Since then the coupon offers or Group-buying space has evolved a lot. The companies in this space that I have subscribed to along with Groupon are:

•  Living Social
• Google Offers
• Amazon Local Deals ( powered by Living Social)
• CertifiKid ( Family and kid friendly deals)
• The Capitol Deal from the Washington Post
• Recoup ( a deal site that offers coupons and helps support causes)

If you take a look at the range of my subscriptions they are a good representation of the spectrum of deals available now.

The concept of coupons is not new. It has existed as long as business has existed as a marketing tool for business owners to attract new customers and sometimes to retain existing customers.  Companies like Groupon pioneered a trend where the offer was based on a combination of factors:

• The deal
• Number of deals offered
• Location
• Market specifics
• Time when they could be used

Under ideal conditions, coupon offers should have given businesses access to new markets and customers and a way to fill capacity during lean periods. The speed of the industry growth lead to several bumps both for the coupon companies and the business that used the coupons.  Here are some pitfalls that occurred in some of the coupon offers:

• Customers turning up in large numbers on the first day the offers opened and/or last day of the offer
• Staff dissatisfied when patrons using restaurant coupons were not calculating the tips at the full price
• More existing customers using the offers and businesses not getting exposure to new customers
• Businesses not setting a logical limit to the number of coupons sold and opening themselves to operational nightmares
• Sometimes no clear understanding of timeline and merchant payment terms

Despite the pitfalls mentioned above, many small business have had successes using coupons. One of the most important factors is the ability of the coupon offers to change customer behavior. I wrote about this in a previous post “How Online Tools Helped a Family Farm Get New Business.” Consumers love these deals.

My friend, Dr. Sanjay Jain has taken classes in photography and art that he had always dreamed of and could achieve it when the barrier of cost came down with a Groupon offer. When I put this question on Twitter, many in my network said they had tried new restaurants and became regulars at other business.

Coupon or group-buying companies have two kinds of customers. The end consumer who pays for the coupon and uses it. The business who partners to make the offer. Negative stories from merchants have received far more prominence than success stories. In his article, “5 Groupon Success Stories And Discount-to-Loyalty Strategies” TJ McCue writes:

“There are two big Groupon benefits for business owners that I see: One, that you dramatically increase your visibility. Two, you have no out-of-pocket advertising expense. Okay, you may have to spend on materials or product, but if you do it right, you can at least break even and generate new business.”

As we look forward towards 2013 at the buzz around the coupon industry here are some of my thoughts on trends in 2013:

Expanded Localized Deals

• The challenge in 2013 will be to increase the number of end users and merchants.
• Expanding to more local merchants and targeting customers in the local area.
• More niche verticals from both nationwide and local coupon companies.

Focus on Increased Online Commerce

• Trends like Groupon goods will increase procuring goods directly from producers to the customers.
• B2B services that offer self-serve couponing tools will also increase.

Increased Resources and Tools for Merchants

• The bigger players like Groupon introduced new tools to help its merchant customers - GrouponWorks  a portal for merchant resources , Groupon Rewards for merchants to manage incentive programs for returning customers and a scheduler tool. Living Social on its part introduced an online ordering system for restaurants to take orders from customers using a Living Social coupon.
• In order to enable credit card payments Groupon introduced a payments tool for its merchants similar to Square or Intuit’s GoPayment.
• Just like UPS mastered and offered logistics for merchants and Amazon offers logistics to sellers on Amazon, more coupon companies will offer a turnkey process to connect businesses with customers.

Consumer Flexibility in Customizing Deals

• Today the coupon is valid for a specific time after which the monetary value of the coupon is redeemable .
• Offering different redeeming models may make this a better experience for both merchants and customers.
• Think of an offering where the customer can buy a coupon redeemable when the merchant sends a text or tweet  when the business is less busy.
• Innovation in the way referrak.

More Options in the Revenue Models with Merchants

• There are some differences how merchants are paid their share of the offer. There is an opportunity here to think of innovative methods.
• Imagine a small business gets funding from a coupon company with a agrement to run coupon marketing campaigns exclusively with the provider.

Looking at negative posts, it may seem that group-buying does not satisfy merchants but that is not true. In a Forsee study commissioned by Groupon:

“Groupon’s overall merchant satisfaction was a very strong 79. The average satisfaction score for a B2B company in ForeSee’s benchmark is 64.”

The Living Social website  quotes stats that 91% of deal redeemers give repeat business  and 29% of deal redeemers are new customers.

As a business owner when you make a decision about your marketing in 2013 definitely consider adding the group-buying to your marketing mix with careful consideration on avoiding the pitfalls I have mentioned above.

Next I will be taking a look at case studies. So if you are a merchant who has used group-buying, please contact me with your experience in the comments below.

What are your thoughts on this industry trends for 2013?

British Landscape Photo via Shutterstock

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This concept was introduced by the Late Professor of the University of Michigan, C. K. Prahlad, in his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits. Some well known examples of products that cater to these markets include micro-credit products and selling shampoos in sachets.

I am currently visiting India and below are some interesting observations on the concept that I see actually being applied:

Mobile phones

The cost of ownership of a SIM card is low. I got mine for $.20 cents with talk-time and incoming calls free. No wonder there are over 900 Million mobile users in India.

According to a Times of India article, India has 70 subscriptions per 100 people, of which 96% are prepaid, while 53% of households own a mobile phone and India’s price per minute use is the lowest possible at $0.01.

Mobile phones have  created an opportunity for entrepreneurs to setup dealerships and sell SIM cards by offering competitive discounts. These make the crowds flock to them to get the cards, as is reflected in the picture above.

SIM cards are also sold in businesses of different verticals. SMS is used a lot in India, according to the Times of India:

“Just under half of Indians use text messages on a regular basis.”

This creates a market for products and marketing techniques using SMS. A unique example is the launch of a service to send a message by SMS to find out if a cheaper generic drug was available for a prescription.

Cars

The cheapest car in the market is the Tata Nano.  According to CarDekho, it costs the equivalent of $3,616. Barriers to car ownership have come down leading to other problems like traffic.   On the flipside, this creates an opportunity for entrepreneurs selling auto accessories and service at repair shops.

Innovative Consumer Products

The case study of Godrej’s refrigerator for rural India, ChotuKool, was designed with the help of women living in villages themselves and won several awards.

Social Innovation

Drinking water and health are very essential.  In November of 2011, NPR had run a story on a successful for-profit organization, HealthPoint, that provides safe drinking water to village folks at $1.5o per month and low cost diagnostic tests and ehealth consultation.

Food

This may be my own short term experience, but when I left India over 15 years ago, international fast food giants like KFC and McDonalds were costly and beyond the reach of the common man.

Judging by the prices today, they are competing not only in price but also in products by having products that are closer to the market they are serving. McDonald’s McAloo Tikki Burger – a vegetarian offering made of potato is a a good example.

The take away for small business and entrepreneurs globally from these examples should be:

1.) Think about how local market opportunities can be capitalized on using this concept.  Closer to home, in the US, the Virgin Mobile brand of Sprint sells a cellphone plan with unlimited data and text plan with limited minutes for $35 which is very suitable for students

2.) If you are thinking of exporting, consider the market opportunities that exist in both the affluent markets and the bottom of the pyramid.

3.)  Be conscious of the strategy of large corporations that may affect your business — for example, the fading away of local book stores due to competition. I miss the independent book stores a lot.

The Economist featured a post titled, “The bottom of the pyramid: Businesses are Learning to Serve the Growing Number of Hard-up Americans.” It includes examples of bottom of the pyramid products in the U.S.

What have you observed similar to the bottom of the pyramid concept?

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This week the hosts of NPR’s most popular non-news show “Car Talk”  Tom and Ray Magliozzi announced in a post on their site “Time to Get Even Lazier”  that they would “stop and smell the cappuccino.”  Car Talk has been on the airwaves for over 35 years of which 25 years has been on NPR.  The Wall Street Journal said that Car Talk had an audience of over 3.3 million every week in over 660 stations quoting Eric Nuzum NPR’s vice president of programming.

My whole family are fans and will miss them having listened to them for 15 years. Every time I have heard Car Talk all these years,  this post has been on my mind. Here are my views on what small business can learn about marketing from the ” Click and Clack. the Tappet Brothers.” i.e., the Car Talk guys:

• Humor : Use humor to make your marketing messages more interesting.
•  Tom and Ray Magliozzi turned a difficult and complicated subject — car repairs — into a humorous show that interested both the people who wanted to learn about repairing cars and also those who wanted to laugh along with them.
• Self-deprecation : Don’t be afraid to use this to make your audience laugh with you and not at you.
• When used with humor in my opinion the audience feels safe and not talked down to. Even people who are not experts enjoy the show as the hosts of Car  Talk make fun of themselves and sometimes their audience in a very friendly manner.
• Dumbing Down: Making your message clearly understood no matter what the expertise of your audience is. Ann Wylie, a well known communication expert, says your writing should be understood at the 6th Grade level.
•  The technical details of car repair and parts are made so easy to understand on the show that people at any level of expertise can understand. This is also reflected in the type of callers who call in to the show — they have all levels of expertise.
• Refresh and Recall: Use examples of your past successes and testimonials from your customers, past and present.
• At the end of every show the hosts ask a previous caller to let the audience know if the recommendation from them had worked or not.
• Call to Action: All messages should have a clear call to action of what you want the audience to do.
• Throughout Car Talk the audience is spurred for a call to action- donate a car, participate in NPR efforts or visit the “Car Talk Shameless Commerce” part of the Car Talk website (their e-commerce site where they sell T-shirts and other items).

Are you a fan of Car Talk?  Will you miss them? What tips did you get from shows these like this or others you listen to? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Photo courtesy Flickr User WBUR Boston’s NPR news station

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According to a research company, IBISWorld’s Hair & Nail Salons Market Research Report, this industry had a revenue of 42 billion, employs around 1.5 million people in over 1.06 million businesses. That is a huge number and if men do not frequently get pedicures, then this industry may be losing out on half of the potential customers.

I must admit, I was shy when I entered the nail care place. I had the same feeling when, decades ago, I went to a  Parikmakerskaya (Barber Shop) in Moscow staffed predominantly by women. Until then, growing up in India, I had only seen male barbers and that is why the experience was new.

Fast forward to my current experience.  The pedicure experience was good, no stares from patrons for being the only male there, and I was comforted that there was no silence but a constant stream of conversation around me.

I looked to see if there was any marketing or promotional material that I could use to persuade other men to have a pedicure too. I began to think between the foot scrubs I was getting  that this may be a lost opportunity for this industry. The U.S. population is almost half male and entrepreneurs like the Grooming Lounge in Washington, D.C. have done a good job catering to this market.

Some tips for small business owners in the pedicure industry:

1. Reach out to potential customers through your existing customers. Maybe a sign that says, “Your partner or spouse will love us too. Bring them in!”
2. A sign outside the window that says, “Pedicure for men available” may make shy men come in confidently.
3. A coupon or offer that can be handed over to the men  in your existing client’s life.
4. Educational blog posts or videos on how men should take care of their feet (see a good example at Groomin Guys.)
5. Label your price list to include Men. Example: Men/Women Pedicure.

These are some basic thoughts and readers may have other ways this industry can promote itself to new customers. Your thoughts?

Pedicure Photo via Shutterstock

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It’s definitely is not an educational series, in fact you could write a long list of things to unlearn from watching. I like to take any educational value I can get from content that I consume and as I got caught up on all four seasons of Mad Men on Netflix, I began to see some lessons that would be useful for business owners from the series:

• Don’t depend on one customer for all or your major part of your business:  In the episode the newly formed company which is a small business faces the loss of the client “Lucky Strike” brings home the horror of a business losing their biggest customer. Ideally the best strategy could be to continue to get more new customers so that your entire business is not dependent on one customer.
• Take risks. Don’t be afraid to let a client go under compelling circumstances:  I am not 100% sure about this so I hope you can give me your experiences. In the series when the company decides to go after the business of American Airlines they decide to drop another profitable existing client. If you are a proponent of a “bird in hand is worth two in the bush” then you would be cautious with this.
• Offline networking and shaking hands is as important today as it was in the 1960’s:  This is important in any decade. I cannot emphasize enough how much I learn when I meet people for breakfast or lunch. Plan on attending networking events of course skip the martinis.
• Dedicate resources to work on the business development and make it part of everyone’s job:  In one episode the copywriter meets a person from another agency who lost her job and deduces that there is a chance of getting new business and works with an account exec over the weekend to get the new business. Stories like this are perfectly plausible and every employee should be empowered to look for opportunities to get new business.
• Keep an eye on the bottom line:  I am fascinated in the episodes where the partners seem to know how many more days of payroll and expenses they have money for. It is always a good idea for any business to have a firm grounding on its finances.

Do you agree with my take ways while watching Mad Men?  Or do you feel I should just watch and enjoy the series and not worry about any business lessons that may or may not be derived from it?

Retro Couple Photo via Shutterstock

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Facebook has been notifying page admins through messages on their pages and giving them a preview as well. Lisa Barone wrote an article “Are You Ready For The New Facebook Pages?“ to give you a heads up on what’s coming.

Even though change is always an  inconvenience, the timeline is fast becoming the story of a Facebook user/business with apps and other Facebook page elements becoming tabs. It seems Facebook’s vision is to give page visitors the same experience as a website and also encourage story telling and graphics.

A few days earlier I read this article by Justin Kistner of Webtrends who shared tips on the Facebook changes and how it affects marketers. Another ebook that I found very useful is an eBook Tips for a Pain-free Transition from Munish Gandhi, CEO of  Hy.ly, a startup that is building promotional tools for Facebook. There are tips for small business owners who have their own Facebook pages to transition to the new Facebook Timeline.

At first, it might seem like the new format does not have too much to offer in terms of getting business and engaging customers.  But a thorough investigation will update you on some features that provide you with great potential to meet online goals.

Listed below are 10 tips from the hy.ly eBook that you can implement to your business page to meet your goals:

• Tell a story: People love listening to stories.  Timeline is a tool to tell great stories to your fans and have them coming for more. The format allows for companies to showcase their history, achievements and growth in a chronological order.
• Use an engaging cover photo: One of the most noticeable changes when you first see the new timeline format.  The cover photo is a large image that appears at the top of your page. Use this as a canvas to be creative and upload a picture that is visually engaging.  The size requirements are an 851 x 315 pixel image. There are some important guidelines for a cover photo.  Don’t include price, arrows and other call to actions, contact information, etc. Twitter users have been using their background picture to include such information, however, the Facebook Timeline does not permit this.
• Profile Photo: The profile photo is placed just below the cover photo and slightly overlaps in position. Facebook recommends that you use this space to display your 180 x 180 pixels logo.  However, you can also get creative and make it a part of the cover photo.
• Highlight posts: Not all updates are created equal. There are some updates that you might want to highlight and that’s exactly what the timeline format offers. Highlighting an update expands it to full width and increases the size of the update. You can highlight an update on the timeline by clicking on the star icon located in the top right-hand corner of the post you want to highlight.
• Pin posts to engage fans: Timeline allows you to pin posts to the top of the page. This feature can be used to send fans to the place where you want them to go. Pin updates that are a part of contests, sweepstakes or any other call to action.
• Use milestones to indicate major events: Add milestones to indicate growth, achievements, etc.  This is part of the story that you tell using the timeline. Click the book icon located in the update status box to add a milestone. You’ll be asked to add a headline, location, date, details and photo.
• Use the Apps to create conversion: The tabs that used to appear on the old format will be referred to as “apps” on the timeline format and have a bigger thumbnail which can help foster engagement. Activity like contests, sweepstakes and RSVPs can be run using apps. Use a call to action thumbnail for respective apps like “enter here,” “sign up,” etc.
• Media rich posts: You are telling a story so make use of diverse media like text, photos, videos and questions to keep the audience interested.
• Use private messaging for discrete conversations: The new message box allows fans of the brand to have a private conversation. This is something that could potentially cut down negative sentiments on your page.
• Utilize Facebook Offers to conversion: Facebook Offers will be rolled out soon and businesses can use this feature to send out offers to fans’ news feeds directly.

Are you ready for the new Facebook changes to your page? Please share any additional tips you may have and feel free to comment on how you feel about the new changes.

Facebook Photo via Shutterstock

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From Champions of Change 2012 – White House

The event started with a plea from an administration official asking all mentors to tell their story using all forms of communication including as he put it, when you meet people at the grocery store. This is an excellent idea. We have been proponents of story telling as it relates to small business success and you will find them in all our blogs and channels with both small businesses themselves and thought leaders participating.

During the panel discussion, the 2012 Champions of Change gave these tips to small Businesses and to mentors themselves:

Advice to Small Businesses:

• Always network
• Get out and see customers
• Be humble, you never know what you can learn from others
• Have mentors in multiple fields
• Modify the message for the audience
• Focus on closing the deal

Advice to Mentors:

• Let the mentees find their own truth. The Mentor’s path may not necessarily suit the mentee
• Have a process of mentoring based on time, urgency and issues
• Guide them towards critical thinking skills to grow
• Follow the “Nacho Cheese” principle – it’s their cheese not yours
• If a customer does not see a value in your product or relationship, then it’s not a business, it is a hobby

Do you have a story to tell? Maybe you have been a successful mentor or have succeeded due to guidance from a mentor. What is your advice?

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Small businesses are great at customer service and realize that their next customer will come from a current customer – Word of Mouth. In the digital world word of mouth is “word of mouse” a powerful tool to gain new customers. A new era of marketing is unfolding and digital marketing helps you in your objective to influence behavior to change positively towards you.  The audience who need your product and services are increasingly searching for them online. It is interesting to see how the communication tools are coming together.

We hope you are convinced that even your brick and mortar business needs to be on the web. Guess what - “92% of online adults use search engines to find information on the Web” according to a May 2011 Pew Internet Survey (PDF).

Without further adieu, here are some 2012 resolutions you should include in your business list.  Five “C” online resolutions for small business:

Content

• Not having a website for your business is not an option anymore. A website or a blog all count as establishing your web presence.
• Resolve to update it constantly. Once a day, week or even a month as long as you are consistent.
• Show your thought leadership through content. Publish your thoughts on your industry, peers, products, good news about your community.
• Education through content – provide tips to your customers, answer the most asked questions on your website or blog.
• Fresh and updated content is a good way to ensure search engines are indexing your site often and your chances of appearing in search results will be better.

Communications

• Email  Marketing is still a top performing marketing channel for businesses. Embrace it and use it to flourish.
• It is important for you to get email branded with your business name showing consistency and credibility.
• Communicate with your customers to solve their problems with your product rather than selling your product.
• If you are sending an email newsletter you should try to use software like Constant Contact, Exact Target, MailChimp or other professional tools. Many of these tools make it easy for you and also guide you to succeed in email marketing.
• Establish communications with customers using popular social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Before you decide on setting up your social profiles, asking your customers where they would like to connect with you is a good idea.
• Food trucks use this medium very well to let customers know their location.
• Last minute availability of appointments at doctors, saloons.
• Your website should have the components of a Web 2.0 site – ability for your web visitors to comment, share your content and bookmark it.
• Your blog, social media tools are all communication tools and working together with email make great marketing tools.

Community

• Every business should nurture their customer communities by providing them with tools to spread word of mouth.
• Customer appreciation days
• Special offers for regular customers
• Formal or informal meetings with customer advisory boards
• Asking customers for ideas to improve products or suggest new product features
• Provide easy ways to give you feedback or review your business
• Face to face networking is important
• Attend local events
• Business networking and educational events
• Set aside time and budget to attend and learn ways to increase your business
• Sponsoring local community events – get involved in local community events, PTA organizations, schools , scout groups.

Cutting edge Technology

• While investing in technology evaluate the benefit to your organization and avoid any impulse buys.
• Upgrade your Internet speeds if you feel it will increase the speed of your customer transactions.
• Get a new smartphone if you are away from your computer a lot and your business depends on emails and orders from customers through the web.
• Invest in a tablet if you would like to carry an electronic portfolio to show customers.
• Attend trade shows or subscribe to trade magazines to see what new technology can help make your business more efficient.
• Consider having an advisory board of people you know who can advise you on new technology.

Conversion: All your resolutions should lead to your objective of growing your business.

• Make sure you spend your time on activities that help your business grow.
• Social tools can be distracting.  Consider them as communication tools and allot enough time to nurture your communities there.
• While only talking about sales in a social context is sometimes in poor taste, look for opportunities where you answer peoples questions and offer to help.
• Definitely use analytics programs to see where your traffic is coming from and which keywords they are using to find your business online.
• If you are a brick and mortar business like a restaurant, try to ask your customers where they found you.

Remember you don’t have to do all these tasks yourself. Weigh the time you would spend with the cost of hiring people to tell your story and concentrate on what you do best – working on your business. What did you add to your New Year business resolution?

New Year Resolutions List Photo via Shutterstock

The post 5 Website Resolutions to Put on Your List for 2012 appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Here are the online tools we used to decide on visiting Crumland Farms:

Discovery:  Daily Deals Email: We discovered this offer on Crumland Farms through a niche coupon site called Certifikid, which is a daily deals site that focuses on families and kids and a  partner of Washington Parenting Magazine. Certifikids was a discovery by my wife, whom I consider more grounded in offline information than I am.

Validation: Business Website: The competition was a LivingSocial deal at a nearby farm which had fewer activities for kids than Crumland Farm. The moms went to the websites of both of the farms to take a look and compare activities and pictures.

Social Presence: Multimedia YouTube: We watched Crumland Farms’ YouTube channel to get a good idea of the activities and discovered that the farm also has a Twitter ID @crumlandfarms. They also have a Facebook page where I saw a recent post asking if food was available on the farm.

In the end, we were more comfortable with our decision to visit Crumland Farms because of the validation from its different online properties, the content that we saw, and the deal they placed on a niche site (which we got in an email).

What are the takeaways for other small business from our experience with this farm?

• Be easy to find online with a website
• Have good content, pictures and videos of your business online
• Try out niche daily deals sites
• Have a social presence

Are you a small business owner who has tried out  niche daily deals sites? Or a consumer who used a deal recently to visit a small business? Either way, I’d love to hear from you. Please comment below.

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Obviously there should be a takeaway for small business here, and there is. I will share my experience on choosing domain names and why you might want to think about changing your domain name, too.

From Idea to Domain Name in 60 Seconds  (It May Actually Take a Bit Longer)

The best time to think about a domain name is when you have the idea. Even if you are not sure if this is the perfect name, you should try to secure the domain name as soon as possible. Many registrars have mobile websites and/or mobile apps that enable you to find and register a domain name on the go.

Think about these characteristics when deciding on a domain name:

1. Easy to remember
2. As short as possible
3. Consider similarities in pronunciation
4. Type the name fast on a keyboard (and on mobile devices) to see if there is a high possibility of typos

What if the Domain Name Is Registered by Somebody Else?

According to a Verisign report, there are over 209 million domain names. That is a lot of domain names, and it also makes your chances of getting the domain name of your choice a wee bit remote. If the domain name of your choice is already registered to someone else, use Whois to find out who owns the domain. Then you can try contacting the owner directly  to make an offer to buy the name, or use a certified offer service to escrow the transaction. Many domain registrars and sites such sedo.com and namejet.com offer a service that evaluates the value of the domain name.

What if the Domain Name Is Expiring?

The registrant of a domain name is given a good amount of time to renew their domain name. It may take up to 40 days before a expired domain name is available for re-registration. You can look for back-order services that may be useful with expiring domains. Take a look at this article, “An Expensive Lesson In Domain Names.”

What if You Don’t Love Your Domain Name Anymore?

You were young and adventurous and you chose a domain name. Now, years later, you want out. (Yes, it can happen to the best of us.) Even if you love your current domain name, suppose the domain name of your dreams suddenly became available. What do you do?

Do what I did with my domain name (I still love .name, but .co was better). I was lucky that I could get my name with a .co extension, which is globally recognized and is easy to remember. Here’s what I did:

• Changed the DNS to my blog at blogspot.com
• Pointed .name to my Network Solutions hosting package
• Uploaded a file called a 301 redirect page that tells search engines that my site has permanently moved to the .co address
• Since I wanted all my old links to still work, I used something called a .htaccess file to redirect all the old URLs to the new ones. There are lot of resources on the Web that tell you how to do this, but it’s probably a good idea to consult with a Web developer.
• I did not have any email; otherwise, that would be a few additional steps.
• I logged into my account at Google Webmasters and notified the “Change of address.” If you own a website you should set up a Google Webmaster account.
• Check out Google tips on moving domains.

Dot.com or Bust Is No Longer True

Remember the .com era where we first moved content and commerce online? The Web has evolved, and so have domain names. Now you have a choice of domain name extensions, and there will be many more to come. When you search for a domain name, most registrars give you a  choice of many extensions. .Co is one such extension that you can choose.

How Many Domain Names Should a Small Business Buy?

At a minimum, look at registering a few of the popular domain name extensions. Consider misspellings of the domain names if your gut tells you that people may make typos when inputting the domain name.

Social Networks and Domain Names

Here are some ways to use your domain name with your social networks:

• If you have a Blogspot blog, you can choose to have a custom domain name; the same with WordPress.com domain names.
• Use a domain name to forward to your Facebook or Linkedin profile.
• I use third-level extensions to forward to my Linkedin, Facebook and Flickr.
• If you have a really long domain name and are not registering another short one, explore using a URL shortener service like bit.ly to customize the URL and redirect it to your domain name.

What has your experience been?  Have you got the domain of your dreams or are you still waiting? If you have any advice to offer in addtion to my thoughts, please weigh in in the comments.

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