I’m beginning to work on updating my own website, CultivatedWeb.com, and started to look around and at the websites of other web design firms. I like to see what other folks are doing to get some ideas. Some design work I see is really good, original, and progressive. Other sites I see are very useful in helping me decide what not to do. This is what I found today, a web design firm offering a range of “packages”. But they use an online web design service, which will remain anonymous to protect the innocent, to design their own website. I know this because of the <meta name=”generator” content=”Anonymous Program and Company Name“> tag in all the pages of their site. Give me a break!

A word to the wise: while this is a legitimate business, you get what you pay for. All their packages range between $199 and $649 (dirt cheap) for the one time design fee plus a monthly subscription fee ranging from $10 to $20 per month which is too much for web hosting these days. I have to assume they use the same online site building tool they used for their own site which means your not really going to get an original design. What you will get is a template they modify for you.

I find this approach to be somewhat misleading and somewhat of an insult to designers who really do design, not just pump stuff out of a template.

Buyer beware.

1. First, if you’re going to use your domain name an website for your business, especially and internet based business, choose a name that is closely related to the purpose of your website.
2. Easy to remember and spell. If the benefits of this tip are not obvious to you, you probably should not be allowed to have a website. <read with a little tongue in cheek> But seriously, you may not get a lot of traffic at supercalifragilisticexpialdocious.com. Which leads us to item 3.
3. Keep it short and sweet. Just because they can be long does not mean they should be. How long can a domain name be? Even though there is theoretical length of 256 characters possible in a domain name, the reality is the vast majority of domain registrars limit the length to 63 characters. This only includes the actual name between the www. and the .com. In fact, the www really is not part of the domain name and is not necessary when entering your domain name in a web browser. The dot com is the top level domain (TLD) as are .org, .net, and so on. Besides, shorter names are usually easier to spell.
4. Do not use hyphens (dashes). Hyphens can really be more of a problem than a help when you want to tell someone your domain name or have them type it correctly. When spoken, people get confused or miss the hyphens and you miss the traffic.
5. Include the top keywords that relate to your site and industry. Keyword research is very important to your success. It will help you get more traffic from search engines and help people understand what your website is about. I really don’t like looking at a website and wonder what it’s about.
6. Make it brandable, especially if you’re going to use the domain name for a business. For example, think about some of the most successful website around, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, EBay, Live. Most of these are meaningless words, at least when we first heard them. Facebook and YouTube do convey some sense of what those sites are about. But when you intend to represent products with a name you use for your website, make it memorable and fit it into your marketing strategy.
7. Make sure are not using someone else’s name or a copyrighted or trademarked name. The last thing you need is a law suit because you accidentally used a name that was too close to a corporate brand name. Even though whopper.com is already registered, it would not be wise to use hugewhopper.com.
8. Know your neighbors: There was once a website with the name whitehouse.com. It was not the President’s Whitehouse website, which was whitehouse.gov. It was a porn website. So when you search for available domain names and find one in the .com TLD, such as mybestname.com, make sure mybestname in the other TLDs (.net, .org, .biz, .info, .tv, for example) are not sites that will steal your traffic or make the people looking for you red-faced.
9. Avoid using numbers in your domain name. First, when you tell your domain name to someone, you’ll have to explain whether it’s  “2” or “two”. About the only time you should even consider using a number is if you tie your site to a year, such as election2008.com.
10. Use good tools to search for the availability of your domain name and to make other suggestions you may not have thought of. Take a look at ajaxwhois.com, domaintools.com, and domjax.com. One of the most effective tools for generating and finding new domain names is MakeWords.com. Of course, the major domain registrars all provide tools for searching available and expired domain names.

5. Journaling: sharing the things important in your life with others.

4. Provide commentary and opinions: because you want to make the world a better place and inquiring minds want to know.

3. Get attention and feel important: because inquiring minds want to know.

2. Interact with other people online: for all kinds of reasons from staying connected with friends and family to networking with other bloggers.

1. To make money: because you can never have too much money.

Ok, I made this up. Although I did a little poking around to see why people blog. These five reasons are all legitimate even though some of the reasons are a little tongue-in-cheek.

Do you blog? If so tell us why?

I recently got an invitation in the mail to attend a “FREE Dinner Conference” in my town to learn how people make money on the Internet. The invitation included tickets for me and my guest. We would even receive a free gift, an MP3 player. Wow! I’m in. So I called a friend and we decided to satisfy our curiosity over a free lunch.

I have to say, it really was a well done presentation. They were very cordial, respectful and there were no high pressure tactics. Their pitch was good. They asked all the right questions of the audience.

• You all want to make money, right?
• You want to be independent and financially secure, right?
• You want to take care of your family, right?
• The economy’s in the tank, right?
• Do you want some of the billions of dollars spent online? Duh!

Then the shoe dropped. Just give us some of your money and you can have our money making system. You’ll have the bucks rolling in while you sleep in no time. If you really want to be successful, you can upgrade for 20 times the intro price. You know, when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The point is that internet marketing and selling is a complicated puzzle. Success doesn’t come easy and it doesn’t come quick. As Earl Nightingale said, you can’t get any heat from the stove until you put some wood in it.

Have you ever had an experience with this type of online sales product? Leave a comment and share your experience.