6. Domain Name Forwarding (Get Your Customers to Your Website Not Your Competitors)

The Closet Entrepreneur by Kendra Leah Fuller

By , @Writing2Day

Now that you’ve researched and chosen the products you are going to sell online, picked out a business and domain name, and chosen your shopping cart and web hosting service, it’s time to wrap up a couple of loose ends before you launch your online store.

Purchase and Forward Similar Spellings and Common Misspellings of Your Domain Name
Let’s think about your domain name for a moment. You may want to forward similar spellings, common misspellings and different extensions to your domain name. Here’s an example of a typical forward for misspelled domains. Xanadu’s is pronounced Zanadu’s. My main domain was xanadus.com. I did not want to miss repeat business because somebody could not remember the correct spelling  so I purchased the domain name zanadus.com and had it forwarded to xanadus.com. You don’t have to do anything tricky to make this happen. After you purchase the domain you simply select to have it forwarded to your main domain. This way if someone accidentally types in the wrong spelling, they will be seamlessly redirected to the correct website without even knowing it.

Purchase Different Extensions of Your Domain Name for Forwarding
Some people like to purchase different extensions of the same domain name, i.e. xanadus.biz and xanadus.net. Just about every potential customer out there is going to type .com after your name, which is why I highly recommend only choosing a domain name that is available with the .com extension. With this in mind, I don’t feel it is necessary to purchase different extensions for your domain. However, some like to buy the extra extensions to prevent someone else from using the same domain name with the other extensions. If you want to do this and have them forwarded to your main domain go right ahead. If you don’t, the most that is going to happen is someone looking for your competitor’s website is going to put a .com after their name and end up on your website, bringing you a potential customer.

Purchase Similar Domains to Forward
One other aspect to consider for forwarded domain names would be other very similar domain names. Let’s say your domain name is computerguru.com and the domain is available for thecomputerguru.com. You may want to purchase both so that someone else won’t be able to have this name. On the flip side, you don’t want to be the person putting “the” in front of a domain name so that you can have that name. A lot of people will forgot to put “the” and only type the rest of the name, sending them to your competitor’s website.

Purchase a Short Domain Name for Forwarding if You Have Been Given a Canned Website with a Long Name
A final example of when to forward a domain name applies more to an individual who is starting an online business through an existing business. As an example, I am a distributor for Body by Vi – ViSalus Sciences meal replacement shakes. I was given several canned websites that are identical to every other rep’s websites. This can be very difficult for customers to remember, not to mention it’s a pain in the ass for you to type it in to your advertising efforts. One of my favorite sites to use is http://kendrafuller.myvi.net/loseweight. Can you imagine trying to tell someone the address for this website? How about LuzW8Now.com instead? See how much shorter and easier that is for a potential customer to remember. I simply purchased the domain name, people type this in and it takes them to my website.

I’ve listed all of the circumstances I feel might warrant using domain name forwarding. You don’t have to go overboard with this. Use some common sense and only address the most likely scenarios for your business.

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#domainnames #webhosting #webdesign #newbusiness #businessstartup

 

4 Responses to “6. Domain Name Forwarding (Get Your Customers to Your Website Not Your Competitors)”

  1. How can i start making money quickly with kindle ebooks? i know that it takes quite a bit of time after you have a book up for it to start selling but i would like to know if it is allowed to copy and paste from other sources and put that up, and i would like to know how i can get the books more noticed.

    • Kendra Leah says:

      Hi Aiden,
      I’m not sure what you mean by copying and pasting from other sources and putting that up? If you are talking about copying and pasting from other people’s websites, their work is protected by copyright. I don’t think I’m understanding your question. I do not have experience marketing for Kindle yet but from what I understand the more people that review your book, the higher it starts coming up in the search results. I guess I consider everything I am doing right now between my website, blogging, facebook and twitter as ways that I am laying the groundwork (marketing) for when I publish on Kindle. I notice an awful lot of authors giving away their books at first. Maybe they’re doing this to gather reviews? I’m not recommending this but it’s the only reason I can think of that they would want to give their book away. I might try giving away a teaser from my website. If they like it, they will purchase the whole book.
      Best of luck to you!
      Kendra

  2. Kasey Ferouz says:

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