Better Than a Business Card – Your Own Name As a Web Address

Business cards are wonderful things. First of all they declare you a business person of worth, somebody who has enough faith in his business to spend money to increase it. Secondly, they act as a reminder and a guide to your business to anyone who cares to contact you. But be honest, how often has a card actually delivered on its promise?

You want everyone to be aware of your business and even more important, how to find it! A business card looks like the perfect vehicle, a showcase for business, your phone number, your website and your name. And as you’ve no doubt discovered, handing out business cards to all and sundry can get expensive.

And how many people do you think actually carry all the business cards they’ve received around with them? How often have you offered your card only to have it returned immediately or left lying on the table? Somebody taking it home and filing it is often the best you can hope for with a business card. How often have you tried to remember what was on a business card you just took the day before?

Without that card could your new acquaintance still find you? Will they remember your phone number? Your website? Your name? You know the answer to that, don’t you… your phone number never registered with them, your website is forgotten a moment later, and only your name remains in their memory. Human nature is like that; we remember names, not numbers.

But can they find you with only your name to guide them? Have you spent enough money on your advertisement in the Yellow Pages that your name and your business will stand out to them if they go looking? If you haven’t and don’t intend to (Yellow Page ads can be brutally expensive), then think seriously about spending ten bucks a year for your name as a domain name. JohnSmith.Com, for example. Some registrars will forward any domain name for free to your business website (and some won’t, so check before you register).

By all means, get a business card. They show you mean business. But don’t just hand out your business card with the usual stuff on it; make sure they know your name is a web address also so they can still find you when they can’t find your card. Remember, new acquaintances are more apt to remember your name than your web-site’s.