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Further
Reading ...
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Great Plains Custom Development: Dexterity, VBA, SQL, Crystal, eConnect – overview for programmer
Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package for the US market. It has multiple customization/modification/reporting tools. Currently there is upgrade campaign to version 8.0 and due to the discontinuation of...
Shun Cloning : Scientists Must Speak Out
Scientists say evidence is mounting "that creating healthy animals through cloning is More difficult than they had expected." So began a front-page story in the New York Times (Marching 25), highlighting the frustrations of animal cloners, and the...
Turn Benefits Into Sales with Streaming Media
TURN BENEFITS INTO SALES WITH STREAMING MEDIA By Ronni Rhodes The "Wow" factor that accompanied the introduction of streaming media on the Web has long passed, and the technology now has to prove itself to marketers. Its' acceptance by...
Blogging can run your entire web site
Blogging is a term that means different things to different people. To some people it means keeping an online journal. To others blogging is about creating a community of people who can contribute to a growing discussion on a specific topic. To me,...
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Finding that Winning Combination...
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Written By:
Bill Quimby
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A good domain name is valuable, but the combination of a domain name and
a good vanity 800 number can be priceless in marketing. The right 800
number allows your advertising to reach several times as many people
that are not on the internet regularly. It generates instant
credibility and recognition and helps to create that all important
million dollar brand name. But with the incredible scarcity of both
.COMS and 800 numbers, how could you ever come up that all important
combination?
All too often companies get one piece (like the domain name) without
considering the other and then often run into also brick wall and have
to settle for something less. The phone companies will often tell you
that 877 is exactly the same thing as 800. And that is true if you
consider .CC or .TO the same thing as .COM. They may be technically
able to do the same thing, but in their marketing potential they are
totally different. So if you aren’t willing to settle for .CC for your
domain, then don’t settle for the same thing in your phone number since
just like your domain name, that is how so many of your customers will
find you.
The first step is definitely the most important and often the one that
gets skipped over way to quickly. Creativity is definitely the key to
finding either a domain name or a phone number. The good news is that
it doesn’t cost any more money to be more creative. It just takes some
brain power and a little effort. I’ll outline the process of getting
the number briefly but you’re really not ready until you have 50-100 or
more possible names. So be prepared to really spend time in this part.
The first step of brainstorming is to look for any type of keywords.
Just put down everything possible you can come up with related to your
company, your message, your product or service, your benefits or your
customers and what they are looking for. Take a look at the keywords
from your website or those of your competitors. Carry the list with you
for several days, and involve as many people as you can. If there are
other people in your organization consider having a contest to see who
can come up with the most possible names/words. Short words are good
because they allow you to combine them with a number of other prefixes
or suffixes.
Next use some of these mechanical brainstorming exercises and sites
which will help you come up with possibilities you may not have thought
of. Start with an excellent online thesaurus tool at Plumb Design
(http://www.PlumbDesign.com). Next, after - continued below ...
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continued ...
you’ve added any possible
synonyms, take a look at what other people have done to get ideas at
Whois.net (http://www.whois.net). Look at the registered and perhaps
better, the recently unregistered domain names there. Finally use an
interesting java search term suggestion tool available (click on option
number one) at GoTo.com
(http://www.goto.com/d/about/advertisers/othertools.jhtml) Try these
tools with each of the words that you come up with and you will
literally get dozens of additional possible names. You can also try a
neat tool for creating new words at a site for inventing new words
called, NetSubstance (http://www.netsubstance.com) Then finally, you
should combine as many of these names together with my list of possible
prefixes and suffixes at http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com/finding.htm to
stretch your list even further.
These tools together with your creativity and thoroughness are extremely
important, because you really can’t expect to make a critical decision
in your business without knowing what all of the possibilities are.
Next after you have built a really creative and thorough list, check out
the possibilities for one of those phone numbers. Unfortunately, there
is no short cut or easier way to do this than simply to pick up the
phone and call them all! Keep track of all the information you get, and
look for ones that don’t go through to an end customer or that go to
recorded phone company messages. If it goes to an end customer then the
phone company can’t get it for you, so only give them the list of ones
that don’t have any apparent customer. That doesn’t mean that they will
be available, they probably won’t but they are at least worth a try.
All phone companies work off basically the same database so the best
place to start is usually where you already have an account. Then while
they are checking on the phone numbers, look into the same possibilities
on the domain names. Remember, with more and more new ventures
springing up every minute, space on the net is getting tight and only
going to get tighter but a good combination can literally transform your
organization and even your industry! So remember the two most important
ingredients in coming up with the right name are CREATIVITY and
PERSISTENCE!
If this doesn’t work, visit http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com or just call
1-800 MARKETER.
We specialize in getting 800 numbers when the phone company says they’re
not available.
About the Author
Bill Quimby
billq@tollfreenumbers.com
1-800 MARKETER
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| _Additional Resources ... |
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The Power of Topical Search Engines
What are Topical Search Engines? Simply put, topical search engines are search engines focused on a specific industry, sector or topic. While many marketers are scrambling for links, any links, an area that is often overlooked is topic-specific...
Choosing The Right Phone And Voice Mail System
Phone and voice mail systems can be pretty costly, even for companies with a low number phones. Before investing in any type of phone system or voice mail system, you need to estimate how much your company is likely to expand over the next few years...
Yahoo! and Indiatimes- Changing times for India
Yahoo! and India- A strategic move. The latest news about Yahoo! buying a stake in Indiatimes couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment. In a release by The Financial Times, states that "Yahoo, the US internet search engine, is in talks to...
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