Project: Staking Your Domain

We all desire a sense of acceptance: A sense of home, a sense of inclusion and connection. And so we seek for places of like-mindedness, never realizing that we can be the ones who model these places of welcome.

We have the power to create a niche, to decide what it is that people need and how we can serve them, then offer it to them.

We have the power to facilitate them and lead them from one ladder ring to the next. We can give them the sense of acceptance and encourages them to build a stronger sense of home within themselves and create a stronger outreach.

We have the power to stake our own domain and invite others to be a part of it. And we don’t even have to take issue with zoning regulations.

Creating a safe online presence where people can land 24/7 is vital in a generation where the Internet is over saturated with misleading information.

The best and most important way to do this is staking your domain. Your domain name, that is. It’s your online address, so make it easy to memorize and worth memorizing.

You are competing with innumerable domain names and websites so it’s rare you have opportunity to imagine, pick and purchase the web address you desire, but that shouldn’t deter you from fulfilling your purpose:

• Don’t Be Too Clever

Now is not the time to be creative. Now is the time to be competitive and succinct. Try to stay as close to your company name as possible and keep it short. Make it memorable, remember!

• Consider Your Brand

As The Green Couch Project we were fortunate enough to secure the domain name thegreencouchproject.com. However, in the event it wasn’t, it would be a great disservice and disconnect for us to have used purplecouchpotatoes.com

• Consider SEO

The only way this is effective is if there is a direct association between the SEO keyword in your domain name and the chosen SEO keyword in your website text (which should be used repeatedly). 

• Avoid The Shift Key

If those searching for you are required to use the shift key, you can count on them forgetting it. In other words, if possible try not to use symbols; e.g., dashes, etc.

• Save Room For Misspellings

If your business name is something that is often is interpreted differently in spelling, considering purchasing all common misspelling for your domain. That way, no matter how people search your company, you will not lose traffic.

•  Build Upon It

Now that you have it [your domain], don’t let it lie dormant. Hire someone to build a website around your domain so that you can attract the right community. 

•  Flaunt It

Share the domain name. Invite people to interact. Upload pictures. Stay connected. You have online presence; you have power. What will you do with it? Let us know! We’re always eager to hear from our readers and fellow risk-takers. You’ve spilled your gutsy online and built a domain. It’s time to spill your gutsy with us!

-The Green Couch

Project: Say Cheese without Being Cheesy

Kodak moments are a thing of the past. Everyone is instagramming, tweeting, snapchatting and adding filters cropping and for aesthetic purposes, and these images have overtaken social media.

However, these should never grace your professional profile, resume, business cards or web pages; It is cheesy. Although these candid or even posed scenes may seem truer to your authentic self and are a great a way to interact socially online, highlighting a side of your personal life they, unfortunately, often do not give your clients and associates the professional personification of your business.

Blurry images, outdated images, images with date marks – all these indicate someone who hasn’t invested energy, time or finances in their company reputation.

Here are five ways to present yourself professionally:

1) Headshots: Before your clients meet you, they want to meet you virtually, they want to put a face to the voice they might hear over the phone, or the bio they read online. They want to get a sense of comfort that they know you and feel a sense of trustworthy connection.

2) Filler Images: Things like heading images for your blogs increase not just your SEO but your viewing pleasure. There is a fine balance between white space and blank space. No one wants to look at your web pages and think that your site and an overly blank page is a reflection of your company: blank and bland.

3) Landscapes and Offices: Showoff your accomplishments. Whether you are in construction or you have a medical practice, why would people choose you if they cannot see your craftsmanship or you establishment?

4) Stock Photos: If you do not have any of the above, and if you do not have a way to create any of the above, stock photos is an affordable, legal way to purchase and own the copyrights to images that match the theme and needs of your company.

5) Renderings: I cannot believe it’s not butter! Whether it is the future architecture project, a visualization for a presentation or just a grainy picture that needs to be revived, rendering turns imagination, visualization and existing art into perfection. With programs so advanced and creatives so in-tuned, one can hardly define the reality from rendering.

The eyes and our sight are perhaps one of our most valued senses and should never be undervalued commodities in whatever trade, services and product our companies provide. Vision is an asset - both in what we can physically see and what we can see happening with our physical business. We all have a good side. Perfect it, flaunt it and let the camera keep on rolling!

-The Green Couch