Symbiotic Design™ article: The Right Tools
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The Right Tools (-continued, chapter 2)First, don't let anyone fool you into thinking that they have all the answers. I sure don't, and I am very happy to be human enough to admit it. You are going to have to rely on yourself, it's your business, you are the boss whether anyone else is involved or not. YOU are the key to your success.
Okay, great, you have decided to read on. At least you are curious, if nothing else.
The one tool you need to arm yourself with before you spend any money is a plan. A business plan is good, but I am talking about mapping out your online success. Too many people start a little home business by simply plunking down some money on a website and then looking for profit. This is a plan to fail.
What you need to do is to remove as many obstacles in your path as possible before you start taking any risk at all. This is important, and I say that from experience after taking it in the shorts for not doing just that. I'll elaborate...
Once upon a sunny day at college I had my nose in the computer (as usual) when I did a little surfing and realized how affordable web hosting had become and suddenly anticipated making a living doing what I love, graphic design, animation, web site development. I had already designed one website for a client and had some other graphics and illustration work. I checked out whether my preferred Domain Name was available and it was gone. I panicked because the advertisement on the website I was searching was declaring that Domain Names are being snapped up like wildfire. It took a while to come up with a name that I liked, but I did.
In retrospect, Domain names were, and to some extent still are, being snapped up like free money. And that's exactly what those Domain Names represent to some of the people snapping them up, big money via reselling for little investment. Some people are referring to this type of business as Domain Name Prospecting (as if it were a futures commodity like corn or hogs). Since I grabbed my Domain Name I have experimented with new ideas out of curiosity and I can tell you that there are still a great deal of choice ones out there that are not commanding a premium from a Domain Name Prospector.
One thing is for sure, there are a great many names that are easier to remember than SymbioticDesign.com, but I have chosen this name not merely because of my sentimentality towards my original choice (which was originally Symbiosys), but because I was looking for a branding mechanism that meant something not only to me, but also to my business and my clientele.
My reasoning? First, I am often an extremely symbolic artist. As I am sure you are aware, a symbiotic relationship exists when two different species coexist through a mutual interdependency. As an example, a shark (usually) does not eat the little fish that clean the bacteria from it's gills because it needs them to stay clean and healthy, and the fish that feed off of the shark rely on the shark for an abundant food source even though the eating machine could easily snack on them. They have achieved symbiosis through life's design.
And I do consider myself a different breed of cat than most people. Artists usually are. Most of the time I am offering my talents to clientele who by self admission have no art education or background. In many ways that makes us quite different. And with my talents I hope to draw out the soul of a clientele's business and incorporate it into my art, whether I be working on a logo, web site, animation or video, etc. Usually symbolism can play a major role in the finished work (though not necessarily). Also, combining the words "sym", which sounds like simulation (I love racing simulations) and "biotic", which sounds technical and robotic, futuristic... the end result comes out sounding nice and has multiple meanings.
But what does that have to do with a branding mechanism? Well, hopefully I just ingrained your memory patterns with a simple way of remembering my website's address. But there's much more to it than that, I am going for the Arnold Schartzenager effect, hear it over and over again and you won't be able to forget it. Note that I do not recomend this strategy. I am not spending bid bucks on a marketing campaign. I recomend that you find a name that is easy to remember and as catchy as possible. But I have a 5 year investment in my branding effort, so I won't give that up easily.
Two of my favorite brand names are different examples of what I consider a branding mechanism:
Psygnosys was a powerhouse video game company who's name was not only peculiar, but kind of baffling. And the spelling was even difficult at first. But after they had made an impression, that name stuck. Part of the reason that it did stick in people's minds is that they were curious what was up with that name right off the bat. The fact that they made the most outstanding and technologically advanced games for a while is beside the point, the brand itself stuck out.
Just what does the name Amazon have to do with books, anyway? And now Amazon.com is one of the most recognizable brands ever. I is still the single standout e-tailer (e commerce retailer) in most of the internet shopping public's mind. Amazon still doesn't have any meaning to the product line other than their warehouse facilities must seem like a jungle. But it is catchy, despite it's meaninglessness for most of us. The answer is simple, they have marketed the brand effectively simply by picking the right name to brand.
The other single standout e-tailer is eBay. Originally, they only provided a service and everyone else provided the product. But the convenience of the online auction company caught on like wildfire. Because they were the first to market this service, everyone else (eBid, uBid, etc...) has been left in the dust while eBay expands to providing shops and other services. They even own PayPal now. But what does the name "eBay" have to do with auctions? And now when we say the name, you can't think of anything else even though eBay offers so much more.
Branding isn't a simple equation. It's easy to remember eBid, but eBay stands out more as a brand. Buy.com and Shop.com exist, but is that an effective brand? Actually, yes, as the very brand name seems to cry out for shopaholics. Spend.com goes right to Buy.com because the branding is actually marketed to people who can't otherwise remember a brand name. After all, do you really want to spend money? So even these easy simple names are great marketing gimmicks. But it will require more work to actually create a brand out of them. Buy.com has done a great job at this. Pets.com did not and now the Domain Name points to PetsMart.com. They capitalized on Pets.com's misfortune and simply use the Pets.com Domain Name as a marketing gimmick while establishing the PetsMart brand.
But most of these simple to remember names are gone now, unless you want to invest a fortune for the ones already snapped up by Domain Name hoarders. As mentioned, these so called enterprises buy easy to remember or significant names like they are investing in the futures market. But the reward is huge, so I can easily understand why. As of this writing, Loans.com is demanding a 3 million dollar price tag. Media.com is $750,000.00. Record.com is $700,000.00 and returning customers might accidentally type Records.com into the address bar.
So you will have to carefully consider your Domain Name that will represent your brand. But remember, you can easily have more than one Domain point to your main brand Domain to generate more traffic. Most small businesses start out with just the one, or two, using the second (or third) simply to protect their brand name (I also own SymbioticDesign.net, though I have much to do here at SymbioticDesign.com before I use it for something else, yet by having it I secure my brand name).
The most common and easy to remember Domains end in .com, .net, .org, .tv and .us, but many others are available such as .biz, .name, .info, .ws, .cc. This last extension in a url is considered the Top Level Domain (TLD). Other countries often have appealing extensions as well, such as .it (Italy... Race.it or Create.it as examples), .pl (Poland... Park.pl, My.pl as quick examples), even .TV is a country's high level Domain that has been marketed widely as a cool Domain to have in America because of it's connotation of using it to signify television.
To be on the safe side, I would chose to grab something that is available with the .com extension first, if you can. Studies show that a .com address will show up on search engines before .net, .org, .tv, .us, .biz, .name, .info, .ws, or .cc addresses. Finding an available .com Domain Name to promote as a brand usually means that the other high level Domains are probably available as well, should you decide to snap them up (perhaps down the road after establishing yourself).
The .Net names are also in wide use. The .Org names are usually intended for nonprofit groups and clubs, such as open source programmers, college athletic conferences, charities, computer user groups, etc. Others worth considering are .Biz (for businesses), .WS (standing for web site or world site), and .TV (which is now commanding a lower but premium registration fee).
The .edu Domains are reserved for schools. The .gov is for government, and .mil is for military.
My personal favorite is .US as it smacks of patriotism and though it has been around a while, has only recently been marketed widely to the public and offers many available choices in good branding names. The .US Domain Names have recently dropped in price dramaticly. Less than a year ago I paid $59.00 for S-Design.US and we are now selling these .US addresses at ridiculous prices. In fact, I just picked up SymbioticDesign.us for less than $9.00! This is the address we will use for selling Domain Names (with great prices, I might add).
One thing is for certain, you will have to establish a Domain Name so that customers can find your web site via the Domain address. It doesn't matter where you get it from as long as it's yours. Selling things through GeoCities will not work if you are going to make a concerned effort to make your business succeed and grow online.
You do not have to use the same name as your business. Symbiotic Design started life as Symbiotic Design Group. No one would have typed out or searched for SymbioticDesignGroup.com and I would have gone bust early.
Another possibility when considering a Domain Name is if say, HomeShopping.com is taken (merely provided as an example), what about Home-Shopping.com or HomeShoppingInc.com or HomeShoppingNet.com? Still, this should be well thought out and done done carefully. If you register a Domain Name that would infringe on someone else's trademark or copyright, you risk losing it in the courts when the company fights to defend it's rightful property. For instance, Disney has registered all kinds of Domain Names to protect the Disney name: Disney.com, DisneyWorld.com and DisneyThemePark.com are all taken. But Disney only holds DisneyThemePark.com to protect it's Trademark, it doesn't even use that Domain Name. So if you figured out a name that Disney didn't already own that a web surfer might try to find, it's a safe bet that Disney's lawyers would descend on you with "Cease and Desist" orders and demand that you sell them the Domain Name.
Symbiotic Design Domain Name Registration and Services
Once you decide on an available Domain Name, be sure and register the business under the name you chose with your proper local government authorities if you haven't already. This expense will be solely dependent on how you register it (incorporate or simply register and use a fictitious name with the state or your legal government authority) and what your local rates are. But this is a very important step because it also helps protect your right to the Domain Name you have chosen. Unfortunately, corporations are always favored over small companies or home businesses, so you might want to consider some sort of incorporation such as an LLC... a Limited Liability Corporation. You may even want to hire a lawyer.
It took me almost a month to decide on my Domain Name, and I was in a rush to get a global company presence online and establish myself. That was fine, but once I had secured my Domain Name I plunked down my money not only to secure the Domain Name, but also to pay for the website. But it took me another month to design logos and pick the one I liked best while I was working elsewhere. I just wasted a whole month of web hosting charges while I designed possible logos. What a mistake.
It was important to secure my Domain Name so that someone else didn't snap it up while I was designing the logo, but to actually be paying for the month it took me while my site displayed an under construction message was not very thrifty. Now-a-days you can almost always park a Domain Name for free until you are ready to use it.
Also, if you decide to sign up for our "Free Domain for Life" offer by paying for your web hosting charges annually when due every year (saving you two months charges over monthly rates), we will register a .com, .net or .org Domain Name of your choice for you and pay the registration or renewal fee. So you will eventually win out in the long run even if it takes a bit to get a finished logo design.
Symbiotic Design can even design the logo for you. We can even guarantee satisfaction on an approved patentable company (or personal) logo for a very reasonable and competitive rate. We even do preliminary research on your new trademark to avoide headaches all around. On top of that, we will stand behind the registered (®) Trademark for a period of 10 years. Or we can offer the same logo design services which still require your approval but do not guarantee a successful patent search. Use this option if you will simply be using a Trademark or Service Mark to protect your logo (and not registering the logo as a trademark with the US patent office).
Symbiotic Design Logo Design Creative Services
Failing my drumming up business for myself, there are many reputable design firms all over the country who can design your logo, and quite honestly it is fine with us if you prefer to work with someone else.
But there isn't a single reason in the world why you can't do it yourself, either. I think designing logo art is the most fun I could ever have without my wife around. I'll be pointing out the best tools for doing great professional graphics for your website after we discuss finding a web host in the next chapter.
Certainly, deciding on a logo for your company identity is crucial, but you can also easily opt for a free logo just to tide you over while you work on a more permanent solution. Xara has a great tool for creating 3D text for web page headers that could easily be used to create a quick and dirty logo, and it would continue to work well for your web page headers, section identifiers and buttons and to boot. The FREE Xara3D trial version is downloadable and will run on almost any Windows computer. Or if you are on a slow dialup connection and don't want to download the trial, we have their great little free Xara3D online sampler utility here for you with a small selection of fonts which might do the job for your immediate web site logo needs:
The full version of Xara3D is so good at what it does that you may just decide to stick with what you come up if your only concerns are for a web based logo. That way you can carry the 3D text theme using your chosen style throughout your website to cement the logo design and create continuity throughout your web pages using same or similar style 3D headings and buttons.
Check out this version of Symbiotic Design which I used free Xara3D online sampler to produce:
Let's keep it free!: To add the small TM (to protect our Trademark) while illustrating the ability to legally create the logo for free, I used a freeware program called Photo Impact Viewer from ULead to convert the image to a bitmap, then I used the Paint image editor which comes with Windows (in the Accessories section of the Start menu) to add the letters in a color already used by the picture. Then I used Photo Impact Viewer to convert the image to a GIF. Please note that I usually would never touch freeware for graphics, as a professional I use Adobe Photoshop almost exclusively.
Here's a couple more examples of what I easily accomplished with the free Xara3D online sampler can do:
Also note that Xara has a number of products that facilitate the ease of designing and producing graphics for a website, all reasonably priced.There are other free and low cost options to coming up with a logo available, as well. I will add links to the ones I like as I run across them in the future.
More free logo design links:
We also keep the free Xara3D online sampler available at: SymbioticDesign.com/tools/creative/xaraonlinesampler.html
CoolText.com has been providing free online logo generation for years. They have an excellent set of templates to choose from.If creating a logo is so easy and free why would you ever pay someone to have one done? Ah, good question, I knew you were smart.
First of all, as good as tools such as Xara3D are, it doesn't provide you with a complete logo package for the entire scope and soul of the business. Symbiotic Design would present you with a number of professionally designed logos and ask the right questions to dig deeper into the style, look and feel you are looking for, interacting with you, your agent or the board of directors personally and professionally until we came up with an appropriate and successful resolution to the design challenge. And we have the talent and art education to steer you towards the best solution.
Secondly, we would deliver the logo to you in all formats for successful reproduction in any media or via any platform. The master logo would be a vector graphics based encapsulated postscript file which would reproduce splendidly in any size from billboard to web page icon, and include versions for Windows or Macintosh so that accurate color reproduction is assured.
Thirdly, We would provide a variety of variations for different uses, including splash page versions, promotional banners, Domain Name versions, letterhead versions, menu versions, side frame versions, and at least one animated version done with different specifications for display.
Fourthly, it is important that your logo not only be rememberable as your corporate identifier, put give a positive impression. We have the art education as well as understand the nuances of logo design. And you certainly wouldn't want to give a negative impression through a poor logo design.
On top of this, if you opt for it, we will even guarantee that the logo can be successfully registered with the US Patent Office or we will create a new one until it does. Even if the logo passes the patent search but an existing company challenges the art on the basis that it resembles their logo, we will do it over. So no matter what unforseen circumstance might present itself, you are guaranteed a complete and unique corporate logo identity package.
One way or another, you will have to come up with a logo to give your website a professional look and feel. Whether you do it yourself or have a professional design one for you, it's important not to leave the interpretation of your logo up to a font tag, as different browsers display fonts at different sizes and different platforms display different variations of the same font. Some users turn off font tags and some old browsers don't even support font face tags. Browsers were invented to make the internet graphical and more freindly to users, so don't even think about simply using a certain font tag unless you are simply echoing the font used in a graphic version if the user has the font installed on his/her system.
Symbiotic Design Logo Design Creative Services
Well, there you go, you have the start of a corporate identity. Now you need to present it and your products and/or services to the global online community. The next chapter will discuss web site hosting choices and issues.
continued...
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