Unit of 1 - Use Your E-mail Address As a Branding Tool

amichalek writes "By Wanda Loskot

Even before you launch your website, you can (and should) begin to use your domain name. Why? Because it is the worlds cheapest advertising tool and an excellent way to brand your business. How? By using your domain name in your email address and in your signature file.

If your email address reads yourname@aol.com or you@bell.com - you are branding the name of your Internet Service Provider. Why should you do it? Your ISP doesn't pay you for it. Indeed, you pay THEM a monthly fee!!!

Quite likely you were not aware that you do have a choice here. Instead of advertising Earthlink, GTE, BellSouth, or AOL, you can advertise and brand your own business and your own name.

In case you didn't know, here is how it works. For example, my own service provider is home.com -- but my e-mail program is configured so, that the address I use in my "from" field says "wanda@loska.com". I can do that because my web host provides me with a forwarding service. That means, any message sent to wanda@loska.com is forwarded automatically to my *home.com* account.

Don't think that you need to launch your web site to be able to do this -- even if you are not ready, you can use this feature. I suggest that once you get a domain name, you set up a simple page like this: http://internetsuccesscoach.com/bizcard.html -- but even this is not necessary.

To use your domain name in email address, you only need to have a domain name and a decent web host. Yes, really. With domain name registration costs as low as $9.95 per year, and with web hosting fees around $15-30 per month -- can you afford NOT to do it? I don't think so!

To register a domain name, you might want to use a special name-find tool at http://BuyDomains.com -- it allows you to search for the domain names containing your specific key words. Excellent time saving device!

When choosing your domain name keep this in mind:

-> Select a name that is not only easy to pronounce and easy to spell -- make sure that it spells the SAME way as it sounds.

-> Avoid hyphens, numbers and abbreviations to prevent future confusion -- unless registering both versions -- for example, I registered both domain names: EMailMarketingTips.com and E-MailMarketingTips.com

-> Chances are that the name you really want is not available as dot-com anymore. If so, select another, less perfect name, but try to get dot-com before you opt for .net or .org -- or any other extensions.

-> Make it is as short as possible. Yes, virtually all one word domain names with dot-com extension are taken, but don't give up too easily on two-word names. There are still many great ones available.

-> Three, or even four-word domain names can be good too if they are not too long. Make sure you count syllables as well. If it is easy to pronounce and under six syllables, most likely it is fine (my http://InternetSuccessCoach.com has three words and six syllables for example)

Using your own domain name is not only cost-free branding tool. In addition this type of email address adds instant credibility to your correspondence and - even more important - your e-mail address will stay the same even when you change your ISP (and most likely you will, trust me!).

* * *

Wanda Loskot is professional speaker and business coach for small business owners and self-employed professionals who LOVE what they do - but HATE selling. For a cornucopia of free business strategies, marketing tips, teleclasses and other valuable resources visit Wanda's Success Connection at http://loska.com

Note: If you're looking to register a domain name - please check out Unit of 1 advertiser GoDaddy.com Hosting from $3.95/mo.."

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