If you’re starting a new business, or launching an all-new website for any reason, one of the first steps is choosing a domain name. But choose with care. It can be costly to change later! Here’s how you can make your choice carefully and easily.

Choose An Obvious Domain Name

Every website has a domain name. It’s a calling card that’s both name and address. Think of it like the name of your space on the Internet. It’s an address, too. It’s what you tell people so they know how to find you.

Most companies choose a domain name that matches their company name. This is the most obvious choice and the best. When users search for you by name, the website with your name will show up. An exact match can even help with search engine optimization.

While you’re searching and shopping for your exact match domain name, pick up a few extras. Get common misspellings of your name so that you can set-up automatic redirects if someone happens to misspell it. Or if you have a nickname or another related name that you’re know by, go ahead and purchase registration for those names as well.

The idea is that even if users make a mistake or search for one of those alternates, you can redirect them to the correct destination.

What if your exact match domain name is not available? Most common dictionary words and phrases are already taken. You must be prepared with a list of acceptable alternatives.

Brainstorm Alternate Choices

When companies find that someone else has taken their exact match domain name, they create variations. Maybe you can actually choose one of those nicknames or related names you picked up and just commit to it as your primary domain!

As you brainstorm this list, generate variations by adding a verb at the beginning or a noun at the end. If your company is Acme, Inc. and acme.com is not available, try getacme.com or acmewidgets.com.

Try adding a geographic identifier like a state, city or neighborhood name to the end. For example Acme, Inc. might be in New York City. They could try acmenyc.com or acmeny.com.

Beware of choosing a domain name with an unusual domain extension. That’s the .com, .net, or .org at the very end. Your preferred name might not be available with .com, but it could be registered with one of the other extensions.

However, .com is more highly recognized and popular across the world for commercial websites. Some extensions like .biz actually have a somewhat negative perception. Rather than choose a domain with a weird ending, try to get a .com that works for you.

Once you have a list of domain names you think you like, it’s time to put them through some basic tests to find the strongest options.

Test Out Your Name

Carefully say each of your domain name options out loud. Which ones are difficult to say? Which of them roll off the tongue?

Imagine that you have purchased an audio or video ad and someone else will have to speak your domain name without any coaching. Will they stumble over the words? Avoid tongue twisters.

For example, English vowels adjacent to one another can be awkward to read and awkward to speak. See goacme.com or acmeenginering.com. They both look a little funny to me.

And it feels weird to say “go” immediately followed by “acme”. I think non-English speakers could struggle without hearing it first. In this example, getacme.com is better because the hard “t” sound is easier to say and the letter visually divides the two words.

Speaking of dividing words, domain names don’t have spaces. That’s why adjacent vowels make it hard to tell where one word ends and the next begins. You might think a dash could solve this problem. But beware! Avoid choosing a domain name with dashes!

Though technically allowed, a dash forces speakers to say the word “dash” or “hyphen” when speaking your domain name. Remember the audio/video ad test? Potential customers may mistakenly type in something like acmedashwidgets.com. We all know someone prone to mistakes like that.

Say your domain name options out loud, eliminate the tongue twisters and odd ducks. Don’t use dashes. Make sure all of your domain name options are memorable, easy to say, and easy to spell.

Get Privacy Protection

Still with me? It’s finally time to review that shopping cart and purchase registration for all the domain names you need. And that’s when nearly every registrar will ask if you want to purchase privacy protection. You should say yes.

It’s an add-on expense that initially seems like a rip-off. But to understand the value, you need to know that international law requires every domain name to be associated with publicly available contact information. This means that you will fill out a form with your name, email address, phone number, and your location and this information will be posted online for all to see.

What generally happens is that you’ll receive an overload of sketchy junk mail and spam as the world’s scammers add your information to their database. This public registration system is designed to prevent illegal activity and promote some level of accountability. That’s great. But it requires website owners to expose information they might prefer to keep to themselves.

Privacy protection features from your domain name registrar put the registrar’s name and email on the public record instead. If they’re contacted with any legitimate inquiries, they will let you know. Meanwhile, you’re protected from junk mail and spam. That sounds worth it to me.

Choose your next domain name with careful attention to the way it looks and sounds. When you’re shopping, make sure you have a list of alternatives. And go ahead and buy more than one to cover all your nicknames or misspellings! You don’t want to invest thousands of dollars in a new website just to be cringing every time you type in the name.

Have questions about starting a new website or choosing a domain name? Simply Design Group can help. We’d love to help you build a great website. See our work.

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The answer to that question, like many is simple:  It depends.  Great answer huh?  For better clarity, let’s dive into that further.

First, let’s answer the question of why.  Why are you blogging in the first place?  What are your goals for this endeavor?  You will need to consider the answers to these questions first, before you start pecking away at the keyboard.

Here are some reasons why you just might want to start a blog:

1.  You have a new product or service that is unique and no one is talking about.  So you want to create buzz.
2.  You have a strong opinion about your industry and how to do things a certain way.  So you want to become an authority.
3.  You need to increase your rankings in search engines and your website is small.  So you want to create keyword rich content.
4.  You like to write and share your thoughts on any number of topics.  So you want to have creative outlet.

The truth is, you don’t need a reason to blog.  But if you have a business and are wanting to impact that business through blogging, it’s important to understand how blogging can make a difference and then focus your blogging efforts towards accomplishing those specific goals.

When getting started, effective blogging can be boiled down to these simple steps:

Be consistent – no matter what you are blogging about, the timing and frequency of your blog posts must be consistent.  It’s hard enough to begin to build an audience and following, keep them by regularly posting at the same time on the same day over a long period of time.  Imagine how frustrating it would be if your favorite tv or radio show just happened – no regular day or time – you just had to be lucky happen to catch that program when it came on.  You’d have a total of zero followers in no time!  No matter what pace you are capable of maintaining, the number one rule is to be consistent.

Be passionate – the word “passionate” is tossed out there a lot these days.  But when it comes to blogging, you must write passionately.  Believe what you are blogging about and let that belief shine through you words.  Your writing will reveal whether or not you have passion for what you are doing, and your readers will know it too.  Expressing your passion for what you are blogging about will come naturally.  If it doesn’t, switch to a new subject!

Be yourself – being yourself sounds cliché, but it’s vital to capturing just the right audience.  Sure, a lot of writers can fake a personality or come across differently in their writing than in person.  But that only works with novels or non-fiction books.  Those are one-time publications that are pored over by editors who can help shape portray a certain tone or personality of the writing – that may be more about the storyline than the author’s personality.  But a blog has to be you.  Readers expect to be hearing directly from you.  They want to know you and what you have to say.  So show them!  Be funny, goofy, quippy, or sarcastic.  Use words in the same way you would when you’re talking with your friends.  Readers want to be your friend too!

Give it time – like anything great, it takes time to develop your writing style and rhythm.  More importantly, it takes time to build an audience.  Forget the concept of “going viral”.  The likelihood of that happening is very slim.  So be patient.  Give yourself time.  Focus on quality.  Then you will have something amazing to offer and when your audience finds you, they will be wanting more!

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Every business needs a website. Every website needs help! You can see where this is going. Your business requires website help to maintain and update the site. It’s tempting to think you can it all on your own. But you really can’t. I believe the only people with time to support your website are the website experts on your team, in-house or contracted. Here’s why.

Website Help Requires Professional Skill and Concentrated Effort

Most websites I’ve ever worked on required at least ten hours of active pointing, clicking, and configuring to set up the first time. There are many other hours to complete the necessary meetings, correspondence, planning, and related prep work like resizing images and writing text.

Will you be your own website help on the weekends? You could!

But that would make it a hobby project and not a key piece of your business success. And hobby projects rarely turn out perfectly polished on time and on budget. Your website is much too important to your sales today and tomorrow to have it languish until the weekend. Not to mention all the times your site will go down unexpectedly.

Websites Go Down While You’re In Meetings

The time and resources required to build your website are just the start. There’s also the emotional and mental bandwidth you’ll need to deal with breakdowns. Websites are like any other man-made tool. They tend to decline, break, and sometimes disappear. Even the most efficient, 24/7 systems in the world encounter faults and derail. This happens all the time, at all hours.

How valuable is your time at work? How much are you willing to lose? You might have an hourly rate you offer to clients, but it’s your own time is completely priceless to you. Especially when we think of the cost of interruptions. It’s impossible to know if resolving a website problem will be ten minutes or two hours. Please trust someone dedicated to maintaining your website to help you. Pay them so you don’t lose your own time to sudden breakdowns.

Even when your site is relatively stable, as most website are, you should have a commitment to continuous improvement. And that means hitting the books. Or, rather, the search engines.

Websites Require Research Time

One of the biggest time requirements for website developers and website owners is research. When you’re building an all-new site, even if you have various pre-built components or predefined tools, there are always new requirements or new ideas to investigate. And if you’re just trying to fix what you have, you may need to spend even more time decoding cryptic error messages or trying to diagnose bizarre behavior.

I spend a significant amount of time collecting information about new website products and services. It’s part of the satisfaction of working with technology!

Are you interested in researching web design and website building? If you like these topics, then you won’t have an issue spending the time required to support your website with good troubleshooting and research. But if it’s not your thing, then you’re really going to feel stuck when you try to take on website duties alone.

Who’s taking care of your website now? It should be someone on your team whose job includes dedicated time to check in and know what’s going on with it day to day. Or if you run a small team in-house with no dedicated website manager, I think you truly need a support contract with experienced professionals. For the good of your customers and your business, stay supported.

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Minimalism is misunderstood. And minimalist web design is especially troublesome. Why? Because it’s not one specific aesthetic or an easily understood look. When you search for images of minimalism, the examples often feature mid-century modern furniture and decor. But these images can’t fully explain minimalism on their own. Besides, what does minimalism mean in digital art? We’re building websites, not chairs.

So, before we can build something together, we need to agree on definitions for important design terms. Let’s define minimalism for the purpose of building websites.

Intentionality in Web Design

The easiest way to describe minimalism is to say it’s the practice of eliminating distractions. It’s about focus. First, identify your goals or purpose and your needs. As you plan your project, whether it’s a poster, a kitchen, or a web design, ensure each item is chosen intentionally. Each addition must help to meet your goals or the needs you identified. Don’t bring anything else in.

Minimalist web design applies intentionality to these three areas: writing, text and image design, and page layout.

Write Short, Concise Sentences

It’s tempting to confuse minimalism for a serene, low-key style. So many pictures and representations of minimalism suggest that minimalism should be relaxing. That’s not necessarily true. Remember that minimalism is not about a single aesthetic. It’s about focus. You can be relaxing if you want. But you can also be punchy.

Always make your text as concise and brief as possible. Get to the point quickly with active verbs. Sting like a bee! And make each word as flavorful and true-to-you as local honey.

Choose Large Images and Text Treatments

Since minimalism is all about focus and intentionality, that means you will remove a lot of extras and you’ll potentially have a lot of extra space. Should you leave that space empty? You could! White space draws the eye toward your message like how plain gallery walls attract you to the art.

But you might also choose to fill the space like an IMAX screen with a single, impactful image. Go edge-to-edge to make the best use of the bright, colorful screens that are now common. This is my chosen approach.

Don’t stop with images. Consider displaying your headlines and text in font sizes larger than normal. Many websites set their body text in 14px. This is a nice size if your website must display thousands of words and really needs to economize on space. But it’s quite small. Try 16px for more comfortable reading and a bigger presence on the page. If you’re bold, try extra-large headline sizes like 60px or larger. These sizes look great and create a sense of immersion in your message.

Of course, all these sizes shrink proportionally for smaller size screens like mobile devices. While minimalism (focus) can lead to bigger sizes, or more space on big screens, translating the same approach to small screens means focusing your efforts on navigating the visitor from message to message as quickly as possible, leading them toward the resolution for whatever task they’ve come to you to work on.

Focused Web Design

For both large and small screens, choosing a focused page layout means displaying one thought or one action button per “screen”. This is a call-back to the idea of the newspaper fold, or the idea that some content near the top of your page layout is seen first and receives substantially more attention than anything else.

Users are now accustomed to scrolling or swiping down through content, so the attention is more evenly spread out. But the idea that each scroll or swipe should present no more than one thought is appealing and minimalist.

By focusing your page layouts on a single thought per section, you’ll be forced to remove extraneous items not related to that thought. This aligns with other minimalist choices like large images and font sizes.

Minimalism was never about removing everything. It’s about focusing on what matters the most. It’s about making difficult choices to remove things you might like, but don’t contribute to the overall effort. With minimalist choices, your web design becomes laser-focused on achieving the goals you set. The visual impression might look plain to some. What makes it stand out will be the unique messages spread through your images and text.

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Your web design is the most visible expression of your brand today. Photographs and illustrations are the non-verbal design features that engage with visitors. Sometimes these images hit harder than any compelling headlines. Many websites fail to set a consistent visual style for their imagery, settling for a mix of familiar stock photos and garish graphics that never go together. This mish-mash creates a style of its own, but it looks rushed and low quality.

Consistency creates a clear picture of your brand in the customer’s mind. Customers are free from the distraction of trying to figure out if you’re a real company or a scam. They’re assured of your quality and enabled to focus on your offer and your promises.

When designers choose images for your website, they create a consistent visual style by focusing on three important aspects: image type, look and feel, and lighting style (for photographs).

Choose Either Illustrations or Photographs

The most obvious difference from one image to another is the image type. Is the image a photograph of something in the real world? Or is it an illustration by an artist? Often, good brands will produce guidelines for choosing imagery. With careful thought and investment, your brand can use both photographs and illustrations together.

However, sometimes it’s easier to choose one path to start with. That way you can focus on choosing photographs that go together well, or illustrations that match, without having to worry about matching an illustration’s look and feel with a photograph.

Match the Look and Feel

The mental pain of mis-matched images often comes from the inconsistency in the look and feel. If one image is brown and dark, and the next one bright and blue, which of these images truly represents the brand? Rushed or careless designs can look like a scrapbook cobbled together from different magazine clippings.

You want your website to feel like a complete story with internal consistency that allows for creativity and different visual ideas, but follows an intentional set of guides. Web designers often work with a creative or art directors to ensure web design follows those guides. But in many agencies, or for simple websites, the web designer also wears the director “hat”. Your web designer may reject certain images or warn you away from some image choices in order to maintain a consistent look and feel.

Many stock photo websites try to make consistency easier by grouping images into sets. That way you can get multiple images from the same photo shoot with the same models or the same props, lighting and other elements. Sometimes you can even sort and filter images from multiple sets into all new groupings by color. Feel free to mix and match images from different sets, but be careful to look for matching look and feel

The key making matching image choices is paying attention to the appearance of light in the images.

Look for Similar Light

When the lighting style on all of your images matches, the look and feel works and your web design feels complete. Lighting style is a way of talking about images with words like, bright, dark, harsh, soft, and other descriptive terms. Your pictures could be very diverse, with many different settings and subjects. But they must all seem to be from the same “world” by matching their lighting style.

For example, your brand might choose muted colors with very dispersed and even light. Think Wes Anderson’s films and all of the hip brands he’s inspired. Or you might choose a harsh, high-contrast lighting style to seem aggressive and thrilling, like an action movie. When movie directors shoot a film, the cinematographer is responsible for the look of the light in the movie. Your web design should look like a cinematographer chose each image to match the agreed upon look and feel.

When you consider a brand new web design, or updating your current one, think like a designer as you choose new images or plan how you want the design to turn out. Can you think of a movie that looks how you want your brand to look? Are you more into illustrations or photographs? These aren’t the only questions you will encounter along the way, but knowing how designers choose images for your website should help you understand where they’re coming from when they make a recommendation.

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1. The Right Words – Be clear about your message and write concise website copy that your audience can easily understand.
   Your customers are busy!  And have probably been online or on a screen ALL DAY.  Resist the urge to use a lot of words or be elegant or “dreamy.”  Inspire, but be direct. Help users quickly answer the question “Am I in the right place?”
2. The Right Design – Give users a clear path to success.
   Everybody has a problem to solve.  Show them that you have the solution and how to quickly get it!  Focus on the customer and how you can help them be a hero today.
3. The Right Platform – Choose a reliable website platform and hosting partner.
   Cheap hosting and “free” website solutions lack quality and performance.  With only a few seconds to hold your customers’ attention, you’ll want to be sure that a slow lurching website isn’t holding you back.  Big companies offer low priced products and services, but customer support can be downright terrible. Find a provider you trust and is accessible to you when you need help.
4. The Right Approach – Ask your point person how your website will be built. 
   It’s common to outsource website development overseas to low cost providers.  This only benefits the agency and can leave you with a mess on your hands.  Many times, website code written by off-shore developers is disorganized, doesn’t adhere to industry standards, and is insecure.  Be certain that your agency is willing to build your website in-house with experienced developers.
5. The Right Team – Find a team of experts to help you be successful.
   Most every endeavor requires multiple people to get things done the right way.  Successful websites include complex strategies that must all work together: design, coding, copywriting, SEO, advertising, digital marketing, analytics, hosting and ongoing support.  Make sure you’ve thought through who will be responsible for each of these key components.

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Uploading and displaying documents in WordPress is easier than it looks. But many people have trouble. They try to display documents on WordPress pages but find their efforts result in text links that don’t look quite right. What happened? They’ve missed key some principles.

Here’s how I think about documents and WordPress and how to share documents in the most effective manner.

Know What WordPress Is Designed For

When users struggle with uploading documents to WordPress, it’s because they’re trying to do too much. Their expected result doesn’t match the result WordPress is designed for. They may expect their uploaded document to display in full on the WordPress page or merge with their WordPress page in some way.

But spreadsheets or slides are designed to be opened by specific computer programs. WordPress won’t “open” these. In fact, it’s designed to create and manage website files. Not edit open, or absorb other file types. Understanding this principle about files will help us choose the right tool for accomplishing the task.

But first, we have to clarify and confirm exactly what we want to do.

Understand Your Objective

The best way to start a task is always to make sure you completely your desired outcome. Then you can work towards creating what you want with the tools and processes you already know, or new creative solutions. Keep an open mind. There are often multiple ways to create the same result.

Sharing files is one of the most common needs websites fill. You might say it’s the original purpose for the internet. Web pages are files themselves which contain interactive text designed to link to other files.

If our desired outcome is to share a file with users, then we need to host the file on a public server, document the file path or web address for the file and create a text link to it from one of our web pages.

Host Your File And Link To It

WordPress offers an easy way to host small files in the storage space that comes with most website hosting plans. You can upload common file types like PDF, XLS, PPT, image files, and even short videos. Once your file is uploaded, it becomes registered in the WordPress Media Library. You can click a thumbnail to display information about the file, including the file URL (web address). With this URL, you can make a text link on any WordPress post or page.

There are many great how-to articles online that walk through the file upload process step by step. I found the following selections helpful.

• Adding/Uploading PDFs – WordPress Made Simple
• How to Upload PDF Files to Your WordPress Site – WPBeginner
• About the Media Library Screen – WordPress.org

When visitors click on your text links, the file will automatically download to their computer where it can open in the right application with full functionality. PDFs open up right inside most web browsers.

You might wonder how to display a spreadsheet within a web page. Or embed a slide presentation. Remember that your website files and files made by desktop applications don’t mix. The best approach and quickest solution will always be to offer such files as downloads using text links. However, your web developer or IT contact may be able to help you design a customized solution.

Simply Design Group has built hundreds of WordPress websites across many industries using our straightforward, collaborative process. Our custom WordPress websites are designed precisely to your requirements. Request a quote.

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