What is a Domain Name?  It’s the name that you will give to your website. It’s the URL that people will type in to gain access to whatever you are offering online.  It’s the name that over time people will come to associate with you.

Choosing a domain name is step that requires careful consideration and should involve some research for a number of reasons:

1)    You can make the decision to use your name; however, while I strongly recommend that you purchase your name if it’s available, if you are new to the internet you may want to park it temporarily.  An important reason for this recommendation is that you may not be sure at this stage what you want your name to represent in the online community.  You may need time to determine how you’d like to brand yourself online and what (more…)

A customer is anyone for whom you provide a service or sell a product and the names or terms customers are referred to may differ depending on your market.  A customer may be called a client, a purchaser, a buyer, or even a student. A customer who has not yet made a purchase or exchange of service or product may be referred to as a prospect.  Regardless of the terminology unique to your business the bottom-line remains the same: your customer if the lifeline of your business.  The service that you as the business owner provides will have a direct impact on the success or failure of your online business and so it becomes critical to be sure that you always provide superior customer service. This is a part of building your personal brand.

In building your brand online your goal should be to be recognized as someone who goes over and beyond what is normally required to take care of their customers.  I happen to like the term ‘over-deliver.’  No one usually complains if you over-deliver.  This is the kind of reputation that will set you apart from the pack and make you stand out.  On the other hand using underhand tactics and not keeping your promises is the way to go to experience the death of your business.  Pete Blackshaw says it very well in the title of his book, Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000: Running a Business in Today’s Consumer-Driven World. (more…)

Yesterday we talked about 5 personal action steps that are essential to building your brand for success online.  Today we will focus on how to build your brand in practical ways.  What are some of the action steps you should start taking, if you have not done so already, to build your reputation online?  This is only a brief list, but it covers 4 of the most readily available steps you can take and they are all free. These are also the first four steps that were recommended to me by my Mentors and have proven to be very effective.

1)  Join Social Networking Sites and set up a well thought out Profile on each.  You want to be authentic but reveal only what is relevant and in keeping with the brand you are building.  The sites most frequently recommended are:  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

2)  Blogs:  You may start your own blog, which is one of the easiest way to become known online.  If that seems daunting at first or you don’t have the know-how, start by leaving comments on blogs in the category you will be focusing on initially.  Leave meaningful comments that add to the conversation and demonstrate your knowledge or expertise. People in your target audience will begin to know you and associate your name with quality information.  You will usually be asked to leave your website address when you leave a comment.  If you do not have a blog or other static website set up, use an addresses from one of your social networking sites, for example, your Facebook or LinkedIn address.

3)  Article Writing: If you like to write and are willing to share your knowledge then article writing is an effective way to build your brand.  There are many Article Directors on the Internet and you can easily find these through Google, but the only one I’ve used is Ezinearticles.com.  It’s very easy to join and start submitting articles, being careful to follow their guidelines to avoid rejection.  These articles can be as short as 250 words.  At the end of each article is one of the most valuable ‘real estate’ online – your Resource Box, which allows you to include information about yourself that is relevant to the articles you’ve written as well as include links to your blog, if you have one, or to your profile.

4)  Book Reviews:  When we read a good book we are usually excited about sharing the valuable information with others.  When you read books that are specific to your area of expertise, you have the opportunity to do book reviews for both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  There may be others, but those I personally know of.  This benefits you significantly because you first create a profile, then by providing a thoughtful and beneficial review you add value to other readers and enhance your position as an expert.  These reviews are also indexed by the search engines, which further builds your brand.

5)  Be consistent.  A hit and miss attitude does not contribute to success; consistency does.

As you work to build your brand, keep track of your progress towards your goals and be prepared to add further steps or make adjustments to align your vision with your goals.

Simply put your brand is basically the reputation that you build through your online activities over a period of time and how people think of you when they see or hear your name and or the name of your main website.  You will first have to determine who you are, what sets you apart from everyone else and what image you want the world to have of you through your online activities, then work towards developing and building your brand for online success.

This can be challenging because for the most part your brand will be conveyed through words that more often than not appear on a computer screen.  In face to face contact there are opportunities for your emotions and thoughts to be expressed through conversations, body language, eye contact and voice inflection, among others.  On the other hand, being able to convey warmth, compassion, understanding, a positive attitude, etc. becomes a lot more complex. Following are just some of the personal action steps you can take to build your brand for success:

Personal Action Steps -

1)  Do you have a vision of where you want to be? What are your short-term and long-term goals?  You must identify your vision and determine what your goals are and set dates or time periods for their achievement.

2)  You must have a purpose for doing what you do and this purpose must align with you values for true satisfaction.

3)  Identify your particular strengths and amplify these to set you apart.

4)  Determine what online tools you will use to be most effective in building your brand.

5)  Set up a Marketing Plan that will maximize your work to build your brand, without which you are only doing a half of what’s required to maintain success in your online business

In my next post, we will consider practical steps that can be taken to build your brand for online success.

Creating a presence online may take different forms as the internet provides a smorgasbord of options.  You may be in Direct Sales and already have a static website provided by the company you represent, you may be a stay-at-home mom or dad who is looking for a way to reach out to others, whether for friendship, or to find money-making opportunities.  You may be a self-employed professional or the owner of a brick and mortar store who wants to expand his/her reach, or you may be an employee looking to transition.  Regardless of your background, there is one important point to keep in mind:  Exercise care in what you say and enter on various websites because once they are there they are like marks made by a permanent marker or indelible ink that cannot be erased.  They may be submerged, but can always be found with a little effort and can come back to haunt you later on.

We will discuss how to build your brand in another post, but today we are going to look at some reasons why it is important to build your brand.  What is a brand?  Wikipedia.org defines brand as a name, sign, symbol, slogan or anything that is used to identify and distinguish a specific product, service, or business. From the outset branding sets you apart and distinguishes you or your business from others who may be marketing the same product or offering a similar service.

If you are new to the internet you will become aware that you can start in various places; for example, many persons will encourage you to start by joining one of the social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.  There is value in doing so because you can observe and eventually participate in interactions, become aware of groups that you can join, create networking opportunities and expand your reach.  However, on each of these sites you will be asked to create a Profile.  What will your Profile say about you?  When people click on your profile what will they find?  What do you want people to know about you and how much of yourself will you reveal?  It is truly important to be authentic, but at the same time caution should be exercised that you do not reveal information that could make you become a victim of ID theft.

Building your brand is important because -

1) You need your brand to create an effective presence on the internet
2) Your brand builds credibility, which can only be achieved over a period of time.
3) What will be your USP – Your Unique Selling Proposition?  It’s important to identify this so you can express it clearly.  The first person who asked me that got a ‘Huh?” answer as I had no idea what they were talking about.  This is one thing that will set you apart from others and identify your brand.
4) Deciding on a niche may take time, but is a highly recommended step because you cannot be all things to everyone and it’s important to determine what or where you will focus on. Your niche will be one of your branding tools.
5) One of the basic items you will need for your online business is a Domain Name.  You can select a domain name with keywords that reflect the brand you will be building, or you can select your own name.com.  You will also need to determine how you will brand your name.  What do you want people to associate your name with?

From the foregoing, you can appreciate that to have an building your brand is important.  Tomorrow we will discuss how to build your brand in order to have an effective presence on the internet.