Recently, I was given the opportunity to leave my desk for the afternoon and indulge in something you might consider to be the ultimate level of geekdom; visiting the Google offices in Sydney.

The purpose of the visit was to accompany my boss in meeting some of the folks behind the AdSense program. When you take your first steps into the main foyer, you’re instantly drawn towards the colossal Google logo on the wall. And I know Google’s unofficial slogan is “Don’t Be Evil”, however I couldn’t help but think I had just walked into the Death Star. I know, it sounds cliché, but until you visit the place and see it for yourself, you really can’t visualize what a unique workplace Google has.

“Google is at the forefront of delivering next generation web based solutions, and it’s very exciting to be part of that.”

Andrew – Software Engineer
Sydney, Australia

To add, the entire building is laid out like a maze with something visually stimulating in every corner. Entering our meeting room, we were given a short tour past the games room which contained all of the spoils the happy Googlers get to treat themselves to. I’d be happy too; PS3, X-Box, Guitar Hero and pool tables—the whole deal. Moving along I was prescribed a Red Bull during our walkthrough of the kitchen stocked with more food and drink than you can possibly imagine, ready for the next snack time.

I even caught a glimpse from the hallway of these large displays showing in real-time the keywords users from all around the world are currently searching for. Noting the most popular keywords at that exact moment: ‘Obama’, ‘Tiger Woods’, ‘Chilean earthquake’ and ‘how to tie a tie’—thanks Google, you truly are providing millions of aspiring men with a means to dress as true gentlemen.

The meeting itself was a real insight into the tools available within Google’s Empire and arsenal of ad-revenue techniques. While we did talk properly about the AdSense program, including a lot of information covered by the NDA I had to sign when coming to the reception area, my highlight was definitely seeing the casual creative environment where developers like myself are free and even encouraged to do what they do best. Unfortunately, like the many others who have tried before me, I wasn’t allowed to take any snaps of my trip so the images you’re seeing are taken from Google’s own webpage.

Take the time to view Time Magazine’s insight into Google’s Offices as they show exactly the kind of environment that they boast—just remember that the pictures really don’t do it justice.

Reflecting on my own visit, I’m still blown away by it all. I managed to receive some interesting views on revenue streams and answers to many of my questions. The AdSense team was really down to earth and overall a very nice group of people.

I hope you get the chance to visit the offices for yourself one day. For more information and a further look into what it’s like to work at Google, I recommend this video.

Something that I hear a lot of however, are many businesses not taking advantage of this powerful platform because of their concern over relevance. I suppose it’s a natural assumption for some businesses, particularly in the B2B market, where there is merely the supply of a small part of the end product.

The truth is, every business should be blogging. Regardless of how appealing or unappealing you think what you have to say might be, your business has customers. These are the people who will find your content interesting. Think about it—they have chosen to buy from you. If you can become a source of further information and authority on the product they are buying, do you think they’ll come back to buy again? Absolutely.

So how do you make a blog relevant and interesting? What do you say?

For a start, realise that your blog is not just an opportunity to talk about your product. You must use the tool to deliver opinion, advice and thought leadership. You want to become a trusted adviser on whatever your field of expertise is. You want them to be able to ask questions, and you want to be able to thoughtfully answer them, both possible through the blog.

Before you start writing, identify who you’re writing for. Are you going to talk to business customers, those who you supply for them to produce an end product? Talk about where the industry is going, latest developments, things that others are doing that you think are great, and what your business is doing to lead the field. Similarly, if you are in a B2C business, do all of the above, as well as showing your customers how to use your product.

Don’t forget, this is your platform, and the delivery of the content should reflect your personality. The beauty of blogging is that it can take many forms. At its most basic you can just type, similar to what you’re reading here.  If you want, do it by video. Gary Vaynerchuck has demonstrated the power of video as a business building tool through his www.winelibrary.tv site. There are no rules to how you do it, but you must do it. We now live in a business world where two-way communication rules.

Make sure you write often. Not only will frequent fresh content help your discoverability with search engines, it gives your customers a reason to keep coming back. Always be on the lookout for what you think will make interesting reading to your customers and keep a list of topics and notes that you can write about when you make the time.

Above all, never think that your opinion on your products or industry will not be relevant, but understand that it may not be relevant to the world. It will make sense and be of interest to the people who matter the most – your customers.

PHOTO CREDIT – Kristina B

There are a few stand out reasons why businesses have been hesitant to invest in social networking. The first and most significant, is the belief that social networking sites do not last long and are quickly replaced by new and ‘better’ competitors. Business’ would not take the risk of investing millions of dollars into a social networking site if they felt that in a year from now that site would be in the process of being thrown on the backburner as a new competitor draws its users away.

For an example of this one needs to look no further than MySpace. Only a few years ago it was seen as the dominant player in the social networking market. It had over 300 million users and appeared to have no up and coming competitor to challenge its undisputed position as the largest and most successful social networking site available. Yet as I write this the number of MySpace users has fallen to a little over 100 million and the unstoppable social freight train that is Facebook has surpassed it and gone onto bigger and better things.

But one must ask themselves now, what exactly will the lifespan of Facebook be? With over 400 million users strong, it has by far the largest share of all social networking sites. Yet in just the last year new competitors have arisen to challenge its dominance, most notably Twitter. Just last week Google entered itself into the market by announcing Buzz, its own social networking platform. Is it possible that these new competitors could someday catch on and bring Facebook crashing back to earth like it itself did to MySpace?

To those who believe it is, making an investment in a site like Facebook would not be a clever business move—and perhaps this is precisely what has held the corporate world back from investing large amounts into social networking sites.

Social networking sites, especially Facebook, rely upon the freedom and ability of users to create their own online content. Yet this presents another problem with companies looking to advertise their products on these sites. For those of you who are Facebook users (as most of us are), imagine clicking on a group or fan page titled ‘I hate fast food‘ or even ‘I hate McDonalds‘ and right next to are those unmistakable golden arches advertising a new burger. Of course, this can also work in reverse. Say, for example, a group titled ‘I love Summer‘ right next Coca Cola‘s iconic logo. This would fall perfectly into line with their current advertising campaign centred around the summer lifestyle.

Whilst embarrassments such as the McDonalds example would reflect poorly on a business’ image, they would be foolhardy to ignore the enormous market that awaits online on social networking sites. By advertising through them or even having their name associated with a site such as Facebook they open a huge new potential market and can reach a diverse and far ranging audience of users.

So the dilemma remains. Will the corporate world take the risk of displaying their brands and products hand in hand with possibly conflicting material posted by the very users they are trying to win over? Will they be prepared to invest in the astounding successes of social networking sites despite their possible vulnerability to new competitors?

Enormous profits and publicity rest on their decision.

Business owners can be over-zealous, over-bearing and at times they can even come across as tyrannical—but put things into their context: as a business owner there are 3 main prerogatives that warrant such a pushy demeanour: the goal of maximising profit, the goal of investing as little amount of money as possible to attain maximum profit, and the final objective of doing both within the scarce constraints of time. Business owners are entering an age of enlightenment as websites are beginning to receive more emphasis as the favoured conduit between business and consumer. Design reconvenes the conventions of commerce, marketing and information sharing. By acknowledging the growing importance of online communication and design, what else would a pirate be doing other than conjuring up all available resources and preparing them to commandeer the latest vessel of opportunity? Let’s set the scenario…

Let’s call the captain of the pirate ship, or the business owner, Blackbeard. Now, aside form being a cliched fairytale persona, Blackbeard speaks a little differently to you and I because he speaks the language of business. The flaw of many designers is that they don’t understand the nature of business and how to effectively translate the language without drowning in the nomenclature. It’s the first day of the project, Blackbeard’s already speakin’ his language and he’s starting to get a little bit churlish… You’re neck-deep in demands and the whole time he’s been niggardly about costs. You don’t have much time on your side either, he’s looking at you for a design concept and he wants it NOW. At the moment, you’d love to do nothing more than to throttle that stupid squawking parrot on his shoulder and stick it where the sun don’t shine, but you won’t… He’s a respective customer, so we’ll stick to the agenda with:

5 ways you can ensure that you’re giving Blackbeard the design he wants

1. Be the boss. Tell the client when they’re wrong, but back it up with valid reasoning
   Clients and employers love nothing more than to be proved wrong about something they’re not educated in. It let’s them know they’re working with someone who knows what they’re doing. Everybody knows that some clients can have an overwhelming presence, and may appear intimidating – this is something you need to overcome if you want to achieve the best possible result. The pirate might be the Captain of the ship, but I’m sure he’s going to appreciate it if you prove him wrong for a purpose – particularly if he’s reading the map upside down. Remember, you’re the expert. Does he know anything about a page structure, or code…? No, he just wants to make damn sure that he’s there when you unleash the bounty. Assert your knowledge! (in a nice way, let’s not get our throats cut…)
2. Plan, plan and then plan again
   This gives the designer time to carry out the entire design process rather than to be worried about trying to find short cuts and ultimately not achieving the best possible end result. Overcompensate, assume the worst, allow for delays and GET IT RIGHT the first time around. Clients and employers alike are happier to expect their project in 3 months and have it delivered in 2 and a half, than to be told it will be ready in a week and receive it a day later. It is the responsibility of the designer, not the employer, to have a contingency plan ready… if the route to treasure cove is blocked, you better find another way round baby otherwise you’re gonna end up as shark’s breakfast.
3. Always request a brief
   Truth be told, employers have no idea what they really want. They just want a successful end product that reflects their business. You’re the designer, you know how to achieve that—they dont. When a client is forced to write a brief and sign a contract, we know that both designer and client are on the same page with what needs to be done, it’s simply a matter of translating the “needs” into a “solution”. Blackbeard is easily agitated and appreciates it when things are all the bit more foreseeable, by providing a brief with a workable “solution”, he knows exactly what he’s going to be working towards.
4. Keep them informed all the way throughout the process
   The worst thing you can do is go away for a few weeks/months and come back with a finished design. No matter how pretty and polished it is, it will be wrong. Keep the client up to date with regular progress reports and you’ll be failure-proof. What will happen if you don’t? Well, uhhh… He’s going to be requesting millions of last minute “changes” and your original design concept is going to come crashing down on you like the thunderous tentacles of the Kraken.
5. Don’t simply meet the brief, blow it out of the water… like a fish
   It’s a common theory that as a designer, if we can check all of the boxes on the brief then we’ve done our job. This isn’t true. It’s important to go above and beyond the call to action, by monitoring the end product after it’s been delivered and informing the client/employer of ways to improve in the future. Simply meeting the general requirements just won’t do… Doubloons are great, but why not go for those gold bullion’s? Hell, the Captain may even increase your commission or at least keep your expert services up his sleeve for future endeavours!

In Conclusion…

It’s really not that hard, is it? There you were, thinking pirates were all surly and a little bit dogmatic, but the truth be told they’re only just looking to get a job done. Business owners always have their eyes on the prize, and now that they understand that they can better achieve their goals through a splendiferous web design, it’s up to you to take them that extra step further by providing them with a painless, transparent design process that not only delivers on but out-performs their own expectations. And who knows, they might even love you for it…

Domain names vs website names

If possible, you should try to make your domain name the same as either your name if it’s a personal site, your company’s name, or your website’s name. This isn’t always an easy task, especially if you’re in a competition-heavy field and don’t have a very unique name.

Naming your site after your domain may seem like the obvious thing to do, but surprisingly, not every website is named this way. Naming a site after its domain name is important, for the simple reason that when people think of your website, they’ll naturally think of it by name. If your name is also your URL, they’ll automatically know where to go. Particularly with less tech-savvy internet users, some people will actually try looking for a person or company by typing “businessname” followed by “.com” into their browser before using a search engine—I’ve seen this happen.

If you choose not to name your URL after your website for whatever reason, then you’re relying on users to return to your site either by bookmarking it or by searching for it again in a search engine. For this reason, it really pays to have a domain name that reflects your site or business because there are fewer things for your visitors to remember.

The correct length for a domain name

Technically, a domain name can be any combination of up to 67 alpha-numeric characters including or excluding hyphens, followed by an “extension”. Acronyms and abbreviations can in some instances be easy to remember if they have a catchy ring to them, as can longer domains if they flow nicely. Which is easier to remember; ytmnd.com or yourethemannowdog.com? I’ll bet your answers would split evenly here. There is no right or wrong length for your domain name—what it really bores down to is how simple it is to use and remember.

Double characters for separate words

When your name or business name is made up of more than one word and the last letter of the first word is the same as the first letter of the next word, users can become confused as to what the exact domain name is. Let’s take a look at this example; imagine our trading name was Business Seven—what would be the best domain name to use?

1. www.businessseven.com
2. www.business-seven.com
3. www.business7.com

While under normal circumstances, it’s considered best practice to avoid hyphens because it breaks the users’s natural typing process, this particular case would be an exception because there is no way you’d want to have three of the same letter in a row.

Using a combination of numbers and alpha-characters in domain names has become quite a fashion in recent years, with websites such as 37Signals, 45Royale and 24Ways being prime examples. However, it’s only a good idea to use this technique if that accurately reflects your company’s name ie. Business7 not Business Seven. Therefore, the best choice would be number 2, as it is the easiest to absently type while also representing the business most accurately.

Hyphens in domains with multiple words

Hyphenated domain names are often frowned upon for quite a few solid reasons. However, there are some advantages, and often it can be unavoidable if all of your other options are already taken. Should you get a hyphenated name for your website? There are a few things to consider:

Disadvantages

It’s easy to forget the hyphens when typing a name. Most websites do not have hyphens, which has forced users to get used to typing out multiple words without spaces or hyphens. In some cases, your users could actually leave out the hyphens when typing in your address and end up at your competitor’s site or something completely irrelevant and get the wrong impression of you and your service.

It’s hard to communicate a hyphenated domain name offline. Imagine telling someone your website address over the phone or in person if it had a couple of hyphens in it? Not easy.

Advantages

On the other hand—although it’s not as great an issue anymore with modern search engines being much more sophisticated, it can be easier for the engines to distinguish the keywords used in your domain name and thus return your site more prominently in search results for those keywords, if you do use a hyphen.

Over-the-top creative license

Creative license is great—but you can always have too much of a good thing. Many business names or website names are made up of commonly used words with spelling modifications or puns. This can give you a funky looking name for sure, but how easy is it for your users to remember at the end of the day? It’s a lot easier to navigate to www.graphicdesign.com than www.graffikdezyne.com isn’t it? Your users and search engines could also become confused and associate you with the wrong subject matter.

This is definitely something to consider when choosing your domain (and even your business name). I for one, learnt this the hard way with my previous website, having to physically spell out the word over the phone and in person for many users, causing frustration and unnecessary confusion.

How close is too close?

On the other end of the scale, you don’t want your domain name to be too similar to your competitors’, or your users could navigate away from your site and on to theirs. This is why it’s always a good idea to purchase the .com, .net and .org versions of your domain if possible. You can then setup a domain redirection and point them all to the one “master” site. This will help with SEO results and just make life a little bit easier for your users.

Summary

In conclusion, it’s important to note that there is no “correct” domain name, but rather a set of guidelines and common sense that should be considered to ensure the maximum accessibility to your site and the success of the ultimate offering. Try to keep your domain as simple as possible, at a comfortable length and with relevant keywords. If possible, purchase commonly used extension variants just to be safe and avoid being too similar to your direct competition. If you can check all of those boxes, your chances of having a “web-friendly” and accessible website will be much greater.