Q: Marc, I’m embarrassed to admit that we don’t yet have a website. But do you have any advice about choosing a domain name?

A: Great question! Getting a memorable domain name is a very important step in online fundraising. All fundraising, really. Donors often check out an organization’s website before making a gift. So putting thought into your domain name can help you raise more money.

Generally, of course, you’ll want to choose the name of your nonprofit. But here are some things to think about as you decide.

1. Keep it simple
   Try saying it aloud. Pretend you’re on a conference call and you say, “Hi, this is [your name] from [your website].”

   Can all the other callers remember it right away? Or do you need to explain anything?

   Your domain name is your best advertising sound bite, so make it work for you.

2. Try to avoid repeated letters that end one word and start the next
   For instance, if your name were Mel and you gave salads to the homeless, naming your organization “Mel’s Salads” makes great sense. It looks fine in print. It’s easy to remember.

   But www.melssalads.org can make for a confusing web domain. Those repeated “s”’s can make it hard for people to enter the web name correctly into a browser. It might be better to try something like www.saladsbymel.org or something quirky like www.tossedbutnotforgotten.org

3. Avoid numbers
   This goes with rule number one. Numbers in a name–”4″ instead of “for”–can look cute in a domain name. But if you were being interviewed and gave your website as “www.salads4you.org,” you’d probably feel compelled to explain that it’s the number not the word.

   Or the interviewer might say “F-o-r?” Then you’d say, “No ‘four’ but the number not spelled out…”

   People would be more apt to remember “confusion” rather than your mission. Not good.

4. Try to get the “.com” name
   As a nonprofit, you’ll want the “.org,” but go ahead and get the the .com too. No matter how familiar .org may be, people still default to .com when typing in a web address. So help them find you!

   While you’re at it, try getting all three .com, .org, and .net. Wish I’d done that for FundraisingCoach.com! The other two are now taken.

   These extensions (.com, .org, and .net) have a lot more credibility with people than .info or .me or .us do. On the web, credibility is essential. So you might as well start strong.

5. Register other web names
   Web domains are cheap. So registering multiple names can be a cost effective way to protect your web presence. One great strategy is to register possible common misspellings of your web address just to make sure people get to their site.

   For instance, many people mistakenly spell my last name with two “t’s.” So in addition to MarcPitman.com, I’ve registered MarcPittman.com.

   I have a blast registering many other names too, things that sound fun or might be domains I can use at some point. If you think of a tag line for your organization, or a motto, or anything else, it can be useful to register it as a domain, just in case you’ll want to use it in the future.

BONUS: Once you’ve registered your URL, try writing it with “camel back” or “mixed-case” spelling. For instance, instead of www.fundraisingcoach.com, I usually write www.FundraisingCoach.com. The first is elegant in symmetry. The lower case letters can make it look almost sleek.

But the second is generally easier for people to remember. What would you prefer? To look good? Or to have people remember your site?

Those are my tips. Use the comments below to make your suggestions.

[Do you have a question about nonprofits or fundraising that you'd like considered for Question Marc? Send it to marc@fundraisingcoach.com.]

Q: Do you know of the best way for my web site www.aidsadvantage.org to come up on search results when people type in the words “Aids, South Africa, Africa”? I wish to increase traffic to my web site and since this is unfamiliar territory I thought you could help me with this.

A: Great question! I’m not an SEO expert, and I’ve never played one on TV. But here are some tips I’ve learning along the way. They’ll help raise your nonprofit website’s visibility with search engines so that people will find your site much more easily.

1. Figure out what search terms people are currently using to find your site.
   You could use Google keyword search or sites like SpyFu.com to see what similar sites to yours are using for keywords, how often people are using those terms, and how high they rank in search results.

   Once you know what people are searching on, you can determine if the words you thought were the best keywords are really the best or if you can tweak them a bit.

2. Use those likely search terms in the “keywords” meta-tags.
   This is an HTML thing so you might want to check with someone a bit more technical in your office.

   If you’re using WordPress like I do, check out the very handy All In One SEO Pack plug in. This let’s you easily modify your site’s meta tags. More importantly, it helps you easily create meta titles and descriptions for each blog post or page you put up. (The meta description is the part that shows up in a Google search. It’s also what is grabbed when you post a link to Facebook.)

3. Strategically use those key in the verbage on your site.
   I’m not advising creating garbage content. You’re not trying to “trick” search engines. You are trying to help them find your site when people search on terms related to your cause.

   When I looked at the pages on FundraisingCoach.com in light of search terms I was interested in, I was shocked to see that I talked alot about seminars and trainings but never used the terms “fundraising seminars” and “nonprofit trainings.” People searching on “seminars” could be looking for just about anything. Obviously people that searched on the “fundraising seminars” were a better fit to my site than people just searching on the generic “seminars.” So I tweaked my pages to say “fundraising seminars”!

   You can do the same thing with the terms that would help you. Instead of “AIDS,” you might want to try “AIDS prevention.” According to Google’s Keyword Tool, there were 5,000,000 searches on “aids” last month; only 22,000 on “aids prevention.” That could mean that the field for “AIDS prevention” is a lot less cluttered than just “AIDS.” It’s easier to be found in a less cluttered field!

4. Write articles on your site, and post them on a regular basis.
   When it comes to search engine optimization, content is king. If you have interesting content, people will link to you and search engines will crawl your site.

   Apparently you have some ability to “train” the “spiders” that roam the web for search engines. They’ll learn to check your site more frequently if it’s updated more frequently. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a blog that you post to on a regular basis. Blogs are an easy way to keep your website fresh.

   Once you’re written an article, you can re-purpose it by posting it to sites like EzineArticles.com. These sites let you link back to your site, which helps build credibility with search engines too.

5. Google Analytics
   I HIGHLY recommend you sign up for Google Analytics. It’s free and offers a very robust set of tools to help you understand how people find and use your site.

   After signing up, you simply insert a piece of code on each page you want tracked and you get to see who’s visiting, what browser’s they’re using, where in the world they are, what search terms they’re using to find you, how long they’re on your site, what pages are most viewed. It’s pretty amazing.

That is a great starting place. Hopefully I didn’t get too technical!

If you want more, people I listen to on Twitter, folks like @fmbillwatt, @tassoula, @DJNoRequest, recommend checking out:

• @seobrien
• @alexschultz
• @TheNextCorner
• @mattmcgee
• @monicawright

[Do you have a question about nonprofits or fundraising that you'd like considered for Question Marc? Send it to marc@fundraisingcoach.com.]

Today’s the birthday of the amazing Beth Kanter. I love her passion for nonprofits and social media. I’m particularly grateful for her helping us in the nonprofit world articulate metrics and ROI. Not only is she a really smart teacher, she’s also doing the actual fundraising herself. A great combination indeed!

When I’m doing a fundraising training and get a question on social media ROI that I’m not able to answer, it’s a great relief to be able to encourage people to go to Beth’s blog!

Beth’s birthday wish is to help Cambodian children get to school. All that stands in the way of manyof them going is a $10 uniform. Will you help her help them? To find out more, just go to: http://bit.ly/beth53.

With the first blog post of 2010, I’m starting a series of posting questions I receive and my answers to them. Sort of a “Dear Abby” for fundraising. I’m calling it “Question Marc” — pun fully intended!

It’d be great to have you take part. If you have a question about nonprofits or fundraising that you’d like considered for Question Marc? Send it to marc@fundraisingcoach.com. I won’t be able to answer every question, but I just might be able to answer yours!

Q: I ran across your blog while researching a fundraising event I’m putting on for my search and rescue team. I’m trying to determine if it might be more profitable to hold our event (a movie showing) on a weekend or week night. Can you point me to any information which might help me?

A: Great question! The “correct” answer depends on the locale more than anything else.

In some communities, you could pull it off right after work. This is particularly true if you’re located in areas where people travel in to work. They’re already in the city, so they may be more likely to stay for an event (more likely than they would be to come in for a weekend.)

But if it’s a couple hours, you’ll probably need to supply a dinner for people. That could get expensive (unless you get the food donated).

A weekend afternoon might allow you to save money on food expense. Holding a movie from 2-4 would only require appetizers, not a full meal. Weekends can work better in communities where people live (rather than commute to).

Since you’re hosting a movie, you could ask a manager of a local theater. She would know when they see the biggest audiences.

It may help to check with Morrie Warshawki. He is the king of fundraising houseparties which usually use movies as a center piece. He may have ideas on his site: www.warshawski.com.

[Do you have a question about nonprofits or fundraising that you'd like considered for Question Marc? Send it to marc@fundraisingcoach.com.]

Wondering how to increase your fundraising effectiveness in 2010? Here’s an idea: increasing your personal giving…to other organizations (not your own).

Go check out Jeff Brook’s blog post “Fundraisers who don’t give don’t get it.” In it, he refers to a post by Seth Godin who says:

… if you work for a non-profit and you don’t give money to charity, what exactly are you doing in this job?

To the point, isn’t it?

It’s really easy to get critical about other organization’s fundraising techniques. In fact, it can be easy to get cynical. But as fundraisers, we’re not in the business of critics. We’re helping people enjoy the experience of giving.

But how can we do that if we’re not experiencing that ourselves?

I’m not talking about giving to the organization you work for. That’s expected. (And you’d best be doing it.)

I’m talking about other organizations. What nonprofits do you rely on everyday? Public radio? Wikipedia? Or causes your community is reliant on, like a soup kitchen, a food bank, or a homeless shelter? Or perhaps one you’re passionate about, social justice, the environment,or political causes?

Choose one. And up your giving.

You may be surprised at how this will help your fundraising. You’ll ask with greater confidence. More importantly, you’ll remember what we really are offering people. You might even find yourself talking less about giving techniques (tax deductions, stock transfers, payroll deduction) and more about the impact of their giving. Less about the tools and more about the experience.

It reminds me of the church giving campaign I’ve heard about. It was kicked off with a leader of the congregation giving an inspiring talk about giving to the church. Then he unveiled the campaign’s theme “I’ve upped my giving. Up yours!”

You can imagine the zest with which people mentioned that theme!

So in that spirit, I’ve just started giving to a new charity. A few days ahead of 2010, I know.

Now I can honestly say: I’ve upped my giving. Up yours!