Yet, despite that, 73% of the world’s countries are only piloting computer science in school or doing nothing at all. In the US alone, only 47% of public schools teach a computer science class. 

We believe that computer science is foundational for students everywhere. This is why Domain.com has partnered with .tech Domains to help expand access to computer science in schools, especially for young women and students from marginalized communities.  

You can be a part of this cause, too!

If you register a .tech Domain between 5th May to 5th July, .tech Domains and Domain.com will donate all the proceeds to Code.org, one of the world’s largest non-profit organizations that is working to increase access to computer science in schools.

Help support the cause and grab your .tech Domain today.

Significance of Code.org

Code.org’s mission is to make computer science education accessible to young women and students from marginalised communities. They strive to ensure that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science as part of their core K-12 education.

They focus on free curriculum and course content for schools, Hour of Code events, teacher training, looking at government policies, and developing international partnerships. You can learn more about their charitable organization here. 

How .tech domains and you can help increase access to computer science. 

Almost everything that we do today is powered by technology and computer science is at the heart of it. Giving students equal access to computer science engenders a more advanced and inclusive future for the world tomorrow.

The .tech domain extension stands for innovation, whether you’re building a startup, coding a new app, or shaping an innovative idea.

You can use your .tech Domain name to:

• Grow your tech business or a startup
• Share exciting information about the tech industry
• Build bustling communities to discuss robotics
• Write a blog to share the latest industry news
• Host hackathon events

With a .tech Domain, you can build a unique space for your content whatever part of the tech world you’re in. Use a keyword-rich domain name to build a tech brand, work collaboratively, or educate the world like Code.org.

Register your .tech Domain today to help young women and students from marginalized communities get access to computer science.

If you’ve found this post because you’re thinking about starting a fashion blog, we’re betting that you know a thing or two about the art of dressing. Want to share your style and expertise with the world? We support you, and we’re here to help.

Follow along with us as we discuss what it takes to create your fashion blog. We’re starting with how to identify your ideal audience and niche, we’ll talk about branding and owning your content, different website and hosting options for your blog, and dive into marketing and monetization.

Starting a Fashion Blog

We hear a lot of people say that starting a blog or site is intimidating. “I don’t have the technical know-how,” and “I don’t have the time to devote to building a blog,” are two common refrains.

Well, folks, we’re delighted to break it to you: Your blog can be up and running in half an hour. The tricky part is learning how to grow, market, and monetize your blog so that you see a return on your efforts. And we’ll address that, too.

We’re confident that you can launch a successful fashion blog and stand out among the 600 million blogs published online. Use the following tips to craft an exceptional blog.

• Identify your niche
• Choose the perfect domain name
• Select your hosting provider
• Decide what to include in your blog
• Create your content and content schedule
• Market your blog
• Monetize your blog

Identify Your Niche

Fashion is a broad term that means different things to many people. Someone who’s into a post-punk look might not find a preppy style fashionable and vice versa.

The more you’re able to narrow down your niche, the better your chances are of connecting with the right audience. 

Think of fashion as an umbrella term. Where do you fit in? Are you an expert in grunge? Maybe haute couture? Once you’ve condensed your aesthetic to its core style, look at other blogs similar to what you want to create. 

How is your sense of style different from those bloggers — what makes you stand out? That’s your unique twist and something you can capitalize on to differentiate yourself from your competitors.  

Search engines, especially Google, want to serve people with the best and most helpful result for their inquiries. So, if you’re a cottagecore enthusiast, use that term to describe yourself and your blog. As tempting as it may be to say you have a “country and farm-inspired style” to cast a wider net and get more visitors, it’s a tactic that will end up backfiring when those visitors bounce from your site. And search engines will take note of that, deeming your blog less helpful than others and potentially lowering your position in search results.   

Once you’ve distilled your fashion sense into your core style and identified your unique interpretation you can create targeted content and messaging that appeals to the right audience.

“Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.”

Francis Bacon

Choose the Perfect Domain Name

You’re into fashion, so you know presentation matters.

Think of domain names as a representation of your brand. It’s the first impression someone will have of your blog, before the page loads and they see your stylings. What do you want that impression to be?

If you want to be seen as legitimate, own your domain name. 

Owning your domain name gives you credibility and helps you brand yourself. There are plenty of sites that offer free domain names when you host a blog on their service, but spoiler alert: When your domain name starts with the name of another company, it’s not really yours. 

Your domain name is a brand asset, why use it to advertise for someone else?

The best thing you can do for your blog is to plan for its growth, and your domain name is a small investment in a big future.

Here’s how to choose the perfect domain name for your fashion blog:

• K.I.S.S. – Keep it short & simple.
  • Your fashion might be memorable, but long and convoluted domain names aren’t.
• Avoid unique spelling, hyphens, and excessive numbers.
  • Your domain name should pass the “radio test.” If someone were to hear your domain name on the radio and never see it written down, could they find your blog?
• Be descriptive.
  • Your domain name speaks to your blog and what type of content people will find there. A relevant, descriptive domain name can capture your desired audience’s attention.
• Get creative.
  • Have you heard that .com is the king of domains? It’s an incredibly popular domain extension and likely the one you’re most familiar with. But familiarity doesn’t necessarily equate to “best fit.” If you’re dead set on acquiring a .com domain name, be prepared to invest in it as it may already be registered to someone else.
  • There are thousands of domain names that you can choose from that are relevant to your blog. Some to consider are .blog, .fashion, .style, .clothing, .art, .shop, and .online. You can find hundreds more here.

Select Your Hosting Provider

Once you’ve registered your domain name it’s time to find the right hosting provider for your fashion blog.

With a variety of hosting options available, it can be hard to determine what works best for you. Should you get a free domain and hosting from a blogging service? Do you purchase your own hosting? Here’s what we think of the former option: 

Pros:

• Free.               

Cons:

• The domain isn’t yours, you have a subdomain that belongs to the service.
• Can’t control ads shown on your blog.         
• No customization beyond a selection of templates.
• Difficult if not impossible to monetize.

If you’re hoping to monetize your blog and potentially earn a living from it, find a hosting provider and self-host your blog. Many blogging platforms won’t allow you to put ads on your blog; instead, they run ads on your blog and you don’t see a dime of that money. 

Do you really want your hard work lining someone else’s pockets, just to save a few dollars upfront? Let’s look at some self-hosted options.

WordPress Hosting

WordPress hosts about 60 million blogs and is an authority in the blogging sphere, so, naturally, you’d be interested in learning more about it.  

At its core, WordPress is a platform for creating and managing all kinds of websites and blogs. They’re known for providing free, open-source software that can be installed on any hosting platform and entirely customized to suit your needs. It’s a great solution for people of all skill levels because you can either build your blog working directly with the code or by customizing an existing WordPress theme.

Here at Domain.com, we offer two WordPress hosting plans to help get your blog up and running quickly. 

These hosting plans are designed to make blogging easy and come with pre-installed plugins for optimal functionality, curated selections of mobile-friendly themes, and a customized, user-friendly control panel.

And right now, you can even get a free domain name for one year with the purchase of a WordPress hosting plan. For more details and a coupon code, check out our WordPress hosting plans here.

Website Builders

Blog creation doesn’t have to include the whole blood, sweat, and tears thing, so let’s finally do away with this pervasive myth that building a site is difficult.

If you’re short on time or don’t consider yourself technically savvy, website builders are the perfect solution as they’re engineered to be intuitive and user-friendly. You don’t have to worry about code when your builder offers a plethora of customizable features and drag ‘n’ drop functionality.

Whether you plan on creating a simple blog or want to include a store so people can shop your styles, we’ve got you covered. 

Domain.com offers three WebsiteBuilder plans to suit your specific needs.

Begin by answering a few questions about your blog and our AI-powered builder will start your site, including initial images and content, and then customize it to make it truly yours. And don’t worry, our built-in design protection makes sure that your blog always looks professional across different devices.

“Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.”

Diana Vreeland

What Pages to Include in Your Fashion Blog 

After settling on your blog’s domain name and where to host it, it’s time to build your fashion blog. As with any project, it’s best to go in with a plan, so let’s discuss the different pages and elements your blog should have.

About Page

Every good blog includes an about page. No need to be bashful, this is where you get to tell your readers all about yourself to build credibility and relationships.

Use this page to tell people about what inspired your style, how you got into fashion, share your values, and let them get to know the person behind the screen. If you want to set expectations about what people will find on your blog, do it here. 

Contact Page

Dreaming about becoming the desired influencer that brands and fashion houses want to work with? Make it easy for them to contact you by including a form that can quickly be filled out. If you choose, you can also include your email address and other contact information. 

Homepage

When people find your blog through search results, they’re likely landing deep in your blog on a post page. But that doesn’t mean you can neglect your homepage. Your homepage should make clear what your blog is all about and support your branding. If you’d like, include some links to your most popular posts on this page.   

404 Page

No one enjoys clicking links only to land on broken pages, but instead of losing your readers when that happens, turn it into an opportunity. By creating a custom 404 page, you can educate your customers on what to do or include a selection of popular posts to keep them engaged and on-site. 

Gallery

If you’re going to start a fashion blog, you need somewhere to showcase your looks. In addition to including your stylings in blog posts, consider creating a gallery where people can quickly find and view your aesthetic. 

Privacy Page

This page exists to inform people about the data you or 3^rd parties may collect on your site and how it’s used. There are many free privacy policy page generators online, or you can take a look at privacy pages on other well-established blogs and use them as a guideline. 

eCommerce Shop Page

Want your readers to shop your looks? You can send them to external retailers or keep them on-site by creating an online store. (It’s easier than you might think if you use a website builder and dropshipping model.) This leads us to the next must-have page…

Terms of Service

If you sell goods or services on your blog you’ll need to include a Terms of Service page. Just as with privacy pages, you can find templates to help you craft your Terms of Service. Keep in mind that this is a legal document, so you may want to seek professional legal help in drafting this page. 

Content Pages

Your content pages are the heart and soul of your fashion blog. Here is where you get to share your two cents with the rest of the world, exemplify the ins-and-outs of your aesthetic, and really build relationships with your audience. 

Creating Content and a Content Schedule for Your Blog

It’s time to write another blog post… about what?

Searching for blog topics every time you need to create a post is exhausting — you can spend hours perusing competing blogs or scouring through your blog to find topics to expand upon. 

Add that to the other hats you wear as a blogger: editor, SEO researcher, social media manager, graphic designer, and marketer, and you’re likely to become overwhelmed before the first word hits the page.

The biggest favor you can do for yourself is to sit down and create a content calendar before starting to write any posts.

For a basic calendar, all you’ll need is a list of blog topics and the dates you intend on publishing them. However, we recommend including additional information such as targeted keywords so that you have the information at hand when you’re ready to write.

To make your posts as SEO-friendly as possible, check out our complete guide to blog post SEO below.

Consider including other types of content in addition to blog posts. You can create online quizzes to help your readers determine their personal style, or design infographics explaining how to put together the perfect outfit. Many free online tools can help like Canva. 

“I firmly believe that with the right footwear one can rule the world.”

Bette Midler

Marketing Your Fashion Blog

What good is a blog without readers?

Marketing and promoting your blog is essential to growing your audience. Here’s what you can do to increase awareness and readership of your blog:

• Include links to your blog in your social media profiles.
• Share blog posts on your social channels.
  • Don’t share it just once and expect big results. Test sharing posts at different times of the day and different days of the week to see when your followers are most engaged with your content.
• Make blog posts easy for your readers to share by including social share buttons.
• Perform a technical SEO audit
  • Odds are good that most of your readers will find you via an online search. Make sure your website is SEO optimized to give yourself a better chance at ranking high in search results.
• Create an email newsletter.
  • Keep people coming back to your site by notifying them when new posts go live.

Monetizing Your Blog

Including ads on your blog posts is a great way to earn money from your blog. You can do this by working directly with advertisers or by creating a Google AdSense account.

If you choose to work directly with advertisers, you’ll need an ads page that includes information about your blog (traffic, views, demographics) and that details what ad spots you have available. We advise including your contact information on this page so that advertisers can quickly get ahold of you. 

Ready to launch your fashion blog?

Blogging is a fun hobby with the potential to become so much more. With careful planning, you can grow your fashion blog into a business that helps support your dreams.

Once you’ve launched your blog make sure to share it in the comments below, we’d love to see what you create!

Many have used this time to strengthen their eCommerce operations as more and more people resort to online shopping. And with the holiday season upon us, this trend is gaining more traction.

According to a 2020 holiday predictions survey, 85% of the retailers interviewed estimated that online sales will increase in this holiday season as compared to 2019 and 55% said they are investing more in upgrading their eCommerce platforms.

It’s evident that this holiday season will take the competition to the next level while also posing new challenges for businesses to keep up with the increase in demand, handle shortages created by reduced scale of operations and, most importantly, build trust with new and existing customers.

This, in fact, is the perfect opportunity for businesses to gain the loyalty of wary online shoppers through a fulfilling and secure shopping experience.

Build Trust with Your eCommerce Customers.

Whether you’re a seasoned eCommerce company or have recently started your online store, these five trust-building tips will help you make the most of this pandemic-fraught holiday season.

1. Reassure customers about safety

The pandemic has everyone on the edge about the transmission of COVID-19 through physical contact. Physical distancing rules are either firmly in place or strongly recommended. Several companies have come up with a strict contact-less delivery policy to allow people to reap the benefits of home delivery without hesitation.

If your business has such a policy in place, along with other rules of how products are handled from packing to delivery and safety measures followed in your workplace, such as wearing of gloves, masks, and other protective equipment, make sure you communicate them clearly to your customers.

A great idea is to send an email about it to all of your subscribers to show them that their safety is your primary concern.

Moreover, communicate these policies to each and every member of your team and make sure that everyone is on board to make this virtual holiday shopping season safe for customers as well as staff. 

2. Be transparent about delays

The competition in eCommerce makes it mandatory for businesses to be well-stocked at all times and offer the quickest, most hassle-free delivery possible.

However, most eCommerce companies rely on third parties such as suppliers, warehousing facilities, delivery management agencies, and customer support. Often, delays are caused by situations that are not in your hands.

Several companies had to press pause on their operations during the pandemic and while business is bouncing back now, companies are still at different stages of resuming their operations. This means that not everyone is operating at full capacity, which can lead to longer wait times than usual.

People, too, have become more patient with such inevitable delays but as a brand that cares about its customers, it is your duty to be transparent about any issues that impact their shopping experience.

Make sure you communicate realistic wait times so that people don’t have unrealistic expectations that set them up for disappointment. If a product is out of stock and it will take time for you to obtain it, let the customer know, offer alternatives, and reward their patience with a discount or a freebie.

3. Improve your website experience

If you’ve been considering a website revamp, this is the perfect time to do so. Here are three things to keep in mind when you’re looking to improve your website’s user experience.

Unique Landing Page

To highlight the merriment of the holiday season, you could create a unique landing page where you highlight all your start products that are perfect for holiday shopping.

To give it an additional flavor of branding, you could give this landing page a unique domain name such as www.holidaybonanza.store or www.merrytimes.fun. New domain extensions such as .store, .online, .fun, and .space, can add that extra spark in your branding.

Speed of site and service

People have little patience when it comes to browsing the Internet. Keep bounce rates low by ensuring that your website loads in less than 5 seconds. Optimize image sizes so that they load quickly. Remove all unnecessary plugins and make sure that the built-in apps for payments and other features are not slowing you down.

Optimize for mobile

While there’s nothing like your own mobile application, you can still create memorable mobile shopping experiences by optimizing your website for mobile devices. Before you start your holiday season campaign, see how your website loads and looks on different devices such as computers, phones, and tablets. Take steps to ensure it loads quickly, the alignments are proper, and that scrolling and browsing are easy.

4. Offer quick checkout

Customers have a lot to accomplish when they’re shopping during the holiday season and you can help them save time by offering a short and sweet checkout.

Simple process

The fewer steps in your checkout process, the less likely people are to abandon their shopping carts. Limit your checkout process to no more than three steps: name and address, purchase review, and payment.

Guest checkout

Every brand likes to gather contact information of their customers to get to know them better and continue to attract them with personalized offers and deals.

However, not every customer feels comfortable sharing their email address especially if they’re doing business with you for the first time.

Some customers just want to make the purchase and be done with it and they shouldn’t feel like they’re being compelled to create an account with you. Provide a guest checkout option to make shopping easy and stress-free for everyone.

Multiple payment options

People have different preferences when it comes to online payments. Some are apprehensive about divulging their card details to different companies. Some prefer online bank transfers. Others use third-party apps such as PayPal or Google Pay. Make sure you cater to all preferences by providing as many payment options as possible.

5. Secure your site

Several people are skeptical of online shopping for security reasons. They are unsure about what might happen when they need to input sensitive information such as personal details and credit card or bank account numbers when making online purchases.

As more people may resort to online shopping due to the closure of physical stores and for health safety concerns, eCommerce companies must reassure buyers that their information is safe at every step of the way.

If you haven’t obtained an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate for your website, this is the time to do so. This certificate ensures safe transmission of encrypted data from browsers to websites.

Websites that don’t have SSL of HTTPS in their URL are flagged as “insecure” by Google when a user tries to access them. This message can raise suspicion among visitors and discourage them from shopping on your website.

Apart from the SSL certificate, you should also display security seals across your payment pages, such as badges by trusted companies like Visa, Mastercard, Google, and PayPal so that people feel safe about sharing their sensitive bank account information.

Ready to make the most of the holiday eCommerce season?

The holiday season is always an exciting time for people and businesses, but this one is slated to be unlike any other. For people, it is an opportunity to connect with their loved ones after a difficult year, even if just through gifts or virtual meetings.

For businesses, it is an opportunity to make up for the losses suffered so far. By building trust among customers through safety measures and enhanced online shopping experience, businesses not only stand to increase their revenue but also evolve as players to watch out for in the eCommerce playing field.

Author Bio

Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .STORE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

So, are you taking advantage of that fact to get in front of your audience?

We hate to break it to you, but if you’re not, you’re at a disadvantage. 

In this post, we’ll explain how your eCommerce efforts can benefit from email marketing. We’ll provide some tips on growing and segmenting your email lists, give a few pointers on email design, and briefly discuss your email cadence.

Using Email Marketing to Support eCommerce

Are you finding that despite your best efforts you aren’t making the profits that you’d like from your website?

It’s a tough reality that many business and website owners face. And it’s understandable considering you probably don’t have a six or seven-figure marketing budget. How are you supposed to compete with the big guys?

We recommend using email marketing and adding a sign-up form on your website. According to MarketingSherpa, “More than seven in 10 (72 percent) U.S. adults indicate a preference for companies to communicate with them via email.” There’s a lot of opportunity in that number, so don’t miss out.

Why use email marketing?

Let’s consider why people are visiting your website in the first place. 

To start, they have to be interested in you, which is great. They’re visiting your site because they want to learn more about you or they want to purchase from you. By providing an email sign-up form on site you’re giving them an opportunity to stay connected with you after they leave. 

You’re also giving them an easy way to keep you top-of-mind so they can come back to your site in the future.

Oh, and did we mention that email marketing has a return of $38 for every dollar that you spend on it?

How to Use Email Marketing on Your Site

Here are two things you must do if you want to make the most of email marketing on your site.

1. Make your sign up form easily accessible.
   1. Having a sign-up form for your email list on your homepage is great. But having it available across all the pages of your website is even better. Many people arrive at websites after finding them in an online search. Oftentimes, these people aren’t taken to your home page, but land deeper within your site, like on a blog post. Don’t miss out on capturing their email addresses by only providing a sign-up form on one page of your website.
2. Communicate value.
   1. Big, blocky letters that scream, “Sign up for my list!” aren’t cutting it anymore. By providing more context and value in your call-to-action (CTA) for people to join your list, you better the chances that they’ll be interested and driven to sign up. Wouldn’t you be more inclined to sign up for a list that promised, “Discounts, deals, and insider info — for subscribers only!”?

Designing Your Emails

Take a second to think of some well-known businesses and brands, like McDonald’s or Coca-Cola. Mickey D’s golden arches and Coke’s red colors are instantly recognizable. 

If you were to get an email from one of those businesses in a blue and gold color and written in Comic Sans, would you open it? Probably not, because that doesn’t match the idea we have of those brands and you might think they’re spam emails. 

Spam emails are a huge issue that people deal with every day, and you don’t want them to think your emails are spam, too. 

To avoid that, try doing the following:

• Use a template.
  • Consistency is key. You want your subscribers to immediately recognize your emails and know who they’ve come from. Don’t change your colors, logo, and branding on each and every email as your customers won’t know what to expect and may unsubscribe from your emails thinking they’re spam.
• Pro-tip: Make sure your website name and domain name match, too! When they see your domain name in their inbox, they’ll recognize your trusted business. 

Your key takeaway should be that the more consistency you can provide for your customers the better they’ll remember you.

What should I include in my emails?

If you’re wondering what to put in your emails to drive sales, we can help with that.

Here are some ideas that you can use to help strengthen your relationship with your email subscribers so that they’ll be more invested in you and your site.

• Coupons and offers
  • Everyone loves to feel special. Let your subscribers know that they made the right decision to let you into their inbox by giving them a special discount or coupon to use on your site.
• Expertise and know-how
  • Are you the expert in your field or about what you sell? Show off those smarts! Use your email to convey interesting, valuable information about your products or services to capture your audience’s attention and inspire trust in you.
• Images
  • Use images in your emails to help convey what words can’t. If you’re selling products and talking about them in your emails then showcase a few.
• Clear CTA
  • Use buttons in your emails to provide clear, distinct call-to-actions. Want someone to purchase a product through a link in your email? Label it “Buy Now” so there’s no confusion on their part about what you’d like for them to do.

How Frequently and When Should I Email?

Some days and times are better for sending email marketing campaigns than others. However, finding the times that are best for you involves some trial and error. 

Your audience may prefer to open emails after work hours or before they start their day. If you’re using an email marketing service, you’ll have an opportunity to review your email performance and stats, and can determine when most people are opening your emails. Use this data to inform your future email campaigns. 

When it comes to email cadence, or the frequency at which you send email newsletters, there’s one rule you need to follow: Don’t inundate your subscribers. Start slow, emailing them weekly or bi-weekly and you can increase your cadence from there. 

As you change your email cadence, keep an eye on your stats and reporting. Look for patterns in the data — do people stop opening your emails when you send more often or do they mark them as spam? Those are big indicators that you need to send less frequently. 

Email Marketing and Websites Work Together to Boost eCommerce

When it comes to business, you need to be where your customers are. Meet them in their inbox and provide them with information and links back to your site. 

Email marketing helps you build a rapport with your customers (and potential customers) and can bring them back to your site to transact. 

Do you use email marketing as part of your eCommerce strategy? What does or doesn’t work for you? We’d love to know, so comment below!

●  You’ve grown so much that you’re struggling to keep up with customer demands.

●  Your growth has plateaued.

Planning for future growth is crucial for any online business. In today’s time, entrepreneurs have to be prepared to face any unexpected challenges. That’s how you become a leader and stand out in your niche.

The only hiccup here is: preparing your exponential future growth demands a lot of time and patience.

But — it’s not as difficult as you think.

Having a vision for the future and making smart decisions from day one can help you build a scalable business model that can make a significant difference in the longevity of your business.

In this article, we explore five ways you can take your online business to the next level.

How to scale your online business

1. Get your foundation right

This involves two things — your domain name and your website. These form the foundation upon which your online business stands. Your domain name is your business’s online identity. It’s the address that you communicate in presentations, on your business cards, on your banner ads, in a podcast, and more. Registering your domain name is the sign that your idea is now a business.

When registering your domain name, think about how you can make your website more brandable. This doesn’t mean you www.stuffallthekeywordsinyourdomainname.com.

It means making use of new domain extensions that are more meaningful, industry-specific, category-defining, relevant, and most importantly, keyword-rich. For example, a technology startup could opt for a .TECH domain name, an e-commerce business could go for a .STORE domain name, a creative agency could choose .SPACE. And if you’re looking for a more versatile and open name then you could go with .ONLINE or .SITE.

These domain extensions give you a domain name that’s brandable and meaningful to your business. Add a well-made, fully-functional website to this concoction and you have a strong online foundation to build and scale your business.

2. Always plan for the future

Building a business and planning go parallel to each other. That’s because planning is vital to your business whether you’re on day one or year one.

A good way to plan ahead is to start by setting realistic goals for growth. These could be yearly goals that are further broken down into smaller quarterly goals. Doing a simple exercise such as this gives you time to prepare for the coming weeks.

As you start preparing for these goals, you’ll be able to outline the resources and features that you’ll need to move to the next level. Here are some components that you can factor into your plan:

●  Possible resources that you might need.

●  Digital marketing goals.

●  Customer acquisition plan.

All these components will all come down to one key factor: budget.

3. Arrange for funding and spend wisely

A great option here would be to get featured on Shark Tank and get the necessary funding, however, that’s not an approach most online businesses can take advantage of.

Most small business entrepreneurs have one big responsibility to run and scale their business: secure the right amount of funding and collateral.

One of the options here could be bootstrapping where you either dig into your personal savings, take a loan from family members and friends, or get crowdfunding through sources such as Kickstarter.

Another way for entrepreneurs to get funding is to pitch to investors. While investors can provide great value to your business in terms of funding, valuable advice, resources; they’ll also take part ownership of your company.

Most small businesses opt for the latter, however, if you’re unsure about partnering with an investor then you could consider other options such as scholarships and grants. Many large organizations offer scholarships to startups and small businesses. These can range from $5k and up to a larger sum to help you reach the next level.

A few that you could consider include:

●  Fundbox Small Business Funding Scholarship

●  FedEx Small Business Grant Contest

●  U.S. Small Business Administration Grants

4. Study your analytics

Monitoring your business performance gives you a clear insight into the speed of your growth. Sales performance is one of the first metrics you should be studying when your objective is to scale.

●  Is your sales trend healthy?

●  How fast are your sales growing?

●  During what period do you see a spike in sales?

●  What do you attribute that growth to?

Strong sales performance is a key indicator of the overall health of your online business. If your metrics are positive and growing, then you know your business is scaling.

Other important metrics that you could consider to measure business growth are:

●  Primary platforms – which platforms are bringing in the most sales / new customers?

●  Product performance – which products or plans (in case of a service) are your top sellers? Is there an opportunity to add another feature to your product/service?

●  Lifetime Value:Cost per Acquisition (LTV:CAC) – how effective is your marketing? Can you justify the cost per customer acquisition?

Having a strong grip on your analytics will give you confidence and a competitive advantage when pitching to investors. It’ll also give you enough data to justify any expenses on updated technology or tools.

5. Determine your resources

The more you grow, the more resources you’ll need to manage your online business. These resources could be human or technological.

Here are two instances where you might want to invest in human resources.

1. If you’re looking to build a strong content marketing strategy and build a strong company blog, you may want to consider hiring an experienced SEO professional, a content manager, and a few freelancers who can write good content that can help you lead the search results.

1. If you’re looking to build your community on social media, you may want to consider hiring a professional who understands the nitty-gritty of all the social platforms. Someone who can curate engaging posts, drive engagement, and target relevant audiences on different platforms.

For technical resources, let’s explore these two examples.

1. While you could hire an agency to manage your accounts and keep track of your expenses, you could save time by getting a simple accounting software that can do all this and more.

1. As your business grows, so will your customer queries. Instead of managing a customer line that receives an overwhelming amount of calls in a day, you could install a chatbot on your website that could resolve basic customer queries 24×7.

Identifying areas where you can be more productive will help you prioritize your investments. However, once you do invest in these resources, ensure to check their performance periodically to make sure that you’re getting value for your spend.

Ready to scale your online business?

Your next step from here is to get started!

Carve out a plan and list down all the resources that you might need to scale your business.

●  Create systems and processes.

●  Look for investment and other income streams.

●  Find new clients and collaborators.

●  Have the time to step back, relax, and work on your own development.

Author Bio

Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .STORE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter. 

If you’re new to domains, you might not realize that they can expire, and that’s because domains aren’t a “one and done” type of purchase. When you register a domain name you’re in effect leasing it for a set amount of time, usually anywhere from 1 to 10 years.  

In this post, we’re discussing the importance of domain names, the lifecycle of domain names, what happens when a domain name expires, and domain name renewal.

Why should you renew your domain name?

The importance of a domain name

Domain names are more important than you might at first realize. They’re a big part of your online identity and represent your business.

A good domain name offers your business credibility and sets it apart from spammy websites. It inspires trust in your customers, gives your SEO efforts a boost, and gives you a central point to grow and market your digital business.

The perils of losing your domain name

When you lose your domain name, you lose an integral part of your brand. Your domain is a pivotal touchpoint that people have with your brand — in essence, it’s the address they need to arrive on your digital doorstep.

If you don’t renew your domain name and it expires, it’s available for purchase by just about anyone, including your competitors. Could you imagine a competitor snatching up your domain name and redirecting it to their main site? They wouldn’t even have to create a redirect to hurt your business, all they’d have to do is hold on to the domain name so that you can’t use it anymore.

Expired domain names are a hot commodity. Once a domain name has been registered and used, it can offer a history of established website traffic and backlinks, making them valuable to a great many people.

It’s not just competitors you have to worry about when your domain name expires. An expired domain name can impact your SEO, or search engine optimization. If your site goes down because your domain expired, it looks pretty bad to search engines, and there’s a good chance your site will lose its ranking in search engine results.

And then there’s the brand-building aspect that you have to worry about. When a domain name expires, you risk losing it altogether to another buyer. That means all the hard work you’ve put into marketing, establishing your site, and creating consumer trust is gone. GONE. It’ll set you back to the beginning of your digital journey and you’ll need to build those things all over again.

Real-life examples of expired domain names

Have you heard of Foursquare? When they were just a startup, they forgot to renew their domain name. For a business that was valued at nearly $80 million dollars at the time, that was a giant mistake and left them open to a lot of ridicule.

An expired domain name can also hit you where it hurts the most — right in your wallet. In 2017, Sorenson communications forgot to renew their domain name. However, they’re a provider of services for many Americans with disabilities and their domain expiration gaff was deemed “a preventable service outage.” In the end, they had to pay $2.7 million dollars on top of an additional $252 thousand dollar penalty. Ouch.

The lifecycle of a domain name

Domain name lifecycles can be broken down into four pieces: Active, Expired, Redemption Grace Period, and Pending Deletion.

• Active
  • When your domain is active, you can change its settings and modify contact information. Having an active domain name is essential to keeping your website online and your professional email working.
  • A domain becomes active once it’s been registered, those registration periods lasting anywhere from 1 to 10 years.
• Expired
  • A domain officially becomes expired one day after its expiration date. Your website and any email addresses associated with your domain name won’t function. Instead, your website will display a “parked” page.
  • Note: Others can bid on and attempt to purchase the domain name as soon as it expires; however, your claim to the domain takes priority over 3^rd party bids if you renew your domain within 30 days of its expiration.
• Redemption Grace Period
  • After about 45 days of being in an expired state, the domain name will enter a redemption grace period. Some TLDs may enter redemption status the day after they expire.
  • Note: If your domain is in a redemption period you can still retrieve it. Most registrars will charge a redemption fee in addition to your normal domain renewal rate. You can contact us if your domain was registered through Domain.com and you need to redeem it during the redemption period.
• Pending Delete
  • Once a domain enters the pending delete stage it can no longer be retrieved. It will remain in this status for about 5 days and then be released back into the public for new registration. If this happens, you can try to purchase the domain name again, assuming someone else doesn’t, and not have to pay any redemption fees, only the regular registration fee.

Domain name renewals

If you’re a Domain.com customer, we make renewing your domain easy. Instead of having to set a yearly calendar reminder or a bunch of reminders depending on how many domains you own, we give you the option of automatically renewing your domain name.

You can find the auto-renewal option in your account once you’re logged in. All you have to do is click “Domains” at the top left of the page, then select “Manage” under the domain name you’d like to set to auto-renew. You should then see the selection for auto-renew, and a quick switch of the toggle is all it takes as you see below.

Domain name renewal tips

Here are some tips we’ve put together to try and help make life a little easier when managing your domains.

• Keep your renewal reminder notices turned on. If you turn them off and don’t have auto-renew set up, it could be a recipe for disaster. We’ll send an email 30 days before your domain is set to expire and again within 5 days of the day it expires.
• Set your domains to automatically renew. This way, you won’t have to worry about missing an email reminder in a potentially over-crowded inbox.
• Update any outdated billing information. If you lose your credit or debit card, or if it expires naturally, you don’t want to find yourself in a bind. Instead of risking the loss of your domain name, go through your statements to see what charges are there and update those services with your new card information.
• Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate! It’s not easy keeping track of multiple domain names with different expiration dates across different registrars. We recommend keeping your domains with one registrar where you can see them all in one place.
• Is your email address up to date? If it’s not, you’ll never receive any domain expiration reminder emails. If the domain is your own, make sure your email address isn’t associated with a school or business you no longer attend or work for.

Protect your business, your brand, and your site with domain auto- renew

Purchasing a domain name is your first investment in your website and online business. Keep the momentum going by setting it to auto-renew so that you don’t lose your domain name and tarnish your brand.

No domain name? Grab yours today at Domain.com!

While every website needs a domain name, not every person who registers a domain name actually builds a site and uses their domain. So, it’s safe to say that there are far more than 1.74 billion registered domain names. 

It’s been over 35 years since the first domain name was registered in March of ‘85, and it’s become harder and harder for people to find the exact domain name they want. Many have already been registered, especially if they’re composed of words found in the dictionary and popular extensions.

So what’s a person to do?

First things first, just because a domain name is already registered doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to be unavailable for your use. There’s a big market of people who buy, sell, and invest in domain names that have already been registered, and more specifically, in premium domains. 

Premium domains have already been registered and are considered valuable — they’re shorter and keyword-rich, and that’s often reflected in their cost. Despite the initial investment, they could end up saving you marketing dollars over time as you won’t need to spend money slinging a second-rate domain name. 

But what other advantages do premium domain names offer? 

The benefits of using a premium domain name for business

Premium domain names give your business an advantage over the competition. Let’s explore how and why that is. 

Branding & Recognition

Branding your business is essential, and there’s a lot to a brand, including your domain name. Consistency is essential to your brand, and that includes having a domain name that speaks to what your business and site are all about. Premium domain names like food.com, cars.com, and vacation.com are all great examples of this, and put your business’s specialty and focus front and center. 

Marketing 

A great premium domain name gives your marketing efforts a boost. Since premium domains are often shorter and contain keywords, they’re easier to remember than a subpar domain name that’s riddled with hyphens and numbers. 

This all works in your favor when it comes to marketing, like word-of-mouth marketing, because your customers will have an easier time recalling your domain and sharing it with others. It also helps people retain and remember your domain name when they see it printed on materials, like business cards or flyers. In the long run, a premium domain name can save you money because people are wont to remember it — you won’t waste funds on constantly getting your mediocre domain name in front of peoples’ faces to try and cajole them into visiting your site. 

Credibility & Authority

In business, credibility is vital. In today’s digital age, a domain name is oftentimes the first interaction someone has with a brand. Your domain name can make or break someone’s first impression of your business and site. 

Let’s set the scenario: You’re looking to buy a new car and want to take out a loan, but you’re not sure who to work with so you hop over to Google and run an online search. Now, you’re going to see a TON of results — but what will you click on — a search result with a domain of loans.com, or a search result with a domain like car-loans1135s.com? 

When it comes to first impressions, premium domain names give you credibility and authority over the competition. 

Website Traffic

Premium domain names are more likely to get you direct, type-in traffic on your website. 

What this means is that people are typing your (short & keyword-friendly) premium domain name into the URL bar to search those keywords instead of using a dedicated search engine. And voila! They land on your site because your premium domain matches their search terms. Direct website traffic is a boon for your business — in fact, direct traffic is known to have high conversion rates. 

SEO Benefits

SEO can seem mystifying — is it a science? Is it some kind of wizardry? SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing your website so that it performs better in online search results. 

The whole point of SEO is to make sure that the sites that are most useful and relevant to the end user’s query surface first in the results. 

If your domain name is shorter and key-word rich, like with premium domains, it’s more likely to appear higher in the search results. Now, granted, you have to actually have a relevant website, too. Long gone are the days when just a keyword could grant you top placement. But if you have those keywords in your domain name and have a good website, your SEO potential grows drastically. 

How to purchase a premium domain name

Ready to make an investment in your business and website with a premium domain name?

You’ve come to the right place. You can purchase a premium domain through a domain name search on Domain.com, and we also recommend our sister company, BuyDomains.com, that specializes in premium domains. 

When you purchase a premium domain name you’re investing in so many aspects of your business: marketing, branding, SEO, and more. So what are you waiting for? Get a leg up on your online competition with a premium domain name today. 

WHOIS is a way of storing that information and making it available for the public to search. 

In this post, we’ll dive into the WHOIS public database to understand what kind of information is stored there, why it’s available, and how you can use it. We’ll also discuss options at your disposal for keeping your personal information private in the WHOIS database. 

What is WHOIS?

WHOIS is a public database that houses the information collected when someone registers a domain name or updates their DNS settings.

ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, regulates the WHOIS database. They’ve done so since 1982, back in the wild and wooly days of the early Internet. They describe the WHOIS service as a “ …free, publicly available directory containing the contact and technical information of registered domain name registrants.”

The registration data that’s stored in the WHOIS database is actually held in different locations, all managed by different registries and registrars. A registry owns and manages domain extensions, like Verisign who owns .com and .net, but they don’t sell them. Instead, their domains are sold and registered through different registrars, like Domain.com. 

Why was the WHOIS database created?

Initially, the database was created as a directory. It listed “the contact information … of anyone transmitting data across the ARPANET,” a building block of the Internet as we know it today. 

Think about it: The Internet we’re familiar with today is absolutely massive. Odds are, you can find just about anything on the Internet. But how often have you stopped to think about where the information is coming from and who’s behind it? With the rise and prominence of fake news, it’s more important now than ever before to know the source of your information. 

WHOIS helps to democratize the Internet. Anyone, from businesses and corporations to law enforcement and individual users, can access and use the WHOIS database to find out who is behind a domain name and any associated website. 

Beyond that, many people find the WHOIS database a great tool for business opportunities. If you’re looking to take your business online or start a website you’re going to need a domain name. However, as you get started, you might find that the domain name you want is already registered by someone else. You can use the WHOIS database to get their contact information and reach out to try and broker and deal for the domain name you want. 

What kind of information is stored in the WHOIS database?

When a domain name is registered the registrant has to supply their information and it needs to be accurate. If you supply false information when registering your domain name you run the risk of losing your domain. ICANN writes, “If the domain name registrant knowingly provides inaccurate information, fails to update information within seven days of any change, or does not respond within 15 days to an inquiry about accuracy, the domain name may be suspended or cancelled.”

The information collected during the domain registration process includes your:

• Name. 
• Address. 
• Phone Number. 
• Email Address. 

That’s pretty sensitive information to have at anyone’s fingertips, especially the Internet-at-large. If you’d rather not have all of your personal information easily searchable by anyone with an internet connection, you do have options. 

Most every domain name registrar offers some form of domain privacy, which is just as it sounds. Domain privacy allows you to supplant the registrar’s information for your own, so instead of having your contact information displayed in WHOIS Lookup results, your registrar’s will show. If someone needs to contact you about your domain name your registrar acts as the “middle man” — they’ll direct any inquiries to you for you to view and act upon. 

At Domain.com, we’ve taken domain privacy to the next level. We offer Domain Privacy + Protection, a tool that keeps your information out of the WHOIS database and provides malware scans and blacklist prevention, the latter powered by SiteLock. 

In addition to your information (or your registrar’s if you’re using domain privacy), WHOIS Lookup results display information about your registrar, administrative contacts, and technical contacts. This information is incredibly useful to have on hand if you run into any technical issues with your domain or site. 

WHOIS Lookup limitations

While the WHOIS database stores a massive amount of information about registered domain names, it doesn’t display all of the registration information for every domain name. Certain TLDs, like .com and .net, will always have their registration information in the WHOIS database. Other TLDs, like .me or .gov, display less information. And then there are some domain extensions, like .asia or .coop, that don’t allow for domain privacy, so the registrant information will always be searchable and viewable. 

ICANN is always working to improve the WHOIS system and has acknowledged that “The evolution of the Internet ecosystem has created challenges for WHOIS in every area.” 

Rest assured that as improvements are made, Domain.com will continue to strive in providing the most accurate information while ensuring you have the tools you need to maintain your domain privacy and protection. 

Ready to perform a WHOIS Lookup?

Get started researching domain names today at Domain.com

If you have any questions about understanding your WHOIS Lookup results, or any other questions about WHOIS in general, let us know in the comments below. Happy searching!

What you may not realize is that you should put just as much effort and care into each decision you make when building your business’ website and digital presence.

As your business name and signage draw foot traffic to your shops, domain names attract visitors to your e-commerce website. And as the number of visitors to your site increases, so does your potential to make more sales.

The thing is, not every domain is a great one. So, how do you choose a domain name for your e-commerce business and site AND feel confident that it’s a good choice?

That’s what we’ll figure out today. By the time you’ve read this post you’ll know exactly how to land the perfect domain name — and avoid the duds.

Tips for choosing an e-commerce domain name.

Launching an online business is an exciting venture. But before you can build your website, add your wares, and start selling, you have to purchase a domain name.

Juliet may have said that, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” but we’d have to disagree. There’s a lot to a name, and some resonate with people better than others. 

Here’s what you need to know about choosing a domain name to create a strong, branded e-commerce business.

Look for your exact match domain name.

If you already have a business name that people know and trust, it’s in your best interest to find the matching domain name. Your business identity should be consistent, both online and off, so you don’t want to use two different names if you can avoid it.

However, it isn’t always easy to find a domain name that exactly matches your business name, especially if you’re only searching for a .com domain name.

But don’t get disheartened! Just because your exact match domain name isn’t readily available, doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Here’s what you can do about it.

Expand your domain extension search horizons.

If you know anything about domains, you know .com has long been considered the king. Why is that?

The .com domain is one of the original six domain extensions, or TLDs, created in 1985 with the inception of the DNS, or Domain Name System. Much of .com’s notoriety has to do with the fact that it’s familiar to people. But familiarity isn’t what you’re after with a domain name — relevancy and memorability are.

For the most relevant, memorable domain name, you might need to think outside the .com box. Instead, consider using a newer domain extension, or nTLD, to create the perfect domain name.

By choosing an nTLD for your domain name, you can get a more descriptive domain name that clearly imparts the purpose of your site and business. Here’s an example of what that looks like in practice.

Gary owns a coffee shop in a small town outside of Buffalo, New York. He loves seeing his customers every morning and afternoon, and business is booming. With such great results at his shop, he decides to take his products online and start selling coffee by the pound.

He searches for his desired domain name: GarysCoffee.com, but alas, it’s taken! Instead of getting discouraged he sees another domain extension, .online, and thinks, “Could this be it?”

He searches and it’s available! What a perfect domain name for him… it has his business name front and center (GarysCoffee) and his selected domain extension (.online) is descriptive of his growing, expanding business and intent to sell online. 

Other great domain extensions to consider for e-commerce businesses are:

• .store
• .biz
• .shop
• .boutique
• and thousands more can be found here.

Need some more convincing?

Top name brands and businesses are getting creative (and memorable) with domain names like kindle.store and alexa.online.

Consider purchasing a premium domain name.

Perhaps when you first searched for a domain name you saw the one you wanted in the results, but it was more expensive than the others. Why is that?

Chances are it was a premium domain name. Premium domain names have been registered in the past. They’re keyword-rich, which can help give your site’s SEO a boost, and they’re often shorter and more memorable. All of these characteristics serve to make them brandable and increase their value.

And if the premium domain was previously used for a website, it may even come with established website traffic which could help any new website owner!

Premium domain names are a great investment in your e-commerce business, so don’t overlook them.

Avoid hyphens and extra characters in your domain name.

It happens all the time…

Someone can’t find their desired domain name, so they decide to add a few hyphens and a couple of numbers, and perfect! Right?

Not even a little bit.

Let’s revisit Gary’s Coffee Shop and see what would’ve happened had he done this when choosing a domain name. If instead of selecting “garyscoffee.online” or “garyscoffee.shop” he’d selected “garys-coffee-736.com,” he would’ve made a big mistake.

Take your customers and site visitors into account when choosing your domain name. The more random characters and numbers you have in your domain, the less likely it is for them to remember it. And that means they could misspell your domain name and end up on a competitor’s site, or assume your website is no longer functioning and you’ve gone out business.

Unless your business name is hyphenated and has numbers, and your customers are very familiar with it, don’t include them in your domain name.

Stop with the unique spelling.

Everyone is unique and so are businesses.

In fact, you must have a differentiator that sets you apart from your competitors. Just don’t make that differentiator a uniquely spelled domain name. You might think that having an interestingly spelled domain means it’s memorable, but that’s usually not the case. Hyphens between every other letter and random numbers at the end of your domain name are difficult to remember.

If you want your domain name to be memorable, make sure it passes the “Radio Test.”

Can you pass the Radio Test?

A lot of domainers will refer to the Radio Test as a way to test the quality of your domain name.

For your domain name to pass the test, pretend that you’re running a commercial or advertisement on a local radio station. At the end of your promo the host reads your domain name aloud and directs listeners to visit your website.

If someone can easily spell your domain name based on how they heard it pronounced, then congratulations! Your domain name has passed the radio test. If not, you’ve failed and should go back to the drawing board. You can try the radio test at home with friends and family. 

There are many letters and combinations of letters that sound alike, like “ph” and “f” — so make sure you’re spelling your domain name in the most common fashion instead of using the most interesting spelling.  

Your domain name should be strong and branded.

Your domain name will oftentimes be the first point of contact someone has with your business and brand.

By making your domain name meaningful and leveraging the 1000s of new top-level domain extensions that exist, you can create a relevant, contextual domain name that drives more visitors and business to your site.

Domain names aid in brand identity and recall, so remember to make yours pronounceable and easy to spell.

Ready to find the perfect domain name and launch your e-commerce business? Get started with Domain.com.

Yet, for all that time set aside, 61 percent of managers admitted that the time they spent making business decisions was used ineffectively.

When the decision-making process lags, productivity loss isn’t the only issue. The subsequent opportunity loss is also staggering. Considering these numbers, the researchers estimated that the decision-making process could cost a typical Fortune 500 company a collective 530,000 days of managers’ time every year. In annual wages, that equals around $250 million.

The Importance of Strategic Business Decisions

Building a strong brand is a combination of a lot of great strategic decisions. Delegating the right decision to the right team and making those decisions at the right time is crucial.

For example, deciding on the domain name of the company. It’s a small decision but management often delegates it to the IT department. The conception of your brand happens with its name. For something that is at the core of your brand’s identity, often entrepreneurs underestimate the importance of a good name.

Often when the first-choice domain name isn’t available, people tend to add a hyphen or change the spelling or add a number to find a name that’s available. They completely ignore new domain extensions such as .TECH, .SITE, .SPACE, .STORE, .ONLINE, etc. that give you the opportunity to get a great name that’s meaningful and contextual.

Choosing the right domain name is a crucial decision. New domain extensions allow you to get domain names that are more relevant to your business and your industry. They help you get a meaningful online identity and offer a great deal of support in your marketing and branding efforts.

4 Keys Ways to Make Better Decisions for Your Small Business

You want to drive your company forward, but your time is valuable. That’s why it’s important to deploy smart strategies that can help you reach the right decision sooner.

Read on to learn about four key ways you can optimize and improve your decision-making process, starting today.

1. Perform a Marginal Analysis

A marginal analysis measures the cost of activity against incremental changes in volume, determining how the overall change in costs will affect your bottom line. To perform this analysis, you’ll weigh your marginal benefits against marginal costs.

To find your marginal benefit:

1. Determine a variable to change (for example, the volume of output produced.)
2. Determine your increase in total benefits if you add one more of that unit (marginal unit.)

To find your marginal cost:

1. Determine your current costs associated with that variable.
2. Determine how that cost would increase if you added the marginal unit.

Does the marginal benefit outweigh the marginal cost? If so, you’ve reaped a net benefit, and it’s wise to add the marginal unit of that variable. Conversely, the opposite also holds true.

For example, assume you manufacture a product that sells for $100 and costs $75 to produce every 50 units. You’re wondering if you should increase production to 51 units. If you do so, the anticipated revenue will remain $100, and your potential profit is still $25.

However, when you do the math you realize that there will be an uptick in overhead and labor costs. This will increase your production cost to $105 per unit, and you’ll lose $5 on every extra item you manufacture.

In this scenario, your extra costs now outweigh your potential sales revenues/profits. That makes it easier to see that increasing your manufacturing output is an unwise move.

2. Create a Decision Matrix

Listing the pros and cons of a potential decision can be helpful. Yet, the procedure becomes complicated when you have myriad variables and choices to select from. This is where a decision matrix comes into play.

In short, this is a pros/cons list that allows you to rank each factor by its level of importance. This way, you can understand which option is the clear winner.

You can create your matrix manually or in an online spreadsheet. Let us consider a situation where you have to select an IT vendor based on certain parameters. Have a look at the table below. 

Here are some steps that you can follow:

1. List your decision options as columns.
   1. (Vendor A, Vendor B, and Vendor C)
2. List all your relevant factors as rows.
   1. (Capabilities, Reputation, Technology, and others)
3. Create a scale to assess the value of each option/factor combination.
   1. (2 for the Price and 1 for the rest)
4. Assign weights to each factor depending on their level of importance.
   1. (Any value between 1 and 10. For the Price factor, double the weightage value)
5. Add up the factors under each option.
   1. (36 for Vendor A, 37 for Vendor B, and 45 for Vendor C)
6. Now calculate the score for each vendor by using the formula:
   1. (Score obtained/Total score) ✕ 100
   2. In the above example, that would be – Vendor A: (36/70) ✕ 100 = 51 percent
7. The option with the highest score wins (Vendor C).

You can apply this matrix to a variety of scenarios, including:

●  When you can only implement one solution or problem-solving approach.

●  When you can only select one new vendor.

●  When you can only develop one new product.

Have a look at some examples for a better understanding.

3. Make a SWOT Diagram

Are you planning to make a substantial change to the infrastructure of your business? If so, a SWOT diagram can help you break the situation into four actionable pieces, helping you analyze:

●  Company strengths (internal).

●  Company weaknesses (internal).

●  Company opportunities (external).

●  Company threats (external).

To create the diagram, draw a grid with four quadrants. Assign one quadrant to each of the above sections. Bring in team members, partners, and other key stakeholders to help you determine the data that fits into each one. Together, you can analyze the finished diagram to draw comparisons and better understand the long-term impact that your decision will have.

4. Perform a Pareto Analysis

This analysis is often referred to as the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule. It states that 80 percent of a project’s benefits are derived from 20 percent of its work. At the same time, 80 percent of a problem traces back to 20 percent of its causes.

You can use a Pareto Analysis to identify the problem area or task that will have the greatest impact on your business. Benefits of performing this exercise include:

●  More efficiently optimized workloads.

●  Improved productivity.

●  Improved profitability.

Wondering why your sales are lagging and trying to decide what to do about it? This analysis can help. To create one, follow these steps:

1. Identify and list your root problem.
2. Identify the root cause behind each problem.
3. Score each problem by the importance.
4. Group like problems together.
5. Calculate your scores for each group.

Have a look at an example for a better understanding of the concept.

With these numbers in mind, you can prioritize your efforts and take action. You’ll begin by tackling the most important causes, dealing with the top-priority problem first.

Make smarter, data-driven business decisions

Better business decisions start with better data. When you allow emotional or impulsive thinking to dictate your next move, it can exacerbate confusion and muddle outcomes. These four steps allow the information to take center stage, revealing the key insights you need to make a well-informed next step.

Author Bio

Alisha is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .STORE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.