Mom & Pop on the Web

Associated globally with the words “COmpany,” “COrporation” and “COmmerce” – the .CO domain is easy to recognize, simple to remember and flexible to use. And that makes it the perfect platform for today’s socially networked individuals, entrepreneurs and companies to create .COmmunities, share .COntent, and .COnnect, .COmmunicate and .COllaborate.
~COInternet.co

You’re virtually looking at the proud owner of the brand-new domain, AdamGentry.co . Yup, that’s right: not .com (unfortunately), not .co.uk or .co.jp, simply .CO . The .co extension is the newest addition to the burgeoning list of top-level domains (such as .com and .net) which have been giving domain-flipping Webheads something to obsess about for the past twenty-five years.

Originally the country-specific domain for Columbia, .CO is now being phased into use for the entire world. It came about in three general phases:

• Sunrise: Colombian companies and then trademark-holders get first dibs on the .co equivalent to their .com name.
• Landrush: Rich and/or gambling folks get a pop at the best names at about $300 per domain.
• General Availability (now): Average Joes and Janes get a chance at what’s left for roughly $30 each.

So what’s the big deal? Of course the folks hawking the .co domains and their ten registrars are going to say it’s the best thing since email, but what about less-biased sources? This site reports that the opening up of the .co TLD could be “one of the biggest domain launches in history,” because “three out of four people associate .co with ‘company’, ‘corporation’, or other commercial endeavours, presenting a clear opportunity in online branding.” Bunches of business bigwigs have jumped on the bandwagon, with over 26,000 trademark-holders grabbing their names in the Landrush.

The savvy Webheads among you may ask, “Since .co is so similar to .com, won’t all the domains be taken up by typosquatters? What if somebody uses his millions to make a deal with Columbia, like Kevin Ham did with Cameroon (.cm), and redirect all the unused domains to his holdings?”

Juan Calle, COInternet CEO, says to Wired that “the [$30] price is intended to help keep the domain largely free from ‘domainers‘ who buy domain names in bulk in hopes of making money off parked ad pages, without actually building a useful site.” “I don’t think small businesses are sensitive to $2 versus $30,” he says.

No, that wouldn’t affect a person buying a couple domains. Again, though, that probably wouldn’t put off the people with extremely deep pockets either, so I’m not sure how valid his point is.

Nonetheless, .CO offficially releases into the wild today. Will it be like the .com boom, or the .info bust? Time will tell. Until then, people in .COvert ops, .COnartistry, and pirate .COves will be able to buy their perfect domain name.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Network Solutions Announces Beginning of Landrush Period for .CO Domain Name Extension (prweb.com)
• The .CO Domain Registry Announces Unprecedented Rights Protections for Brand Owners on Eve of .CO Sunrise (eon.businesswire.com)
• Domain.com Expects Surge of .CO Domain Registrations During the Landrush Phase (prweb.com)
• Taking your .COmpany from small to big with a .CO domain (myventurepad.com)
• Announcing the new domain extension .CO - It’s where possibility meets opportunity (networksolutions.com)
• Dot .CO Domains Are Hot (mwd.com)

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What does attending a job fair have to do with Web business? Usually, not too much — but this company was an exception. Read on (and the first post) to learn about their proactive follow-up techniques.

A few hours after I got the first text message from Widgetmakers, I checked my inbox and saw an email message from them. Okay, I thought, a form letter telling me to visit their site. I’ll bite. Then I opened the letter. There was the company graphic, a smiling associate, and a website address in big, bold print.

Nothing special, right? On a closer glance, though, I saw that the webpage address included my name! I had to click on it, just to see what they’d customized for me personally. It turned out to be a signup form, pre-populated with the info from my resume’, making it easy to join the list for getting more information. Once I did, I was sent to their website with articles and videos about the business program and my possible role in it.

Widgetmakers did a great job leading me through the steps to conversion (also see AIDA):

1. Attention: They had a booth in the public, at a place job-seekers — their target market — were likely to be. This started the conversation.
2. Interest: They sent me a text to show that I was at the top of their (virtual) mind, and to keep themselves in mine.
3. Desire: Their email message was customized to me, making me want to visit their website and see what they had made especially for me.
4. Action: They prompted me to join their newsletter by pre-filling my information, then led me to browse their site when I did.

Yes, all of this took some Web wizardry, but the concept isn’t too tough. You could do some of the same things with services such as Your Mailing List Provider. The point is to use technology to help draw people in, prompt them to form a conversation with you, and turn that into a purchase and ongoing customer/vendor relationship.

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I went to a job fair this week. What’s that have to do with Web business? Usually, not too much. This time, though, one company impressed me with their use of media automation. Instead of waiting for me to call them back, which would have been reasonable considering the number of people who came to event, they were proactive: They used technology to get back in touch with me, pique my interest, and nudge me into action.

The rep at the booth was the usual personable and knowledgable type, who casually asked for my resume’ at the end of our talk. I provided it, said goodbye, and went to the next company’s station. After I left, they apparently put my information into a database, then used it to follow up:

This afternoon I got a text message from a strange number. It read:

Adam, It was great seeing you at the Spring 2010 Career Fair! We look forward to speaking with you again soon — Your Friends at the WLP [Widgetmaker's Leadership Program].

Hey, cool! They saved my info, popped my name in the message, and noted where they talked to me. Very interesting.

It wasn’t over yet: Come back in a few days for the rest of the story and how you can apply similar techniques.

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Twitter Marketing for Dummies, by Kyle Lacy

True social media guru Kyle Lacy was kind enough to send me his new book, Twitter Marketing for Dummies, to review. This is the summary overview, the first installment in a series where I talk about said book and post some of the most interesting excerpts. Enjoy!

When I hear “Twitter” and “marketing” in the same sentence, I’m automatically on-guard. Anybody who’s been on Twitter for any length of time at all has seen the so-called “Twitter gurus” and “social media mavens” who spew countless links and virtually no original content, confusing prolificity with productivity. Automated linkrolls and “get rich/get followers/buy stuff” posts do not an effective Twitter account make.

Kyle Lacy is not in that camp. Taking his own advice, his Twitter page includes helpful tips, interesting links (but not too many), posts of his friends’ comments, and personal updates in good ratios. He also links to posts from his blog, which is a great read. It has advice on how to make the most of social media, general business advice, observations on the evolution of marketing, and more.

In spite of what one might assume by the title, Twitter Marketing for Dummies is not a simple “Twitter 101″ book. Yes, it includes the absolute basics, such as giving step-by-step instructions for how to create an account, but it goes far beyond that.

With the casual, conversational style familiar to all Dummies books and his lighthearted asides, Kyle guides the reader through numerous aspects of using Twitter for business. He discusses the difference between old-school marketing and the new age of social media, and the fact that the former broadcast advertising model is being replaced by targeted networking which reaches and forms relationships with individuals specifically interested in your offerings.

After that the book goes into how to create a marketing plan — including the usual critical aspects and how to integrate those into your Web promotion. It continues on to time management and productivity issues, using Twitter specifically for sales and customer service, and many other aspects of using the service for the greatest benefit.

Overall, I found Twitter Marketing for Dummies to be an enjoyable, helpful reference. My copy will be highlighted, dog-eared, and referred-to often.

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To write great copy, you must adhere to three principles:
• It must be relevant.
• It must be credible.
• It must be as short as possible (not just short).

Notice how the word “creative” is absent. People don’t have time for you to be cute, play tricks, or gimmick them. They want the facts, and they want what they’re looking for now….

Kill the jargon, fluff, and hype. Not everyone can be the number one, premier, most trusted, scalable, most robust, and leading vendor. But if you do make a claim, make sure you can validate it immediately. Customers are more sensitive than ever to shoddy sales pitches and false claims.

Speak to customers in an authentic, human voice. Embrace transparency and authenticity and, wherever possible, embrace the voice of the customer. While you’re at it, make sure your copy has a voice that matches your brand; a voice that people will remember.

Stop haggling over copy length; customers don’t care. They care about getting the information they need from your copy, quickly. Make sure you answer their questions and close the loopholes in as few words as possible…. [E]ditors who can slash copy to its meaty essentials are invaluable.

[Excerpted from Writing Better Copy for the Web 2.0 Landscape; emphasis added]

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[A] large number of Fortune 100 companies have embraced Twitter, but how well are they actually using it? A study released (PDF)… by Weber Shandwick says the answer is not very well, and that the majority of Fortune 100 companies don’t really get Twitter…. [Most] weren’t using Twitter effectively to engage their followers, weren’t tweeting often, and didn’t display any personality in their tweets, according to the study…..

When these companies do take a look at their strategy and use of social media, they need to realize that the key element missing is conversation. Twitter, and social media in general, is about two-way communication, which is something that all companies need to realize as they constantly evaluate and tweak their social media use. Companies should also reconsider whether to use a person that is identified with an account, which could improve their engagement and build a personable brand.

[Excerpted from STUDY: Most Fortune 100 Companies Don’t Get Twitter (Mashable), emphasis added]

What are you using your company or professional Twitter account(s) for? It’s okay if you don’t have one (for now), but if you do, you need to make effective use of it:

• News: Even if your account is full of automatically-posted local news feeds from your own company, people may see you as spammy. Supplement your feeds with candid talk from trusted, savvy employees; helpful advice; relevant links; and other quality content.
• Sales: Chances are you probably won’t make millions on Twitter right away; Dell eventually did, but they also have 200 employees manning their tweets. Start out small with authoritative advice and responses to people’s requests for help, and focus on getting involved with the community. Once they see you’re the expert, maybe you’ll have a chance to move into broadcasting your sales offers. Don’t go for the hard sell from the start, though.
• Conversation: If you only broadcast and don’t keep up a two-way conversation with your clients and leads, you might as well just have a brochure website. (Yes, I make these type of sites, but they’re just the beginning: They need to be enhanced and promoted with Twitter, Facebook, blogs, newsletters, and other more interactive features.) The beauty and power of Twitter is that you can talk to your audience directly, give a soft sell, and show them the quality of your business by the expertise you provide.

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A client of mine just asked how to go about promoting a business website. I fired off a few ideas, then thought that the same advice would be helpful for a larger audience. Here ya’ go!

• Start a mailing list. Gather customers’ email addresses (with permission), then send them periodic newsletters about product specials, advice for your area of expertise, exclusive contests, and other items they’d enjoy. I recommend Your Mailing List Provider as an inexpensive, quality newsletter service. This content can also be used as an online article archive; Google likes it when you update your site often.
• Make a Facebook business page. Offer discounts, contests, fun links, discussion-starters, and other content to draw visitors into your fan group. Then, whenever you update your status, they’ll see it on their Facebook page.
• Engage in social media (Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc) to build up a reputation online as a helpful, quality organization in your community.
• Build your search engine ranking.
  -Search engine optimization: Research keywords for which most people search, but relatively few websites cater to. Then add those keywords to specific places to show Google that your site is relevant to searches for those keywords. Wordtracker is a great service for finding the best phrases.
  -Search engine/keyword marketing: Advertise with Google AdWords: You pay a few cents to a number of dollars each time a person clicks on your link in the “Sponsored Listings”of the Google search results. [see also Tweak Keywords or Pay Per Click?]
  -Build inbound links: Email or call other related and local sites, asking them to link to your website, increasing your reputation with Google.

Whatever you do, keep your site fresh and make sure you never abandon your website. You don’t expect a person to find your magazine ad from three months ago and buy your product, so don’t expect the same from your website. Keep it fresh, keep it fun, keep ‘em coming back. Happy Web promotion!

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You’ve tried the rest, but they just don’t satisfy. You want a nice downloadable or Web-based graphics program that won’t cost an arm or a leg. Where do you turn? Try these on for size:

Picnik - This is a fun-looking Web-based graphics manipulator that includes both free and paid versions.

• Pros: Picnik has all your usual useful tasks, including re-size, crop, auto-correct, red eye, contrast, text, and more. It has a slick interface reminiscent of a more user-friendly Picasa. It’s fairly versatile. There’s also a small picture archive you can use to save photos, with more on the paid version.
• Cons: Being an online program, it takes a few seconds for the meat of the program to load, as well as each graphic. It only allows a handful of saved photos with the free version, but that’s more than some of the others on this list. Nice program if you don’t have access to the top of the line.

Gimp- The open-source grandaddy of all graphics-manipulators, the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) has a dizzying array of options for your design needs.

• Pros: Tons of options, probably on par with Photoshop. A powerful image-editing program with layers, magic wand, and everything else you’d expect from a top-of-the-line graphics app. I’ve barely scratched the surface.
• Cons: Tons of options, not terribly intuitive. It’s hard to figure out what feature is where, and how to use it once you find it. The learning curve is high and totally separate from Photoshop, Fireworks, and similar programs, even if you use the GIMPShop hack. Other than that, I’m sure it’s a great program once you take the time to learn it.

[This is part three of a three-part series. Check out Part I: Specialized Apps and Part II: Basic Editors.]

There you have it. Got a favorite open-source or cheap graphics program you’d like to share? Comment here! Your suggestion just might end up in a future Resources section. Happy drawing!

Tags: free, graphics editors, multi-featured, open source, robust

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So you’ve stepped up from the single-task graphics apps and you want something a wee bit robust. Where do you go if you’re not flush with cash? Here are a few options:
Microsoft Paint - Ah, good old Paint. No, I’m not saying you should all your entire graphics design work on this little program, but it’ll get you through in a (minor) pinch.

• Pros: It’s decent for cropping, file conversion, and very basic layout work.
• Cons: Anti-aliasing isn’t that great. There’s no layering. There are no options for JPG compression percents, transparent GIFs, or other file type attributes. JPGs are rather blurry, PNGs have a large file size, and GIFs usually lose significant quality. It also saves extensions (.JPG, .PNG) in capital letters, so you might want to write them out in lower-case on your filename when you save it. Options are very limited overall.

Microsoft Picture Manager - While more of an image-tweaking program than a graphics editor, Picture Manager has its benefits. It’s best used as a quick fix when making minor adjustments to photos.

• Pros: Nice job of cropping and resizing graphics, auto color correct, lighten/darken, and editing multiple files at a time. Easy to figure out.
• Cons: When resizing, you have to specify pixels instead of percents, and manually calculate the proportions between width and height. It has almost no features for real graphics-editing, but of course it’s not really meant for that…

Picasa - An offering from Google, this is a desktop album app with limited file-editing capabilities. Once it’s downloaded, it grabs your graphics from throughout your computer and also assimilates (Google assimilates? Hmmm…) new additions.

• Pros: Very slick interface. When set as the default graphics editor, an opened picture zooms onto your screen in an impressive growing animation.
• Cons: As a Google acquisition, I thought Picasa would be as easy to use and trouble-free as most other offerings from the big G. Unfortunately, as an online colleague of mine said, they should have taken more time to incubate it. It doesn’t grab new graphics consistently and has a confusing album-browsing interface, with the folders just listed individually instead of hierarchly hierarchy-y in a tree.

What’s your favorite free or cheap graphics program? Let us know in the Comments!

[This is part two in a three-part series. You can read Part I: Specialized Apps, then come back in two days for the final installment.]

Tags: free programs, Google picasa, graphics editors, Microsoft

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While you’re saving your nickels and dimes to get the latest version of the Adobe graphics suite, what do you do to keep from going through graphics-creation withdrawal? Here are some free or very common resources you can use to explore your artistic side.

Resizr - Do one thing, and do it well. I recently found this quick Web-based graphics resizer and have had some success with it. All you do is upload your file or tell it an online graphic’s Web address, and you can resize and save as any JPG, GIF, or PNG.

• Pros: It works well on GIFs and PNGs, especially for shrinking graphics or relatively small size increases. It has a crop feature, too. Proportions are automatically calculated, and there’s a live display of your resized graphic each time you edit it. Relatively intuitive.
• Cons: JPGs tend to get blurry if you’re very particular about them. (It may not show in the final product, though, if you select GIF or PNG on the top right before you commit.) There’s some pixelization on large graphic expansions, but that’s pretty common. You can’t alter the aspect ratio (stretch height or width). You can only edit one file at a time.

UrbanFonts - Free fonts are always fun, and besides having a good-sized archive, you can use this one for a tiny bit of graphic design.

• Pros: There’s a very large archive of all different kinds of fonts here, from sans-serif to decorative. You can preview any font you want to download by typing in your sample text, and it’ll appear in a variety of font sizes. Check it out with the Eight Track font for example. The quality is better than what you’ll get on MS Paint or other non-anti-aliasing programs.
  Cons: One trick pony. You can’t do any other kinds of graphics-editing. Give it a break — it’s just a font archive!

Have you found a nifty little Web-based or downloadable app for specialized graphics manipulation? Let everybody know in the Comments section!

[This is the first in a three-part series. Come back in a couple days for the next installment.]

Tags: free programs, Google picasa, graphics programs, open source, photo-editing

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