We recently had a meeting with a new business starting out here in the Southeast. We met, discussed their intension’s and objectives etc. At this point they had not even registered their business name with the companies office So they registered as a Sole Trader and used the name that they wished to trade under.

So they were set . . . . or so they thought, so day they came back to us with the idea of securing the domain name, but in the weeks that passed somebody else registered the domain name for a website.

It’s gone.

If you want to register a domain name I would suggest getting the name as soon as you can, if you leave it on your list of things to do it can be snapped up by another business of a similar name. Domain names are very important and if you are starting a new brand or business get your name as soon as you can. They do not have a registered Trademark or established brand and so it will be a real battle to get the name back from the IEDR and prove that you have a right to it first.

Call Cada Media if you are starting a business and want to get online and we can run through what you need and how we can help

If I got a Euro for every call I get to the office asking can we help companies track down their web designer as their domain name has expired and he has apparently moved aboard.

Emails lost, website lost, google position lost, orders lost, credibility lost.

In some instances we can help them as we have good contacts in the trade etc and other times we have to tell them all their work is gone!

If this has happened to you, call us.

Only two minutes after writing the last blog post the phone rings and its a client who set up a website with us last year and we registered a domain name for them. The reminder renewal was sent out on the first of March 2011. It has since expired and their domain name was bought by another company.

What about our Stationary?

I know, they now have to reprint all their stationary as otherwise they will be advertising a competitor on their headed paper, invoices, business cars, flyers and compliment slips. So today we secured another domain name for them and are in the middle of setting up their emails and changing their website. I could tell you another story of the haulage company who lost their .com and had to reprint all their truck signage. (both sides too!)

Anyway, if you are looking at reducing your annual printing costs I would suggest making sure your domain name gets renewed.

Call Dave on 053 9430748 to secure your domain name now.

This is a question we get asked all the time, telephone calls come into the office asking how a business get get higher in Google or how they can come up for various searches. Well the answer is not simple, but following a few simple step can help.

Start off by  . .

Keeping your domain name registered. Sounds simple but often is neglected and put on the long finger as its only a few euros and can end up costing you thousands in a marketing spend to get listed again.

Why?

Because search engines do not wish to display old or expired websites, therefore as part of their algorithm they exclude expired domain names. Think about it, with the amount of businesses gone out of business in the past 3 years in Ireland, if they didn’t every-time we did a search we would get an error “Page not found”. The web would come to a halt.

Pushed Out of Google !

We have found that it can take as little as 4 to 5 days for Google to remove a business from it’s listing! So if you have a business and are looking to get ranked higher, do the simple things, renew your domain name!

For more helpful tips on how to grow your business online call Dave Jordan of Cada Media Ltd 053 9430748

Whilst enjoying the sunshine in La Managa in Murcia Spain recently we were able to pick up more Spanish business. Being a business that uses the web we are always able to pick up clients when we travel and last week was no difference. Before traveling we looked up a few domain names of the businesses we were visiting and one great domain name that one our of old friends at Cada Media was looking for was available.

Plural Domains

Even though may of us use search engines, may still type directly into the top address bar and guess domain names. This particular company exports motor bike helmets around the world, but had neglected to register the plural version of their company names, demonstrating that they actually have a few helmets to sell and not just one!

We registered the domain name and set up a redirect so the name will point to their original website.

Then when we were on the subject of domains  and emails the conversation came about to spam emails and viruses as one pc in the office was suffering after receiving many emails containing viruses.

Not missing out on an opportunity we were able to sell our Spam filtering services to the company and also to one of their sister companies too. The spam filtering service we offer allows business to scan just 1 email address or thousands depending on their needs.

Moral of the Story. . . .The Web is Everywhere and never stops, never sleeps, it’s a global village we are in and using the Web for business will increase sales, increase exposure to bigger markets and greater sales. Don’t be afraid to be part of it.

Indeed a strange statement to hear over the phone, but never the less one that is getting more and more common these days as we hear about companies and businesses in the southeast who have gone to look at their website to find it’s gone. Replaced with advertising for other websites selling similar products and services.

Stolen Domain Names

Expired domain names are often used as advertising boards once it has passed it expiration date. This means that the company who has registered the domain name will put display adverts or Google Adwords on the site in order to try to recoup some of their losses.

It is very common.

Today we had a call from a local business who had somehow allowed their domain name to expire, they said they were not contacted by their own web company and had no notification. We were able to do some research and contact a few people in the industry and the next day the company who had hosted the their website and registered the domain name were in contact with them and the website went live again.

It is important to remember when you have a website that if the domain name and hosting are on an annual fee then you will be getting invoiced each year. Not paying these fee’s usually results in disconnection. don’t pay your ESB bill and you get cut off.

I believe the same happened in this case.

If you have a domain name and website hosting package with a company such as this caller and wish to possibly think about moving to an office based web design business then whey not give Cada Media Ltd a call on 053 9430748 and ask for Dave.

Yes, it’s true they havent gone away and in fact we’ve found a few here in Wexford. Driving to meet a client for lunch the other day I noticed a sign near Gorey advertising a new business currently under construction. It’s a fairly big development with massive sign so you guess that they have looked at every aspect of the growth of this project.

Living in the area, I was aware that the planning permission for this had been in the local newspapers nearly 5 years ago and they are breaking ground now and starting the build. On returning to the office I Google’d the projects name only to find that someone has recently “Cyber Squatted” their domain name, well the international version is gone and the person who has registered the name has hidden their name, thus indicating that they hiding the fact that they are behind this. (We know who they are as they famous in the area for this)

The Irish domain name is still available to register but this take a little more paper work as you need to prove that you are related to the name of the domain by either having a letter from an accountant or solicitor or by having a registered Trading name or a partnership or a limited company with the Companies Office in Ireland.

The domain could end up being a website that diverts traffic away from the real owners business and making them either pay for the domain or else making them pay for advertising on it. We have seen this on the other side of Gorey town where a similar Cyber Squatting event took place.

If you are starting a business or registering a new company in Wexford, please be aware that there are unscrupulous people out there who are trying to earn money off your ideas and your investment.

Call Dave Jordan of Cada Media Ltd in Goreytoday to give you all the options in domain name protection and on-line brand protection.

Tel: 053 9430748

We had a good talk with a client yesterday about registering a domain name for their business. They have registered one domain and were under the impression that they had reached the amount they were allowed to register.

A company can register as many domains as they wish, as long as they have the documentation to back up the claim to the domains.

Products that you sell could be registered or services that you provide can be registered too. We have registered domains for companies who have multiply products

Protecting your business name.

Often companies will wonder about which domain extension to go for the .ie or the .com The answer is buy both. If you don’t, then expect another business to buy your name and redirect it to their own site or they just just sit on and and no allow it to go anywhere. They can hide who registered it and simply let it rot away doing nothing.

This happens more than is publicized. We have astute clients that have protected their brands and business names by registering all the variations of their company and products and services. They have bought the .com, .net, .eu and .ie versions of their names.

Buying the Plural version of the products.

We often come across companies who have registered one version of their products only to be up the wall later when then see a very similar domain as their sitting above them in Google Adword Campaigns but that version has a “s” at the end instead of

Example:

www.StoneWall.ie

www.StoneWalls.ie

Both good names for a stone mason but they are to completely different domain names. If it was our client we would have got them both and closed the door to others grabbing the domain.

Another important one people usually for get about is putting “ing” at the end of the domain too!

www.fish.ie = online fishing and hunting shop in Galway

www.fishing.ie = Available to register to their competitors immediately!

See what I mean.

Expiring domains, are they any good?

With the recession in Ireland it is interesting to see the effect on the internet as many great domains are actually coming back on the market. Names that have been advertised on Tv and are house hold names. These domains would also carry with them a good page rank and listing in search engines.

We have registered a number of great domains for clients that are related to the construction/property market in Ireland that is struggling at the moment and we have grabbed the expired domains from their competitors and put up a page explaining that they are gone bust and maybe to contact the new owner of the domains with their query instead.

It has been a very successful way of gaining new inquiries and sales leads generation for our clients.

To grow your business in a recession, talk to Cada Media today.  053 9430748

To follow up on earlier posts about registering a domain names and seeking advice from accountants in Gorey I would like point out that this ( the Blog) is not a definitive white paper on Irish domain names. A person who has not registered their business with the companies office may get a domain name under the “Discretionary Domain Name Registration” application. This means that if you have not got the correct paper work you can apply for the domain name, by either backed up with a letter from your accountant explaining your situation or a letter on your own headed paper explaining your reason for wanting to register the domain. It’s a backdoor method in my view and I would not recommend it. Do it right in the first place and register your trading name with the Companies office.

Entitlement issues could follow if others who have a limited company or a registered trading name in the same name request the name and push to get it transferred to them. I could go on further as there are also trademark issues and patents etc. But you should get the general idea. Do it right in the first place.

This blog is a communication tool to allow us to communicate with our clients and potential clients in brief. It is published as an informal method of dialogue that is recommended and expected these days. I always say at the end of posts, to get in touch for more information and that’s what happens 99 times out of a 100.

I am reminded of a conversation I had with an accountant once and explaining why we write in our news blog. I demonstrated how we were the first company in Ireland to talk about the new VAT rates that was announced last October 09. Our news was found the Irish Internet Association who then published the news even further on their own site. I asked if he had written to his clients and informed them, he hadn’t.

We googled “New vat Rates” and there we were, No 1.

So What?

Well we are always thinking how to help our clients and how to help them grow their business, especially in a recession,  All our clients who had a website using the old vat rates needed to be changed and especially the ecommerce websites. If we were of any help to others businesses and they called us to get their website updated, well hey great. Winner.

For all the details you will need on registering a domain name in Ireland and the actual policies I would recommend a read of the official website www.iedr.ie

If you have any questions about domains names, please call myself Dave Jordan or simply leave a reply below.

We had an interesting telephone call to the office today about our last article regarding registering Irish Domain Names, that means the ones that end in .ie  (not.com domain names)

This anonymous caller on a private number claiming to be an accountant in Gorey mentioned that it is possible to register a domain name without being registered with the companies office.

I would like to confirm that this is true….. if you are a registering a domain for yourself such as davejordan.ie for example. It is possible, but if you are looking to register a domain name for a business or a company then being registered with the CRO is required.

There are different types of applications for irish domain names and if you would like to register a personal domain name, then a different documentation procedure is used, a copy of a passport etc.

We used this procedure when we registered the domain name for our local Fine Gael TD, MichaelDArcy.ie

Thank You anonymous caller, for you input, can I also mention that you can type in a reply to any of our articles under each post on every page to our blog.

Call us today on 053 9430748 or Dublin on 01 4433074