet. Any other Top Level Domain (TLD) like .org or .net is just going to confuse people, unless it sounds better than the .com. For example, if you are about networking or a network, a .net is more natural. If your site is informational, you should use .info if it sounds okay. Hands down the most ingenious use of a TLD is del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site. The use of the .us TLD is absolutely brilliant.

2. Leave out the dashes and meaningless numbers. If it’s a choice between this-domain.com, thisdomain123.com and thisdomain.net, take the .net. No one remembers to put the dashes or the numbers in, unless they are an integral part of the name like studio54.com or e-books.com.

3. Use the fewest letters possible to describe what you do. I own Purple Monkey Media Group. Purplemonkey.com would have been perfect. It’s taken, of course. Purplemonkeymedia.com was not. I grabbed it. I could have taken purplemonkeymediagroup.com, but it would have been too long. Remember, every additional letter is a potential typing error.

4. If you have a domain name that needs to be reinforced, get a good logo and sprinkle it liberally on your web site, along with some slogan that will reinforce the name in people’s minds. You would be surprised at how inexpensive this can be.

5. If you can save a few bucks with your own domain name or by buying a cheaper domain name, do it, and use the money to get yourself placed higher in the search results or Adsense placement.

6. If you can’t come up with a descriptive domain name, go the other way. Depending on your site’s focus, pick a memorable short name that will stick in people’s minds, get a great logo and include the name prominently in your advertising and marketing. It’s called branding, and it’s tried and true.

7. Ask your wife, friend, boyfriend, husband, dog, lawyer, associate, Mom, Dad, cousin, uncle, Police Chief, blog writer. They’re smarter than you anyway, and they are going to be the one looking for the site, not you. Some of my best ideas have come going to or from somewhere with my wife and just brainstorming.

Here’s the bad news: it may take you a while to come up with the right name. There’s more good news though – in the real world most domain names sell for $1,000 or less.

Can’t get started? – Go to a site that sells domain names, and put in a word that describes your business. See if the name is taken (it probably will be). Open your word processor or go to thesaurus.com and put the word in. Get a few more words. Check those. If there’s a .com available and it looks good, grab it. If not, add the word site or blog or online to your word, and see if that works. Don’t wait. If you think it might be useable, spend the $9.00. I came up with blogduck.com. I liked it. I decided to think about it some more. Someone grabbed it that afternoon. Just chisel loose the nine bucks (or less) and buy the domain.

If you draw a blank, go over to Sedo and see what’s for sale. Search for a word that describes what you think people will associate the name of your site with, and see what pops up. That may give you some ideas.