Forbes Magazine today launched an article about the new .TICKETS domain extension which will be soon to launch. 

Take a look at the article here:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jesselawrence/2014/09/28/how-will-the-new-dot-tickets-domain-impact-the-way-people-buy-tickets-online/

Over all of the years I have worked for Register.com / Web.com that is one of the first things that people always tell me.  That they NEED to have a .com domain name. 

Well, if this was 1999 I would tell you that you are correct.  But step into the future here people. 

This year the Internet as we know it has gone through a major shift and how people actually use the internet is a different story altogether. 

When was the last time that you "looked up" a domain name and put in that you needed the .com?  

Today Google Yahoo and Bing have made it next to useless to type in .com .org or .info for anything.  Instead you simply go to the  search baic r, type in what you want and that is it. 

That brings me to the topic of overall domain names.  If you have a .com already don't get rid of it.

If you are looking for a new domain name for a new website and business look at the options and what you are trying to accomplish. 

As of today there are over 200 new top level domains (the piece after the . on the domain name).  Everything has changed based on how people search. 

For example, some of the domain extensions that are currently available are:

.plummer
.dental
.surgery
.country
.horse
.lawyer
.beer
.expert
.care 

and the list goes on and on.  

These new top level domains allow you freedom to have a domain name that will allow you to brand not only your business name but also what you do. 

Check out the full list 

We all know that the first thing they you normally do after you come up with a product, service or an idea you will go to put a name on it.

Usually, most people will go out and Google to see what names are available and to check out who else has the same ideas.

After you do that then the decision needs to come "what's next"?

What you should normally do at this point would be to sit down and look at a marketing plan.

Answer these questions...

1) How am I going to get the word out about my product?

2) What is the goal of my marketing (short, medium, long term)

3) Am I looking for local regional or national or even international coverage?

4) what is my online strategy?

5) how will social media fit into this strategy?

6) what do I want my website to do for me?

- is it an informational site? Just meant to give info on the business?

- is it an order taking site?

- do you want to be able to process payments?

- do you need a shopping cart?

7) domain name

- this is something that you may think you need earlier on. I am going to explain this part first in my next posting.

What's in the domain name?

The internet is changing... 

Now that is no surprise to anyone, we all know that the internet is ALWAYS changing.  The problem is that most of us who use the internet on a day to day basis don't really know anything about how it all works.  All we know that is when we are looking for information we pick up our phone, tablet or go on our computers.  

We open Google (70% of the planet), Yahoo, Bing, AOL, Baidu, whichever search engine you use to find your information.  

You type in the question or the words that you are looking for and magically there is an answer that is delivered to you.  

Hopefully the "right" answer, or the "right" web site.  

Now that is great when you are looking for something... what happens when you are on the other end of the spectrum though?  Where you are the one WANTED to be found? 

Once upon a time you could go and get a web expert to build you a web site, it would have costed you over $2000 to get it up on line, but once it was up there you would be in a better spot than your competition.  

"I have a web site" would be enough to get you found... or so you were told. 

How things have changed.. with the invention and re-invention of the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) there are a lot of rules that you need to follow to make sure that your site is coming up when people are looking for things. 

This however is getting increasingly harder, as on average there are over 175,000 new web sites going up every day.  

Each of those sites have a "goal" or an "idea" behind them.  Many of them are for their owners to make a bunch of money... others are people who are just trying to get their ideas out.. others are there because someone else told them that they needed one. 

My goal with this blog is to fill in some of the areas of questions and try to give some up to date information on what is happening. 

If you have questions on anything about how to be or get found on line, let me know. 

If you have the question so does someone else.