America’s SBDC Blog

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gTLDs: What are these new domains, and why should you care?

December 15, 2014
By Isaac Irvine

If you own a business, choosing a great domain name is one of the most important steps you’ll take to build a strong online identity. A unique address that represents a website, your domain name is the part of the address that follows the “www.” in an address bar or after the @ symbol in an email address. Your domain is how people remember and revisit your site.

You’ll probably have lots of questions when you set out to choose a domain name for your online business presence. Questions like “What keywords should I use? Is this name too long? Should I pick a .com or what?” It’s a big decision.

Fortunately, the continuing rollout of hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to the online marketplace makes it easier than ever before to pick the perfect domain name. These descriptive new domain extensions—such as .lawyer, .guru, .vegas and .dentist, just to name a few—give you a fresh opportunity to register domains that perfectly represent what you and your business are all about.  (more…)

Is it time to get a SSL certificate?

October 13, 2014

At first, determining whether or not you need a SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate might seem like a daunting task. What do they do? Do I really need one, and if I do, why? When do I attach it to my site? Don’t worry — just about every small business owner launching a website for the first time asks the same questions.

The whole concept of SSL might seem like a mystery, but it’s actually fairly clear-cut. Here’s the lowdown:

What is SSL? 

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a security mechanism that works between a user’s Web browser (like Firefox® and Google Chrome™) and the website the user is connecting to. The website’s software includes a SSL certificate issued by a trustworthy authority. When confidential info needs to be exchanged, SSL is used to encrypt the information before it is sent, and then to decrypt it at the other end, when it has been received.  (more…)

Is a premium domain the best choice for your business website?

September 22, 2014

Whether you’re just starting your business or looking to take your company to the next level, you know you need to have a strong, interconnected online presence. A website. Social media profiles. Your business info on directories, maps and review sites. This is how you’ll reach new customers and nurture loyalty among existing clients.

But what if you’re doing all the online marketing stuff you’re supposed to do, and you’re still not getting the kind of response you were hoping for? You might need to look more closely at one of the basics for success online: your domain name

Your domain name is basically the street address for your business online — for example, mybusiness.com or mybusiness.nyc. It might be a potential customer’s first point of contact. In today’s ultra-competitive online marketplace, you want your domain name to stand out. It needs to be memorable as well as descriptive. It needs to be easy to type into a browser or search engine. A .com with three dashes and four numbers is not easy to type into a browser.  (more…)

Rhonda Abrams, Travel Series Blog: Must Have Apps

September 17, 2014

Rhonda’s 21 Must-Have Apps for Small Business Travel

Rhonda teamed up with Marriott and Visa to create the Small Business Smart Travel Guide, on which this blog post is based.

Traveling for your small business is crucial for growth. But it can also be stressful.

As the owner of a publishing company and as a public speaker, I’m out there every month meeting with clients and distributors or attending industry events, such as the America’s SBDC Conference. Fortunately, technology makes it easy for me to prepare for meetings, work efficiently while I’m away, and manage my business on the road.

These 21 apps have helped me be a Smart Small Business Traveler.  (more…)

Technology, please: Using online productivity tools to do better in business

September 9, 2014

With a friend, I built kitchens and bathrooms. That was fun, and almost a hobby rather than a business — though not intentionally so. We would wait for money to come in, spend many unhealthy hours with a phone seemingly stuck to the side of our heads, and pay multiple visits to customers before jobs to plan, discuss and change plans again.

If only I knew then what I know now.

It wasn’t that we didn’t know about technology — hey, we had mobile phones and used email! And as fast as technology moves, even that short time ago there were tools that would have made our lives so much easier. But we did things the hard way.

We would sketch designs until we ran out of paper, rather than use any of the many free online planning tools widely available. We’d trip over duplicate emails because we weren’t synced up. (I replied to the email; he replied to the same email. How professional is that? Not so much, I agree.) We chased payments. On foot, sometimes.

So would I do it again? Absolutely. But I’d do it so much better.

Knowing what I now know about all the amazing productivity tools available to small business owners (from GoDaddy and other companies), I’d work smarter — using technology to save time and money (not to mention the environment), communicate more effectively, and get paid faster. Here’s how.  (more…)