The Internet is a practical and accessible tool to build your brand. Here, we list 5 of the easiest ways to leverage the Internet to your best advantage:

1. Own your own domain name.

A domain name is the website address where your website lives, and it is the last half of your email address. You can purchase your own business name, or a variation of it, as your domain name. The cost is less than $10/year.

If you havent named your business yet, its a good idea to check the availability of domain names to match potential business name candidates. Its best if your domain name matches your business name.

Resource: GoDaddy.com is the most reasonably priced, and reliable domain name registration firm we've found (just dont sign up for any of their other services you only need a website address).

2. Use that domain name as your email address.

You probably already have an email address from your internet service provider that looks something like: yourname@aol.com or yourname@sbcglobal.net. It looks much more professional to have yourname@yourbusiness.com as your business email. The repetition of your business name will increase your memorability and will help you build your brand.

You can even forward your new email address to your existing email account if you dont want to go through the hassle of changing your email program set up. The disadvantage to this is that your old email will show in the From: field so, in the future, you may want to set up the email program to not forward.

Resource: This can be easily set-up with many web hosting companies. We recommed Dreamhost as an excellent web hosting service.

3. Create an email signature file to use on all of your email.

This is a mini-advertisement that appears at the end of all of your email. Include your phone number, a short description of what you do, any current sales or promotions youre offering and your website address. You can even include your logo graphic in your signature file.

This is an especially great tactic if youre a member of any email lists your email will reach many people whom you dont know, and they may be interested in your products or services. Be sure to create and use your signature file when you post on online forums, as well!

Resource: See elf designs article on Tech Tips for details on setting up a signature file that includes your logo graphic.

4. Have a website designed and developed.

A website is a must in todays business world. Not only does it add to your credibility, it will also enable potential clients around the world to learn about your products or services.

The most common excuse that people have for not having a website for their business is that they dont know what to include on it. But, you can start out with a website that consists of a single page. Everyone can write at least one page about his or her business. If you have difficulty writing one page about your business, try recording yourself talking to a friend or client about your business its often easier to tell someone your story than to start with a blank page. Or, you can hire a freelance writer to help you get your story online.

We recommend that you expand your site to a five-plus page site as soon as you can... or start out with a five to six page website. This larger format allows plenty of pages to cover all the basic information about your service business. A product- sales based business requires a few more pages, mainly in the shopping cart and check-out capacities.

Resource: Additional website design and development information are available in our other articles: (links here to other articles)

5. Put your email address and website URL on all of your printed materials.

If you build it, they will come is unfortunately just not true on the web. You have to promote your website to let people know that its available to them, and that you have valuable information housed there. The easiest and most immediate way to do this is to add your email address and URL to your printed materials wherever appropriate. Put this contact information on your business cards, printed articles, email, note cards and other correspondence.

Make sure to include your website address on all your company-wide materials letterhead, brochures, postcards, catalogs you name it. The only place it is not appropriate is on envelopes or mailing labels; the postal scanners dont like it!

Resource: elf design can assist you in adding your new online branding information to all of your collateral materials. Contact us for a quote today.

If you arent taking advantage of the Internets many ways to build your brand, then you are missing out on some very effective and affordable ways to tell the world who you are, what you do and what makes you different. Start building your brand with these proven methods, and keep an eye out for next months article, which will give you more methods to extend your businesss reach online.