Author: Bill Quimby

A good domain name is valuable, but the combination of a domain
name and a good vanity 800 number can be priceless in marketing.
The right 800 number allows your advertising to reach several
times as many people that are not on the internet regularly. It
generates instant credibility and recognition and helps to
create that all important million dollar brand name. But with
the incredible scarcity of both .COMS and 800 numbers, how could
you ever come up that all important combination?

All too often companies get one piece (like the domain name)
without considering the other and then often run into also brick
wall and have to settle for something less. The phone companies
will often tell you that 877 is exactly the same thing as 800.
And that is true if you consider .CC or .TO the same thing as
.COM. They may be technically able to do the same thing, but in
their marketing potential they are totally different. So if you
aren't willing to settle for .CC for your domain, then don't
settle for the same thing in your phone number since just like
your domain name, that is how so many of your customers will
find you.

The first step is definitely the most important and often the
one that gets skipped over way to quickly. Creativity is
definitely the key to finding either a domain name or a phone
number. The good news is that it doesn't cost any more money to
be more creative. It just takes some brain power and a little
effort. I'll outline the process of getting the number briefly
but you're really not ready until you have 50-100 or more
possible names. So be prepared to really spend time in this part.

The first step of brainstorming is to look for any type of
keywords. Just put down everything possible you can come up with
related to your company, your message, your product or service,
your benefits or your customers and what they are looking for.
Take a look at the keywords from your website or those of your
competitors. Carry the list with you for several days, and
involve as many people as you can. If there are other people in
your organization consider having a contest to see who can come
up with the most possible names/words. Short words are good
because they allow you to combine them with a number of other
prefixes or suffixes.

Next use some of these mechanical brainstorming exercises and
sites which will help you come up with possibilities you may not
have thought of. Start with an excellent online thesaurus tool
at Plumb Design (http://www.PlumbDesign.com). Next, after you've
added any possible synonyms, take a look at what other people
have done to get ideas at Whois.net (http://www.whois.net). Look
at the registered and perhaps better, the recently unregistered
domain names there. Finally use an interesting java search term
suggestion tool available (click on option number one) at
GoTo.com
(http://www.goto.com/d/about/advertisers/othertools.jhtml) Try
these tools with each of the words that you come up with and you
will literally get dozens of additional possible names. You can
also try a neat tool for creating new words at a site for
inventing new words called, NetSubstance
(http://www.netsubstance.com) Then finally, you should combine
as many of these names together with my list of possible
prefixes and suffixes at
http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com/finding.htm to stretch your list
even further.

These tools together with your creativity and thoroughness are
extremely important, because you really can't expect to make a
critical decision in your business without knowing what all of
the possibilities are.

Next after you have built a really creative and thorough list,
check out the possibilities for one of those phone numbers.
Unfortunately, there is no short cut or easier way to do this
than simply to pick up the phone and call them all! Keep track
of all the information you get, and look for ones that don't go
through to an end customer or that go to recorded phone company
messages. If it goes to an end customer then the phone company
can't get it for you, so only give them the list of ones that
don't have any apparent customer. That doesn't mean that they
will be available, they probably won't but they are at least
worth a try.

All phone companies work off basically the same database so the
best place to start is usually where you already have an
account. Then while they are checking on the phone numbers, look
into the same possibilities on the domain names. Remember, with
more and more new ventures springing up every minute, space on
the net is getting tight and only going to get tighter but a
good combination can literally transform your organization and
even your industry! So remember the two most important
ingredients in coming up with the right name are CREATIVITY and
PERSISTENCE!

If this doesn't work, visit http://www.TollFreeNumbers.com or
just call 1-800 MARKETER. We specialize in getting 800 numbers
when the phone company says they're not available.



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