It was almost a year ago that I took my fateful step by launching the Connection Bank
Web site. I remember the anticipation I felt as I carefully FTP'd each page, testing link
after link, bolding and underlining with care. Little did I know, as my entrepreneurial
heart raced with excitement, that it would be the beginning of the end for my long
anticipated venture.
You see I had been building The Connection Bank for months prior to its Internet debut.
Heck, the concept itself changed at least six different times before I settled on the
final theme. By the time d-day came I was convinced that this site was going to be the
best thing since sliced bread. The Connection Bank was supposed to be a place where business people from around the
world could exchange business leads and collaborate with one another on a variety of
activities. For example, you might have joined The Connection Bank because you were
looking to share booth space at a trade show with a colleague. It was structured
networking, without having to participate in an online discussion group, and with no
regards to geographic proximity. So with all my planning and testing what went wrong with my killer concept? I believe
three key things contributed to its downfall. 1) "The Name Was Confusing." Whenever people looked at my business card and read 'Connection Bank,' the first thing
they thought was that I ran an actual bank. Not just a few people here and there. I'm
talking about EVERYBODY! Then I would have to give a long-winded explanation of what The Connection Bank
actually did. Sometimes people understood it right away, and sometimes I would get a
little too detailed and people would get confused.
It made perfect sense to me - (I called it a bank because you put in a lead in order to
take some out... almost like a bank) - but in reality it was way too esoteric. The name also became a real loser with the search engines. Sure, it would pop up within
the top 20 if the user typed in 'bank.' But a top ranking like that is utterly useless
since it wasn't actually a financial bank, which is what people were looking for. LESSON LEARNED- When choosing a name for your site/business, choose
something straight forward, instead of trying to be cute or clever. People will remember
your Web site much easier if they can associate the name of it, with what it actually
features. For example, (www.AssociatePrograms.com), (www.CommunityBuilding.com),
(www.SmallBizSearch.com), are all pretty self-explanatory, and they're easy to recall.
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