A name, initial impression made on prospect’s mind, is first step in brand marketing process. With marginal differences in financial services offerings, a better name can mean a significant difference in acceptance and, hence, in success of financial services sales and marketing initiatives. Conversely, when a name is bad, it can turn away prospects before they learn anything about product or service. Now, with increased importance being placed on finding right name, financial marketing practitioners are using varying approaches. We will explore a few.

A current product branding fad is to develop contrived names. For instance, Verizon combines Latin word veritas, meaning truth, with horizon, while Lucent means “marked by clarity.” Other contrived names such as Accenture and Agilent remind us that another essential criterion for any good name should be pronounceability. None of these names give any clue to businesses they represent or benefits companies offer. And, truthfully, most of us don’t know or care about esoteric origins of names. Brand identity depends on recognition and association, not cleverness of an esoteric name.

It is obvious that creators of contrived names are betting that a substantial (and expensive) brand marketing campaign will generate familiarity needed for success. Every contrived name starts life as an empty vessel waiting to be filled with positive perceptions. We believe, however, that a mean-nothing name is a luxury that only a genuinely unique new product or service can afford.

Some firms use initials as their name, hoping to emulate some of richest and most famous corporations. What these upstarts quickly learn, however, is that while successful use of initials can validate an established brand identity, they are seldom a strong foundation for establishing a new brand marketing campaign. Think of how this works in our everyday lives. When headline reads “W Declares War,” there is no ambiguity. Companies spend years on brand marketing and advertising to help create visibility and shape perceptions before recasting themselves with their monograms of marketplace success. Just think of GE, PPG or IBM.

1) ‘Find a Market’ - Find a market before you decide on a product. If you pick a product first then find out later there isn’t a market for it, you will have wasted a lot of time and money. So be sure to look for market first. Also try to find an area that inspires or excites you. If you find your passion then it’ll be easier to stay motivated when building your business. Use Google to search different keywords. Try searching with Yahoo to see what else is selling. Check eBay for all their different categories. And use ClickBank to look for interesting markets. When you locate a market and find out what people want, all you’ll have to do is sell it to them. After your first internet project is up and running, and is profitable, then you may want to start looking for your next market. Remember it's very easy to jump from one project to next before first one is finished. So try to find a market or project that you really like and stay with it until its making money.

2) ‘Find a Product’ - After finding a market you’ll need to find a product to sell. You could search internet to see what other people are selling to get some ideas. Or buy resale rights to a product. Maybe you can sell an affiliate product. Remember you don’t have to reinvent wheel. Find a product someone else is selling and make it a little better, different, lower in price, or add a bonus whenever someone buy from you. If you choose to sell digital products you will find many extra benefits such as: no shipping or handling, low start up cost, your profit margin will be close to 100%, your customer will get their product right away. And a lot of it can be set up automatically so there’s less work for you. Make sure to take full advantage of automation possibilities of internet.

3) ‘Get a Domain Name’ – You’ll want to have your own domain name. Try to think of a few different names because your first choices may not be available. Choose a short name and it will be easier for people to remember. If possible get domain names ending with .com. You should also try to get a name to match your product. And maybe use keywords in your domain name to get a better listing on search engines.

4) ‘Hosting Companies’ - The purpose of hosting company is to keep your website running properly. They will make sure everything is working properly so your customers can navigate through it and buy your product or service. So this is a very important responsibility. If your website isn’t working properly or not at all then you are losing money. You may find some free hosting companies, but you really do get what you pay for. So it may be better to use a paid hosting company.