Domain Name Strategies and Best Practices to Advertise and Grow Your Business.
Summer has come to an end here in Austin although the weather keeps attempting to inch its way up beyond 90 degrees.
And with Summer coming to an end, my household has embarked upon what is to become many years of practices and games as our oldest son ventures into soccer this year.
Weekends often fly by when your having fun, especially this past weekend as I attended a Men’s Retreat.
I kicked off this past weekend by getting on the road and heading to T Bar M Camps & Retreats for my home church’s, Mosaic Church Austin, annual Men’s Retreat.
I managed to escape Austin’s nightmarish traffic to head south to New Braunfels, Texas.
In route, I spotted quite a few domains being advertised across various media that I’ll likely write about in the coming weeks and months.
I meant to make the post a month ago. But as usual, life events took precedence and I simply had to hang on for the ride, snapping pics along the way.
The boys, especially our oldest, have had a summer filled with a number of vacation bible schools (VBS) throughout the greater Austin metroplex.
I’ve lived in Austin for the past 13 years and counting.
I originally lived in Pflugerville, a suburb just north of Austin, for 4-5 years when I first arrived. However, my wife and I (and our growing family) have called Northwest Austin our home base for the last 9 or so years.
Austin has grown quite a bit over this time and still growing. In fact, many hope that folks will stop moving to Austin to curb soaring real estate prices and reduce the economic constraints of congested traffic, to put it lightly.
Nevertheless, it’s been a fun experience watching Austin burst at its seams in exponential growth.
One of the areas of growth is watching and partaking of the many festivals Austin has birthed over the last decade or more.
I’m often intrigued by the number of small business owners operating fairly successful businesses, yet do so with less than stellar domain names as their web presence.
Of course, it’s possible to operate a business without a domain name and be successful. We did quite well as a society before introducing the internet, although limited in customer reach and growth.
However, operating a business with a less than stellar domain could very well cost your business future customers, and likely shutter the doors on the business itself.
I was recently reminded of this very concept as I casually strolled through the professional office location I recently moved too thanks to the help of The Paul Ott Company.
Today’s post leaves me scratching my head for a number of reasons I’m soon to mention.
My family and I were in route home from a filling dinner when I spotted a domain on the back of a car.
I maneuvered lanes of traffic to get closer to read the back of the car.
It was hard to make out, but I was able to make out a domain with hyphens and a phone number.
As I travel to and fro across the greater Austin metroplex, I quite often stumble upon a wide variety of domain names.
From yard signs to billboards to auto wraps and more, domain name advertising is fiercely competing for our eyes and wallets.
Over the last 25 years or more, most people know about and have become comfortable with the legacy domain extensions (i.e., .com, .org, .net).
Although I listed the common three, there are 20-25 that are categorized as legacy domain name extensions.
But in the last 3-4 years, ICANN took it upon themselves to open the domain extension flood gates to the second coming of the domain goldrush, releasing nearly 1400+ new words to the right of the dot.
It’s heating up in Texas, and things are getting quite active around Volente Beach.
As I work the days away, I often see party buses to and fro with intense beach laughter and frolicking.
There’s a bit more loud music playing throughout the day than the norm, and the marina island is always packed with a party barge or two in full effect.
Truth be told, it’s quite a refreshing view to experience new ownership spicing things up around the sleepy village of Volente.
I’m back with another domain spotting. This time I didn’t have to travel as far as we did for family pictures.
I decided to stay home one day this week to celebrate our daughter turning 1 and boy #2 turning 3 years old.
I was walking out of the front door of our home to take out the trash and spotted a service truck in front of my neighbors yard.
I really didn’t pay much attention to as I headed back into the house.
But then the the domain stood out to me when I noticed the gentleman walking the exterior of my neighbors home was a pest control technician.
Pest control companies always peek my interest because there are quite a number here in Austin, Texas.
Of course, it was a bright and early here in Austin, Texas, and the House of Brown has beat the sun up for a fun and exciting day.
That’s right, we took family pictures to celebrate the 4th of July, birthdays for boy #2 and girl (born the same day two years apart, turning 3 and 1 respectively), and simply another family milestone.
We loaded up and headed to Buda, Texas just 20 minutes south of Austin.
Our destination for family pics, Buda’s Historic Stagecoach Park, was chosen by a longtime family friend, Hanna Mac Photography.