Re: UKNM: small businesses marketing on the internet

[Tim Ireland]

 >  >Tim Ireland said

 >  >  > Here's a free quote from Book II:

 >  >  > "A Domain Name

 >  >  > Well, this really isn't necessary - unless you think so.........

 >  >..............if you're a

 >  >  > plumber with one van, no one is going to blink an eyelid if

 >  >  > your web site

 >  >  > address is http://www.ispname.com/joesplumbing/"

 >  >

 > Jeff Marshall wrote:

 >  >I beg to differ.  I, and lots of other people, when we still need to

flick

 >  >through the Yellow Pages, will give more credence to those advertisers

who

 >  >have chosen to have a banner/boxed display.  They are the ones I ring

first,

 >  >'cus however naive it is of me, I see them as more serious and

professional

 >  >than the basically listed companies who just have a standard entry .

 >

 > Yes - I do that too.  Funnily enough, I recently hired a plumber in this

 > way.  :)


I don't know if it's normal <g>, but I tend to look for the closest guy -

even if he's got a small ad. Even the small ads cost money, but you can see

he's gone to the effort of being listed. I've seen some pretty good sites on

subdomains - and some really crap ones with a domain of their own.


 >  >Having

 >  >a corporate domain name is in some respects the equivalent.  I treat

more

 >  >seriously businesses with their own appropriate domain name.  I'm sure

 >  >others do too.  But then, as a registrar (amongst other things) I would

say

 >  >that wouldn't I?  :-)

 >

 > I tend to agree.  It looks somewhat naive if a business uses a subdomain

or

 > third level domain - especially if a less salubrious (or free) ISP is

 > providing the hosting services.  The overall impression on business

 > correspondence and publicity material - in effect, you're paying to

 > advertise your ISP.


As I've said, if you want to publish your URL on letterheads, cards etc.

then you will need a domain name - but there are small businesses who can

benefit from using the web without this (even if it's only until they learn

enough about the web to be able to buy/secure a domain name with

confidence).


There's been a lot of negatives to this - but this is in a group of relative

experts. There are still a lot of otherwise smart people out there who don't

know the difference between a URL and an email address - I'm not going to

send them into a pit of vipers without A: advising them of the best options

and B: letting them know that the action may not be necessary in the first

place.


Tim Ireland

Senior Copywriter, Designercity (www.designercity.com)


http://www.buymybook.co.uk/



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