E-Mail to the Editor
E-Mail to the Editor
Long Domain Names
We've had a good bit of e-mail about long domain names from a recent article, "Are Long Domain Names a Big Deal?" (http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/long-domain-name.htm). Here are some excerpts from our readers.
"Congratulations on coming out with a dissenting opinion on the value of long domain names. When I saw all the hype ... I was really wondering what all the fuss was about, for exactly the same reasons that you mentioned in your piece -- and I'm really delighted that you used your forum to try to bring some sanity back into the Internet marketing world. I hope that your common-sense approach 'takes' among your readers, and in the larger 'Net universe." -- John Vinokur, Payment Central Inc. (www.paymentcentralinc.com)
"Just finished your article. Great! I got the same hyped up, so excited, urgent news messages and wondered if they were shills for the domain registration services." -- Wayne Jamison, Glass Portal Marketing (www.glassportal.com)
"Your article was a breath of fresh air that may help cool the 'long-domain name' fever that seems to be ailing certain web marketing pros! You may be a voice crying in the wilderness, but thank God for your common sense approach!" -- John Gross (www.affordabledisney.com)
"I think you are absolutely right on the long domain names. The people sending out these messages are just trying to sell a lot of domain names! And think they provide no benefit. I am getting about one of these messages each day!" -- Ed Simpson, Home Business News (www.homebiznews.com)
"Spot on about the long domain name hype. None of the major search engines give preference to keywords in domain names or URLs anyway. Coincidentally I did a cute project over the holidays to find all the remaining 3-character domain names, and also all the 1-word domain names that were left (out of 50,000 or so in the linux.words file). You can find the results at http://selfpromotion.com/domainfun.t"-- Robert Woodhead, AnimEigo (www.animeigo.com)
"There was an inaccurate statement made in your domain name strategies. Search engines do NOT use keywords in domain names as part of their relevancy. It makes absolutely no difference whether or not a keyword is in a domain name to achieve a search engine ranking." -- Shari Thurow, Grantastic Designs (www.grantasticdesigns.com/tips.html)
"I think you're way off base on your thoughts about long domain names. If I'm like most folks nowadays I'd say I click on 95% of all Web sites via a banner, a hot link, a mention in an e-zine, etc. Rarely do I have to type in names much anymore. Plus, I think if cleverly done, long domain names can be quite memorable. And distinctive." -- Michael Werner, Publisher
"We have witnessed a relevance 'boost' for Web sites whose domain name includes keywords in the following spider-based search engines: Excite, AltaVista, HotBot, WebCrawler, and Google. This has been confirmed by WebPosition Gold’s Page Critic feature, as well. This rankings boost could be partially due to the fact that many search engines favor 'default' pages, e.g., index.htm or default.asp pages. The more domain names you register, the more default pages are available to be optimized. Finally, while I am suspicious of the real value of very long domain names based on my belief that search engines will easily flag those using several dashes as intended for doorway pages and not actual Web sites, a search engine positioning strategy that utilizes multiple domain names is generally beneficial. The rank improvement to a company’s primary website through additional 'link popularity' will often pay for the cost of the additional hosting and registration fees." -- Fredrick Marckini, iProspect.com, Inc. (www.iprospect.com).
Editor: I give a great deal of credence to the continual search engine research done by WebPosition Gold to keep their Page Critic up-to-date. http://www.webposition.com/cgi-local/index.pl?DS1=RP&DS2=AQH-55E7
"Boy, did you hit the nail on the head of a big pet peeve from the end of last year! I DO like the 67 characters for one reason, and for one reason only -- it provides some extra flexibility in naming. But as you rightly point out, even that can usually be overcome with some imagination." -- Ken Evoy, Make Your Site Sell (http://sales.sitesell.com)
"Finally, someone who shares my opinion about long domain names and the benefits of having a shorter name. What successful newcomers need for the Internet is not longer names, but a higher level of creativity to set themselves apart from their competitor." -- Michelle Bernier, The Computer Factory, Inc. (www.tcfi-fl.com)
Steps to Launch a Dot.Com
Regarding the article "Dot.Com Countdown: 7 Steps to E-Business Launch" (http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/jesuswalk-launch.htm):
"Securing a domain name is very important -- but so is protecting it. I could cite many cases where someone launched their ebusiness, built up recognition for their domain name, and then lost it in a trademark dispute. (And sometimes they have to pay damages for infringement, as well.) Plus, with new legislation against Cybersquatters, the consequences are getting stiffer for those who infringe on trademarks." -- Andrea Stephenson, www.NameProtect.com
Book Brief on Customers.com
On my book brief on Patricia Seybold's Customers.com (http://www.wilsonweb.com/reviews/customerscom.htm):
"Yes, Customers.com is an interesting read. Yes, Seybold's '8 lessons' are important. Yes, the book provides a number of interesting case studies. Yet ... the book is weak in providing forward-looking guidance. I suppose this weakness stems from the book's failure to lay out a generative conceptual model that motivates the key lessons.... In short, Customers.com does a nice job illustrating what works for the companies profiled Yet, when it comes to explaining why those elements work, Customers.com comes up short. -- Robert E. Kleine, III, Ph.D., Kleine & Associates (www.gentleye.com)
