credit: annaomline

The above is a snippet of my conversation with a BlueHost Customer Service person when I called them last night for some support (their great service merits a separate post).

Domain name is just like a person’s name. I would say that it took a while for your parents to decide on your name. And for you parents out there, didn’t you labor over a name for the little one? There are reasons behind our names. Same with the online business world; owners have strategic reasons when deciding on domain name for their sites.

I have 2 basic rules (among others):
1. relevance – as much as possible incorporate my target keyword 
2. make it easy to remember

Judging from my conversation with the customer rep, I am left wondering…did I follow my rules?

I won’t fret about it.

This project is front heavy – on time and money. To date, my spend include buying domain names, hosting fees, wordpress premium theme, books, training materials, etc. I am such a believer in training and education but I need to exercise caution where I put my money in.

Before I invest in a product/service, I check the following:
1. What is the return policy of the vendor? Return guarantee is a must for me.
2. What about customer reviews? I do this online AND offline.
3. Do I really need this? I always ask myself over and over again.

So, how am I faring? I am quite happy…. so far!

credit: duchesssa; www.sxc.hu/photo/1215808

Colors  are key to marketing and largely considered by advertisers in the hope of influencing buying decision. It’s been said that McDonald went for its popular red-yellow color scheme to convey “eat and leave” message. Do you still wonder why little Mikey wants fries, all of a sudden?
Big companies are known to invest ridiculous amount of money and resources in deciding on color palettes. Same psychology is applied by majority of web marketers when creating  website. Here’s some very basic overview:

•Red: stimulates appetite, denotes aggressiveness and creates sense of urgency/action
•Blue: suggests authority, trust and confidence; known to be a favorite color of businesses (guess why i have blue for my header)
•White:  associated with cleanliness, simplicity, and peace  (guess again)
•Yellow: suggests happiness, sunshine, cheerfulness and  creativity 
•Green: very popular when suggesting anything organic, healthy, wellness and environmental concerns
•Pink: suggests romance, feminine touch and  innocence
•Black: suggests reliability, strength, boldness, stability, elegance and mystery

Believe it or not, color matters. I should know…… I am heading off for a taste of burger.

I had difficulty looking for  potential suppliers for a product I was interested in selling. I found one who seemed credible and reliable. However, they were gearing up for major changes in their distribution strategy and I was not ready to commit to where they were headed to. Sad, because I was really interested with the quality of their products. In one of my conversations with them, I casually asked who they consider to be their major competitor. Next instant, I got the contact details of their competitor (thanks Mr. Google), sent out an email and the following week, I received great product samples and reference materials – more than I was ready to chew. I knew I found the one.
And all because I asked.
I have lots of questions as I try to navigate thru this maze I am right now. They say have a mentor. Fine. But until I find one, I will have to pepper the various forums (or fora for the purists) I’ve signed up with my many questions . Such a great help.  Someday, I hope to be on the other side of the fence. Dishing out advices. Someday.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep on asking.
How about you? Have you asked your question for the day?

I am excited. Pumped up. Finally, after many hours of understanding Wordpress  and its cohorts (heard of css, php, ftp?) my simple site is up and running. Boy, I am proud. Thank you to the Thesis community for helping out a clueless one who will never understand coding.

So what’s next for me? Lots. More hours.

 I am doing well with my current corporate job. But my desire to do something on my own has become more passionate as time goes by. But is it wise? What do I know? What do I plan to do? So, this was/is my plan (I started on this in September- with my good husband’s blessing) :

• Research on various opportunities. My focus is to tap the potential/s of earning money via the internet. Ah, what a novel idea, huh? *grin*
• I should have  a beta up and running by end November. I wanted October but reality check tells me otherwise.
• Assess viability of my plan by mid 2010. In between, work, work, work.

How’s that?

Thanks for reading/listening. I am hoping that by blogging my journey, I would be more focused and fired up.  Go here for more about me.