It All Starts With A Great Domain Name!

Today we have a guest article from my fellow auDA Demand Class Director Nicole Murdoch.

This is not a controversial article – rather, it is an inspirational one. Hope you enjoy.

If you have any comments or questions for Nicole, please add them below.

Ned O’Meara – 21st March 2018


It All Starts With A Great Domain Name! Author: Nicole Murdoch

I saw this YouTube ad by Keanu Reeves and felt nostalgia.

There was a great campaign in Brisbane a few years ago by Bond University titled “where will your degree take you”. It profiled alumni around the world who had used their degree as a springboard to their overseas careers and worldwide travel. The campaign was brilliant. That is how I feel about websites, and that is that essence of what is caught by the ad above… and it all starts with a great domain name and website.

In the early 2000’s, when I was developing websites, new businesses looked at websites as being the first step to launching a business. A website was not an option, it was a necessity.  There was an element of pride for traders in their websites and in having a web presence.  New traders did not see themselves as being in trade until they launched their website.

There was an innocent excitement of launching a website and rightfully so. It signified the launch of a new business venture and brought along with it all the hope and dreams of the business founders. It was an age where we had long stopped sending snail mail, we used email as a preferred correspondence technique, and we researched traders online and most importantly started buying and selling online regularly.

But nothing good comes without effort and it wasn’t easy for traders to trade online. There was no Facebook, Amazon wasn’t available for Australian traders and eBay was seen as a second hand marketplace. Thus the trader had to build an online e-commerce marketplace themselves. That wasn’t easy. It was a litmus test of determination.

But times have changed and now it is all too easy to trade online without a website.  eBay is no longer seen as a second hand marketplace, Amazon is available to Australian traders and social media sites offers up targeted ads to their thousands of millions of users who can make a purchase with the click of a button. That can be achieved with-out a trader having a website.

But in all of these conveniences we have lost the magic of a trader controlling its own fate.  Traders are now trapped by the marketplaces they once relied upon. What happens when these marketplaces change or impose unsavoury conditions or price hikes (as they often do)? Where does this leave the trader? What it always come back to is that they need the solid foundation of their own unique domain name and website. External marketplaces should be viewed as providing an ancillary service.

As Keanu Reeves says at the beginning of his video: “First, you must pick the right domain name”. And if you are solely trading in Australia, then the premium domain name extension is com.au. If you ultimately want to offer your wares to the world, then a dot com is important (though don’t forget the benefits of having an Australian presence).

Instead of being on Amazon, traders need to be the next Amazon. Where will your domain name take you? Nowhere if you don’t have one.

Nicole Murdoch – 21st March 2018

Bio: Nicole Murdoch is a Solicitor, engineer and trade marks Attorney at Bennett & Philp Lawyers in Brisbane. She was also elected as a Demand Class Director of auDA in November 2017.

10 thoughts on “It All Starts With A Great Domain Name!

  • March 21, 2018 at 9:59 am
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    Yes I remember those days in the early 2000’s Nicole, it was great and less crowded than it is now.

    How true about having your own website and domain, more so now, than ever.

     

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    • March 21, 2018 at 10:27 am
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      It was a golden time. The excitement of it all is what I recall the most.

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  • March 21, 2018 at 11:12 am
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    You have a nice writing style Nicole. Thank you for the article.

    Ned, really like these guest articles.

    Jeff

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  • March 21, 2018 at 12:04 pm
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    ” More and more trade businesses are figuring out the early 2000 model was/is better for them”   THIS!

    The outsourcing model was good whilst it lasted but now it is easy for traders to have their own websites. There are not the hurdles that previously existed.

    The current service platforms will still exist and provide a service but they shouldn’t be the only service. Someone said to me last night that they go to a traders website before making any large purchase online. No website = no sale. So traders do themselves a disservice by not having an independent site.

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  • March 21, 2018 at 3:37 pm
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    Great article Nicole.

    I still remember registering the .com.au domain for my first business (quite a few years ago!). The website was just a one-page ‘brochure’ site. In those days, most of my new customers came via word of mouth and the Yellow Pages!

  • March 23, 2018 at 6:45 am
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    Even in the domain space, there are always changes to 3rd party parking platforms and market places.  These can stuff you right up.

  • March 23, 2018 at 9:25 am
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    Agree, businesses need to look beyond Google, Facebook etc as much as possible, their interests are not aligned with website owners generally.

  • March 23, 2018 at 9:30 am
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    thinking totally outside the square, IF you didn’t have a facebook page, facebook couldn’t show ads on it, if they had nowhere to show ads they couldn’t gather data and if they couldn’t gather data they couldn’t influence the USA election !

    at least if you have your own domain name you CONTROL what goes on the pages.

    tim

     

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