• Skip to main content

zoiaorg

Tech, Strategy, and other interesting things by Roberto Zoiaby Roberto Zoia

  • Articles
  • Book Reviews
  • Effective Goal Setting
  • What I’m Reading
  • Archive
  • About

First impressions

2014-07-01 by Roberto Zoia Leave a Comment

Some weeks ago, we needed to hire a designer –not a web designer– for a job. We had a list of names with good references and recommendations from other people. As expected, we searched for them on Google.

Surprisingly, from a total of ten, only two had a web page. For others, Google search results revealed little more than their personal Facebook page. In one case, you could see some cute pictures of her family’s vacation to Disney World, but no information on how to contact them professionally. Another one LinkedIn’s profile was almost empty.

If you run a personal business or are a freelancer, here is a list of basic things you should do if you take it seriously:

(Disclaimer: none of the following are affiliate links, and I am not related to any of the companies although I use some of the services mentioned.)

1. Get a domain name for your business

Domains are cheap ($15/year for a .com domain). If you are a freelancer, see if it makes sense to register your own name.

If you live in Perú (where I live), .pe domain names are registered by punto.pe. They are not cheap (around $44/year, compared to around $15/year for a .com domain), but they are the only registrars in Peru.

The upside with a .pe domain is that you can probably find many more names available than .com domains.

2. Consider having a webpage

You need a webpage to put information about your business, your background, and your portfolio of clients if it is relevant to your business. What you do, why you do, how you do it… This is what people wil find when they google for your business, for services related to it, or for your name.

Like your mail, this webpage must be under your business domain name, not under a free service like tumblr or the free tier of WordPress.

Some people ask me if I know a ‘programmer’ who can help them build their website, and a good hosting service. Don’t do this. Webpages for small to medium businesses is a problem has already been already solved by companies like SquareSpace. WordPress.com also offers convenient plans and take care of hosting and maintaining the platform up to date. (You can check some facts about WordPress and its impact on the internet on Broadbandsearch.)

For $96 a year, SquareSpace offers a simple interface for building a professional-looking webpage, with most of the funcionality you would expect. If this is over your budget, then at least create a Facebook Page sepparated from your personal profile. Unless you are freelancing, have a LinkedIn Page exclusively for your business.

3. Use an email address under your business domain

Get an email for your business domain name and use it in your business cards and everywhere business related. That is, don’t print juanitoperez85@gmail.com, but use info@johndoe.com, or john@johndoe.com.

Google used to offer up to 10 mails for free for custom domains via Google Apps. They don’t anymore. But there are alternatives. Some registrars like hover.com offer a ‘forward only’ email address for domains registered with them for a small fee. (That is, all mail that arrives to info@johndoe.com is automatically forwarded to john_doe@gmail.com.)

If you are willing to pay for a professional mail service, you can pay $5/month for Google Apps for email and other services. A good alternative is fastmail.fm.

You should answer mail sent to your business address within one business day.


Having a professional-looking presence on the Internet has become very affordable. If you have an excellent product or service, there is no excuse for giving a poor first impression to your customers.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: branding, communication, perception

Did you like this article?

Join our FREE Newsletter and receive updates directly to your inbox.

We hate SPAM. We'll keep your email address safe.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • What I’m Focused on Now
  • Español
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 Roberto Zoia
zoia.org runs on WordPress using a customized version of the Parallax Pro Theme for the Genesis Framework.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience.Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.