Persistent MythsByRaymond D. Matkowsky
Back in the ancient times of the internet (I’m talking about 1999), there was the persistent myth that your website name should be no more than three letters long. This it was felt would make your name easy to remember. For example: Joe’s Air Conditioning and Heating website name should be jah.com instead of joesairconditioningandheating.com. I don’t know about you, but if I was searching for an unknown website, I would try joesairconditioningandheating.com first rather than jah.com. I would find it easier to remember a service name than some arbitrary initials.
This same article on “Best Practices” stated that 90% of all three letter combinations have already been taken. This is in the early days of the internet? The recommendation does not seem to encompass reality!
Nowadays website addresses appear all over advertising, product packaging, stationary, etc.. Many of these addresses are between ten to fifteen characters long. These companies do not appear to be suffering because of this. So much for this myth!
.com vs..net
The address of our website is www.datastats.com. I received a letter from the owner of www.datatstats.net. He wanted to buy our name. His business was not doing well. He felt it was because he had a .net address instead of it possibly being his business practices. He felt the .com would solve all of his problems. His host recently offered me the .net address.
Who decided that it would be a “Best Practice” to own all the permutations of your website name in order to keep your competition at bay? I do not think it would make much difference.
It is very difficult and costly to protect your copyright. The internet is full of copiers of materials they have no right to use. You usually learn of an infringement after the fact when it is too late and too costly for a small business to pursue any recourse.
Pricing Myths
There are two persistent myths about pricing. One is that prices should end in either a 7 or 9. The other is that your “gut feeling” will tell you what a price should be. Both have very little basis in reality.
7 or 9 or Neither
Scientific studies have shown that except for new items there is no evidence to support the 7 or 9 myth. You would do well to ignore it, but prove it to yourself. Change the price of an item to US$ 2.00 instead of US$1.99 and see what happens. Chances are nothing except you will be a penny richer.
Gut Feelings
Generally, when you rely on “gut feelings” you tend to under price yourself. “Gut feelings” have gotten many people in deep trouble.
I once worked for a company where the owner’s “gut feeling” told him that one of the company’s major products could stand a US$0.10 per pound increase. I and several other people tried to talk him out of it to no avail. The argument was that it was a good product but the competition had products just as good. The price was increased and sales dropped precipitously. If the product had a superior advantage that could be communicated to the customer the price might have stuck.
“Gut feelings” are not restricted to the sales area. They exist throughout the economy. During the housing crisis in The United States, bankers learned how wrong “gut feelings” could be. I’m sorry to say that other countries are teetering on their own housing crisis and saying the same thing that U.S. bankers did.
U.S. bankers have always felt that people were so in love with their homes that they would try to save their houses at all costs. This “gut feeling” was false.
As the bankers in Ireland, Spain and The United States learned, people were not in love with their homes. They were in love with the equity their house represented. Once the equity disappeared, people just walked away leaving the mortgage holders “holding the bag.” As I said, this “gut feeling” was as wrong as could be and a great number of people suffered for it.
Don’t accept anything as fact. In some cases a myth may have some validity for some and not for others. Each business is always unique. Therefore, good performance is not universally guaranteed. Test, test again and test once more!
If you have any further suggestions, do not keep it to yourself. Help your fellow readers!
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions drop me a line at rdm@datastats.com.
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