Working the Web

Authored By Ginger Ravine

Copyright © Ginger Ravine

One a business owner has decided to take his or her home business opportunity online the first thing that's needed is a domain name. What's most important is coming up with a business site name that describes the business well enough so people have some idea what it's all about. The ideal would be that people interested in the type of services the particular home business opportunity offers and type the keywords online and the site pops up.

A business that offers online writing services would do well to have the name www.onlinewriting.com or perhaps www.writingfortheweb.com. Of course, the names could already be taken. While there are other choices like .net , .org, .biz and so forth this is generally not a good idea for building an online home business following. The reason is that if, for example, someone were to decide on using www.onlinewriting.net because onlinewriting.com was already taken most people who take a shot in the dark at guessing the site address will find the competition before they find the new home business opportunity online.

When taking the opportunity to market the home business online the entrepreneur should follow a few basic marketing rules. The first is to keep the URL short. A URL can be as long as 63 characters, but no one should have a business domain name that is anywhere near that long. The shorter the better when it comes to a business Web address. The second important item to remember is to keep it logical – something people would naturally think of if possible.

The third rule of thumb for online home business marketing opportunities is to register every common variation of the business name. If the business is about cleaning widgets and the domain is www.cleaningwidgets.com, then it would be wise to also register www.cleanwidgets.com, www.widgetcleaners.com and perhaps even www.cleaningwidgets.net.

The last online home business rule, which increases the business' opportunity to be found online, is to register common misspellings of the company name. www.cleaningwigets.com might be a good idea or www.cleenwidgets.com and so forth.

There are several sites, such as register.com which would tell the entrepreneur which Web addresses are already taken. However, many businesses register domain names not to use them to build a site but in anticipation of someone wanting to use them and being able to sell them for a hefty profit. If there is a Web address that seems the ideal opportunity to market the home business online, the entrepreneur shouldn't give up. He or she would be wise to approach the owner and see what the asking price is.


Source: http://money.howstuffworks.com/online-biz-planning2.htm

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