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.