How to Choose a Domain Name for Offline PromotionWritten by Alan Grissett
In this article, you'll discover a key element of your Web site and how you can use it to drive traffic to your site from offline sources. What is this "basic element" of your site, you ask? It's your domain name - your business' virtual address.To figure out why a business' domain name is important to its Web site's offline promotions, a little background into domain names is in order. To begin with, there are two main classes of domain names, gTLDs (general Top Level Domains) and ccTLDs (country code Top Level Domains). The seven original gTLDs are .com, .net, .org, .mil, .edu, .gov, and .int. As of writing of this article, seven new gTLDs are in process of being launched by ICANN, governing body of TLDs. They are .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro. The gTLDs were developed to represent specific types of entities, such as commercial organizations (.com), educational institutions (.edu), or cooperatives (.coop). The ccTLDs were developed to represent entities from specific regions, such as United States (.us), France (.fr), or Japan (.jp). In most cases, if you find right registrar, you can register a domain name with any extension, no matter why you need name or where you are based. Does this mean you should though? Unless you need to protect your intellectual property rights in a name, probably not. The best choice by far is a good solid "dot com". Why? Because people are familiar with it, and it's what people associate most with Internet addresses. This is very important in offline advertising, because if a potential customer sees your Web address, he or she will likely have to remember that address when it's time to pull up old Web browser to visit site. So generally speaking, a domain name ending in .com is most desirable for offline advertising.
| | Time Your News Release For Maximum PublicityWritten by David Leonhardt
"Cindy, where's that story? I need it yesterday!""Coming right up, boss. I'll have it to you soon," Cindy shouted back. "Yesterday isn't soon enough!" Cindy clicked on her screen. "You have mail." She looked at messages. "Three news releases," she murmured. "I don't have time for this now." [delete] [delete] [delete] Stop! Was that your news release Cindy just deleted? Too bad you sent it to her at wrong time. You may have heard that "timing is everything" and that is even more true in a newsroom. But how do you know when is best time to send a news release? Media relations is an art more than a science, so there is no single rule. If there was, everyone would be a media star. Here are a few guidelines to help you zoom ahead of your competition for media's attention: Each type of media and each type of journalist is different. Here are just a few of variables: National or local media TV, newspaper, radio or magazine News reporter, features reporter or columnist Consumer magazine or trade journal Daily, weekly or monthly publication Print or electronic Each company or organization is different, as is its news. Here are just a few of variables: Local, national or international operations Pre-scheduled news release, or last-minute reaction to today's news. Product announcement, policy announcement, financial announcement Bearing in mind wide range of news you might announce and wide range of media targets, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. tends to be best time of day to release news. You want to give assignment editor time to send them out to cover your news. If you hope to get into noon news, you don't want to go too late, because you run into TV deadlines. Early afternoon is a second-best time, but if you get much past 2:30, you will catch Cindy's [delete] button at most daily newspapers and television stations.
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