Local Review: Utah Technology Council: Marketing with Domain Names

• Posted by Steve Spencer

Article posted on Mar 12

Yesterday I attended a UTC event at the Desert Star Theater in Murray.  I few notes before I event get into the topic or the speakers: This was my first time at the Desert Star.  It is really neat inside, plus even though it looks tiny from the street, there is a ton of parking in the back.  I am definitely planning to hit some of their upcoming shows.

This event was dedicated to the use of domain names, and how they can help you:

• Market your business
• Protect your IP
• Make money by “squatting” (although the speakers felt that squatting was not the right definition… in my opinion I think it is.)

The speakers were Chris Finken, CIO and co-founder at Orange Soda, and Michael Taylor Alvarez from Ochoa and Taylor.  This was my first time meeting either of these gentlemen, but I found them both to be very intelligent, and extremely knowledgeable about the topic of discussion.

I want to pass along a few key items fromt he presentation that I thought were really good:

Keywords

When getting a domain name for your website, or a domain name for a secondary site about your company that then links into you main site, it’s important to remember that not everyone cares who the heck you are.  You ahve to ask yourself what they are really looking for.  If you think they will be specifically looking for your comapny by name, then a domain name that is your company makes sense.  But that may not be the case.  If for example you produce frozen meals that can be cooked quickly, even though you company name is Susan Foods, a domain name like “fastmeals.com” might make more sense for you, as that is what the customer is really looking for.

Additionally, even if you don’t get the value from a domain like “fastmeals.com” it is a domain name that someone else might want in the future and you might be able to monetize in other ways.

Missssspellings

You can protect your own company from losing intended traffic, and potentially capitalize on intended traffic for other domains by grabbing common misspellings.  What are some of the ways that people misspell you company, product or value proposition?  Grab those domain names to make sure people end up were you want them to be.

My opinion on the event:

My opion on the event would have to be that I was very impressed with the people they found to speak on the topic.  Very sharp guys.  I was also pleased with the presentation on domains.  But where I was left wanting a little bit was the narrowness of the scope.  Domains are very very key to driving SEO, which we know is Orange Soda’s specialty.  but since the scope of the presentation was just on domains, we never got into the questions that were right there, waiting to be answered in regards to URL structure, blogs, and so many other areas.  It was like we had a meeting to explore baking cakes, but chose to focus this first meeting on only discussing what eggs to use.  This may sound more harsh than I mean it.  The meeting was wonderful.  I just hope they follow it up with a few more int he “series” to round the picture out, and that as the series progresses there are recaps on the other, relevant data that has been presented.

All in all, nice job UTC, Chris, and Michael.  Also, thanks to the Desert Star.

• Posted in Local Review