My company

My company, Webnames.ca, provides a variety of Internet services; among them, domain name registration. Webnames.ca is Canada’s original .CA registrar and our history in the domain industry goes back to 1987. So, when entrepreneurs and business owners ask me, “What domain names should I register for my business?”  you would think the answer would be simple; however, my usual answer is, “It depends.”

Factors like geographical location of customers, target audience, scope of current & future business, size of organization, value of intellectual property, relative importance of the company’s online presence to competition and of course, budget, all play a vital role in determining what domains a company chooses to secure.

Here are 10 key guidelines I consider when determining the domain needs of an organization:

1. Get your .COM if still available

.COM is still king and the most recognized domain extension in the world. If you are lucky enough to find your name(s) in .COM, make sure to snap them up.

2. Geographical Location – Where are your customers located? Who is your audience?

Most people prefer to buy local, pay in local currency and have products shipped locally to save on duties and shipping fees, making it critical for Canadian companies to have a .CA website.

To register a .CA, the registrant must meet Canadian Presence Requirements; meaning registering a Canadian trademark, having a registered Canadian Corporation or partnership in Canada or being a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.  Details on the Canadian Internet Registration Authority rules on Canadian Presence Requirements are available athttp://cira.ca/assets/Documents/Legal/Registrants/CPR.pdf.

Depending on the type of products or services you offer, it may be beneficial to register other country related extensions also, including .US (our biggest trading partner and a much larger market than Canada) or .ASIA.

If you have presence, key customers or an audience in particular countries, consider investing in those domain names. As mentioned in my previous blog post Domain Name 101 – What Do the Various Domain Extensions Mean there are 252 country code Top Level domains (or ccTLDs) in the world. Be sure check out the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority ccTLD database (ICANN) for the complete list of ccTLDs.

n the mix of things

In the mix of things you need to market your business and promote your brand, domain names are inexpensive when compared to a battered reputation or the legal expenses incurred if someone registers your name and uses it to drive traffic to their website or to post objectionable material. For most businesses, a single lost customer each year could account for the price of multiple domain registrations.

Below are recommendations from our Developing an Effective Domain Strategy whitepaper. To request a copy of the complete whitepaper, please email corporate@webnames.ca.

Critical Domain Areas for Businesses

 

All Product Names & Trademarks

For example, Kellogg's has the various cereal names registered and Proctor and Gamble has their entire line of products from "Crest" to "Palmolive" registered.

Taglines, Straplines, Slogans, Mottos, Signatures

Nike owns "justdoit.com", Apple owns "thinkdifferent.com," Volkswagen owns "driverswanted.com," and Molson Coors owns "tastesgreatlessfilling.com.”

Many companies actually neglect to do this only to have their slogan catch on and become one of the most visible pieces of their corporate identity, for example Mazda's "Zoom zoom." Even if you're just testing out a new tagline or slogan - register it.

Current & Future Marketing Campaigns

Contests, promotions and campaigns typically have their own landing page on a company's website, marketing material and advertising spots. Registering a short domain name like "yourproductpromo.com" or "yourproductcontest.com" can help people remember your campaign and find the details easily on the internet.

Future Products and Services

Protect all your products or services that are being developed or are currently in the pipeline for future launch. Use Webnames Privacy Service to protect the registrant information so competitors in your industry don't find out about your upcoming initiatives and products

Blog, Facebook, Events & Corporate Initiatives

Register a short name for your blog. If you use Wordpress or other blog applications rather than yourname.wordpress.com/... it looks more professional to get yournameblog.com.

Many companies are also now registering their associated domains and pointing them to their social media sites eg.yourcompanyfacebook.com and yourcompanyfacebook.ca.

If you host, sponsor or participate in an annual event or charitable initiative that you promote or fundraise for, you should also the event name as a domain, for example "WebnamesCanaryDerby.ca" or "CanadaSafewayFoundation.org".

We also strongly advocate, if your budget permits, registering common typos and misspellings of all of the above.

This post was originally created for the Webnames.ca blog in February 2010 at www.webnamesblog.ca.

A recently published

Typosquatting is the practice of registering domain names that are misspellings of website addresses and profiting from it by selling the domain, or capitalizing on the domain’s traffic through Google ads and/or selling products/services not related to the original brand.

Many large businesses protect their brands by registering possible misspellings of their trademarks and brands but not all of them do an adequate job of it. Smaller businesses typically don't think of such protective measures until it is too late [read our previous article,Cornering the Market for your Brands].

A recently published paper available at Benedelman.org, Measuring the Perpetrators and Funders of Typosquatting, by Tyler Moore and Benjamin Edelman from Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences describes how pervasive typosquatting is and who exactly benefits from it:

“At least 938 000 typosquatting domains target the top 3264 .COM sites, and we [the authors] crawl more than 285 000 of these domains to analyze their revenue sources. We find that 80% are supported by pay-per-click ads, often advertising the correctly spelled domain and its competitors. Another 20% include static redirection to other sites.”

Further analysis by the authors indicates:

“57% of typo sites include Google pay-per-click ads. Combining our observations with financial reports and others' estimates, we conclude that Google's revenue from typosquatting on the top 100,000 sites is $497 million per year.”

Benjamin Edelman summarizes his findings on a blog on Circle ID.

The research behind the paper highlights that "typosquatting" is a real problem for companies and brand owners.

Webnames.ca's Managed Services Division can help your organization mitigate typosquatting risks by conducting a comprehensive domain portfolio review to ensure that your brand is properly protected. Emailmanagedservices@webnames.ca or call toll free 1-866-470-6820 for more information.

This post was originally created for the Webnames.ca blog in March 2010 at www.webnamesblog.ca

Typosquatting is s

Typosquatting is the practice of registering domain names that are misspellings of website addresses and profiting from it by selling the domain, or capitalizing on the domain’s traffic through Google ads and/or selling products/services not related to the original brand.

Many large businesses protect their brands by registering possible misspellings of their trademarks and brands but not all of them do an adequate job of it. Smaller businesses typically don't think of such protective measures until it is too late [read our previous article,Cornering the Market for your Brands].

A recently published paper available at Benedelman.org, Measuring the Perpetrators and Funders of Typosquatting, by Tyler Moore and Benjamin Edelman from Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences describes how pervasive typosquatting is and who exactly benefits from it:

“At least 938 000 typosquatting domains target the top 3264 .COM sites, and we [the authors] crawl more than 285 000 of these domains to analyze their revenue sources. We find that 80% are supported by pay-per-click ads, often advertising the correctly spelled domain and its competitors. Another 20% include static redirection to other sites.”

Further analysis by the authors indicates:

“57% of typo sites include Google pay-per-click ads. Combining our observations with financial reports and others' estimates, we conclude that Google's revenue from typosquatting on the top 100,000 sites is $497 million per year.”

Benjamin Edelman summarizes his findings on a blog on Circle ID.

The research behind the paper highlights that "typosquatting" is a real problem for companies and brand owners.

Webnames.ca's Managed Services Division can help your organization mitigate typosquatting risks by conducting a comprehensive domain portfolio review to ensure that your brand is properly protected. Emailmanagedservices@webnames.ca or call toll free 1-866-470-6820 for more information.

This post was originally created for the Webnames.ca blog in March 2010 at www.webnamesblog.ca

The following

The following product review was completed by Mark Eversfield, a specialist in Market Research at Small Business BC.

Tools to help your business get online from wherever you go are not a new idea, so what’s so different about Telus’ new portable device, the Smart Hub? And how can it benefit your small business?

The first of its kind, the Smart Hubenables you to use your WiFi devices and a desk phone from any place there’s a power outlet.  The device connects to the internet through Telus’ 4G network, instead of a cable, and allows you to connect up to 15 users at the same time.

Easy to set up
A great portable device for small businesses on the go, you can pack up your office in your bag then set it up again in minutes for presentations, trade shows, and job sites.  The most difficult part of setting up the Smart Hub is untying the twist ties.

To set up the device you simply connect the antenna, place the SIM card in the hub, connect the power, and turn on your WiFi device.  Next, you’ll be asked to enter the password to connect to the Smart Hub and follow the step-by-step wizard to secure your connection. That’s it. You are connected to the internet.

Bandwidth and Functionality
I decided to test the bandwidth capability of the Smart Hub by watching some hockey videos on YouTube. I found the resolution to be HD-like in its quality. Full marks for the bandwidth.

The Smart Hub can also connect any desk or speaker phone, operating just like a landline. I used the phone to call a friend; they couldn’t tell the difference.

Enabling multiple users to share data across a network as well as connect to the internet, will mean that you and your coworkers can connect anywhere your business needs to go.  

Have Smart Hub, and your office will travel.

Do you sell products on Amazon?

Do you sell products on Amazon? Or are you thinking of opening your own online store on the site? Well there is good news for you; this week Amazon announced the launch of Amazon Pages.

What is Amazon Pages?

Amazon Pages is a new web retail service that allows you to make a customized e-store from a set of three templates. The templates allow you to list all your products, display 'posts' of content alongside products, or just list 'posts'. Products are displayed using their ‘Merchandising Widget’, which is a separate install, and allows customers to make purchases directly from your e-store.

 

The new tool will also allow you to customize the URL, for example amazon.com/my-company. This means an end to the random collection of numbers and letters, which are currently displayed when clicking on a retailer. You will also be able to add social media buttons which link to your own pages.

What Other Gadgets are Available?

• Amazon Post
  Once registered with Amazon Pages you will also have access to Amazon Post, a social media dashboard where you can post messages and updates to your Facebook profile and to your Amazon ‘Page’ at the same time. You will also be able to write a series of posts at one time and scheduled to go live over a few days.
   
• Amazon Analytics
  You will gain access to Amazon Analytics, which will help you monitor the traffic to your page and your customer’s behaviour when they are visiting your e-store. Data is broken down into easy to understand charts and graphs so you can assess the products or ‘Posts’ that create the most positive reaction.

How to Apply

Amazon Pages, Posts and Analytics are all free to use. To start using the tools you must first submit an application to Amazon. Once approved you will gain access to the tools.

Alternatives to Amazon Pages

Although Amazon Pages brings great new tools and gadgets to those already selling on Amazon, it is important to know the alternatives out there.

 

One of their direct competitors in the small business world is Shopify. The main difference between Amazon and Shopify is that you can host the Shopify on your own domain. This means that your store URL will be my-company.com rather than Amazon's amazon.com/my-company. There are both pros and cons to this. 

 

The pros of being associated with Amazon are that you can trade on their name and use their users to become aware of your business and products. You have an instant audience, who already trust the brand of Amazon and what it supplies to them.

 

The cons are that your business is reliant on this third party brand for recognition. This means that should Amazon choose to change its support of the tool or should you want to establish a larger web presence, you have little or no ability. Hosting your store on your own domain will also mean that Google will attribute the authority of your content and products to your own website, not to Amazon. Translated: your website will rank better for terms included in those descriptions.

 

Before making the decision about which service to use, first decide what your objective is for starting an online store, then assess how much time you can dedicate to making it work. Only then can you choose the tool that suits your needs the most.