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!

Creating a website today is rather easy.

You have the website building toolkits, hosting services taking care of all the server management, and useful guides and walkthroughs to get things done. All of this information overflow can make your head spin. So, what should you focus on first?

Let’s look at the top 5 things you should know when starting a website this year.

5 Things to Know When Starting a Website in 2021

1. Choose Your Domain Name Wisely

According to Wikipedia, “a domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control within the Internet.”

Keep in mind that your website’s domain name is the first thing that your visitors will see. Pick something that reflects your site’s purpose, that’s easy to remember, and preferably short. If you already have a business name in place, then use that with a combination of a domain extension.

Most domain names consist of two major parts; top-level domain and the second-level domain. For example, on our website Domain.com, the “..com” is the top-level domain, and the “domain” is the second-level domain. The most popular top-level domains, according to Wikipedia, are .com, .net, .org, and .info domains.

You might find that the major top-level domains are unavailable with the second-level domain name that you desire. In this case, try to pick something else that makes sense or make creative use of another top-level domain. Instead of using a .com domain (f.e. ordervegetables.com), you can use an .online domain (f.e. ordervegetables.online).

You can find out which domain names are available for you through our domain name search.

2. Research the Best Website Layout

According to internetlivestats.com, there are over 1.5 billion websites live today. You can guess how hard it is to make your website unique and different from others. It’s also essential to have your site looking modern and up-to-date.

There are ways to build your website as user friendly and conversion oriented as possible. Color psychology, eye movement theory, and top-notch copy, among other things, are all there to assist you in creating a website in 2021. You can find many guides and applications to help you when you start building your site.

Also, make sure your webpage is accessible by the majority of devices. The easiest way to achieve this is by building your webpage in HTML5 markup language. HTML5 supports most of today’s popular devices and browsers, and there are tons of guides and step-by-step tutorials out there. From an HTML5 Periodical Table by Website Setup to a full course from Codecademy where you can Learn HTML.

Before you delve into theories and practices, you should know what your website is going to be about. In other words, what do you want to say to your visitors? What are the most important aspects of it? And what do you want them to do next?

3. SEO Matters

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is making your website relevant, authoritative, and up-to-date in the search engines’ eyes. In simple terms, SEO makes your site attract more visitors.

According to internetlivestats.com, there are over 40,000 Google searches every second. Can you imagine that? And there are more than a few popular search engines out there, although none of them as popular as Google.

There is a lot of competition around keywords that attract the most number of visitors, and nowadays, almost everybody is focusing on SEO. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t focus on optimizing either. At the very least, we recommend putting in the effort so that people directly looking for your brand or company can find you.

Of course, you can go further than that and add a bunch of neat tricks and tips that you can find on the Internet. You can start from Google Adwords’ built-in keyword research tool to get a sense of the keywords in your space.

Going further really depends on your budget. You can create your copy and webpages targeting specific keywords, or hire an SEO specialist to help you. However, one thing is clear; in 2021, it doesn’t hurt to know a thing or two about SEO.

4. Get a Fast and Reliable Hosting Service

It’s no secret that your webpage’s loading speed affects your visitors’ bounce rate. A study lead by Google found that if your webpage takes more than 3 seconds to load, then the bounce rate will increase over 50% compared to the loading time of under 3 seconds. That’s huge!

Apart from the speed and uptime, you should also consider different hosting options from shared hosting to dedicated servers. Your hosting choice is very dependent on your budget, potential traffic, and the planned size of your website.

Make sure that your hosting plan supports your ideas for the website; WordPress, advanced databases, root application development, or anything else.

Check out Domain.com’s Shared Hosting plans.

5. Don’t Forget the About Us and Contact Pages

Apart from your homepage, your visitors are most likely going to look at your website’s profile and ways to contact you. Even if your main page contains the same information, these pages help to create trust in your visitors. This holds especially true when you’re a company providing a service or selling goods.

However, don’t overthink it too much and keep them looking professional and on-point. There’s no need to quote the entire history of your company or list every employee’s contact information unless there’s a reason for it.  Usually, some clean copy and a call-to-action will suffice to make these pages work for you.

There are tons of guides and tips out there for building those pages, but make sure you pick out the ones that resonate with your website the most.

Ready to Build Your Website?

That’s it, the top 5 things to focus on first when starting your website. Focus on these tips first, and you’ll have a strong base for your website this year.

What else should we know when building a website in 2021? Let us know in the comments.

Author Bio

Gert is a professional copywriter and mainly works with digital marketing companies in the US and EU. You can reach him on LinkedIn.

2020 wasn’t kind to traditional retail models — malls and main streets have seen declining foot traffic for years, and the Coronavirus pandemic isn’t helping.

So, what’s an aspiring business owner to do?

Luckily, brick-and-mortar isn’t the end-all-be-all of business models. Instead of investing in a physical property, consider taking your small business dreams online.

Today, we’re taking a deep dive into dropshipping. It’s a great way to start your online business both quickly and easily. In fact, with dropshipping, you can start your business for as little as it costs to create and host a website.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the following questions and topics:

• What is dropshipping?
• What are the pros and cons of dropshipping?
• How do I find a dropshipping supplier?
• How do I determine what products to sell?
• What kind of website do I need for dropshipping?

What is dropshipping?

As you begin researching how to start an online business, you’ll come across the term “dropshipping.” But what does it mean?

Dropshipping is “a streamlined form of retail business wherein the seller accepts customer orders but does not keep goods sold in stock.” That may seem a bit confusing at first… how are you supposed to sell products when you don’t have any inventory? Is it a scam?

Hardly.

The dropshipping eCommerce model takes the fulfillment of customer orders out of your hands. Instead of paying for an inventory that may not sell and the storage fees to house it all, you’ll get your customers’ orders fulfilled at the source. This is usually done by a wholesaler, manufacturer, or 3^rd party vendor (i.e. – “dropshippers”), who’ll manage packaging and shipping the product to the customer. 

Dropshipping example

Renata is a makeup artist living in New York City. She wants to grow her career in her industry. In addition to teaching people how to enhance their natural beauty, she wants to provide them with the makeup and tools they need. As she researches how to start a business, she realizes she has a big problem. Where is she supposed to store all the goods in her 300 square foot apartment? Property is expensive in the city, and she can’t afford to take out a new lease for storage space.

Enter dropshipping. All Renata needs is an eCommerce website where she can adopt a dropshipping model. She selects the products she wants to sell, and every time someone orders makeup or tools from her site she passes that order along to the dropshipper. They then package and ship the item to the original customer. In this scenario, Renata never touches the product (and this process doesn’t have to be disclosed to the end buyer, so they’ll be none the wiser.)

The pros and cons of dropshipping.

Dropshipping, as convenient as it may be, isn’t for everyone. If you’re trying to determine the best eCommerce model for your online business, consider the following pros and cons. 

The benefits of dropshipping.

• There’s a low barrier to entry — all you really need is a website.
• When you choose to pursue dropshipping, you’re freeing yourself from the worries and obligations of manufacturing, inventory, fulfillment, leasing space, and staffing, thereby saving yourself from those substantial expenses.
• You have a greater ability to test products in the market. Since you aren’t buying products in bulk to store and sell, you can quickly adapt and change your offerings depending on market interests. If something isn’t selling, switch it out!
• It’s almost like having a passive income stream. In a traditional retail model, you’re responsible for every aspect of the transaction. With dropshipping, you can focus on other aspects of your business, like marketing, while customers shop your site and a 3^rd party fulfills it.
• Work from anywhere when you dropship. Want to work from the comfort of your couch? Go for it. Prefer a typical office environment? You can do that, too. Like working from exotic locations? That’s doable as well. You can be anywhere in the world and rest assured that your products are reaching your customers.
• No issues with logistics. Worried about having too much inventory to move? Or not enough in stock to meet demand? You don’t have to worry when you dropship — these issues are all taken care of on your behalf.
• You only pay when your customer does. With dropshipping, you only pay for products that your customer has already ordered and paid for, so you’re not losing money on stuff that doesn’t sell. 

The cons of dropshipping.

• There’s a low barrier to entry — all you really need is a website. This looks familiar, we know because we also listed this as a “pro” for dropshipping. Since the barrier to entry is so low, many people can start a dropshipping eCommerce business. If you’re using the same dropshippers and selling the same goods as everyone else, it’ll be difficult to stand out and succeed.
• There can be quality issues. Take this “con” with a grain of salt. If you don’t do your research and choose a poor dropshipper with a less-than-stellar reputation, you’re likely to have issues with your products. This issue can be avoided by researching your suppliers before entering into any agreements with them.
• Your products can change, and you’ll be none the wiser. Your supplier may decide to start using cheaper materials to craft products, or different packaging materials, and you’re likely not to know about it until a customer complains or asks about the change.
• You bear the brunt of customer returns. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to handle customer complaints and product issues. If someone decides to return a product, they aren’t sending it back to the dropshipper, they send it back to you. You’ll be responsible for providing any refunds unless you have a no-refund policy (n.b. — that might not sit well with potential customers.)
• Shipping times can be lengthy. Amazon Prime, Instacart, and many other services offer near-immediate gratification with super fast shipping. Consumers understand that they may not get the same lightning fast shipping with a small business, but if your dropshipper is located on the other side of the world it can take weeks for products to arrive. Either choose a dropshipper with faster shipping times or be very transparent about shipping times prior to purchase. 
• If you’re selling the same products as everyone else, you may end up paying more for your SEO keywords to try and get a leg up on your competitors. 

How do I find a dropship supplier?

As with most things nowadays, an internet search is a good place to start. If you aren’t finding many options by searching “dropshippers” try going beyond page one of the search results, or expanding your search with other terms like “supplier” or “eCommerce distributor” along with terms relating to the products you’re interested in selling. 

Take time to review the dropshippers you find — have other customers left reviews? If so, do they trend positively or negatively? Find out what their average shipping time is, and always, always read any contracts thoroughly before signing. 

Can’t find what you want on the Internet? Don’t fret — just contact the manufacturer of your desired goods directly. Those manufacturers can provide you with information on their vendors and dropshippers, and perhaps even set up a connection. And then there’s always the possibility that they’ll work directly with you, so don’t hesitate to ask!

If you really want to make sure you’re choosing a reliable manufacturer and dropshipper, consider ordering some of your potential products for yourself and testing them out.

What kind of products should I sell on my eCommerce site? 

Want to know what kind of products you should be selling on your eCommerce website? Well, it depends on your market and more specifically, your niche. 

You aren’t going to succeed trying to be a jack-of-all-trades. Amazon and Walmart already exist, and as a small business owner, it’ll be hard to compete. 

Do your research instead of allowing your personal passions and interests to dictate your products. What does your ideal customer look like? By targeting a niche and understanding their spending habits, along with other demographics, you can cater the perfect selection of products to entice them into purchasing from your site. 

Another big thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t be thinking in terms of your own pocketbook. Just because something may seem a little too expensive for you, doesn’t mean there aren’t people out there willing to pay that amount. This is why market research is vitally important to your success. 

Need some ideas to start identifying products you can sell? Take a look at the following suggestions. 

• Items geared toward hobbyists. 
  • Hobbyists and side-hustlers are booming right now, and there are many who’d pay a pretty penny for a desirable item in their niche. 
• Clothing and accessories. 
  • People purchase clothing at unprecedented rates. If you’ve got an eye for style and trends, and know your market, this can be a lucrative path to follow. 
• Repeat purchases or subscriber products. 
  • What’s better than making a sale? Making multiple recurring sales. If you sell subscription products or products that need to be replaced often, you’re in a good position. 

What kind of website do I need for dropshipping?

Wondering what kind of website you need so that you can start your business? You’ve come to the right place, we’re experts on websites (and domains, obviously.)

When creating your website, you need to build it with the future in mind. If your thought process is something along the lines of, “I don’t have any customers yet, I’m going to get the most basic thing I can find,” then you’re not planning for your business growth or your future. 

If cost and pricing worry you, they shouldn’t. You can create great websites for less than the price of a couple of coffees. 

Here are things to consider when planning and creating your website:

• What is my domain name going to be? 
  • Your domain name is like the digital address for your site, and oftentimes the first impression someone has of your site. 
  • A good domain name is short, memorable, and relevant. Too many hyphens and random numbers, and no one will remember it meaning they won’t get to your site. 
  • Maybe you’ve heard that .com is king, but that isn’t necessarily true. A key tenant of a good domain name is relevance, so perhaps consider a .store or .shop for your eCommerce site. 
• Can you sell products with the plan you select?
  • Not all quick website creation plans offer the ability to sell goods and services online. Make sure yours does. 
• Hosting and bandwidth. 
  • As your website grows and gains more online traffic, you want to make sure everyone visiting your site has a good experience. If you don’t have great hosting or enough bandwidth for your visitors, it can make for a poor experience. (Think slow-loading pages and pages timing out.)
• Do I want to create it myself or hire someone?
  • At Domain.com, we offer a smart WebsiteBuilder that helps you get online with ease. Answer a few quick questions and our AI-powered builder will select the right layout (including images and initial content!) for your site. Don’t waste your precious time wading through tons of templates — let us help. 
    • It is important to compare the features and select the plan that best fits your needs, however for anyone intending to create an online store, the eCommerce Plan is going to be ideal. Not only does it include everything needed to sell goods, services, or even downloads of digital goods online, but also priority support to help ensure any issue you experience is resolved as quickly as possible.
  • Would you rather someone help you through the process of creating your website so you can focus on other aspects of your eCommerce dropshipping business? We can do that, too. Our experts can build you a beautiful site from start to finish, provide a strategic marketing plan that’s tailored to your needs, and teach you how to manage your site for long-term success. 

Ready to launch your eCommerce business?

We’re excited for you! We hope you’ve found this guide to dropshipping helpful, and let us know in the comments below if you have any questions. We’d also love to hear about what has and hasn’t worked for your eCommerce site so we can all learn from it. 

We wish you the best of luck and let us know if you need any help with creating your site — we’re here to help!

You’ve developed your stellar business idea, worked on your plan, but wait… what’s this? You still need funding?

You have a plethora of options when it comes to small business or startup funding: Traditional lenders, alternative lenders, grants, and then there’s another thoroughly modern way of getting funds — online crowdfunding.

As some loans are becoming harder and harder to acquire, crowdfunding sites are seeing an increase in usage and funding.

So, what is crowdfunding? How can it help you launch your small business? That’s what we’ll discuss in this blog post. Stick around to learn about crowdfunding, tips for crowdfunding success, and the top ten crowdfunding sites for small businesses and startups. 

Crowdfunding your small business

Crowdfunding “is the use of small amounts of capital from a large number of individuals to finance a new business venture.” A big issue with traditional lending methods is that it can be incredibly hard to receive the capital you need to succeed. Unless you have proven success in business, positive cash flow, and great credit history, banks aren’t likely to approve your loan requests.

Crowdfunding is a great answer to this problem as it allows you to get backing from friends, family, established investors, and complete strangers who believe in your business. Crowdfunding has really democratized the world of small business and startup funding.

Before starting a crowdfunding campaign, it’s important to note that on many sites (but not all), if you don’t meet your crowdfunding goal you won’t receive the funding. That said, here’s how you can boost your chances of meeting your crowdfunding campaign goal. 

Tips for crowdfunding success

A great business idea alone won’t help you get the crowdfunding results you’re seeking. We’ve put together the following tips to increase your chances of running a successful crowdfunding campaign so you can fund your business. 

Preparation and planning

Crowdfunding isn’t a shortcut to launching a business, and people are wary of investing in half-cooked business ideas as they’re too risky.

If you haven’t already, now is the time to develop and vet your business idea and create a small business plan. 

Review successful crowdfunding campaigns

Time is money, don’t waste yours by reinventing the wheel. Instead of striking out alone, look to other crowdfunding campaigns to find what worked and what hasn’t, focusing on campaigns in an industry similar to yours.

Can you find any similar traits among successful campaigns? Perhaps they offered equity stakes in their small business or offered big rewards to initial investors. How did they present their campaign? Did they use lots of images and videos to convey their message and appeal? After reviewing these campaigns, you should start to notice common themes and elements. 

Familiarize yourself with the Terms & Conditions

It’s your responsibility and in your best interest to review different crowdfunding sites’ terms before utilizing them for your campaigns. Each site has its own billing policies or ways of collecting revenue, some sites may prohibit certain industries, and others may have certain age requirements in order to use their services. As you review, you may find one site’s terms more agreeable than another’s.

Be your own PR person

When it comes to crowdfunding, you are your biggest advocate. If people don’t know about your business and crowdfunding campaign, how are they going to invest in it? Here are a few ways you can work on your business and brand awareness:

• Create a website.
  • Where should people turn if they need more information about your business? Creating a website establishes your digital presence and not having a site is pretty inexcusable these days. If you don’t have a product or service to sell yet, focus on your “About” and “Contact us” pages. If you’re really serious, create a “Press” page that offers images and information that journalists and others can use in their features.  
• Your domain name should be relevant. 
  • Help motivate people to visit your site by making your domain name short, memorable, and relevant. If the .com you want isn’t available, don’t panic — there are multitudes of available TLDs for all sorts of industries. Can’t find the .com you want for your new yoga studio? Try the .yoga TLD. Is the domain you chose for your e-commerce store unavailable? Try .store or .online.
• Leverage the power of social media.
  • Social media is a form of social proof and helps you build your brand while keeping you in touch with potential investors and customers.
  • Encourage your friends, family, and followers to share news and posts about your business. It’s called social media for a reason — networking is essential!

You want people to know about your business so it can gain traction and get funding, so don’t be shy in promoting it and your crowdfunding campaign. 

Back your campaign before it goes online

Being the first person to do something can be nerve-wracking, and that includes being the first person to back your crowdfunding campaign. However, it’s easier to justify doing something when you see that others are doing it, too. Use this to your advantage by having some investors already lined up before your crowdfunding campaign goes live.

You don’t need professional angel investors — having some friends and family willing to donate at the beginning of your campaign works just as well to lend credibility to your business idea. 

Add a little character

Every good campaign uses facts to help support the appeal, but the great ones know that emotions matter, too. When a person finds your crowdfunding campaign, what do you want them to feel? What emotions should your campaign elicit? Excitement? Desire for your product? Write your crowdfunding appeal to influence the emotions you want someone to feel when reading it.

Show the people behind the scenes making it happen. Your investors want to know about the team that’s turning ideas into reality just as much as they want to know about your business. Ideas are great, but it’s the people that make them happen. 

What are the different types of crowdfunding campaigns?

Crowdfunding campaigns can be broken out into four main categories:

• Donation – when people donate money to your crowdfunding appeal and are promised nothing in return.
• Debt – any money pledged by your supporters is paid back (usually with interest) by a certain deadline. This is a lot like a traditional loan.
•  Rewards – in this scenario, you promise a certain reward based on the amount of money someone pledges to your crowdfunding campaign. You can offer services or products as rewards to entice people to donate funds. Consider offering different reward tiers with corresponding pledge tiers. For example, you can offer one reward to people who pledge between $10 – $100, a better reward for people who pledge $101 – $500, and so on.
• Equity – this is exactly what it sounds like. When you perform an equity crowdfunding campaign, you’re giving an investor a percentage of ownership in your business in return for funding. 

Top Crowdfunding Sites

GoFundMe

Since launching in 2010, GoFundMe is one of the most widely-used crowdfunding platforms. They describe themselves as the “world’s largest, free social fundraising platform.” However, one thing to note is that the platform is only free for campaigns in certain currencies and countries. Also, they apply standard transaction fees to debit and credit card transactions.

Unlike some other platforms that return funds to donors if you don’t meet your goal, GoFundMe allows you to keep whatever amount you raise. With “over $9 billion raised from more than 120 million donations,” you should take the time to review the platform to see if it’s a good fit for your needs. 

Kickstarter

Do you have an innovative product or service that you know will make a difference in your industry? Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that helps “make ideas into reality.” Their mission is to “help bring creative projects to life.” This crowdfunding platform launched in 2009 and since then $5.3 billion has been raised for different projects with 188,101 of them being successful.

Kickstarter is all-or-nothing. If you don’t meet the funding goal for your project then your financial backers won’t be charged for their pledges and you do not receive any funds. Kickstarter charges a flat 5% fee from the funds your campaign collects, but only if it’s successful. If a project doesn’t reach its goal then no fees are charged. Also, they charge a standard payment processing fee of about 3%-5%. 

Indiegogo

According to their website, “Indiegogo is where early adopters and innovation seekers find lively, imaginative tech before it hits the mainstream.”

Indiegogo is both a crowdfunding platform and a marketplace. They help small businesses and entrepreneurs take their ideas from concepts to reality and even help you ship your products. They provide services and resources, including access to key partners for the duration of your project. Unlike some other crowdfunding sites, Indiegogo is there to support you for the lifecycle of your campaign and project. Since its launch in 2008 Indiegogo has successfully helped entrepreneurs bring over 800,000 ideas to life.

They charge a 5% platform fee, and that amount is based on the amount of funding you raise, not your ultimate project goal. They also charge a standard payment processing fee that’s dependent upon your location and currency, though it appears to hover around 3% for many currencies. 

Crowd Supply

Crowd Supply’s mission is to “bring original, useful, respectful hardware to life.” Like Indiegogo, Crowd Supply is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs from funding to delivery, and 100% of funded projects have been delivered to backers. They’ve got a great success rate, too — 70% of launched projects have achieved funding.

When you bring an idea or product to Crowd Supply for backing, you’ll see two “Launch Plan” options: Basic and Standard. Here’s how they differ:

Patreon

Patreon exists to “change the way art is valued.” Over 200,000 creators use Patreon to allow their “most passionate fans [to] support [their] creative work via monthly membership.”

To use Patreon you establish a monthly subscription rate (you can create tiers) for your fans and followers. When that amount is paid, they receive exclusive access to your content. Your supporters join a community that supports you and receive a behind-the-scenes look into your creative process. Patreon allows you to make recurring income — it’s not a one time backing or funding for your creative pursuits.

Like Crowd Supply, Patreon has different pricing based upon the plan you choose:

Crowdfunder

Crowdfunder is a place “where entrepreneurs and investors meet.” When you choose to use Crowdfunder you’re joining a community of over 200,000 members and 15,000 accredited investors.

This site is based around equity crowdfunding, meaning that you’ll need to offer an equity stake in your business in order to receive funding. Like most other crowdfunding sites, Crowdfunder offers resources to help you create the perfect crowdfunding appeal.

They also offer a few plans at different price points:

CircleUp

CircleUp allows you to create two types of crowdfunding campaigns: equity and credit. They are selective about the businesses they work with, but if you make it through their approval process then you’ll find an array of services available to you.

CircleUp focuses on helping small businesses find the right investor. Many traditional funding and loan opportunities aren’t made available to small businesses, and so they seek to fill the gap, primarily focusing on consumer brands.

Before you can start using their services, you have to apply here. 

Fundable

Fundable is designed around business crowdfunding, and they’re “dedicated exclusively to helping companies raise capital.”

The team at Fundable takes a hands-on approach to help customers, “from profile creation to marketing, [they’re] there at each step.” To date, people have committed $615 million in funding on their platform.  

It’s free to set up a company profile on Fundable, and a flat fee of $179 USD per month to fundraise. If you choose to run a rewards-type campaign on their platform then there’s a standard credit card processing fee charged by WePay, their payment processor. 

Republic

Republic recognizes that “many startups’ success depends on their ability to get funded.” They built Republic to address that, and their “funding portal and broker dealer are SEC-registered and members of FINRA.” And they support diversity. “25% of investments on Republic have gone to companies with underrepresented founders of color and 44% have gone to companies with a female founder.” The industry average is 1% and 13%, respectively.

As an SEC-registered business, their cost and pricing structure is a bit different from other crowdfunding sites. Find out more about how much it costs to raise money on Republic here.   

Wefunder

Wefunder has helped fund 451 startups and raised over $164.5 million. They’re the self-described “Kickstarter for investing,” the difference being that Wefunder lets people invest in your company with small ownership stakes whereas Kickstarter allows you to sell products. Right now, Wefunder is only available to businesses and startups located in the United States.

They don’t charge any up-front fees and offer to price match if you find a better offer elsewhere. Wefunder collects 7.5% of your total fundraised amount if your campaign is successful.

Ready to crowdfund your small business funding?

Crowdfunding is a great and thoroughly modern way to find and raise capital for your small business. 

There are a multitude of crowdfunding sites, many of which cater to specific industries and products, so don’t despair if you didn’t find a perfect solution in the list above. 

If you’ve run crowdfunding campaigns before, share your best practices with us in the comments below!

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!

It’s ok, we’ve all been there.

Perhaps it’s time to sit down and think about how you can be more productive in accomplishing your goals. There are only so many hours in a day, and as a small business owner or entrepreneur, we’re sure you can use every single one of them if not a few more. Let’s look at some popular productivity tips, tricks, and hacks so you can make the most of the upcoming year.

Productivity tips to get more accomplished. 

Productivity is all about increasing your efficiency in getting things done. How many times have you hastily scribbled a To-Do List on the back of an old receipt only to find that most of those tasks never get done?

There could be a few issues at hand. Are you trying to tackle too much stuff in a day? A week? A month? Before reviewing popular productivity tips and tricks, make sure that you consider the time and resources you have available and how those could affect your plans. Even the most well-laid plans go awry when there isn’t the time or resources to see them through to fruition.

Keep in mind that the productivity hack that works best for someone else might not be the best one for you. Maintain an open mind and understand that you may need to try a few tactics before you find what works for you.

10 productivity tips, tricks, and hacks you need to try.

1- Write it down.

You’ve heard this before, we know. But if it hasn’t worked for you yet, consider this: You’re probably doing it wrong.

The concept of the To-Do List is simple. Think of the tasks you need to accomplish, write them down, and cross them off when done. But that didn’t help when you scrawled your list across the back of scraps of paper, did it?

When creating your To-Do List make sure you’re defining the tasks that need to get done with S.M.A.R.T. goals. These goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. By giving yourself S.M.A.R.T. goals and writing out exactly what you hope to accomplish and by when, you’re setting yourself up for success. They also help relieve some of the stress and anxiety you might feel when faced with a large task by breaking it into manageable chunks.

The act of handwriting your list instead of typing it out will help you remember what needs to be done. The reason you can more easily remember something you’ve written is because of something called the “Generation Effect.” Thinking through what needs to be done and then generating a list based on those things helps to encode the information in your brain. “Encoding is the biological process by which the things we perceive travel to our brain’s hippocampus where they’re analyzed.” And that helps us humans remember our responsibilities.

So write down what needs to get done, or risk forgetting your important tasks and brightest ideas.

2- Eat Your Frogs.

Start the list (and your day) with your largest, most cumbersome tasks. If you put off the large tasks until the end of the day, odds are good you won’t get around to accomplishing them. Humans have a tendency to procrastinate, so get to the big tasks first instead of putting them off.

Brian Tracy, an accomplished professional speaker, touches on this in his book, “Eat That Frog!” The title stems from a Mark Twain quote, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” What he’s really telling us is that if you get your biggest, most uncomfortable tasks done first then you can have the satisfaction of knowing they’re done the rest of the day.

3- Batch and break.

Working non-stop for hours on end day in and day out is a great recipe for burnout. “Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.”

So what can you do to avoid burnout and maintain your productivity levels? Batch and break.

Group your routine tasks together and knock them off your To-Do List one after another. These could be tasks like checking and responding to emails or returning customer phone calls. Don’t waste time you don’t have by spreading these tasks throughout the day. Lump them together and get them done at once so you can move on to your other responsibilities that require more focus and thought.

After you’ve finished a batch of tasks, take a break. By giving your brain and body a brief respite, you’re mentally preparing yourself to tackle the next thing on your list and you’re reducing your chances of getting burnt out.

4- There’s an app for that.

Need to increase your productivity but can’t stay away from your cell phone?

It’s ok, we understand the pull of technology. If you must keep your phone by you as you tackle your To-Do List, try putting it to work in your favor.

Many apps exist for the sole purpose of helping to increase your productivity levels. They range from digital list makers to project management tools to social media publishing tools.

Need some help staying focused while working on your tasks? Try an app based on the Pomodoro Technique. “The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method … [that] uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.” Some of these apps are complex and offer additional features, or you can use something like the Bear Focus Timer, a simple app to help you concentrate and stay focused.

5- Join the cloud.

Is it distracting when you have to bounce from one program or software to another? Check your email here, write documents and blog posts there, and track inventory somewhere else entirely. While they’re not technically apps, G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 offer cloud-based solutions to help you stay on track. From a professional email address that matches your domain name to online meeting solutions, you can find what you need to take your productivity to the next level.

6- Turn off notifications.

You might think that a minute here and a minute there don’t amount to much, but they really do add up. If you must have your phone accessible while you work then turn off all non-essential notifications. By turning off the notifications, you’ll remove the temptation to check them every time you see one.

7- The Eisenhower Method

How do you decide what tasks are more important or urgent than others? If you’re struggling to determine what needs to be prioritized, try using the Eisenhower Method, designed by former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower.

“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

8- Learn to say “No.”

“No” is a powerful word. You may not be comfortable saying no to tasks and requests, but you’ll never get it all done if you say yes to everything.

Say no to distractions. Say no to non-urgent and unimportant requests. Say no to unnecessary meetings. Say no to preserve your sanity and leave time for your most important tasks and responsibilities.

9- Stop multitasking.

Do you think you’re good at multitasking? Research says probably not. When you think you’re “multitasking” you’re likely just switching between tasks quickly, like checking your email and attending to a webinar. Odds are good that when you’re focused on one you aren’t truly attending to the other.

David Strayer, PhD, is a professor of Cognition and Neural Science at the University of Utah; his research indicates that only 2% of the world’s population can truly multitask. These folks are called “supertaskers” and “the supertaskers are true outliers.“

10- Fuel up appropriately.

Everyone knows that sugar will give you a rush. That rush feels good as it happens, but everyone also knows that what follows is a crash.

Instead of relying on sugary food and drink to give you quick but ineffective bursts of energy, try eating a balanced, healthy diet.

The Harvard Business Review writes that “Not all foods are processed by our bodies at the same rate. Some foods, like pasta, bread, cereal and soda, release their glucose quickly, leading to a burst of energy followed by a slump. Others, like high fat meals (think cheeseburgers and BLTs) provide more sustained energy, but require our digestive system to work harder, reducing oxygen levels in the brain and making us groggy.”

Get productive and stay productive in the new year. 

We have faith that you’re going to accomplish what it is you set out to accomplish this year.

Whether you’re starting your online presence by getting a domain name and website, to taking your business to the next level, all your goals will be easier to achieve when you’re productive.

Remember, write down what you need to get done and don’t be vague about it. Batch similar tasks and take breaks after they’re complete or at regular intervals. And instead of letting technology distract you from your tasks, use it to your advantage.

What other productivity tips and tricks do you rely on? Share them with us in the comments!

Hardly.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and you need it if you want your website visitors and potential customers to trust you and your site. Stick around as we dive into the details regarding SSL — you’ll learn what it does, how it can affect your SEO efforts, and how it influences people’s trust in your site. 

What is SSL and how does it work?

What exactly is a Secure Sockets Layer? Dictionary.com defines SSL as “… a protocol that uses encryption to ensure the secure transfer of data over the Internet.”

In a nutshell, SSL is a technology that keeps your website visitors’ personal information private (and away from hackers) when they submit it on your website. 

Fun fact: The original SSL technology has since been replaced by an updated version, called TLS or Transport Layer Security, but the collective Internet is so used to the term SSL that we keep using it.

Think of it this way: Whenever someone fills out a form or submits information on a website their information has to digitally travel from point A (where they submitted it) to point B (where it’s stored).

If the website they’re using isn’t secure, or doesn’t use SSL, then hackers can intercept and read the information being transmitted. This is called a man-in-the-middle attack and you won’t know it’s happened until it’s too late. 

Secure websites, or those that have an SSL certificate, are less likely to fall prey to any MITM attacks. When SSL is used, the connection between your computer and the other site is secured and heavily encrypted, making it nearly impossible for hackers to snag any information being passed back and forth. 

Put yourself in your site visitors’ shoes. If you like to do online shopping or banking, wouldn’t you feel better knowing your information is transmitted via a secure connection? We sure would. And a survey by GlobalSign found that “85% of online shoppers avoid unsecure websites.” That’s a lot of business you could be missing out on. 

How to identify a secure site. 

Websites can’t hide their security status. In fact, most browsers will alert you to a site’s security status in the URL bar. 

How do you know if a site isn’t secure?

If you use Chrome, you’ll see an alert that looks like this:

If you click on the information icon, you’ll get the following message:

What will you see on a site that has SSL enabled?

On Chrome, you’ll see a little padlock icon to indicate a secure site. 

If you click on the padlock icon, you’ll receive the following message:

Alternately, you can look to the website’s full URL in the browser’s address bar to find out whether or not it uses SSL.

• Not secure websites: URLs will start with “HTTP://…”
• Secure websites: URLs start with “HTTPS://…,” where the S stands for secure.

Secure websites perform better in search engine results

Since 2014, Google has said that they use HTTPS as a ranking signal in search results. 

What does that mean for you?

If your website has SSL then it’s more likely to show up higher in SERPs (search engine result pages) than a site that isn’t secure. Even if you’re not collecting visitors’ information on your website, you need SSL so you aren’t penalized in search results. 

Google has pledged to “continue working towards a web that’s secure by default,” so we don’t think HTTPS importance will decrease any time soon. 

How can you add SSL to your site?

It’s easy with Domain.com — we offer a variety of SSL certificates to fit your needs. Here are the plans and details so you can identify the best option for your site. 

LetsEncrypt Free SSL – If you have a basic website and don’t collect any sensitive information from your visitors, then this option should suffice. Search engines and visitors will see that your site is secure and that will increase their trust in you.

Before getting SSL for your site, you’ll need to make sure you have your domain name and hosting. Then, you can log into your account to turn on your free LetsEncrypt SSL. 

If you actively collect customer information (even if it’s just an email address) on your site or manage an e-commerce site then consider purchasing a more advanced SSL offering, like one of the following, all powered by Comodo SSL.

Domain Validated SSL – Secure your customer information, help boost your Google search rankings, and receive the TrustLogo® Site Seal to display on your site. You’ll also be backed by a warranty from Comodo SSL for up to $10,000 to protect the end user.

Wildcard SSL – Our Wildcard offering will give you all the features of the previous plan along with the ability to protect multiple subdomains. You’ll receive a warranty of up to $250,000 to protect the end user with this plan.

E-Commerce SSL – This is our best SSL plan and is ideal for those with e-commerce websites, and offers a green “trust” visual bar for your site, like you see in the image below, and up to a $1,750,000 warranty for the end user. 

Rest easy knowing you’re secure with SSL

The importance of having SSL on your website is only going to increase. 

Google is without a doubt the most popular search engine, and they aren’t pulling any punches when it comes to making the Internet a safer place for all of us.

If you don’t have SSL you risk having your site pushed down in search engine results and losing your site visitors’ trust. Get SSL today, and turn your site into a trusted resource. 

Gone are the days when a copy of the bulky, softcover Yellow Pages would bring in the customers. Now, it’s as though your business doesn’t exist if you don’t have a website. People pick up their shiny cellphones and run online searches to find the business that fits their needs instead of flipping through musty old phone books and directories.

Recently, I moved. It wasn’t a huge move, but it was far enough away from my old surroundings that I wasn’t sure what businesses existed in my new town. After what felt like years of hauling a never-ending stream of boxes down multiple flights of stairs, I arrived at my new place — and I was starving. I like supporting local businesses, so I located my phone amidst a jumble of papers and used Google to find some nearby restaurants to sate my hunger. What was so special about what I did? Absolutely nothing. In fact, according to SEO Tribunal, Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day. Even a small sliver of that traffic could do wonders for your business. 

Your website needs a domain name. We can help.

Does having a website guarantee that my business shows up first in search results? 

First off, if you don’t have a website you won’t be showing up in any search results. Secondly, your website has to be good. Search engines don’t reward bad websites with better placement in search results. 

Creating a good website that performs well and captures customer attention is a lot easier than it used to be with the advent of website builders. Website builders, like ours, help you create a good-looking, sensible website in a short amount of time. They provide a large selection of customizable templates for you to choose from; then, you click on the item you want (photo placeholder, text box, etc.), drag it where you’d like for it to appear on your website, and drop it in place. You can customize those elements with your own wording, photos, videos, and more. Search engines favor websites with good, informative content. If your website isn’t appealing to customers, or doesn’t answer their questions, it won’t appeal to search engines either. 

Do I need a website if I don’t sell products or services online?

Yes! Not selling products online is no excuse to forego a website. Think of your website as the digital face of your physical location. You always want to put your best face forward because you never know who’ll see it. 

Your customers, and potential customers, expect you to have a website as well. If they find you don’t have one, they’ll wonder why that is and could question whether or not you’re a legitimate business.

Your website is a goldmine of marketing opportunities.

On social media, you can’t control the conversation about your business. People can comment, like, react, or otherwise change your business narrative. But this isn’t the case on your website. On your site, you position your products and services (even if you don’t do e-commerce) exactly as you see fit, and tell your story the way it should be told.

You can even derive insights from the actions your visitors take on your site — what are they clicking on? How far down are they scrolling on the page? And so much more! Apply these insights to refine your messaging, your marketing, all the way down to your products and business M.O., if applicable. 

If you’d like to continue building a relationship with your site visitors after they’ve left your site, consider email marketing. Email marketing is a small investment of your time for a big return ($38 return for every $1 spent.) You’ll need to include an email marketing sign-up list on your website, but any good email marketing provider will give you premade options you can quickly add to your site. 

How do I start creating a website?

Good question! It all starts with a great domain name. You can think of your domain name as your website’s unique name and address. It distinguishes your website from all the others out there.

Your domain name should reflect your business, and if possible, match your business name. If you can’t find an available domain name to register, consider purchasing a premium domain name to really solidify your brand. 

Got your domain name? Good, let’s continue.

Plan your website, then create. 

It’s a smart idea to plan out how you think your website will be used, what pages should be included, and how to leverage content on your site. What you put on your site should be intentional and serve a purpose, whether that be to inform your customers or drive purchases. 

Before creating your website, ask yourself the following questions. 

• How many people do I expect to visit my website each day?
  • The amount of website traffic you expect to receive will influence what type of web hosting you need. Website hosting is where all the data and files that comprise your website live. It’s also what allows you to publish your website on the internet, thereby allowing people to find and visit it. You know how retail stores have a back room to store inventory for when it’s needed, and also a shop to handle customer foot traffic? Hosting is a lot like that, but digital.
• What actions do I want people to take on my site?
  • Are you trying to drive purchase volume? Or provide educational content? When you’re creating a website you’re designing an experience for your site visitors, and the actions they take on your site should benefit your business.
• What should visitors see when they land on my site?
  • Should they be greeted with your sale of the day? Your bright, beautiful face? Or an informative landing page? Again, think about what actions you want your site visitors to take, and about whether or not their first impression of your site will help lead them to that action.
• Am I providing them with a way to reach me if they have questions?
  • You can provide all the relevant and pertinent information about your business that you want, but someone is still going to have questions. That someone may be your most valuable customer. If they have a question and need to get in touch with you, they should be able to easily and quickly find your contact information. A “Contact Us” page on your site should suffice. 

So that’s it then, my brick-and-mortar needs a website?

The bottom line is, yes, you really do need a website. 

Creating a website for your brick-and-mortar business is a lot quicker and easier than it used to be. You can use a tool like WebsiteBuilder to create a site that reflects your business in the best light possible, and you can do it in less than an afternoon. However, remember that planning is half the battle in website creation. If you go into creating your website with clearly defined goals, you’ll have an easier time deciding where things should go and what information should be displayed. Your website will be the gift that keeps on giving — from visitor insights, to marketing opportunities, to new customers — so what are you waiting for?

Get the perfect domain name today.

You’re not on your own, Domain.com is here to help.

Need an extra hand when creating a website? Or do you have some lingering questions? We’ve got you covered. Our teams are here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’re in need of assistance. 

Before diving into these questions, it’s helpful to quickly explain how the internet, and web addresses, are organized.

The DNS, Domain Name System

According to a survey done in January of 2018, 1,805,260,010 websites currently exist on the internet. That’s 1.8 billion individual web addresses that exist online, with more added every day.

Organizing all of those web addresses seems a grueling task, but thanks to the Domain Name System (DNS), developed in 1983, the process has been simplified.

Think of the DNS as the internet’s phonebook. Each web address — like Domain.com — is represented as an IP address, a long string of numbers that functions as the home address of a website (much like your home address corresponds to your house or apartment.)

The DNS helps translate IP addresses into domain names. Domain names are easier ways to remember web addresses — they’re shorter and more practical for humans than a long string of numbers is.

Components of a Domain Name

Domain names are comprised of multiple parts, but only two of them are essential components. They exist on either side of a web address’ “dot.”

To demonstrate how a web address is broken down, we’ll use Domain.com as an example. Domain.com has two components, a second-level domain (SLD) and a top-level domain (TLD).

• Second-Level Domain (SLD): The second-level domain is the text that exists to the left of the dot in Domain.com specifically the word “domain.” All web addresses possess a second-level domain, which is used to distinguish one website from others.

• Top Level Domain (TLD): A website’s top-level domain, or TLD, further distinguishes websites from one another, and also helps identify the content of the website. In Domain.com the TLD is the string of letters that fall to the right of the dot, specifically, “.com.”

There are over one thousand unique TLDs, but the most popular and recognizable of them are known as generic top-level domains, or gTLDs.

It all starts with the right domain. Get yours today at Domain.com.

What is a gTLD?

There’s a certain irony about the word “generic” in the phrase “generic top-level domain,” or gTLD. Generic means something unexceptional, banal, common — and yet, websites that use a generic top-level domain are respected, sought-after, and valuable to the companies and individuals who use them.

Understanding the history of gTLDs can help explain why that is.

History of gTLDs

The first wave of gTLDs were released in the 80s, shortly after the internet was invented. They were developed to help the first generation of internet users organize websites.

Despite being 30+ years old, the original seven gTLDs are among the most popular top-level domains on the internet. The original seven are:

• .com
• .edu
• .gov
• .int
• .mil
• .net
• .org

It’s likely that you’ve seen or recognize most, if not all, of these gTLDs.

Because of how recognizable these gTLDS are, domain names that include them are often considered more valuable than domain names using some of the more obscure TLDs developed in the past several years.

gTLDs vs ccTLDs

Top-level domains can be divided into multiple categories. Two of those are gTLDs, like the seven listed above, and ccTLDs, which stands for “country code top-level domains.”  Just like gTLDs, ccTLDs are represented by a string of letters that come immediately after the dot in a web address.

Unlike gTLDs, ccTLDs designate a country, autonomous territory, or sovereign state. If a web address includes a ccTLD, it’s safe to assume that the website refers to a specific geographic location.

A report was released in 2018 that listed the 10 most popular ccTLDs in the world. Here they are, in order of relevance.

• .cn – China
• .tk – Tokelau
• .de – Germany
• .uk – United Kingdom
• .ru – Russia
• .nl – Netherlands
• .br – Brazil
• .eu – European Union
• .fr – France
• .au – Australia

Compared to gTLDs, ccTLDs help websites target internet users in their geographic region. Many ccTLD domain name owners believe that using a specialized ccTLD gives them a competitive advantage. Some ccTLDs, like .ca or .us, have geographic restrictions on who can register and use them.

The Top Four gTLDs

Over 1,000 TLDs are available on the internet and many of them hint at a website’s function (.coffee, .travel, etc.), but the most common TLDs were designed to be open-ended.

Four of the top gTLDs in registration volume include:

• .com
• .net
• .org
• .co

Each of these TLDs offers domain name owners unique advantages. We’ll dive a little deeper into their origins, and how they can be used most effectively.

.com

.com has remained popular ever since the first wave of gTLDs was released, and as a result, is the most recognized top-level domain.

• The “com” in .com stands for “commercial”
• .com is the most widely used gTLD of all time
• .com is the most recognized gTLD of all time

Originally intended for use by for-profit, commercial businesses, .com became the go-to extension for the majority of websites.

If someone has the chance to register a domain name with a .com gTLD, they should seriously consider taking advantage of the opportunity. Here’s why:

• Familiarity: Almost every internet user has typed “.com” at some point in time (if not on a daily basis) and that’s led to an implicit authority possessed by all .com websites. People tend to trust .com websites as they see them all the time and are most familiar with them.

• SEO Favorability: SEO experts agree that many search engines are biased towards .com websites as .coms are widely used and frequently searched. So websites with a .com domain name have a higher chance of appearing towards the top of search results.  

.net

There’s no debating the dominance of the .com gTLD, but there’s also no debating the strength of the gTLDs trailing right behind it in registration volume.

• The “net” in .net stands for “network”
• .net has been a gTLD since the 80s
• .net is one of the most popular gTLDs available

The word “network” suggests that the .net gTLD was originally intended for tech-based companies and industries. It’s frequently used for websites that advertise, promote, and sell web-based services.

Since fewer .net domain names have been registered than .com domain names, companies or individuals have a higher chance of securing the .net domain name that best fits their brand.  

.org

.org is another gTLD that’s available for anyone to register. However, its original purpose was to indicate websites belonging to non-profits, NGOs, and other organizations. Like .net and .com, .org is one of the oldest and most credible gTLDs available.

• The “org” in .org stands for “organization”
• .org websites often focus on community building

.org websites are normally seen as trustworthy. Some of the most famous .orgs, like Wikipedia, have done a lot to bolster the credibility of this classic gTLD. .org is often associated with websites that impart reliable information, but it’s also commonly used to register websites that serve as an online home for communities of people with similar interests.

.org is a powerful choice for SEO. While it may not have the same amount of pull as .com does with search engines, it still performs well as it falls in the second tier of preferred gTLDs (along with .net.)

Although .org was originally intended for nonprofits, a lack of regulation has essentially eliminated that restriction, making it possible to secure your ideal domain name with a .org gTLD. There are millions of registered .org domain names, but not as many as .com, so you may have a better chance getting the domain name you want with this gTLD.

.co

Of all gTLDs, .co might have the most interesting backstory. Most of the gTLDs we’ve discussed have been around almost as long as the internet has, but .co came much later as it was introduced at the same time as other ccTLDs.

• The “co” in .co officially stands for Colombia but it’s changed to stand for “commercial” or “company”
• .co is a trendy option for many companies and startups who want to separate themselves from older, more traditional .coms.

.co is the only TLD on this list that was originally created to be used exclusively as a country code. There are several reasons that this extension gained popularity in the last decade.

The first reason is distinction. Startups and companies are always looking for ways to distinguish themselves from their competition. One of the best ways to do this is by distancing your company from previous generations, those same generations that all obsessed over the .com gTLD.

.co is seen as a forward-thinking, fashionable TLD. While .com clearly indicates “.commercial,” .co can suggest “company,” “corporation,” as well as “commercial.”

By opting for a .co TLD, you have a higher chance of securing your ideal domain name. Businesses have swept up .com domain names for decades, but .co is still relatively new and hasn’t been abundantly registered.  

How to Register a Domain Name and gTLD

The best way to register a domain name and gTLD is through an ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) accredited online registrar, like us, Domain.com.

We offer a domain search tool that allows you or your business to search for your desired domain name. If no exact match is available, we’ll show you a list of domain names that are available and associated with the keyword or phrase you searched.

How Much Does it Cost to Register?

Because certain gTLDs and ccTLDs are more popular than others, prices between them tend to vary. Some TLDs cost $9.99 and others cost $2.99 to register for a year. You can find the perfect domain name for your business here and register it for a period of 1 to 5 years.

Recapping gTLDs

Many popular gTLDs have been around since the 80s. These gTLDs include .com, .net, and .org, among others. When you register a domain using one of these TLDs, your website gains an implicit authority based on the familiarity most internet users have with those gTLDs.

Registering a gTLD is simple, and can be done at low costs through domain name registrars like us, Domain.com. Choosing a domain name and finding a reliable web hosting company has never been easier.

Sources:

Guilon, J. (2019, April 8). March 2019: Which New gTLDs Are Becoming Mainstream? http://www.circleid.com/posts/20190408_march_2019_which_new_gtlds_are_becoming_mainstream/

Top-Level Domains (gTLDs). (n.d.).https://archive.icann.org/en/tlds/

Usage of Top-Level Domains for Websites 2018. (2018, June 20). https://www.statista.com/statistics/265677/number-of-internet-top-level-domains-worldwide