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More than just your address on the ‘net, your domain name can also be one of your best forms of advertising. This is why it’s important to choose carefully when you buy your website domain name and register it.

Domain names serve a number of other key purposes.

For example, if you decide to move your site to another service provider, your customers would never know the difference with your new URL linked to your existing domain name.

With advantages such as these in mind, here’s the wise way to buy your website domain.

 Have A Number of Options in Mind

Odds are that clever domain name you’ve come up with has already been thought of by someone else and registered. To save yourself some grief—and time—brainstorm several possibilities before you begin your search. That way, if your first choice is taken, you’ll have other ideas at the ready. This could save you from impulsively buying a domain name from someone at an exorbitant price because you had no other ready ideas.

 Consider the Following Naming Tips

Name choices should be both easy to type and easy to remember.

Avoid slang, as popular culture changes over time and you could date     yourself with a domain name like “awesome.com”.

Exclude numbers so people don’t have to wonder if they should     spell “for” or use the digit “4” when you recite yourLet’s  domain name aloud.

Short is better than long (it’s easier to remember).

Avoid buying a name too comparable to that of another company (especially a more prominent one). You’ll send traffic to them every time a user’s autocomplete defaults to the better-known spelling.

Make sure you can also get the name on the social media sites inhabited by your ideal user.

A .com extension is the best choice, but if you can’t get one, find an extension relevant to your business to help make your name more memorable (being careful not to violate rule six above).

 Choosing a Registrar

Depending upon the nature of your site and its purpose, your best deal can be choosing a registrar offering a free website to go along with it. That way, you can get everything done in one fell swoop. Ideally, the registrar will offer features like domain locking to prevent the unauthorized transfer of your domain. Private registration will keep your name and contact information out of sight of crackpots. Other useful features to look for include DNS management and 24/7/365 customer support.

This is the wise way to buy your website domain. Another smart choice is using Yahoo Small Business to help you choose and register your domain name.

It’s fast, easy and inexpensive. Try it today

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In the highly competitive world of web hosting services, you’ll find a broad array of plans with varying features and perks. To get the best deal, you’ll have to take a bit of time to dissect each offering to see what a supplier’s web hosting services cost really is. Things aren’t always as cut and dried as they can appear to be.

With that said, here are some ways to minimize your web hosting services cost.

 Know Your Needs

Before you go out looking for a hosting services provider, the smart play is to take some time to identify your requirements. After all, how will you know a good deal when you see one if you have no idea what you ought to get?

The volume and type of traffic you’re expecting are key considerations.

If you’re conducting flash sales, you’ll need a lot of bandwidth to handle the sudden spikes in traffic. If you’re just putting up an electronic brochure for people to read and it will always be the exact same size, you can get by with minimal disk space and data transfer rates. Will you need thousands of email addresses? That’s yet another consideration. Long story short, it’s important to get a firm handle on your needs so you can compare apples to apples when you take the next step.

 Shop Around

It might seem obvious, but it’s something a lot of people overlook. All hosting services are not created equally. If you want to get the best one for your situation, you’ll need to spend time scouring the marketplace for features best suited to your needs at a price you consider reasonable.

However, don’t choose based upon price alone. Yes, the goal is to minimize your cost, but costs are about more than just money. You’ll incur downtime and opportunity costs if your hosting service is unreliable and your site crashes frequently. Consider reliability right along with the price.

 Watch Out For Hidden Charges

Provider “A” offers a $7.00 monthly rate, while Provider “B” charges $8. However, provider “B” includes features you need such as unlimited disk space and unlimited data transfer along with private registration for that price. Meanwhile, Provider “A” also offers those services—at an extra charge. So even though they have a lower introductory rate, when you add the features you really need you’ll pay more.

 Reputation, Reputation, Reputation…

When you’re considering a provider, dig around on the net a bit and get a feel for how they’re viewed by the community at large. Anyone can promise the moon, sun and stars—and many companies do. However, when it’s time to deliver, a lot of them provide more excuses than performance.

In other words, you’re looking for a reliable partner in addition to the lowest number. Your best deal is going to come from someone offering the exact features you need who will be there 24/7/365 delivering cheerfully provided support.

When you’re looking for ways to minimize your web hosting services cost, If a deal looks too good to be true, it probably is. Peeling back the wrapper and examining the offering carefully is the best way to find a great deal. Or, you could just save yourself a lot of time and trouble and go with one of these.

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The day your site goes live is certainly cause for celebration. It’s also the day the real work begins. You’ll need to monitor it on an ongoing basis for security vulnerabilities, usability issues and content errors. Fortunately though, minimizing the flaws in your website before you launch can be accomplished more easily when you use a good small business website builder.

Get Help

Enlist the assistance of the most fastidious people you can find. You want relentlessly ruthless reviewers who will revel in revealing every flaw—no matter how small. These should be people you’d avoid in every other social situation, because you can’t stand the criticism that oozes freely from their lips. And, while you’d probably avoid them in every other circumstance, they are the most perfectly suited for this one.

Here are the key things to have them look for.

Content Errors Sometimes information will become outdated the moment you post it. Unleashing those impartial eyes on your site to look for content errors will be a huge help before you launch. If the site is vast, have each of them focus on a specific section of the site—ideally one in which they have some expertise. Avoid having the people who wrote your content look over their own work. They will miss slip-ups they made. The brain has a way of tricking writers into overlooking their own missteps.

Dead Links Here’s a fatal flaw that is often overlooked, broken hyperlinks. Dead links detract from the user experience and diminish your SEO (search engine optimization). The good news is there are a number of tools available to help you accomplish this. However, it’s a good idea to enlist real human beings to go through and check them as well.

Accurate Meta Tags As the reviewers go through your site, charge them with ensuring each page has accurate titles, relevant keywords, the proper description and good image tags. While your users might not care one way or another about these things, search engines do—big time. What’s the point of having a thoroughly scoured website if it can’t be indexed properly?

Security Features Advanced security features might require someone with a bit more expertise to review. But novice users can probe functions such as user name requirements, password protections and secondary authorizations. When it comes to security, you should always try it before you rely on it.

The concerns listed above will need to be reviewed to make sure everything is correct. Meanwhile, the best small website builders will take care of design and navigation issues, as long as you plug the right information into the right fields. Yahoo Small Business has the perfect templates you need to get your website idea off the ground in no time. Choose yours today!

Phil Grier is an ecommerce veteran who has spent more than 10 years advising sellers how to build successful online stores, as well as having experience running his own online retail store. He's been a panelist at PROSPER and other industry events, and has been quoted in numerous articles about site optimization and steps to take to increase sales.

Phil Grier

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Ideas without execution are mere whims. If you want to see your notion become tangible, you’ll need a plan to bring it to fruition. This is just as true for developing a website as it is for building a house.

Of course, the advent of website builder software has made producing an attractive web presence easier than ever. However, if you don’t have a rigid set of guidelines in place to keep the project on track, it can very easily go off the rails. This is why milestones matter when building a website.

What Are Milestones?

The easiest way to think of milestones is stages of accomplishment. By “X” date, we will have completed the “Y” portion of the project, so we can then move on to the “Z” phase, and so on. When you’re building a website, these stages usually include planning, design, content creation and SEO, development, testing and launch.

Planning

This is where you take all of the aspects of the project into consideration, figure out what tasks need to be done to fulfill them and place them in a logical order. This helps you get a feel for how long it will take to complete each one as well as finish the overall project—and what it will ultimately cost.

Design

This part is made a bit easier with the existence of templated themes. Still, because they can be customized to reflect your own unique vision you’ll still need to spend some time thinking about how you want the finished product to look. The key considerations here are the design of the home page, landing pages, information and product pages, and mobile screens. You’ll also need to consider the look of your navigation and other key pages, such as “About Us” and “Contact Us”. Checkout and payment pages will also need treatments if the site will be used for ecommerce.

Content Creation & SEO

While your design team is working up the look, your content team should be developing the site’s voice. You’ll need page titles and headings, search engine optimization (keywords placed optimally in titles, headings, content and image tags), key messaging and calls to action. Sourcing and/or producing articles and images along with audio and video clips should also be conducted at this time.

Development

With the first three milestones complete, you can start assembling elements to actually build the site. You’ll set up the pages, plug in the content and place your images. Links to various elements from the home page and the navigation bars will also be created during this phase. When you’re done with development, the site look finished—but there are still a couple of more steps to go.

Testing

During this aspect of the production, you’ll go through and test all links, buttons and functions to ensure everything works the way it should. When you click an email address, you should get a popup for creating a message; when you click a “Buy Now” button, you should be taken to a checkout page, etc, etc., etc. Videos should play in the format prescribed. In other words, all functionalities should be reviewed to ensure they do what visitors expect.

Launch

You should be laying the groundwork for your marketing blitz to support your launch while the work above is going on in the background. Get your social presences up and running, tease the development of the site as the various milestones are met—and just generally build anticipation for the day the site goes live.

Then, take it live!

With those milestones completed, you might be tempted to rest on your laurels. However, rather than completion, this begins the management of the life of the site. As users interact with it, you’ll find opportunities for improvement. You’ll also need to add functionalities as technological developments emerge. Security is an ongoing concern as well.

Still, you can enjoy the satisfaction of seeing your idea brought to life right before your eyes. And ultimately, this is why timelines matter when you’re building a website. If you have a tool by which to measure progress, you’ll get a sense of accomplishment as each one is completed. And, it’s even easier with a good website builder like the ones offered by Yahoo Small Business. Check it out today!

Brea Salim manages social media and email marketing for Yahoo Small Business. Prior to this, she was a freelance writer with bylines in SF Chronicle, The Jakarta Post, Tasting Table, 7x7 and many more.

Brea Salim

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If you’re someone who thinks email marketing and dial-up modems currently have the same degree of relevance, it’s time to adjust your belief systems.

Business email remains one of the most effective marketing tools extant. Boasting the highest ROI of all marketing channels, any promotional strategy you undertake should have an email component. The following insights are key to mounting a successful email marketing campaign.

Awareness of Audience Is Critical

A great place to start is surveying your customers to find out what they care about the most. You can also gather demographic data about them from Google Analytics and Facebook Insights to determine their locations as well as their interests and other useful information. This will set you up to deliver messages that are interesting to them.  

Say Something Significant

Every interaction with members of your mailing list should contain something of value to them. The question in the mind of everyone scanning their inbox is: “Is there anything in here that can benefit me?”

When you take the time to get to know your audience, you can consistently send messages they find beneficial. Relevance equals engagement and engagement leads to conversions.

People Prefer Personalization and Stories

Everybody loves a good story. Rather than a dry, ”Here’s why I’m writing to you today,” craft your pitches around a storyline. Surprise your readers, delight them, give them a reason to smile. Most people buy based upon their emotional responses. Get them to feel something positive and they will associate those feelings with you. While you’re at it, employ as much personalization as possible. The sweetest sound in any language for most people is the sound of their own name. Personalized messages are also more likely to be opened.

Mobile Matters More Each Day

With the vast majority of people using smartphones to check email, your messages have to be formatted to work well in a mobile environment. When you’re composing your layouts, be careful to ensure they will play well on small screens. Additionally, before you broadcast, run tests on every mobile device you can find to be certain your message will display well on all of them.

Social Shares Amplify Your Solicitations

Your highly relevant messages are going to inspire recipients to share the information they contain with like-minded friends. Including social share buttons in your messages makes it easy for them to do so. This helps you generate positive word of mouth, which is the absolute best form of advertising.

These five tips for mounting a successful email marketing campaign will help you ensure your messages are opened and acted upon. Again, email remains the most cost-effective marketing medium out there—when employed wisely.

You’ll find all the tools you need to implement these tips, as well as take full advantage of business email at Yahoo Small Business. Try it today!

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With a bit of strategic planning and careful execution, you can establish a thriving ecommerce brand in one year. These tips will help you get your ecommerce store online and performing well over the course of the next 12 months.

Start with a Plan

Before you do anything, devise a plan for how you will conduct your business. This should be done within the first month of launching your business, if not before. Determine your goals, establish milestones, analyze your market and develop sales strategies. Get clear on your funding requirements. Determine your key staffing and management needs. Keep in mind this is just the jumping-off point. Elements of your plan will evolve right along with your business.

Find Your Ideal Customer

Take an objective look at your business and ask who really needs your offerings. Answering this question will enable you to establish your brand identity, craft your marketing messages and choose your social media platforms. Again, this should be done as early as possible.

Develop Your Financial Model

Money is the life’s blood of a business. You have to get a solid idea of the ebb and flow of your income stream so you can manage it well. Remember, your profit is partially made when you buy—not just when you sell. Keep costs to the bare minimum. Try to match your payment terms to your suppliers’ so cash is coming in when it needs to go out. Pay close attention to the market to be certain you’re charging as much as the market will bear, while remaining competitive. This is an ongoing process that should be evaluated and re-evaluated as your company grows and evolves.

Leverage Your Credit

Keep your credit rating as high as possible and borrow to acquire long-term fixed assets in order to preserve your capital. Always pay your bills on time so your rating (and access to higher lines of credit) will improve. Lease depreciating assets where it makes sense to do so. Again, this is an ongoing process. So keep a pulse on your organization’s line of credit.

Work Social Media Hard

The marketing channel of choice, social media can provide direct access to your ideal customer at minimal cost. Your social pages should be vibrant, continually updated—and, above all, relevant. When it comes to targeting your key demographics, no other platform can offer you as much precision. It’s recommended that you secure your social media handles right away. If it takes you a little time to ramp up your social media presence, that’s fine. But be sure to get things up and running within the first three to six months.

Bite Off Only What You Can Chew

The temptation will be great to come out of the gate running full speed—especially when you are trying to launch a thriving business in just one year. Still, it’s important to remember you’re in a long distance race as opposed to a sprint. Be careful to offer only that which you know you can deliver. The reputation you establish will stick with your business, and this will help it you make it positive. Focus your initial efforts around your core competency. Diversify into other areas only after you’ve mastered your foundation.

Please Your Customers

Go above and beyond what could possibly be expected to ensure customer satisfaction. You want to become known as a business that can be counted upon. In addition to earning a cadre of loyal customers, you will generate positive word of mouth, which is the absolute best form of advertising.

These seven tips on how to establish a thriving ecommerce brand in one year will set you well on the path to success. In a similar fashion, teaming with Yahoo Small Business will get you one of the best ecommerce platforms available.

Go ahead, check out Yahoo Small Business today!

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It’s no secret that our world revolves around email. The average annual email rate has grown by over 4 percent annually since 2015, with 2017’s daily email total forecasted at around 269 billion. By the end of 2021, worldwide email users will surpass 4 billion. Further, 73 percent of Millennials identify email as their preferred means of business communication. It’s only logical then that small business owners should utilize email marketing to promote their products.

Email marketing is certainly something all business owners should invest time and money to do. But while creating a business email is super simple, email marketing is more than just occasionally typing a messaging and hitting “send.”

Let’s talk about the benefits and downsides of email marketing so your SMB can create a strategy.

Email Marketing Pros

Easy to Define Success

While any internet marketing channel will be easier to measure than a radio spot or TV ad, they aren’t all easy to track. Email marketing however, is more straightforward than SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing. This is because the data you need to make informed decisions is presented through only a handful of metrics. Measuring engagement is as simple as tracking your open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and overall return on investment (ROI).

If you’re running more of a content-focused campaign, then subscribe rate also comes into play. Other “failure” stats like bounce rate and unsubscribes should also be monitored, but in terms of defining success, the four metrics above are all you need.

High ROI Compared to Other Channels

Not only is email marketing easy to track, it also delivers a high ROI. According to Campaign Monitor’s 2016 annual report, every dollar spent on email marketing generated $44 in revenue, up from $38 in 2015. The same report found that automated emails led to a 320 percent revenue increase compared to non-automated emails. Email marketing also produced 174 percent more conversions than social media. Lastly, 80 percent of retail professionals indicate email marketing as the greatest driver of customer acquisition and retention. What other channels could be so effective at both?

Generates Great Customer Research

Email marketing is effective because of segmentation. Segmenting customers by various categories allows companies to deliver more personal messaging to their customers and leads. This increases the engagement metrics referenced above. You can utilize the information users provide if they want to opt-in, creating customized messages based on their birth date, gender, job type, or location.

Then again, bombarding your users with requests for their personal information won’t always go over well. A more tasteful idea could be to create surveys or quizzes. This will give you more granular level of data, such as user preferences and beliefs. Finally, you can separate active users from inactive users based on your open rate and CTR. That segmentation should never be ignored.

Email Marketing Cons

Hard to Guarantee the Delivery of Your Email Design

The design of your emails is arguably as important as the messaging. You could be proud of the template you’ve worked tirelessly to design, but you can’t guarantee your contacts will be able to view it like you intended. With all the different email clients and browser versions used, as well as requests being sent to servers across the world, expect that your email aesthetics won’t reach all your contacts the same way.

Potential to Cause Churn

Email marketing can very well help convert a customer. It can also cause you to lose one. When improper messaging is sent out or errors are made in email delivery, it can cause customers to unsubscribe and hold your brand in low regard. Before you know it, your time and money have lost you a customer.

Requires A Lot of Bandwidth and Attention

Email marketing can seem attractive upon ideation, but in reality, many companies don’t have adequate resources to execute successful campaigns. Email marketing isn’t one job; it requires more than one skill.

A successful email marketing campaign requires a solid strategy, compelling copy, eye-pleasing design, data analysis, A/B testing, and proper coding. That translates to at least six jobs. One could argue a quality assurance specialist, and even a project manager depending on the size of the campaign, are needed as well. Email marketing can yield big dividends but it’s hard work keeping customers engaged. The task isn’t for the faint of heart. This shouldn’t deter SMBs, but instead inspire them to devote energy to plan a successful email marketing campaign.

Now that you know a bit about the pros and cons of email marketing, what do you think it could do for your business? Remember to bookmark Yahoo Small Business Advisor for more tips and tricks on web hosting, marketing and ecommerce.

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You’re considering starting a small business. You’ve leased a location, developed your product and hired your staff, selected suppliers and obtained legal and accounting advice. What’s missing?

Insurance. Think of anything that can go wrong and there’s probably insurance coverage to protect you, from fires, earthquakes and floods, to car accidents, theft and slips on your store floor. If you own the business and the property, should both be insured? What about health insurance for you and your staff?

Experts said businesses buy insurance for the same reasons people purchase insurance individually: to protect themselves, their employees and customers from financial harm. The cost of providing that insurance is determined by assessing the frequency and severity of that harm’s risk and whether the exposure to loss is common or rare.

Some kinds of insurance are mandatory. Small businesses with employees are legally required to purchase workers' compensation insurance and unemployment insurance. And in some states employers must also buy disability insurance.

Where to begin

Holly Wade, director of research and policy analysis for the National Federal of Independent Businesses (NFIB), recommended small business owners or those considering launching small businesses talk to others operating similar businesses to theirs and solicit insurance advice. Wade said that business associations often provide a wealth of industry-specific resources to their members.

“Because every business is different, owners must look carefully to see what applies to them,” she said. “Depending on the state in which the business is located, its size and the industry it serves, whether it is home or office based, will determine the type of insurance that a business needs.”

Wade said many industries and associations have established partnerships with insurers that extend discounted rates to members. “It’s always good to shop, but sometimes going through an organization beats scrolling through the Yellow Pages.”

Check your coverage

Monica Lindeen, Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance and the president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), said home-based business owners sometimes erroneously believe their homeowner’s insurance policy covers them for business-related items, such as damage to equipment or materials used in their businesses.

“Most homeowner policies exclude business operations. If you have a fire, you need to make sure you have the appropriate business insurance to cover those operations. Small business owners sometimes think that their company’s motor vehicles are covered under their personal auto insurance, including people who drive for services like Uber. But if you’re in the business of transporting someone, your personal auto policy won’t cover you for damages in the course of your work.”

She urged small businesses to check with their state insurance commissioner’s office to verify whether their insurance agent is licensed or the subject of complaints.

She said most states require insurance agents to undergo a rigorous application and continuing education process to obtain and maintain their licenses, including fingerprinting and criminal background checks. And state insurance commissioners are empowered to investigate and revoke the licenses of agents who don’t follow state laws.

Lindeen said word of mouth from trusted sources is usually a good place to begin when selecting prospective insurance agents.

“Talk to other small business owners,” she advised.

She recommended that small business owners who have partners obtain “key person” life insurance policies on each other, so that if one dies, the life insurance payout can compensate the company for losses and help it to continue to operate, while paying out benefits to the deceased partner’s heirs.

Katie Vlietstra, vice president of government relations and public affairs for the National Association for the Self-Employed, said small business owners should explore and budget for insurance when they formulate their business plans.

Vlietstra said insurance is a cost of doing business and owners need to know which forms of insurance are required in their state or county.

“Failing to comply could mean big consequences down the road,” warned Vlietstra, who said NAEC experts are available to members seeking to learn more about insurance requirements.

She advised small business owners to become involved in local organizations or associations to find a business mentor.

“It’s tough to know everything when you’re just starting out,” she said. “You don’t want to be over insured or underinsured, so it can be helpful to find someone in your field with applicable experience,” she said.

She also recommended shopping around to competitively bid insurance policies, not just the first year, but every year or two.

Jim Whittle, assistant general counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and membership organization, the American Insurance Association, said some types of insurance coverage can be estimated. Whittle said workers’ compensation is based on payroll expenses.

“You’re compensating employees injured on the job based on their wages,” he said. “And while calculating property insurance is not formulaic, you can get a good sense of what your needs are relatively quickly by asking yourself: what would it cost to replace the property you own? The value of that property helps you to benchmark how much property insurance you will need."

Do not underestimate...

Whittle said the most common mistake small businesses make when buying insurance for the first time is underestimating their needs.

“Too often after catastrophes we see that people did not have enough insurance,” he noted. “Perhaps they were too cost conscious and didn’t want to overpay, despite their risk exposure.”

He advised small business owners to schedule annual reviews with their agents to make sure their appropriately insuring their assets.

“Being proactive with this is important,” he said. “You can’t just … look at it as an afterthought. Suffering a bad loss could kill your business.”

Whittle said one type of frequently overlooked but important insurance is business interruption coverage.

“This type of policy will cover your business in the event of a loss from something that closes down your business,” he explained. “If a tornado wrecks your business, you’re not earning money, but you can be protected from the losses directly related to the losses you suffer while you’re out of business.”

One size doesn’t fit all

Dave Golden, senior director of commercial lines policy for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said when someone purchases business insurance, the financial protection is customized to the unique needs of each business.

‘One size does not fit all,” Golden said, noting that a traditional brick and mortar bookstore faces different risks than a bookstore that sells online.

Golden said anyone doing business on the Internet should consider cybersecurity insurance policies.

“Things can go wrong and business owners can be sued,” he said, citing confidential patient medical records, customer credit information and privacy concerns as new challenges to small business owners. “If a data breach occurs, that information could be in the hands of criminals and the financial well-being, privacy and even reputations of customers could be adversely impacted or ruined.”

Golden said some small owners should explore liability coverage, which protects businesses from “slip and fall” accidents. Liability, also known as casualty insurance, includes a variety of coverage types”

Manufacturers should consider product liability.

Repair shops should examine “completed operations” policies that cover work performed.

Architect and lawyers are often required to purchase professional liability insurance, often mandated by state licensing boards.

Physicians and other medical providers are required to purchase medical malpractice insurance.

Bars and restaurants serving alcohol, depending upon the state, are required to carry “dram shop” insurance to protect themselves from customers who get drunk and sue.

Businesses that take in products to clean or repair, like computer repair shops or drycleaners, often buy ‘bailee’ insurance to cover theft, fire or other damage to goods left in their care.

Car repair shops protect their customers’ cars with “garagekeepers’ policies.

Resources for Small Business Insurance

National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC): state insurance commissioners regulate insurance companies within their states and assist consumers, including small businesses: http://www.insurance.naic.org/

NAIC Insurance University: an online insurance tutorial www.InsureUonline.org

U.S. Small Business Administration: offers advice on state insurance requirements and other resources: https://www.sba.gov/content/insurance-requirements-employers

American Insurance Association (AIA): AIA’s website features several useful links, including:

Insurance Glossary: http://www.aiadc.org/aiapub/content.aspx?id=357528

Property-Casualty Insurance Basics: http://www.aiadc.org/AIAdotNET/docHandler.aspx?DocID=319988

National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB): Offers resources to members, including information about business insurance and this survey: http://411sbfacts.com/sbpoll.php?POLLID=0027

Author Mark Taylor

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