Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off

CHAPTER 20

FIX YOUR BAD NAME INSTANTLY

Having at least one domain name that is easy to spell and easy to remember is important. If you are currently using a poorly named domain as your flagship domain name, then you are likely missing out on a lot of potential marketing exposure and business.

I have no intention of convincing you to throw out whatever domain names you are currently using. Instead I'm going to convince you to try to find an easy to spell and easy to remember domain name or two that could be pointed at your current primary website. Nearly all registrars, such as GoDaddy.com, offer a service called “domain forwarding.” If you don't have the need for an entirely new website you still could likely benefit from thinking up a new, better domain name, and then point that domain name at your current website without any extra work needed. Just use domain forwarding so you can use a better sounding name in your marketing efforts.

Instinctually we all know when a website has a bad name. We instantly forget a bad name, or worse yet we find it difficult to spell correctly based on the sound of the name. For example, including the word “to” as part of your domain name invites multiple possible spelling errors (two, too, 2) when users attempt to type the domain name into a browser.

This is especially true when you are designing a squeeze page with the intended purpose of capturing the maximum number of leads on a simple one-page website (as discussed in Chapter 7).

I realized ...