Happy holidays from Brad Pauquette Design!
Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, enjoy it!
I’ll be here when you get back from all of your merrymaking. Need a New Year’s Resolution? How about finally getting that website started or updated?
Enjoy your holidays. :-)
Choosing your domain name is very important.
For the purposes of this article, your domain name and your URL are the same thing. The domain name is what people type into the address bar to find your website – i.e. www.BradPauquetteDesign.com is my domain name. Google’s domain name is www.Google.com.
The basics:
The most popular endings for your domain name are .com, .org, .net and .info. Normally, .org is reserved for non-profit organizations. You don’t need to be a 501(c)3 organization to get one, it’s on the honor system. If your website’s primary intent is to do something other than make money (like serve a community or promote a cause), you can use .org. The other endings like .com, .net, and .info use to have special meanings, but now they’re basically interchangeable.
Your domain name can be any combination of numbers and letters. Some special characters, like hyphens, are allowed, but it’s generally a good idea to avoid them. Capitalized letters don’t matter – google.com and GoOgLe.com are the same thing. Whether you type in bradpauquettedesign.com or BradPauquetteDesign.com, you’ll get to the same address.
Whether you put the www. in front of the name or not doesn’t matter anymore in most situations. Most domain name providers make sure that you can use your name with or without www.
To search for available domain names, visit LunarPages.com.
There are three factors to consider when choosing a domain name:
1) Search Engine Keywords – try to put words into your domain name that customers will search for on Google.
2) Memorability – can customers easily remember your name? The shorter the better, and numbers can be confusing (is it 2dogbakery.com or twodogbakery.com).
3) Relevance to Your Company Name – make your domain name as close to your actual company name as possible.
Obviously, in most cases, you can’t satisfy all of these criteria. And in many cases, the domain names that you want the most are already taken.
When choosing which factors are most important to you, think about where you expect to get most of your business. I’ll use a fictitious plumbing company called Joe & Sons Plumbing, located in Westerville, Ohio as an example.
If you expect to get most of your business from search engines like Google or Bing, concentrate on number 1, search engine keywords, to make yourself more visible. If Joe & Sons Plumbing expects most of their business to come from search engines, something like “WestervilleOhioPlumber.com” would be a great choice. It’s not very similar to their actual business name and it’s a mouthful, but “Westerville Ohio Plumber” is something that lots of people will be typing into Google hoping to find a company like Joe & Sons Plumbing.
If you expect to get most of your business from traditional advertising like billboards, newspaper ads and sky-writing, #2 a memorable name, is most important. BestPlumber.com would be great. It’s short, to the point and easy to tell someone – there are no hard words to spell, and no numbers or hyphens to specify.
If you’re an established businesses and expect that most of your customers already know the name of your company, get as close to your actual name as possible. (Sears.com, Walmart.com, Lowes.com – customers are looking for their specific company, not a general category) If Joe & Sons Plumbing has been the only plumber in Westerville for 30 years, JoeandSonsPlumbing.com will work great even though it’s long.
Normally, your source of new customers won’t be as obvious as the above examples, and you’re going to have to search long and hard to find an available domain name you’re happy with. At the end of the day, Joe & Sons will probably end up with something like JoesWestervillePlumber.com – it contains the search engine terms “Westerville” and “Plumber”, it’s pretty easy to remember, and it’s relevant to the company’s actual name – you won’t be too surprised when the logo says Joe and Sons Plumbing on it.
If you need help finding a relevant domain name or setting up web hosting, please contact me for assistance today.
Each year for two years now, I’ve designed a custom animated flash e-card for ALE, a Columbus, Ohio engineering logistics firm.
You can watch the 2011 holiday e-card by clicking here.
I really enjoy building these. It’s a great change of pac, and allows me to use a different side of my creativity.
E-cards a great alternative for many companies. If you send out 100 or more paper cards through the mail, chances are that a custom e-card is a cost-effective alternative.
Custom flash e-cards, sent via e-mail, are also more likely to penetrate to the entire staff at a receiving business, whereas paper cards will be suspended indefinitely on the receptionist’s desk. E-cards are also environmentally friendly, and you can send them to an unlimited number of recipients.
If you’d like a custom e-card for any occasion, please contact me.
Happy Holidays!
Columbus Creative Cooperative has just released their newest book Across Town: Stories of Columbus, a collection of 12 short stories written by Central Ohio authors and set in the Columbus, Ohio area.
Find more information about the book here: http://columbuscoop.org/purchase_acrosstown_anthology.php
As the director and lead designer of Columbus Creative Cooperative, I was personally responsible for many aspects of the project, including cover design, book design (text layout and interior pages) and e-book conversion and placement for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, iPad and Google Books (for misc. devices).
I also served as the production editor, which means that I coordinated all of the various authors, artists, editors, and contributors, as well as secured and managed the funding for the project.
If you’re putting together a book, whether you’re an independent publisher, a self-publisher or any other type of entity, I’d love to assist you. From managing the book process and obtaining ISBNs and UPCs to designing the book or producing e-books, I’m here to provide whatever services are helpful for you.
Please consider contacting me today.
Visit HandMLandscaping.com
H & M Landscaping, of Flint, Michigan, asked me to build a unique, professional website that would highlight all of their services. They also wanted a custom application that would allow them to easily update page content and pictures.
I built a custom logo and website, as well as a custom Content Management System that would perfectly suit their needs and make their lives as easy as possible.
Click the image to visit HandMLandscaping.com
The website is built in PHP with cross-browser compatible javascript slideshows and effects. The website is optimized for search engines like Google and Bing.
Dublin Physical Medicine asked me to build a website that would both highlight their Physical/Sports Medicine services and their new Botox and cosmetic injection services.
Parts of the website were already in place and portions of the design were provided, but I custom built a cohesive website that would highlight all of their diverse services, provide photos of the facility, before and after photos of cosmetic surgery, and allow users to sign up for a mailing list.
Click the image to visit DublinPhysMed.com
The website is built in PHP with javascript effects.
Visit WaterCycleProject.org
My wife and I operate The Water Cycle Project, a non-profit organization that uses Ohio bicycling events to raise money to drill wells for impoverished communities in rural India.
The website that I built for the organization allows users to register as members to sign up for long-distance bike rides and other events. Donors can also give money to the project directly on the website. The website also includes a blog.
Click the image to visit WaterCycleProject.org
The website was built in PHP. MySQL is used for member registration and other advanced functions. WordPress is integrated for the blog system, and PayPal Payments Standard is used to process credit card donations.
The Water Cycle Project is a 0-overhead organization. That means that 100% of donations go directly to well-drilling teams in India. The Water Cycle Project has no paid staff or other expenses, it is entirely volunteer driven.
Visit MattsHogSpitBBQ.com
Matt Will, of Matt’s Hog Spit BBQ Sauce, asked me to design a new website for his unique sauce.
He wanted a simple website with a cool design that he could fill in with information and additional pages later. He also wanted to be able to sell sauce directly off of the website, and he needed to stay within a tight budget.
Click the image to visit MattsHogSpitBBQ.com
Using a logo that he provided, I designed a custom website and built it in PHP. PayPal Payment Standard is used to process credit card payments.
Visit PosturificBrace.com
Columbus-based chiropractor Josh Dorsey asked me to create a website for a posture-improving back brace that he had invented so that he could make sales online.
Dr. Dorsey provided a logo, and I built a website that would effectively market his product.
Click the image to visit PosturificBrace.com
PosturificBrace.com is custom designed and built in PHP. PayPal Payments Standard is used to process payments.
Prices Creek Veterinary Service, based in Prices Creek, Ohio, asked me to build a professional, search engine friendly website that would generate new clients.
PCV already had a logo that they wanted to use. Based on the logo design scheme, I created a new website that highlights all of PCV’s services and makes it easy for new and existing clients to schedule an appointment online.
Click the image to visit PricesCreekVet.com
This custom-designed website was built in PHP, and also pulls in the office’s Twitter feed for live updates.