Getting people to visit your website

A few days ago I was listing to a US radio station through the Internet.  I enjoy listening to talk radio from the US via the Internet, it kind of brings a little piece of home to me here in the Philippines where I live.

Funny thing happened the other day, though, while I was listening.  They had a commercial during the program for a company that was selling something through it’s website.  I don’t recall what was being sold, but it was something that I had an interest in, and I wanted to go check out the website.  Problem was, I could not understand the domain name that was being said.  It was a strange name, not a normal word.  The radio announcer must have said the name of the site like 5 or 6 times during the ad, but I never could understand it!  I kept waiting for him to spell the name, so that people could more easily go visit the site, but that never happened!

Let’s face it, when you are looking for a domain name, a lot of the simple names are already taken these days.  You might end up with a name a little more complicated than you would have wanted.  The key, though, is that even if the name is not so simple, you have to make sure that people know how to get to your site!  If you are telling somebody about your site, make sure you spell the name!  Have some business cards printed up with your website address listed there too!  A lot of people won’t remember the exact name that you tell them, and might end up on the wrong site.  But, if you give them a printed card with the domain name, that makes it easy for them to find you.

Does it matter what your domain name is?  Well, to some extent it does.  In the example I have been discussing, the company had a very complicated name, and it made it impossible for me to find them, resulting in a total waste of the advertising dollars they spent!  In other forms of advertising, though, the name means a lot less.  For example, if you put up some banner ads, or even text ads on various websites, in these cases people need only click on your ad to end up on your site.  They may or may not even notice what your domain name is.  So, in this type of advertising the name means much less.

What it comes down to is that whatever your domain name is, make sure that people can get to your site!  Don’t pay for advertising that is worthless, because people are unable to understand how to find your site after hearing or seeing your ad!