by: Osama A. Hussein
Last updated on 7 February 2021
FIND THE RIGHT RHYTHM:
If you are serious in your online business, you should exhibit visibility concerns way before launch. Visibility to your target audience is your only window to online success. Likewise, your website quality is a window to your business visibility window. Would you imagine any audience that pays attention to a bad performer? This brings quality issues to the pre-launch table. These are not as simple as they may sound. Quality is related to target audience needs but has your team development potential as an ultimate ceiling. You should define personas beforehand and keep-up the good work to their discretion. Search engines work as intermediaries and hence have their say. To guarantee better quality, you may opt to be slow but sure. But if you run on a tight budget, you may need to rush to reap some revenue. Only the right rhythm can get you pretty noticed pretty fast.
HOW PERSISTENT IS THE BUSINESS RHYTHM QUESTION?
Very; to cut it short. It starts in the pre-launch phase and pops-up all along the way. It actually lasts as long as your web business does. Unfortunately, there is no single, simple or direct answer to this question. It depends on where you are on your business journey. In pre-launch phase? Have been testing waters? Have already covered some miles? About to approach a milestone? Have been cruising on a steady course? Have been enjoying scaling-up? or experiencing scaling-down? Or finally about to quit? It depends also on how you define online success, how you plan for it, work on it, expect it, phase it and finally feel it.
THERE MUST BE SOME WAY OUT:
But it is not all about rhythm. Appreciation of web business facets is a must. This covers website development, publishing and marketing. The better you master such techniques, the more you can avoid stagnation and provoke growth. Naturally, this cannot be realized in a blink of an eye. It needs time, effort and devotion. But an overview would help. As a first time online entrepreneur, you may be quite a master of some industry as it supposedly lies in the heart of your specialty and interest. You may feel unable to get noticed; though. How would you then capture leads, close deals and compete with competitors? Online success may look evasive or end-up alien. If this is how you feel, calm down. You can be assured you can simply re-adjust. Keen to get a clear answer? Read on to go a little detailed.
IT IS ALL IN THE JOURNEY:
In air traffic control, destinations require itineraries governed by global considerations. Achievement needs a wide perspective realized through careful detailed implementation. This is a rule of thumb that seems valid in every type of business; let alone online business. A web business status is the outcome of the web business journey so far pursued. Rather than define where you have just ended-up and investigate your current vicinity, raise questions that can help assess your whole journey right from the beginning. It is all in the journey. Your knowledge, mindset, attitudes, expertise, connections, finances, work environment and maybe other unnamed factors do contribute to your web business path that eventually reflects on your status. So, why search fiction when realities can be pretty clear? Flashback in old Hollywood movies used the past to interpret the present? Let us just mimic this approach.
MAIN BUSINESS NATURE:
To allow for a seamless business launch, you have to be crystal clear about the nature of your business. You may plan to just market a Brick-And-Mortar-Business you already own so as to boost its offline sales? You should then limit your online efforts to generation of pertinent traffic, capturing leads and directing prospects towards an offline sales funnel. Another option is to complement offline sales by new online ones. This might be a step toward completely switching from offline to online as a third option. Needless to mention that available technologies now enable brand new businesses to start online, thrive hard to get exposure and achieve appropriate online monetization. The offline presence would only entail necessary data processing. It should by now be obvious that internet marketing is a common component in all options. It is too basic to skip or underestimate.
PRESENT BLOG OBJECTIVES:
The present blog practices what it preaches. It tries to teach by example. Almost every post applies the main ideas it supports. The blog declares the unnecessary so as to turn informational. A down-to-earth definition would classify it as a not-for-profit business. The topics discussed stem from interest in and passion for knowledge crystallization in internet marketing with focus on organic search and inbound marketing. This could have taken entirely different forms. It may well do so some other time. An info ebook might be an answer. But this time, pure web business is the candidate type of business. The blog again tests and demonstrates; among other skills; some intrinsic writing skills. It sets an example in decent web content creation.
DOMAIN NAME SELECTION:
The name a baby is given upon birth is a lifetime companion. But the person in charge can change it through some defined procedure. Observations show that such changes rarely take place. This is very much the case with domain names. You build your website and hence your business around the domain name you have already selected. It is your basic definition on the web and hence your fundamental gateway to exposure. If you opt to change it midway in your business journey, you will just switch to an entirely new entity. Redirection would then be required to guide your loyal old visitors to the new address. If you attach your old content to a new domain name without redirection, you will risk losing some audience. You may also face content stealth penalties. Only un-renew the old domain name when you feel confident you do not need its traffic contribution.
DOMAIN NAME POTENTIAL:
Now, let us wonder what if a domain name has a potential. Wouldn’t it reflect seamlessly to its related business? This is why you should exert some decent effort in the process of Domain Name Selection. It is the first milestone in your web business journey, provided niche is already established. Some may argue here that good web content followed by professional internet marketing would compensate for any deficiency in the selection process. Well, this may sound logical. But a high initial potential should save a lot. A low initial potential on the other hand may impede progress or cost extended efforts to compensate for.
TWO MAIN DOMAIN CATEGORIES:
Early in the process of Domain Name Selection, you may have a prior inclination towards one of two main domain categories; brand domains and keyword domains. A brand domain either inherits potential from an existing brand or generates it from scratch. Alternatively a keyword domain derives potential from one or more keywords. If no keywords are envisaged in some particular domain, it should be classified as a brand one. Time then tells whether it could be well branded or not.
BRAND DOMAINS:
Again, a brand domain either represents an existing offline brand or empowers a new online one. It derives its power from the offline power of the brand if it existed before online launch. Consider Coca-Cola as a profound example. It has been a very well-established business well before the advent of the internet. No wonder its online presence has inherited deserved power. The Coca-Cola brand domain estimated value exceeds $14.3k as per GoDaddy. Its website value exceeds EURO 52.9k as per Check Website Price, $91.5k as per $iteprice and $1.8m as per worth of web the day this post is edited. Different values reflect different metrics adopted. Reflection of offline values onto online values can be regarded as forward branding. Backward branding takes place as businesses return the favor to offline predecessors.
KEYWORD DOMAINS:
A keyword domain on the other hand includes a keyword by definition. It derives its power from the keyword included and sends some back when acquiring power. So, brand domains exchange power with corresponding brands while keyword domains exchange power with included keywords. This conceptual framework is just now proposed by the present blog post. The author deems it genuine as it never came to his knowledge through his readings. However, any interested or concerned party may argue or prove otherwise.
BACKING-OFF FROM INITIAL CHOICES:
An online startup may fall in the trap of feeling sorry about his Domain Name Selection some months or phases later. Should he stick to his first choice and keep moving on? Should he back off and select another Business Domain Name? This is a little delicate dilemma to handle. If he moves on, he may lose opportunities he might have had upon correction. If he backs off and re-starts a new business site, he would eliminate the potential his first choice has acquired. It is quite normal for a domain name to gain potential as you continue to publish content around it. Keep in mind also that domain names get more accredited by search engines as they get older. They never age.
DOMAIN NAME FORWARDING:
Now, back to business. How to re-consider Domain Name Selection if deemed necessary. First, re-consideration must be done once and for all. You either move on and keep building on your first choice or you select a new URL, build on it and redirect your old URL to your new one. You thus lose your accumulated first domain potential and begin with the new one’s. You also keep your content value unless tightly linked to your first Domain Name as is the case with the post “How To Properly Choose Keywords For Successful Digital Marketing“.
ABOUT THE PRESENT BLOG DOMAIN NAME:
The present blog exercised a bit to rationalize its Domain Name Selection process. Having been targeting wise traffic generation strategies, it opted for a keyword domain that spells out Prettynoticed Dot Com. To my knowledge and apparently to Google’s, the combined word PRETTYNOTICED does not represent an existing offline brand. It is not an online brand either since it was available at time of registration. So, it is neither a branded domain nor an offline brand representative. But nothing prevents it from turning into an online brand if well branded over a sufficient length of time. Actually, it is more likely to be branded in view of its keyword implicit power. This is why this domain name was selected in the first place. It consists of two marketable syllables. The blog title exploits this duality by separating the two syllables to form a meaningful phrase. Really meaningful indeed.
PREPARED FOR TAKE-OFF?
This is about the last right time to review the basics. Apparently, Domain Name Selection is on top of the list. Would you go for a brand domain to utilize or a keyword domain to nurture? Do you have a fairly good insight of your potential domain? Have you investigated its worth? Have you compared it to those of your local, regional or global competitors? Keep in mind that the right selection saves you the inconveniences of re-selection.
UNDERCARRIAGE RETRACTED?
New to online business? Let us resort to some preliminary flight analogy. Plane doors have been closed. You are well seated, just watched the hostess instructions, fastened your belts and stayed alert. The pilot starts the plane engine, the plane runs all way along the runway, stops by its end and the engine roars loudly. The plane takes off, retracts its unneeded undercarriage and pitches toward some target level trajectory. Though not yet cruising, you are already flying. You just left the ground and need to resort to other physics. This is an analogy for an online start-up. Once you launch your business site, you had better use online mechanisms. Don’t ask for forced landing unless things go out of control. Resort to the flight skills you already master. It is just the right time for Digital Marketing. Keep an eye on your SEO Strategy and target appropriate Back Links.
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