URL

What's in a Name or URL?

Choosing an effective URL is not an easy task. For instance you may have a great name yet the dot com is gone. Should you opt for dot biz or dot info instead? No, these lesser (as in flops) extensions have never been as popular as they were once hyped to be and no one will remember if your URL is TucsonRealEstate.biz. If your competition is TucsonRealEstate.com or TucsonRealEstate.net, then you're driving carte blanche Web traffic to your competition.

Another URL that you wouldn't want to do is MaxSellstheBeach.com. Why? Because it makes you look small, sort of like one guy standing on a corner with a sandwich board trying to attract business. Also what beach? Is it Miami Beach or Venice Beach or somewhere in between? It might work for local advertising but not the kind of reach that the Internet can provide. The bigger and more connected you can appear the higher ranking you could have.

Also not recommended is using your name like BonnieSmith.com. There are exceptions to this rule if your name is Andy Warhol or Barbara Kingsolver which could be considered household names by some. If your audience already knows your name they can find you but if they don't; your name may be an ego trip for you but that's all it is.

Berry Silverstein creates a whimsical, colorful brand of dishes and kitchen accessories called Berryware (the actual name of the company). You wouldn't know about Berryware unless you've read about it, bought it, received it as a gift, or go to one of her fabulous pre-holiday warehouse sales in Tucson. Her Web site is brightfungifts.com. Her merchandise is bright and fun and I'd be best friends with whoever buys me Berryware.

If you search for bright gifts (as of this writing) brightfungifts.com pops up on the second page of Google. If you search for colorful gifts (as of this writing) the same Web site pops up on page one of Google. You don't have to know the name of the product or the artist to find a colorful gift. Ms. Silverstein should also redirect Berryware.com to brightfungifts.com for those of us who already know her brand but she has managed to look beyond her own ego to sell her products.

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