The 4Ps of Website Domain Name Selection

Your are probably familiar with E. Jerome McCarthy’s classic 4Ps of marketing that he first proposed in 1960. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, here’ a quick recap:

Product — an object or a service that is mass-produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units.

Price — the amount a customer pays for the product.

Place — the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel.

Promotion — all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace

When it comes to Internet Marketing, probably one of the first things you have to do is choose a domain name for your online business. This is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. To help you with this important first step, I’ve come up with the 4Ps of website domain name selection.

Whether you’re creating a blog that will act as the hub for your business or registering a domain for a niche site, you need to take the time to find the right domain because changing domain names after you’ve built up traffic and credibility can do irreparable damage to your business.
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Personal Branding 2.0

In today’s Web 2.0 world, personal branding has become vitally important to stand out from the crowd. If you are an online business owner, a coach or a consultant, then your name is your personal brand.

Need proof? Read Seth Godin’s post, “Personal branding in the age of Google.” He sums it up nicely by saying, “Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record. The best plan is to overload Google with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you’re on Candid Camera, because you are.”

Just like any major business brand, personal branding is not a one-time process. Instead, think of it as a “work in progress.” It is something you need to work on and build over time.

To be truly successful, your personal brand must be a true reflection of you and your business. It must become the core philosophy or the foundation on which you build your entire business.

Your vision is the framework of a good, hard-working personal branding system. This vision gets translated into a brand and is then used in different forms of communication with your customers and the market.

Referrals work very well in building your personal brand. Customer testimonials build credibility and trust with your prospects. They increase your name recognition and awareness about your business. This form of word of mouth publicity is invaluable.

Building a personal brand sounds simple in theory but it is much more difficult to pull it off in the real world. That’s because a unique personal brand is much more than an elegant logo or a catchy tagline. It involves paying attention to many details of various different parts that together create a powerful personal brand.

Once you have put in the hard work and built a strong personal brand, it makes sense to do all you can to protect and preserve its integrity. You constantly have to evaluate your  branding system to ensure that you are communicating your brand’s message effectively.

Investing the time and effort in your personal brand will ultimately payoff in the long-term success of your business.

How do you go about building a personal brand? That’s the subject of my 12-step do-it-yourself personal branding program called “Personal Branding For Business Success.” Each step is a bite-sized, practical tip that you can implement right away. The whole program is an action plan to help you build your own personal brand in 12 easy steps. Best of all, it is FREE!. A new lesson is emailed to you everyday after you sign up.

Sign up now for your FREE 12-Step Do-It-Yourself Personal Branding For Business Success.

Writing Testimonials That Get Noticed

Testimonials are powerful tools for anyone marketing a product on the Internet. As a site owner, you want testimonials on your sales page to persuade and convince potential buyers. They benefit by reading about others who have bought the product and have been very satisfied with it.

As a product creator, you understand the value of getting a testimonial but what about giving one? Let’s look at why you want to give a testimonial and how to give an authentic one.

Two reasons for giving testimonials

1. If you write a respectable testimonial and include your picture, people will read the testimonial or at least look at the picture, right? The next time someone sees your name or photograph in a forum or a blog, they may remember and recognize you. That is personal branding working for you! Giving testimonials is one way of increasing awareness and creating recognition.
2. If your testimonial is on a sales page that has a decent amount of traffic, your name is being exposed to those people. Chances are, some of them will click on your link and visit your site. That’s new traffic for you!

How to write a good testimonial

Testimonials are more believable if you provide real-world numbers. Instead of heaping praises on the product, try saying something like, “I went from earning $650/month to making $2,695/mo. after using XYZ product.” That sounds real and impresses people.

Share your story, “I was laid off 22 months ago, right after I found out we were expecting our first child. I was scared but decided to give Internet marketing a try and seriously wondered if it would work out for me. Then I found product ABC and here’s what happened…”

Don’t go over board with your praises about the product, even if you are excited about it. You may land up making hard-to-believe claims. That will only hurt your credibility.

Keep it honest. It is okay to say something negative or point out a feature that you weren’t thrilled with.

Even if you are a newbie, you don’t have to sound like you are helpless. Be professional in what you write. You can say, “Thanks for helping me put the last piece of the puzzle in place. Your experience and knowledge has helped me implement a plan that could double my income by the end of the year.”

A well-written testimonial can take on a life of its own because the marketer is going to use it to his/her advantage. It may end up on their sales pages, inside new products, and in emails to their lists. That is great exposure for you and it’s all free. A good testimonial can open doors that may not be accessible to you and help you build new relationships and joint venture opportunities.