The WINNER of the $250 David Walsh Promo Code Contest

by Jared Posted on January 27, 2012

It was back in November of ’11 when the David Walsh deal went down. While at another registrar, Walsh’s domain was stolen, and the story exploded on the social-o-sphere like Justin Bieber had gone missing. Anyway, long story short, in lieu of lackluster support elsewhere, our legendary customer service kicked in and retrieved his domain…as well as a whole bunch of new customers. Our promise to these new Namers was that one of them (using the “DAVIDWALSH” transfer promo code) would win $250 dollars in Name.com credit. Well here is that day. The winner is…

Kathy Ciaccarelli! (fireworks)

She owns the gourmet gift shop Sweets N’ Smiles and creates high quality gift baskets, party favors and the best chocolate covered pretzels anywhere.

We know this because she’s really good at selling her wares. When I emailed her the good news about the contest, she replied in perfect promotional form:

“Sweets-N-Smiles is very excited to have won the name.com credit!  We are extremely happy with the ease of use of the name.com web site, as well as the customer service we received when we have had questions.  Our business, Sweets-N-Smiles, creates high quality gift baskets, party favors and the best chocolate covered pretzels anywhere.  Our web site www.sweetsnsmiles.com has an extensive selection of delicious chocolate gifts for any occasion.  We deliver nationwide.  We are so excited about our win that we would like to offer your customers a 10% discount on any order submitted on our website using coupon code NAMEDOTCOM through the end of February.”

Sweet! Now she’s offering a promo code in return for our promo code. We could collapse into promo code spiral ending in a melee of free stuff. Until then, thank you Kathy for the virtual fist bump, and for encouraging great customer service. Please give her some love by visiting her site. It is, after all, almost Valentine’s Day.

Posted in Contests, Domains, Fun Stuff | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

An Introduction to Conversion Rates

by Shannon Posted on January 25, 2012

It’s time to analyze a buzzword that seems to pop up all over the Internet these days. Conversion. What is conversion and why does it matter?  Simply put, an online conversion occurs when a website visitor does what you want them to. Conversions can take many forms depending on what type of website you’re running. Whether it is a monetary transaction, inputting an email address, utilizing a free service, or clicking through to another site. No matter what type of business you’re running, if you’re doing it online your conversion rate matters. Period.

How do you calculate a conversion rate? First you have to define what a conversion is for your website. Here at Name.com a conversion occurs when a user purchases a domain or a product from our website.  Once a conversion has been defined calculating the rate is a breeze. Divide the number of conversions by the number of unique visitors your website had over the same time period. Viola! Now you know your conversion rate.

You may be wondering how to go about obtaining a count of your unique site visitors and conversions. Well, you’re in luck. There are a number of useful tools out there to help you do just that and through the wonders of the web you can access a few of them for free.

The ecommerce dashboard in Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free service that calculates and summarizes website statistics. Once configured, you can see how people arrive on your website, how long they stay, where they go, calculated conversion rates, revenue generation, and so much more.  If you don’t already have this service enabled we strongly recommend it. Learn more about Google Analytics here.

PadiTrack is a sales funnel calculator that plugs into Google Analytics and allows users to set up specific conversion funnels. It is particularly useful if you are selling multiple products with separate pages and flows.

So, you have gone through all the trouble outlined above. You defined a “conversion”, set up Google Analytics on your website (which is an amazing accomplishment in and of itself), and calculated the conversion rate. Whew, that was a lot of work! Now, what do you do with the information?

This is the age-old problem that a lot of companies face. We know our conversion rate, but what do we do with it? The answer is both simple and complex. You know the conversion rate, now INCREASE it! That was the simple answer. Things get complex when you ask, “How do I increase conversion?” There is an entire field devoted to accomplishing this task, known as conversion optimization. Conversion optimization attempts to analyze user behavior, provide marketing insights, and establish recommendations to help your site get an increased conversion rate.

Thus begins a series of blog posts about conversion optimization. Today is the introduction to the concept with more specific concepts and topics to follow… all designed to make sure you know how to build a website, setup hosting, get more traffic, and convert that traffic into revenue. Be sure to tune in!

Posted in Business, Conversion Optimization | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Great Infographic on The Effect of Multi-Tasking

by Bo Posted on January 21, 2012

Thought this was a great follow up to the “importance of Focus” blog post.  Here a university professor shows the actual negative effect on the brain that multi-tasking has when compared to a singular focus.  So remember, whether it’s buying a new domain name, setting up your web-hosting, building your website, or getting traffic via search engine optimization… focus!

(Thanks to Rasmussen University for the infographic!)

Posted in Fun Stuff, Humor | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment