Most start-ups need to keep their costs down when they start out, as revenue is uncertain. There are a bunch of free online tools that can help you manage your business costs more effectively. The companies running some of these tools rely on word of mouth as their primary marketing technique and hence some of them will not be familiar to you. Help is at hand though, as this article aims to introduce you to some of the free business tools available – all you need is an Internet connection and a willingness to try these out.

Blogs

Blogs have become increasingly popular as a means for companies to communicate with their customers. Blogs are typically news posts that tend to be more informal than the typical corporate blurb you find on most websites. However, before you implement a blogging strategy, you need to consider the likely demands on your time that result. An empty blog sends out all the wrong signals, so someone in your company will need to commit to writing stories for the blog to ensure it remains up-to-date.

o    More Information:  http://wordpress.org/
o    Drawbacks – Keeping a blog up-to-date can be very time consuming.
o    Verdict –Don’t rush in!

Business plans

Writing a business plan is one of the most important things a start-up business should do, but it is a task that many new entrepreneurs find challenging. Help is at hand from Palo Alto Software  which provides a whole host of free business-planning tools and resources. These range from free sample business plans to hundreds of articles to business start-up calculators.
o    More Information: BPlans
o    Drawbacks – Using a free or inexpensive sample plan from the Internet is rife with pitfalls. No sample can exactly represent you, your location, or your business.
o    Advantage – You are better off writing your own business plan from scratch using Business Plan Pro.
o    Verdict –Upgrade to Business Plan Pro (£79.99)

Customer service email

Once your website is up and running you’ll need a system to manage your email. Here at Palo Alto Software, we designed an email product to help you manage all email going to shared email addresses such as info@, sales@ or support@.
o    More Information: Email Center Pro
o    Drawbacks – Given we built it, there are none!
o    Verdict –Try it out free here.

Keyword search alerts

Google Alerts sends you emails updating you on the popularity of particular keywords or terms you specify. These alerts can help you monitor competitor behaviour, or keep you abreast of the latest developments in your industry.
o    More Information: Google
o    Drawbacks – Extra mails in your inbox!
o    Verdict –Optional Tool.

Google Docs

With the increasing shift to online applications, it may not be necessary to kit everyone in the office out with their own copies of Microsoft® Vista™. Instead, some people could use an open-source desktop application, along with the online file-editing and sharing tool, Google Docs. These applications work like simplified versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint®, and allow colleagues to work together on the same document.
o    More Information: Google
o    Drawbacks – Don’t lose the password!
o    Verdict –Essential Tool.

Internet-based phone calls

With Skype you can make Internet calls to whoever you want for free (assuming they also have Skype) or for a small fee if to a landline.  Again it is ideally suited to start-ups who want to keep the cost of calls down, and like instant messaging, is ideally suited to facilitating communication when people are geographically dispersed.
o    More Information: Skype

o    Drawbacks – The reception can be flaky on occasions.
o    Verdict –Essential Tool.

Instant messaging

This is a popular form of two-way communication using typed text.  A key benefit is the fact that the communication can take place in real time and hence it facilitates improved communication, particularly amongst geographically-dispersed colleagues.
o    More Information: Yahoo
o    Drawbacks – Ensure everyone is on the same client, i.e. America Online, Yahoo!, Skype or Windows Live.
o    Verdict –Essential Tool.

To do lists

There are a number of online ‘to do’ lists which help you manage your priorities. Of course some people will be happy with the trusty pen and paper. However, if you want online access to your ‘to do’ list consider some of the free options that are available.
o    More Information: Remember the Milk or ToDoist

o    Drawbacks – Do you really need 24/7 access to your to do list?
o    Verdict –Stick to the pen and paper.

Web analytics

All start-ups typically create a website right away for a number of reasons: to market their business, to generate leads and to sell their products or services. Once you have a website live, it is vital that you understand who is using your website, what they are doing when they arrive, how long they are staying, etc. All of this information is available free using Google Analytics.
o    More Information: Google
o    Drawbacks – the main drawback is the fact that Google owns the data.
o    Verdict –Essential Tool.

Summary

One thing all start-ups face is uncertain revenues against a backdrop of largely certain costs. Many of these free applications are perfectly suitable for use from Day One, ensuring you save money without compromising on business essentials.

Alan Gleeson

The growth in the use of the Internet in recent years has led to a huge shift in marketing activities to the online space. This article explains some of the key things for you to focus on to help you market effectively online. Secure that domain name early. The natural starting point is the creation of a website. Once you start your business it is important to secure the domain name in the markets you intend to compete in. We at Palo Alto Software, Inc and Palo Alto Software Ltd have lots of domain names ranging from PaloAlto.com (global), PaloAlto.co.uk (U.K.), and PaloAlto.ie (Ireland). These help ensure that prospective customers can find us easily by typing our name directly into a Web browser.

There are numerous ways you can build a website, from doing it yourself using available software tools, to hiring website specialists. Regardless of the method chosen you need to be completely clear on the main purpose of the website. Is it to sell products or to generate leads? Once the primary purpose is clear, you can then decide on the layout, alongside the look and feel.

Ensure your website is optimised

Given the hundreds of thousands of websites out there, it is worth reviewing a number to get a feel for the type of design and user interface you would like. Finally, when it comes to a website it needs to be ‘search-engine friendly’. This means that searches initiated from the likes of Google (using repetitive software, called ‘bots’) can find your site, scan it and identify the keywords associated with the website. Many firms offer Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services which are designed to help you achieve high rankings on the search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google. Most of the techniques they employ are widely known so you could choose to do it yourself. However, be aware: anyone promising top place listings on Google should be treated with caution. There are techniques (so-called black hat techniques) which can be used to game the system – however, Google has been known to punish sites known to be using such techniques, as BMW® found, to its cost, when Google delisted them in 2006.

As it takes time for a new website to get indexed by the search engines, it is likely that traffic will be low at the start. New sites tend not to feature in organic search returns for some time, but there are ways to drive traffic to your site using some of the methods described below.

Use Web analytics to improve your site

Once you have set up the domain name and site, you will want to understand how many users you are attracting, where they are coming from and how they are behaving on your site. Google Analytics is the most popular tool to manage this. It is available free from Google, easy to implement and even easier to use. If you want to see where people are going on your site, tools such as Crazy Egg® will help you improve the design of your site by showing you where people are clicking and where they are not.

Once the basics are in place it is now a case of creating awareness of the existence of your site and generating traffic to the site.

Get traffic to your site on day one

The quickest way to get traffic to a website is signing up for Google AdWords’ Pay-per-click (PPC) service. In the U.K. the vast majority of Web searches are via Google so this is the best one to focus on. This service lets you create adverts that appear when people search for certain keywords. You then pay according to each click you receive (hence the name ‘Pay-per click’). The main attraction with this option is that it is a highly targeted form of advertising, and you only pay when the prospect clicks on your advert and lands on your website.

Create unique landing pages

You need to decide where you want to bring the prospect when they click. Dropping users onto a homepage can be confusing, so you need to create a number of landing pages that are highly relevant to both the search term and the AdWord copy. For example, if a user searches for marketing plan and the advertising copy is for Marketing Plan Pro ® then the landing page needs to feature Marketing Plan Pro prominently. The beauty of running Analytics in the background is that you can measure conversions so you can identify which combinations of advert copy and landing pages are the most successful. After that it’s a case of testing, testing and more testing. A/B testing is a popular method where 50% of the audience is randomly assigned to see page A, and 50% to see page B. Whichever page results in the most conversions ‘wins’ and that then becomes the new default page.

Get websites to link to you

One well-known component of the Google algorithm that decides on the attractiveness of your website (which then correlates to a higher search ranking) is the number of back links to your site. The more sites that link to your website, the better, particularly if the linking site is an academic or government-owned site.  Each link is considered a ‘vote’ and votes from impartial sites such as academic ones are deemed to carry more weight.

Seek a presence on high-traffic sites

It may be possible for you to feature on larger portal sites by offering to support them with either new or fresh content or special offers. Steer clear of anyone offering you a tenancy agreement, e.g. you pay £1,000 per month to feature on a third-party website. These offers mean you bear all the risk and they rarely, if ever, deliver any meaningful traffic. Similarly, spending money on banners and buttons is not in vogue like it used to be – for good reason. PPC marketing is where your budget should be going – not on risky placements on websites.

Blogging is not all it’s cut out to be

A number of companies set up blogs to enable them to communicate with interested parties and customers on a more informal basis. Blogs are simply basic websites which contain a list of posts or news stories by an author, typically about a specialist topic. While they are easy to set up and maintain, they do place a demand on the blog owner or blogger to constantly update them. If you do not think you have the time to post news stories daily it is probably best to avoid the temptation of creating a blog. Other, less demanding forms of social media include placing comments on forums and participating in news groups.

The above activities should give you a flavour of some of the types of marketing activities you can undertake online. Others, such as issuing online press releases and creating newsletters, can also help you drive traffic to your websites. From there it’s a case of ensuring the design and offer are compelling enough to entice the user to buy from you, assuming that is the primary purpose of your website.

Starting a business is an incredibly exciting time for any entrepreneur; however it can also be stressful with so much to do in so little time. The start-up phase is also characterized by significant expenditures against a backdrop of uncertain income. However, there are a number of products and services that can help you maximize your chances of success while also saving you considerable time and money. This article aims to introduce you to some of the less obvious ones that are available via the Internet. These products and services can help you set your business on the right path from Day One. While these recommendations will not be appropriate for all, those who need to bootstrap and build their business the hard way will benefit the most.

1. Create a website

Regardless of whether you intend to sell online or not, all new start-up businesses should secure a domain name and create a website as soon as they can. Thankfully, the cost of getting a site set up has fallen significantly over time and there are now a host of different packages and providers to choose from.

Where: Uni-Trader from www.unitechnology.co.uk Cost: RRP from only £99.99

2. Download a profile of your industry

The factsheets, reports and guides from Scavenger are essential reading material for anyone starting up a business in the UK. The Business Opportunity Profiles are downloadable reports on specific UK industries. With over 800 reports in total, the range includes everything from ‘Children’s Day Nursery’ profiles to ‘Coffee Shop’ profiles to a profile on ‘Wedding Planners’.

Where: www.scavenger.net Cost: Individual reports cost around £5.

3. Set up your company accounts

One of the big challenges start-up companies face is managing cash flow. Insolvency is one of the main causes of failure for entrepreneurs in the UK. However, with some careful and appropriate financial planning, cash crunches can be avoided. While this in itself is an important reason for buying a bookkeeping package, there are countless other reasons ranging from the ability to manage invoices through to managing payroll. The two main recommended introductory packages are QuickBooks® Simple Start from Intuit® and Sage® Instant Accounts. View online demos before you purchase.

Where: www.sage.co.uk and www.quickbooks.co.uk Cost: From £43.97 at www.amazon.co.uk

4. Download business planning software

When you start up it is important to write a business plan to ensure you adequately plan the future of your business. The very process of creating a business plan is beneficial, not least because it forces you to take a holistic view of your company. Business Plan Pro is the best-selling business-planning software available. It is easy to use, saves time, and has over 500 sample plans to get you started. It is also available via download so you can get instant access to it and hence pay no postage and packing.

Where: Business Plan Pro is available from www.paloalto.co.uk Cost: RRP is only £76.99 for the Standard version and £127.99 for Business Plan Pro Premier.

5. Save costs on your phone

Using applications such as Skype together with a headset, it is now possible to make telephone calls from your computer at a very low cost. There is no need to commit to a monthly phone contract with line rental. Instead you can just pay as you go. You can also obtain a Skype number so people can call you back. However it is recommended that all start-up businesses do have at least one fixed line number they can be contacted on. Finally, you should also consider getting a portable number that is easy to transfer if you move offices.
Where: www.skype.co.uk Cost: Free

6. Protect your computer

Once you connect to the Internet, it is important to ensure you have adequate protection in the form of anti-virus software. Many computers these days come with anti-virus software installed already. If not, you should consider downloading Ad-Aware from Lavasoft and AVG anti-virus from GRISOFT. These products are either free or reasonably priced, and are very effective. Finally, it is also recommended that you backup your data to an external hard drive such as those manufactured by Maxtor.

Where: www.lavasoft.com , www.grisoft.com and www.maxtor.com Cost: Free (Maxtor cost dependent on GB size)

7. Explore Google

Google is famous for being the world’s favourite search engine. Additionally, there are a growing number of online applications owned or developed by Google that are ideal aids when setting up a new business. Google AdWords are the little adverts you see alongside search returns when you search in Google. These are a great way to attract customers at a low cost. Google Desktop enables you to search all the files and folders on your computer so you can track down any stored information at the click of a button. Both are very useful applications in helping you to market your business and to manage your internal data. Where: www.google.co.uk Cost: Free (AdWord prices vary)

8. Open an instant messaging account

Along with email, Instant Messaging has proven to be one of the most used online applications for Internet users. By opening a messaging account, you are adding an extra communication tool to your portfolio and it ensures you can communicate effectively with colleagues and customers. If you want to offer an IM service to your customers, you can add applications such as LivePerson to your website.

Where: www.yahoo.co.uk , www.msn.co.uk , www.liveperson.com Cost: Free for IM, LivePerson comes at a cost per seat.

9. Open an account with an online fax company

Harnessing the power of the Internet means you do not have to invest in hardware, such as a fax machine, that you may use infrequently. Instead, you can open an account with an online fax service so you can send and receive faxes directly from your computer.

Where: www.j2.com Cost: From £8.50 per month and 12p a fax

10. Try online word processing

Everyone is familiar with Microsoft Office®. However, if you need MS Office but can’t afford it, then there are a number of alternatives to consider. Star Office™ from Sun Microsystems is available for a fraction of the cost of MS Office but is just as powerful. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is a web-based word processing and spreadsheet programme that keeps documents current and lets the people you choose update files from their own computers. Finally Zoho Virtual Office provides an integrated online suite of collaboration tools including Email, Calendars, Documents, Tasks, Notes, Contacts and Groups.

Where: www.sun.com , www.zoho.com , www.google.com

Summary and Conclusion:

Starting up a business is never easy given the wide range of ‘things’ that need to get done and the costs that have to be paid out before you start. However, the Internet has helped bring down the cost of starting up and has also made it easier to set up, thereby providing the entrepreneur with access to a wide range of different products, services and market research from the comfort of their desks.

A website without a marketing plan is as useful as a free phone number that nobody knows about.

One of the biggest and most widespread fallacies of the 1995-2000 Internet boom was the idea that a website would or could create business on its own. This outrageous idea was populated by messages such as the television commercial, watched by millions in the late 1990s, showing two women who invented an improvement on sunglasses while on the beach, and in a subsequent scene they were still happily on the beach but at that point living off of their website.

In truth it just doesn’t happen like that. Here are some basic truths to offset common myths:

1. Websites without traffic offer no business or organisational purpose: Sad but true, the myth is just pure myth. If you build a beautiful website and nobody comes, no matter how useful or artistic the website, it is useless. Think of a website as a new version of the freephone telephone number; just like a freephone number is useless if nobody dials it, so too a website is useless if nobody visits it.
2. Websites don’t get traffic by themselves: If you build it, and do nothing else, they will come. That’s also a myth. Websites don’t generate traffic anymore just because they are good, or useful.
3. Traffic takes marketing: It takes marketing to generate traffic on a website. Successful websites generate traffic by new applications of old-fashioned marketing, including advertising, public relations, and word of mouth. They also generate traffic through new Internet marketing, highlighted by careful management of searcher strategies such as search engine optimisation and CPC (cost per click) advertising on the likes of Google, Espotting and Overture.
4. The Internet goldrush is over: Times have changed for the Internet, investors are no longer going to invest in traffic alone. These days plans have to be complete, from marketing to revenues and expenses, with business sense.

Your competitive edge

What is your website’s competitive edge? How are you different from all others? In what way does it stand out? Is there sustainable value that you can maintain and develop over time?

The most classic of the competitive edges are those based on proprietary technology and protected by patents. A patent, an algorithm, even deeply entrenched know-how, can be a solid competitive edge.

Sometimes market share and brand acceptance are just as important. Know-how does not have to be protected by patent to offer a competitive edge. For example, some of these values might lead to competitive edge:

• Quick loading pages–2 seconds vs. 12 seconds, 8 seconds being the average. For example, Buy.com’s average load time is 2-4 seconds. This has certainly been the case with Yahoo!, it consistently loads in a very quick amount of time.
• Fresh content. e.g., major news sites. This is less of a concern to readers of bbc.com where the expectation is that content will be updated on a daily basis.
• Trust. A community where people feel free to post their thoughts and concerns will have a competitive advantage based on trust. New posts and new ideas bring them back to your site. Fool.co.uk, for example, has mastered the art of building a network of users. They have dozens of custom email newsletters, some of which feature the most popular message board posts for that day.

The competitive edge might be different for any given company, even between one company and another in the same industry. You don’t have to have a competitive edge to run a successful business–hard work, integrity, and customer satisfaction can substitute for it–but any edge will certainly give you a head start if you need to bring in new investment. Maybe it’s your customer base, as in the case with Hewlett-Packard’s traditional relationship with engineers and technicians, or maybe it’s image and awareness, such as with Compaq. Maybe your competitive edge is quality control and consistency, like that of IBM.

Features and benefits statements

A good website strategy first identifies a market need, which indicates a target market, and then fills that need. Now that the Internet boom of 1995-2000 is over, your strategy usually has to add an element of basic business revenue, considering who will pay how much to have that need filled.

Features and benefits statements are classics of standard marketing. For every product and every service you sell, develop your features and benefits statements. Follow this logic for your website:

First, understand the difference between features and benefits. Take a look at the example below, describing features and benefits of Bplans.co.uk:

Now consider the distinctions. Features are characteristics of the site, while benefits are positive values to the person who uses the site. The features serve as a means to offer the intended customer benefit. Usually people buy benefits more than features. The site’s ability to give people reassurance that their plan is okay, answers to questions, resolve doubts, and specific how-to steps is why it’s successful. Site designers create features, but people buy benefits.

Good marketers understand features, but emphasize benefits. They use features to explain and develop benefits. There are exceptions to the general rule. Some websites, some markets, and even some industries are feature-driven. For some buyers, computers and personal electronics have this tendency. Sometimes the features and benefits merge together.

When communicating features and benefits, always emphasize benefits. Generally the benefits sell your site, not the features. Engineers and product development teams love features, as do gadget-oriented buyers, but benefits sell, while features really just deliver benefits.

Among online trading websites, for example, advertising often sells benefits related to reliability and expertise, more than specific website features. As you look at the online brokers marketing, think about this as background. Most of these adverts push benefits, but some push price alone, and some push features. Think about adverts you know and how they suggest benefits and specifically inform about features.

If you’ve decided to jump into online publishing — putting out an online newsletter, magazine or other content that will interest your business’s customers — you may think that designing your website is your biggest challenge. But that’s the easy part. Much trickier is gathering an audience that will sustain the publication. Here are some tips on building a loyal audience for your site.

Start where you are
The Internet is a surprisingly personal place. A thousand people, each with unique personal interests, can spend the same 60 minutes online together and never come close to crossing paths. It follows that the key to Web publishing success is forging a lasting personal connection with people based on your own skills, interests and contacts. In other words, the best place to start is with the connections you already have online. Then use those connections to build a community of like-minded people and keep expanding from there.

Your own interests and expertise are your strengths as a publisher. Study the information that is already available in your niche, looking for gaps you can fill. Then, fill the gaps with valuable information nobody else provides. An example is www.businessbricks.co.uk a small business advice website in the U.K.

Your goal should be to create unique, valuable information that meets the needs of your targeted audience. On the Internet, there are many ways to provide that information that aren’t available to print publishers — for example, you can offer searchable, interactive databases and encyclopedias.

One online publisher, for example, is creating an online publication about his passion, electric vehicles (EVs). In his spare time (he’s a magazine editor), he’s been using his skills as a journalist to study the EV market, scoping out who the players are, what they have to say and how the industry is developing. He also travels to auto shows to test drive new cars, combs the Internet for information about EVs, and studies the technical literature about EV engineering and design. Now, using all of the connections he has developed and the information he has gathered, he is ready to launch EV World online (http://www.evworld.com).

Work Your Niche
Get to know the online habits of your prospective audience. What other sites are they likely to visit? Make a list and try to develop a relationship with each one. There are a variety of ways to do this. Your best options include offering to write articles (informative and not self-serving) for other sites, or posting messages with your Web address on their bulletin boards. Trade links and adverts with other sites in your field, and if you can afford it, buy classified adverts at related sites.

One web publisher doubled her traffic by spending two months (and a small amount of advertising money) working through all the sites in her niche in this way. Another got similar results by hiring and supervising a Net-savvy college student.

Don’t neglect offline ways to publicise your website. Send press releases and emails about interesting features on your site to print as well as online media in your niche. List your Web address wherever you also list yourself — business directories, professional associations, and chambers of commerce. Speak at trade shows or conventions.

Work the search engines
Lots of people will find — or not find — your site by using online search engines such as Google, where they type in the words they’re searching for. You need to do a little work to make sure your site will turn up when a potential reader conducts a search. Here are three good places to go for tips on making your site stand out to search engines.

• SEARCH ENGINE WATCH
  http://www.searchenginewatch.com) is an online newsletter that offers comprehensive, practical tips about making a site that search engines can find. There are also some good links for Webmasters here.
• THE WEB MARKETING INFORMATION CENTER
  (http://www.wilsonWeb.com) has several articles including one called A Web Marketing Checklist: 23 Ways to Promote Your Site by Ralph Wilson.
• THE TRAFFIC TRIBUNE
  (http://www.submit-it.com) is a newsletter covering the search engines and how to make a hit with them.

Use banner exchanges
An organised program of exchanging banner adverts is a way for sites with modest traffic to break into an ad revenue business. Banner exchange programs work like this: You join an advertisers’ group, called an exchange, and trade banners on your site with other exchange members. You can specify where you want to run your banners, and the exchange takes care of all the bookkeeping. Members get detailed reports about when and where their adverts were run so that they can measure their effectiveness. Each member makes available slightly more ad space than they use themselves, with the exchange selling the excess stock for a small fee to other advertisers. That’s how the exchanges make enough money to cover their operating expenses.

One of the biggest and best exchanges is Link Exchange (http://www.linkexchange.com), which has hundreds of thousands of members. There’s no minimum or maximum size for participating sites, so everybody from big corporate sites to personal home pages can get involved. The participating sites are broken up into thousands of categories and subcategories so advertisers can target their banners. Since so many sites belong to Link Exchange, it’s a good bet that you’ll find the ones you want to trade with through them. But if not, search Yahoo! for the key words “banner exchange” and you’ll find more than 50 of them. Exchanges are free to join and use, making them a risk-free and sensible way to go.

Copyright © 2008 Nolo

Spam is any message that you send electronically to lots of people who have not specifically requested mail from you — in other words, junk email. Like a telemarketing call during dinner, spam almost always annoys, and sometimes offends, those who receive it. While sending spam may result in a sale or two in the short run, it will almost surely damage your reputation, so it’s good advice to stay clear of it. There are many better ways to use email to keep in touch with current and potential customers. Here are a few of them:

• Invite people to subscribe to an email newsletter instead of sending unsolicited emails. Have a sign-up form on your website and explain that you’ll send only timely, informative email to subscribers.
• Include late-breaking, useful information in the email you send to subscribers. Because it can be delivered so quickly, email is a perfect vehicle for alerting people who are already part of your community to new and interesting developments. Even a modestly self-serving message will go over well if you package it with enough truly unique and valuable content. Just keep the hype to a minimum.
• Make it easy to quit receiving email. Every message should include brief, friendly instructions for getting off your mailing list. Even people who keep subscribing will appreciate knowing that you’ve made it easy for them to say, “Enough already!” when the time comes.

Here are a couple of good email newsletter examples tailored for small businesses in the UK.

www.businessbricks.co.uk

www.clearlybusiness.com

Copyright © 2008 Nolo

In theory, choosing a domain name is simple. If it is memorable, pronounceable, short, clever, easily spelled and suggests the nature of the commerce on your website, you’ve got yourself a winner. But even if your choice is brilliant from a marketing standpoint, it may be worse than foolish from a legal perspective. Your name is at risk if it legally conflicts with any one of the millions of commercial names that already exist. It’s a big risk. If you put money and sweat into your website under one domain name and then are forced to give the name up, your Web-based business is likely to suffer a damaging, if not fatal, blow.

The rules for understanding whether a legal conflict exists comes from trademark law. Here are the basics you need to understand:

• Names that identify products or services in the marketplace are trademarks.
• Distinctive (clever, memorable) trademarks are protected under law.
• Distinctive business and domain names usually qualify as trademarks.
• The first commercial user of a trademark owns it in case of a legal conflict with a later user.
• One trademark legally conflicts with another when the use of both is likely to confuse customers about the products or services, or their origin.
• If a legal conflict — called an infringement — is found to exist, the later user will have to stop using the mark and may even be held liable to the trademark owner for damages.

Customer confusion
Applying these principles to your domain name selection, you are at risk of losing your chosen domain name if the owner of an existing trademark convinces a judge or arbitrator that your use of the domain name creates a likelihood of customer confusion. Confusion in this context can mean two different things.

Most commonly, it means that the goods or services a customer buys are different than what the customer intended to buy. For instance, suppose, on the recommendation of a friend, you decide to purchase Lee’s famous Flamebrain barbecue sauce, which is sold only on the Web. You intend to type “flamebrain.com” into your browser but accidentally enter “flamerbrain.com” instead. You get a website run by Henry, who has both copied Lee’s idea to offer a barbecue sauce for sale on the Web and, with a very minor variation, the name of Lee’s sauce. You order two bottles, completely unaware that you ordered the wrong product from the wrong website.

The other kind of confusion occurs when a misleading name causes customers to believe — wrongly — that a product or service is sponsored by, approved of or somehow connected with a business they already know about. In other words, the customers are confused about the source of the product or service. This would be the case, for example, if you took your TV to a repair shop called IBM Electronics because you thought that IBM somehow sponsored the business.

The potential for confusion is a problem only when the names at issue are distinctive — that is, clever, and therefore memorable. A name may be distinctive because it is made up (chumbo.com for an online software store), arbitrary in the context of its use (apple.com for computer products), fanciful (ragingbull.com for investment advice) or suggestive — but not literally descriptive — of the underlying product or service (salon.com for an online magazine). A name such as Ben and Jerry’s, which by itself is weak because it uses personal names, may also become distinctive after it has been used for a long time and is recognised by the public. If the trademark owner has registered a name it is probably distinctive.

Names that aren’t distinctive don’t qualify for trademark protection. Many domain names — for instance, coffee.com, drugs.com and business.com — are potentially powerful but generic. That is, they are the names of whole categories of products or services. Domain names that use surnames, geographic names or common words that literally describe some aspect of the goods or services sold on the website, such as healthanswers.com for, you guessed it, online health information, are also ineligible for trademark protection.

Avoiding trouble
The way to choose a domain name that satisfies your own marketing needs and doesn’t get in the way of anybody else’s trademark rights is to search as many existing trademarks as possible, spot possible conflicts and then pick a name that’s unlikely to generate a nasty lawyer’s letter.

Use the internet or companies like http://www.rmonline.com/ or http://www.netbenefit.co.uk/ to check for domain name availability.

If your search turns up any names that are the same or similar to your proposed domain name, ask these questions:

• Does your website offer goods or services that compete with the goods or services being sold under the other name?
• Does your website offer goods or services that typically are distributed in the same channels as the goods or services being sold under the other name? This would be the case, for instance, if you plan to offer sports equipment on your website, and the owner of the possibly conflicting mark sells sports clothing.
• Might your website in some way divert business away from the mark’s owner because of the name?
• For instance, could the other owner show that your domain name is so similar to the other name that users might end up on your website by mistake?
• Is the other name very well known?

If the answers to all these questions are no, you can feel reasonably free to go ahead and use your name without fear of creating a legal conflict. If you answer yes to any of them, there will be some risk of a legal challenge down the road. If you aren’t sure, take an informal poll of friends. Would they be confused by the simultaneous use of the two names? Might they end up on the wrong website? Another option is to run the possible conflicts by a trademark lawyer. Although you can anticipate that the lawyer will be more conservative than is actually necessary, you still may benefit from having a trained eye go over your circumstances.

Domain name bullies
Sometimes a powerful company tries to force a smaller one to give up a domain name that was legally acquired in good faith by the smaller company. Because trademark conflicts are ultimately resolved in court, a business that can easily afford to pay lawyers is in a powerful position to sue the smaller company for trademark infringement (assuming there is any basis for doing so, which there usually is). When the smaller company realises that it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to defend the suit, the big guy proposes a settlement under which the small company parts with the name for a relatively meager sum. In other words, the powerful company ends up getting what it wants simply because the court system is manifestly unfair to those who can’t afford attorneys. There are strategies to fight this sort of bullying. If the small company has the resources, of course, it can mount a defense and actually win. In addition, the Internet community has been extremely hostile to online bullies, and out-of-court campaigns sometimes make them back down. For more on this issue, visit the Domain Name Rights Coalition at http://www.domain-name.org/.

Copyright © 2008 Nolo

The term “business model” became popular in the late 1990s, during the Internet boom, in part because many website businesses seemed to plan for generating traffic without a clear view of how or when traffic would generate revenue and profits.The term itself is a bit too trendy, in our opinion. Talk of the business model ought to be recast in more standard business terms, such as sales, costs, expenses, and profits. As you develop your strategy, focus on how your website will benefit your business. What is its payoff for your business?

The easiest payoff to understand is sales and profits, but there could be many others. Some websites exist just to support sales by making a buyer’s decision easier, some reduce costs, some improve customer satisfaction, some substitute for telephone communication or sales brochures.

While the classics below are fairly obvious, in reality there are infinite numbers of possible business models for websites. You might have a commerce site, content site, community site, portfolio site, or something else entirely. The main point is that there should be a payoff for your business. You don’t develop a website just because somebody says you should. You develop it because it has a business or organisational purpose.

The portfolio site: Like a business card on the web
These sites offer information. Their target users go to them to find out more about a business. The sites don’t specifically sell anything, but they do support sales by generating leads or making the viewer’s buying decision easier.

What we call portfolio sites are the millions of websites that don’t really sell anything but present the equivalent of sales literature on the Web. The restaurant sites that post their menus, the legal and accounting practices that post professional biographies and related information are just a couple of examples. The Web started with these kind of sites because they are relatively inexpensive to produce and provide significant benefits.

The basic commerce model: Sales and profits
The simplest website business model is based on making sales and profits. A classic commerce website like Amazon.com sells products, takes orders, charges credit cards, and ships goods. Software and some information sites have the advantage of being able to deliver what they sell online, at the time of the transaction. Our Palo Alto site is another example of the commerce model.

These sites normally offer their target customers the benefit of ease of use and selection. Amazon.co.uk, for example, set the standard for commerce sites by offering a huge selection and a wealth of additional information on the products it sells.

The content model: based on advertising
The content sites work economically like the Metro newspaper available across tube and train stations in the UK, free content to users paid for by advertisements that users put up with. This is also a lot like the classic newspaper and magazine business, content paid for mainly by advertisers, with the exception that most magazines and newspapers sell for a small price while getting most of their revenue from advertisers. The “business model” isn’t really new, just the fact that it is offered over the Internet.

Consider Yahoo! And competing Internet portals, newspaper and magazine sites, entertainment sites, and other types of sites that are free to browsers and make money by charging advertisers or sponsors for banner advertising and sponsorships. These are content sites that depend on Internet advertising for their revenue.

Community sites
Consider the business value of the bulletin board in a local supermarket. The market doesn’t charge for posting notices on the board, nobody pays to read them, but the business takes the trouble to manage the board. The underlying business benefit, we guess, is that the sense of community builds traffic and loyalty.

This value is similar in the Internet community site. A typical community site offers email, bulletin boards and forums, a common focus for some group that has a common interest. Community sites are often started by groups, clubs, and government organisations. Some of the best of them, however, are sponsored by businesses that want to take advantage of the common interest. For example, a rock climbing community site might be sponsored by a local store.

Most sites are really hybrids, combinations
In truth most sites offer a combination of target user benefits. Our business planning site for example, combines content and community with a touch of portfolio and commerce. Amazon.co.uk combines commerce with content and community; Yahoo.com also combines content, community, and commerce.

Business model summary
How will you turn users of your website into money? Is there a plan for it? How will you measure it? For a hybrid site you need to make sure you explain how the hybrid will make revenue. Will you have a commerce portion? Will you be depending on sponsorships and advertising? Will you be selling services to your users? Make sure that you think about how you will ultimately make your website venture bring in real money.

Try to think of your website benefits in monetary terms. This is a good time to your sales forecast. The sales projected might actually be business benefits instead of sales: increased closing percentage, increased customer satisfaction, or increased retail traffic. Think about how those benefits might fit into a sales forecast, because then you’ll be able to compare monetary benefits to expenses.

Every Web marketing plan should include a clear explanation of the market segmentation, target market focus, and a market forecast. It should include detailed information about each of the target market segments.

To develop an effective plan based on your customers’ needs and nature, you should be able to answer these questions:

• Who are they?
• Where are they?
• What do they need?
• How do they make their buying decisions?
• Where do they buy?
• How do you reach them with your marketing and sales messages?

Knowing the answers to these questions is critical no matter who your potential customers may be. This is also true when a nonprofit organisation goes into a market looking for funding, in-kind contributions, and volunteer participation.

The specific research related to this market analysis begins with statistics that provide total numbers of households, classrooms, businesses, and workers in a market. These are your basic demographics. What you need depends on whether you’re looking at businesses, households, or individuals as your main target groups. When possible, you should be able to segment households by income level, businesses by size, and workers by job type, education, and other factors. Employment statistics can add information about types of workers and their education and background. You can also divide your target customers into groups according to psychographics. This is your strategic market segmentation, a core element of your marketing strategy.

Building your assumptions
While estimating the total potential market, you must necessarily make some wide-reaching basic assumptions. You have to assume a price level for the new product, a relationship to substitutes, and certain economic justifications. You have to assume that the total market potential is a stable concept, not changing annually. This assumption allows you to project a gradual increase in penetration.

Research, explore, explain
For each of your market segments, the market analysis should explain as much as possible about the target customers included in that group. That normally includes the segment description, needs and requirements, distribution channels, competitive forces, communications, and keys to success. Each of these might be a topic in the plan:

Segment description
You need a basic description of each target segment that includes attributes that characterise the segment, such as the number of potential customers, annual growth rate, annual spending, and market value. The more detail you include, the better.

Needs and requirements
The best marketing always focuses on customer needs. Why do they need your product or service? What is going to make them buy? Don’t get trapped into merely marketing what you have when you should be identifying a customer need and working toward fulfilling it.

Distribution channels
What are the standard channels of distribution for this customer segment? How are they different from other segments? This is especially important for product businesses marketing through channels, but in all cases you need to know where your customers go to satisfy those needs and requirements you’ve identified.

Competitive forces
Know the buying process for these target customers. What are the key decision factors? For example, some customers are more sensitive to price than others, some segments are more concerned about quality than price, and some care most about availability and convenience. In each case, those customers are willing to pay to realise the desired benefits.

Communications
Where do members of this segment go for information? What kinds of information will be most effective? Know where to send marketing communications, such as advertising and press releases, so that the right customers will find them. Know how to create those messages so that they will generate the right response.

Keys to success
What factors make the most difference to success or failure with this market segment? Key factors will vary between segments, and may include price, value, availability, image, features, financing, upgrade or return policies, and customer service. List the most important three or four factors.

Getting market information
A great deal of market information is readily available. Look to the Internet first. This information is accessible, current, and much of it is free. Most of the sources listed should have websites, or publish information through search sites, in addition to more traditional methods of publication. Market research firms and industry experts publish much of their information in trade and business magazines. Reference works index these magazines and libraries stock them. Trade associations publish many listings and statistics. Public stock laws require detailed reporting of financial results and stock market information sources compile industry statistics from financial reports. You can probably find everything you need at a local library. If not, you can turn to computerised database services, professional information brokers, and government publications.

Many industries are blessed with an active trade association that serves as a vital source of industry-specific information. Such associations regularly publish member directories and the better ones publish statistical information that track industry sales, profits, economic trends, etc.

Are they selling directly competitive products and services, substitutes, or possible substitutes? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How are they positioned in the market?

A good competitive analysis varies according to what industry you’re in and your specific Web plan and situation. A competitive analysis does have some common themes.

Begin by explaining the general nature of competition in your type of business, and how customers seem to choose one provider over another. What might make customers decide? Price, or rates, reputation, or image and visibility? Are brand names important? How influential is word of mouth in providing long-term satisfied customers?

For example, in the restaurant business competition might depend on reputation and trends in one part of the market, and on location and parking in another. For the Internet and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), busy signals for dial-up customers might be important. A purchase decision for an automobile may be based on style, speed, or reputation for reliability.

In many professional service practices, the nature of competition depends on word of mouth because advertising is not completely accepted and therefore not as influential. Is there price competition between accountants, doctors, and lawyers?

How do people choose travel agencies or florists for weddings? Why does someone hire one painter over another? Why would a customer choose Starbucks, a national brand, over the local coffee house? Why select a Dell computer instead of one from Compaq or Gateway? What factors make the most difference for your business? Why? This type of information is invaluable in understanding the nature of competition.

Compare your product or service in the light of those factors of competition. How do you stock up against the others? For example: your travel agency might offer better airline ticketing than others, or perhaps it is located next to a major university and caters to student traffic. Others offer better service, better selection, or better computer connections. Your computer is faster and better, or perhaps comes in fruity colors. Other computers offer better price or service. Your graphic design business might be mid-range in price, but well known for proficiency in creative technical skills. Your car is safer, or faster, or more economical. Your management consulting business is a one-person home office business, but enjoys excellent relationships with major personal computer manufacturers who call on you for work in a vertical market in which you specialise

In other words, in this topic you should discuss how you are positioned in the market. Why do people buy your product or services instead of the others offered in the same general categories? What benefits do you offer at what price, to whom, and how does your mix compare to others. Think about specific kinds of benefits, features, and market groups, comparing where you think you can show the difference.

Describe each of your major competitors in terms of those same factors. This may include their size, the market share they command, their comparative product quality, their growth, available capital and resources, image, marketing strategy, target markets, or whatever else you consider important.

Make sure you specifically describe the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor, and compare them to your own. Consider their service, pricing, reputation, management, financial position, brand awareness, business development, technology, or other factors that you feel are important. In what segments of the market do they operate? What seems to be their strategy? How much do they impact your service business, and what threats and opportunities do they represent?