Podcasting Secrets

Welcome back to another episode of Monetization Nation with Ramon Ray. In the previous episode, we discussed five ways to use failure to our advantage. In today’s episode, Ramon shared about his most recent book, The Celebrity CEO.

Here’s a great example of the power of a celebrity CEO. When I ask people if they know the name of the CEO of Tesla, the vast majority of people correctly answer Elon Musk. I then ask people if they know the name of the CEO of Ford or the CEO of Toyota. I have never had anyone successfully give me the name of either. 

Elon Musk is a celebrity CEO. For example, he has 52 million followers on Twitter. Compare that to only 33,000 Twitter followers for the CEO of Ford. And, I couldn’t even find an official Twitter account for the CEO of Toyota when I searched. 

So, what’s the value of being a celebrity CEO and having all that reach and influence? 

Ford has more than 3,000 dealerships. Toyota has more than 1,500 dealerships just in North America, not including the rest of the world. On the other hand, Tesla doesn't have any traditional dealerships. Tesla customers purchase their vehicles online

Ford was founded 118 years ago. Toyota was founded 84 years ago. Tesla was founded only 18 years ago, yet according to a December 2002 article in TheDrive, Tesla reached a market valuation more than the next 6 largest car companies combined. Tesla’s valuation today is approximately $650 billion. The power of a celebrity CEO has played a huge role in the success of Tesla, and in this episode, we’re going to learn how to become a celebrity CEO.

What is a Celebrity CEO?

You don’t need to be famous to everyone to be a celebrity. You simply need to be well-known inside your circle. An entrepreneur can become a celebrity in two ways: being well-known in their niche or in their geography. 

“That's the aspect of being a celebrity. It’s not that everybody in the world knows you like Beyonce . . . or whoever it may be, but that your people know you. That's the beauty of Celebrity CEOs,” Ramon said.  

In order to be a successful Celebrity CEO, we must become a brand, use self-promotion, build a community, and then use the marketing funnel. 

Become a Brand

Entrepreneurs need to become a brand. 

Who are you?

Contrary to what we might think, our audience isn’t just buying our products or service, they are buying us. In order to create digital monetization, we need to create a personal brand. 

“For most small companies [or] for very small businesses, people are buying me,” Ramon explained. “People are buying my handshake, my smile, my life, how I talk, how I don't talk, my faith, my lack of faith.”

Building a brand starts with a purpose. What problem are we solving? What question are we answering? Once we know our purpose, we can create a brand. We need a certain style, a logo, font type, color, a business name, a trademark, and more. But beyond this, we need to focus on becoming our personal brand. 

One way to do this is through our physical appearance. This isn’t about being a model. It’s about representing ourselves, our beliefs and values, by the way, we dress and act. We can ask ourselves, “What makes me different? What makes me stand out?”

I think we are a lot more critical of ourselves than we are of other people. If we stop and look at our role models, we will realize that none of them are perfect. We expect perfection from ourselves, but not from others. We shouldn’t put that standard on ourselves. We don’t need to be perfect. In fact, if we try to impersonate this perfect version of ourselves, we won’t resonate with our audience. We won’t seem credible or authentic. 

Part of personal branding includes embracing our complete selves. We need to be real. When we are real, people will trust us more. Ramon calls this being magnetic. 

“You have to be who you are. Part of that magnetism is a little bit of bravado, naturally, is a little bit of what makes you different,” Ramon said. 

There is something about us that attracts us to others—what is it? Is it because we are thoughtful, energetic, introspective, bold? We need to use what God has given us to draw people towards us. 

Self-promotion

Entrepreneurs need to focus on self-promotion. 

Becoming a Celebrity CEO requires a celebrity mindset. To be successful we need to be willing to put ourselves out there. We have to recognize the need for self-promotion.

“I promote myself, and I hope it comes off in a nice, authentic, beautiful way,” Ramon said. “That's part of [having] a Celebrity CEO mindset: promoting yourself, telegraphing what you're doing, when you have a win, sharing it with your community, and building the fan base, building the community and rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.” 

While we are promoting our business, we can’t forget to promote ourselves. That doesn’t mean being arrogant, stuck up, or self-absorbed. It means recognizing our value and sharing it with others. 

Ramon explained self-promotion is his game and business. He consistently shares his stories on social media platforms. On his Instagram, he posts IG stories; on his Facebook, he posts videos. He also posts on his Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. In a three to five-day period, Ramon shares several different videos. 

“[For] those who want to be the celebrity CEO, yes, it's about your business. Yes, it's acknowledging your team . . . But on the business side, how do I make a living with the big brands I work with? I promote myself.” 

Build a Community

Entrepreneurs need to build a community. 

Ramon says the secret sauce of personal branding is to “ask for a smile before you ask for a sale.” We shouldn’t focus so much on the sale but on the needs of our audience. In order to build a community, we need to earn their trust. 

“So many times we go for the sale first, the sale first, the sale first; we don't take time to say, let me just ask for a smile. That's so much easier to get than asking for a sale. And part of that aspect is building community. Part of that aspect is building my fan base,” Ramon said. 

As we build trust with our customers, we can eventually get them to purchase our product or service. The secret is to build a fanbase and community before trying to convert customers. 

Implement the Marketing Funnel 

Entrepreneurs need to implement the marketing funnel. 

After we become a brand, promote ourselves, and build a community, we can then implement more marking principles to monetize our brand and community.  

People often ask, “How can I use my websites and social media platforms to build an audience that, at the end of the day, will give me a sale?”

Ramon says it starts with narrowing the trust gap. “Before I ask somebody to buy something from me, what I suggest is, use the digital tools that we have to offer something to someone, find out . . . what their real problem is, and say, ‘Let me educate you further about it. Let me give you a nibble about it. Let me help you get a taste of what I can do for you.’ Now they've taken a nibble. Now you can educate, educate, educate, educate, educate, until they buy from you, and you've narrowed the trust gap.” 

The marketing funnel typically falls into these six steps:

1. Awareness 
2. Interest
3. Consideration
4. Intent
5. Evaluation
6. Purchase

Before anything else, people need to know about our product or service and develop an interest. Once they have developed interest and consideration, we need to get people to start consuming our products. This is often done through free content such as eBooks, podcasts, blog posts, videos, images, and more. We can call these pieces of free content “investments”. 

We give things away for free so we can ask for something in return such as a customer’s email (our lead capture) and eventually, money. Once we have a customer’s email, we have our leads. With these leads, we can continue to send newsletters and targeted emails, encouraging our loyal customers to buy our products. Without them, we have no way to nurture relationships. 

To effectively use social media to build our brand, Ramon suggests four things: frequency, engagement, relevancy, and analytics. We need to constantly produce content, engage with our customers, meet our customers’ needs, and then, we need to use analytics to determine what is working and what isn’t. 

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Ramon for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. We don’t need to be famous. We simply need to be well-known inside our circle.
2. People are buying us, not just our services or products. 
3. We need to become our own personal brand. 
4. We need to build a following and community before trying to convert customers. 
5. We should be focused on “asking for a smile before asking for a sale.”
6. We need to narrow the trust gap by providing our customers with valuable content.
7. We need to focus on using lead magnets.

Connect with Ramon

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Ramon, connect with him on his website, ramonray.com. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

How do you build your personal brand? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/89-how-to-build-a-personal-brand-and-become-a-celebrity-ceo/ 

In today’s episode, I was privileged to interview Ramon Ray, an incredible global keynote speaker, entrepreneur, best-selling author, event producer, and event host. He's the founder of SmartHustle.com, which inspires and educates small business owners like me. 

Ramon has shared the stage with business icons such as Seth Godin, Daymond John, Simon Sinek, Gary Vaynerchuk, and many others. He has interviewed President Obama and joined Ivanka Trump at the global entrepreneur summit in India. 

Over his extensive career, Ramon has written thousands of articles, spoken to thousands of business owners, and impacted hundreds of thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs to help their businesses thrive.

Today he shares his personal story of how failure helped him find success. 

Ramon’s Story: Pushed into Entrepreneurship

Ramon studied business administration in college and worked full-time at the United Nations for more than 10 years. During his time at the UN, he was promoted to the administrative officer. However, his career path at the UN wasn’t a good fit for his entrepreneurial spirit. 

Ramon started a few small companies while at the UN and was eventually fired. “I got fired from there, and that kind of pushed me . . . into going full-time entrepreneurship, and that's where I kind of had to learn books,” Ramon said. 

Many entrepreneurs I've spoken with have been fired from previous jobs and just like Ramon, that firing or failure gave them freedom. It forced them to start on the path of an entrepreneur.

Sometimes we need failure to push us towards where we need to be. Sometimes God closes doors so he can push us in a better direction. Nobody is great at everything. We change the world through the unique talents and gifts God gives us. We must embrace what we are given instead of focusing on what we lack. It takes a journey to realize the gifts that we can share with the world.

Here are five ways we can use failure to our advantage. 

1. Use Failure as a Way to Discover Unique Strengths 

We can use failure as a way to discover our unique strengths. 

“Your purpose in life is to use your gifts and talents to help other people. Your journey in life teaches you how to do that.” - Tom Krause, world-renowned baritone. 

We will fail. Failure is a guarantee in life. We must accept that we will make mistakes and acknowledge our weaknesses. We can’t be good at everything. Once we accept that, we can use that knowledge to determine what makes us unique. Failure helps us find what we are bad at, and then, what we are good at. 

I asked Ramon to share one of his best secrets about his monetization strategy. He told me it is to personalize and humanize our brands. “Let me be who I am; I’m not going to be for everybody,” he said. “Those who want me will see what I'm doing and ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching. They will buy, and it's worked every time.”

We won’t be right for everyone, but we will be right for somebody. We must find what makes us unique. It’s not about being like everybody else; it’s about finding our personal strengths that make us stand out. Those things will attract the right audience. 

Failure allows us to figure out what our strengths are. It teaches us how to use our personal gifts and talents. 

One of the most important things to do in digital monetization is to build a community and personal brand. We can impact a small but powerful group of people. We don’t need to be world-renowned or good at everything to make an impact. We need to find our group of people we can help. To do this, we must use failure to find our unique talents and gifts that will resonate with others. 

When we mess up, move on gracefully. We need to accept our failure and learn from it. 

1. See Failure as an Opportunity to Learn and Grow

We can see failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” - Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company 

Failure gives us the chance to recognize how we can improve. It forces us to adapt and grow. Failure is an opportunity.

In a 2018 study, researchers tried to determine the best method for studying. They had two groups of students complete a test. One group guessed the answers first and then got feedback. The second group studied by memorizing information. In the end, the students who guessed first and then got feedback did better than the students who simply memorized information. 

“The researchers theorized that this is ‘because the students who guessed first were better able to reflect on their incorrect guesses and study the correct answers for the test.’” (Source: Water Ford)

Ramon explained he had made many mistakes while trying to grow his business. One mistake he made was using his credit card too much and going into debt. 

“I think, some days I wish I would have spent money better,” he said. “Do I wish I would have done some things differently? Yes. Do I wish I would have taken time to think better, think slower, be more methodical? Yes. But I'm here talking. I'm alright.”

Because he made the mistakes he did, he was able to learn from them and not make the same mistake twice. It has allowed him to better save money and know where to spend his money. 

Failure can help us understand things better when we learn from our mistakes. As Thomas Edison said, “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” 

1. Reflect on Our Mistakes

We can reflect on our mistakes. 

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” - Margaret J. Wheatley, American writer, teacher, speaker, and management consultant.

The only way to really learn and grow from our mistakes is to reflect and ask ourselves these questions: Why did I fail? How can I do better?

A study found that students who study in a way that allows for mistakes through self-reflection can increase critical thinking skills (Source: Water Ford). This same thing can apply to entrepreneurs. As we work in a way that allows for mistakes, we can continue to increase our skills.

As we embrace failure and reflect on what went wrong, we learn. Then we try again until we succeed. 

1. Let Failure Build Persistence, Drive, and Determination 

We can let failure build persistence, drive, and determination.

“Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try another approach is the secret of winning.” - Denis Waitley, American motivational speaker, consultant, and best-selling author. 

Failure teaches us to keep trying until we get it right. 

Nigel Barber, an evolutionary psychologist and contributor to Psychology Today, wrote, “People who fail repeatedly develop persistence in the face of difficulties . . . only people with extensive histories of failure could survive the difficulties that (some) individuals endured.” He continued, “With success, people keep on doing the same thing. When they fail, they are forced to adapt and change. That is not just a human characteristic but constitutes a basic feature of how the mammalian brain works.”

As we try, again and again, we develop a drive and persistence that will help us accomplish great things later in life. We learn to never give up. Whether we succeed in attempt one or 100, it doesn’t matter, as long as we allow each attempt to build character. 

We must also recognize our wins as they come—no matter how small. It will help give us the motivation to push on. 

1. Let Failure Build Courage 

We can let failure build courage. 

“The one who falls and gets up is stronger than the one who never tried. Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.” – Paulo Coelho, novelist, best known for The Alchemist

Don’t let fear of failure hold you back. Too often we’re afraid of rejection. Be yourself. Be authentic. Not everyone will pick us, and if we’re comfortable about that, we will be much happier. People will resonate with our message.  

“There's so many lessons learned with just being ourselves,” Ramon said. “Everybody's not going to pick you and if you're comfortable with that, you're going to be much happier in the end.” 

We must embrace our strengths and our failures. We must accept what makes us unique, as we talked about in the first tip. It's not about being like everybody else. It's not about sterilizing our message because we’re afraid that what we say is going to offend someone else. It's our unique personality (weaknesses and strengths) that is going to attract the right opportunity. It's going to create these points of connection. 

Don’t run or hide from failure. We must let it make us courageous and brave. We must step out of our comfort zone. We can’t sit around idle waiting for the good to happen to us because we are afraid that if we take action, we will mess up. Try, try, and try again. 

“Why wait for someone to call you?” Ramon asked. “Heck with it. Let me do my own event and call myself.”

 Don’t wait around for life to happen—make it happen.

Key Takeaways

Thank you so much Ramon for sharing your stories and knowledge with us today. Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. We all have unique talents and gifts.
2. Most times we need failure to push ourselves towards where we need to be.
3. Failure is inevitable. It is how we react that helps lead us to success.
4. We must personalize and humanize our brands.
5. Failure gives us a chance to grow.
6. To learn from failure, we must reflect on our mistakes.
7. We need to recognize our wins—no matter how small they are. 
8. Not everyone will pick us, and if we’re comfortable about that, we will be much happier.

Connect with Ramon

If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Ramon, listen to part two of this episode or connect with him on his website, ramonray.com. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

Did you like today’s episode? Then please follow these channels to receive free digital monetization content:

1. Get a free Monetization Assessment of your business
2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
4. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
5. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

What have you learned from your failures? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/88-5-ways-to-use-failure-to-our-advantage/ 

“If there is a Golaith in front of you, that means there is a David inside of you.” - Carlos Rodriguez

This is Entrepreneurs of Faith, a Sunday episode of Monetization Nation. I’m Nathan Gwilliam, your host. In today’s episode, we’re going to discuss the amazing underdog story of David and Goliath how entrepreneurs can learn from David to conquer their Goliaths. 

The Story of David and Goliath

1 Samuel chapter 17 in the Bible tells the story of David’s victory over Goliath. In the Valley of Elah during the year 1063 B.C., two armies faced each other. On one side was the army of the Philistines and on the other King Saul’s Israelite army. Though the armies were somewhat evenly matched in the number of soldiers and skill, the Philistines had one thing that Saul’s army didn’t: iron.

The Philistines had been able to keep their knowledge of smelting and fashioning iron into formidable weapons of war a secret. Iron was far superior to the brass weapons of King Saul’s army.

During this time, it was common for champions to challenge others from the opposing forces to single combat. In fact, there had been several battles decided by individual combat.

One of the champions of the Philistines was a man named Goliath of Gath. His height was six cubits and a span, which is about nine feet tall. “He had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail . . . And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.” (KJV 1 Samuel 17:5-7)

Needless to say, Goliath was a fearsome man. Twice per day for 40 days, he called out to the armies of Saul, saying, “Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.” (KJV 1 Samuel 17:8-9)

Saul, the King of Israel, and the Israelite army were afraid and did not accept Goliath’s challenge. However, there was one who wasn’t afraid. The young shepherd David told Saul he would fight Goliath as he had fought lions and bears that had threatened his flock. Saul offered David his armor, but David refused. David prepared for battle by finding five smooth stones and taking them and his sling with him to meet Goliath.

Goliath taunted and mocked David. David said to Goliath, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee.” (KJV 1 Samuel 17:45-46)

“When the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.” (KJV 1 Samuel 17:48-50)

Then, the Philistine army turned and ran. The Israelite army pursued and won the battle. 

Force Multipliers

Like David facing Goliath, entrepreneurs also constantly face many challenges and obstacles. The Philistine army had leveraged the tectonic shift of iron, which gave them a huge competitive advantage. 

I don’t have any experience with the military, But, I have been told that when one army has a competitive advantage over the other army, that competitive advantage is often called a “force multiplier.” For example, during the war with Iraq, the U.S. army had many force multipliers, such as superior aircraft, missiles, night vision, and a superior missile defense system. These force multipliers allowed the U.S. army to have a lot more force for each soldier engaged in that battle. Many of these force multipliers, such as advanced missiles and missile defense systems, could probably also be considered tectonic shifts in modern warfare. Because Israel had not leveraged that tectonic shift to iron like the Philistines, they were in a precarious situation. 

Compete with Our Strengths Against Their Weaknesses

Often entrepreneurs are in a similar situation where one of our competitors has a huge competitive advantage over us. The competitor may have been in business a lot longer. They may have a lot more revenue, a much larger team, a bigger office, more customers, huge trade show booths, etc. They may have even leveraged a tectonic shift before us or may have purchased a competitor who effectively leveraged a tectonic shift. We may look at this competitor and feel that there is no way we can beat them because of their size and resources.

That fear is half true. It is true we cannot beat them . . . at their own game. If our competitors have a large advantage, then we should not take them on where they have a competitive advantage. We must find their weakness and figure out how to attack them there.

How did David beat Goliath? It is true that Goliath had an enormous competitive advantage in his size and strength and the quality and size of his sword and armor. If David tried to fight him strength against strength, or sword and armor against sword and armor, David’s chance of winning would have been very low. 

Of course, that is not taking into account the power of God, who can do all things and is the ultimate competitive advantage. God gave David a different idea than fighting strength against strength and sword against sword. 

Instead, David realized that Goliah’s competitive advantage, his force multiplier of iron, also had a weakness. It was very heavy, especially the amount of armor it takes to cover a nine-foot man. David knew that Goliath would not be able to move quickly and by choosing to wear no armor and to carry no sword, David could have a competitive advantage with speed. David could easily keep his distance from Goliath and sling stones at him, safe from that long iron sword. 

By not trying to match up to his weakness against Goliath’s strengths, David was able to focus matching up his strengths—speed, a sling, and stones—against Goliath’s weakness—his lack of mobility. 

Like David, sometimes we need to find unique ways to overcome those obstacles. Like David, it is generally best not to match our weaknesses against the strengths of our opponents. Instead, we need to find the weakness of our competitors and develop a strength we can use to attack them. David’s sling and stones might even be seen as his own tectonic shift in warfare, keeping distance from a competitor and shooting projectiles at them. That sounds similar to a strategy that helped the U.S. colonists win the Revolutionary War. 

David could not beat Goliath doing the same thing Goliath was doing. David had to find and leverage a different tectonic shift. The same thing is true in business. When we face something like larger competitors with a lot more resources, we often cannot use the same strategies they are using to dominate. If we do, we will probably lose. Instead, we have to find our tectonic shift, something that our competitors aren't doing yet or aren't doing well.

Modern Day Davids and Goliaths

Malcolm Gladwell has a book about this called David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. 

In an interview about the book, Gladwell said, “This is the classic story of the business world. The very same thing that appears to make a company so formidable—its size, its resources—serves as stumbling blocks when they're forced to respond to a situation where the rules are changing, and where nimbleness, and flexibility, and adaptability are better attributes. Which is the story of David and Goliath, right? David had nimbleness. He changed the rules. He brought in the superior of technology.”

Here are a few stories of companies that started out as underdogs, but who were able to succeed through innovation and leveraging tectonic shifts.

Apple

Apple was started in 1976, by college dropouts Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, who sold his share of the company for $800 three months later. Michael Dell, CEO of Dell, was skeptical about the company. He “once said that if he owned Apple he would shut down the company and give shareholders their money back.”  (Source: Investopedia.com)

Jobs proved him wrong though. He said, "It's only us and Dell making money. They're making money because they're Walmart, we're making it because we're innovating." (Source: Investopedia.com)

Apple found success because they didn’t do exactly what Dell was doing. As Jobs said, they innovated, finding and leveraging the tectonic shifts that worked for their company. 

“Since 1976, Apple has grown into the multinational technology mogul that we know today. Apple is now the world’s largest information technology company by revenue and the world’s third-largest mobile phone manufacturer.” (Source: Medium.com)

Netflix

Before Netflix dominated the streaming arena, it was a DVD-rental-by-mail company. Its biggest competitor was Blockbuster. “In 2000, Netflix executives met with Blockbuster and offered to sell the company for $50 million, which Blockbuster refused.” (Source: Investopedia.com)

Blockbuster has since filed for bankruptcy and shuttered 9,000 stores (Source: Medium.com). Now, Netflix has “193 million paid subscribers in more than 190 countries.” (Source: Investopedia.com)

Home Depot

Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were fired from Handy Dan, “one of America’s leading home improvement retailer chains.” (Source: Medium.com) They decided to use this as an opportunity to start their own company. They opened Home Depot in 1981, creating “one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourself customer.” (Source: Investopedia.com) Home Depot now has more than 2,200 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (Source: corporate.homedepot.com).

Being Small and Nimble is a Competitive Advantage

“The big companies we compete against are like Goliath, large and lumbering, slow to change. Can we be David, quick and noble, willing to think outside the box, and find a new and disruptive way to solve the most important problem.” 

(Source: Glenn Tulman in Forbes)

Choose an Unconventional Strategy

Ian Brookes in From the Lighthouse said, “The political scientist Ivan Arreguín-Toft looked at every war fought in the past 200 years between strong and weak combatants. The Goliaths, he found, won in 71.5% of the cases. That is a remarkable fact, especially when the result is in the context of the sample of conflicts analyzed was where one side was at least ten times as powerful in terms of armed might and population as its opponent – even in those lopsided contests, the underdog won almost a third of the time. Why, what happened? Simply, the underdogs acknowledged their weaknesses and chose an unconventional strategy. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5% to 63.6%. When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win, Arreguín-Toft concluded.”

Key Takeaways

Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. David changed the rules in his battle with Goliath and used the sling and stone as a tectonic shift to give himself a competitive advantage and remove Golaith’s advantage.
2. Like David, we can leverage tectonic shifts to give ourselves the advantage over much larger competitors.
3. Don’t match our weaknesses up against our competitor’s strengths. Instead figure a way to develop strength and use it to attack the competitor’s weakness, like David used his nimbleness to compete against the giant’s inability to move quickly in the heavy iron armor.
4. David was nimble and could adapt to his surroundings faster than Goliath. Being nimble and moving quickly is often a competitive advantage of small companies. Often small companies can adapt to changes in the world faster than large ones.
5. Don’t try to do things the same way as our larger competitors. Find an unconventional way to more effectively accomplish the most important goals. 

Join Entrepreneurs of Faith

If this episode of Entrepreneurs of Faith resonated with you, please subscribe for FREE to Monetization Nation so you can receive Entrepreneurs of Faith each Sunday.

1. Subscribe to the free Monetization Nation eMagazine.
2. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. 
4. Follow Monetization Nation on Instagram and Twitter.

Share Your Story 

Have you seen any other examples of leveraging tectonic shifts to defeat modern Goliaths? Please join our private Monetization Nation Facebook group and share your insights with other digital monetizers.

Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/87-how-underdog-entrepreneurs-can-learn-from-david-to-conquer-their-goliaths/ 

Arianna Huffington is an author, columnist, and businesswoman. She was a co-founder of The Huffington Post and the founder and CEO of Thrive Global. She is also the author of fifteen books. Time Magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and she built a business she sold for $315 million.

In today’s episode, we’ll explore how Huffington became so successful in her entrepreneurial journey. We’ll discuss the tectonic shifts she leveraged and other secrets to her success.

Huffington’s Entrepreneurial Story

Early Life and Career

Arianna Huffington was born on July 14, 1950, in Athens Greece. At the age of 16, she moved to England. She studied at the University of Cambridge and earned an economics degree(Source: Britannica.com).

After she finished her education and lived in England and a few other places, Huffington moved to the U.S. and became involved in politics, writing books and articles, appearing on several radios and tv shows, and speaking at conventions (Source: Wikipedia.org).

Huffington Post

In 2005, Huffington co-founded the Huffington Post. When the site launched, “it was structured as a group blog, publishing the words of hundreds of guest contributors each week.” AOL acquired the Huffington Post in 2011 for $315 million, and Huffington became “President and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, a new venture that included all the content from the Website and AOL.” (Source: Britannica.com) In 2012, the website became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize (source: Crain’s New York).  In June 2015, Verizon Communications acquired AOL for US$4.4 billion and the site became a part of Verizon Media (source: PR Newswire).

Thrive Global

To launch her new enterprise, Thrive Global, Huffington left AOL and the Huffington Post Media Group. Thrive Global offers science-based solutions to end stress and burnout (Source: wikipedia.org).

Huffington said, "After my collapse from sleep deprivation and exhaustion in 2007 I became more and more passionate about the connection between well-being and performance. And as I went around the world speaking about my experience, I saw two things: First, that we're facing a stress and burnout epidemic. And second, that people deeply want to change the way they work and live . . . That's why I launched Thrive Global—to go beyond raising awareness and create something real and tangible that would help individuals, companies, and communities improve their well-being and performance and unlock their greatest potential. At Thrive Global, helping you achieve these goals is our mission and our passion." (Source: thriveglobal.com)

“Too many of us leave our lives—and, in fact, our souls—behind when we go to work.” - Arianna Huffington

Tectonic Shifts Leveraged

Here are some of the tectonic shifts Huffington used to achieve her success.

User-Generated Content

The Huffington Post uses user-generated content, in the form of guest blogging, for much of its content. Guest blogging happens when someone publishes their article on a blog or online publication that they don’t own or regularly contribute to. Guest blogging usually comes with building brand awareness, strengthening credibility, or showcasing expertise for the writer.

“For the host blog that is publishing [a] guest post, they will receive a free piece of content that they do not have to write themselves or pay someone else to write it for them. The writer of the guest post, on the other hand, will get to enjoy the perks of amassing a growing readership and driving more traffic to their respective websites.” 

The writer will also get instant exposure, expand their network, engage with other contributors, boost their social media follower count, strengthen their backlink profile, collect feedback, and refine their content (Source: ignitevisibility.com).

The Huffington Post used guest blogging when it launched and continues to use it today. It is a great way for them to get lots of content out quickly and expand their audience to include the audience of their many writers. 

When I worked at Deseret Digital Media, they also very effectively leveraged user-generated content from guest writers, and I saw firsthand the tremendous value that brought the organization.

Media and Social Media

Huffington has had a big presence in the media that helped her to become an influencer. According to Wikipedia, she was a panelist on the weekly BBC Radio 4 political discussion program Any Questions? and the BBC television panel games Call My Bluff and Face the Music. She served as co-host of BBC's late-night chat show Saturday Night at the Mill for four weeks. At one point she was the co-host of the weekly, nationally syndicated public radio program Both Sides Now with Mary Matalin. 

Before starting The Huffington Post, Huffington hosted a website called AriannaOnline.com. In 2008, She appeared as herself on an episode of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother in May 2010.

Huffington played herself in the Family Guy episode "Brian Writes a Bestseller" along with Dana Gould and Bill Maher in a live segment of Real Time with Bill Maher (Source: wikipedia.org).

Huffington has become a LinkedIn influencer, writing about success and sharing professional insights. She has almost 10 million followers on LinkedIn and more than 2 million on Twitter.

Other Secrets to Success

Here are two other secrets Huffington has learned in her career.

1. Creativity Comes When We Step Away from Technology

When Huffington collapsed from burnout and exhaustion two years after starting the Huffington Post, breaking her cheekbone as she fell, she started to reevaluate how she was living her life.

She said, “That was really the beginning of reevaluating my life and recognizing that I, like millions of other people around the world, had been suffering from the delusion that in order to succeed, we have to burn out.”

“And yet all the latest science disproves that. It actually proves that we need time to recharge, to sleep, to unplug from technology, and I became such a passionate evangelist for this message.” 

“My best piece of advice is to make sure that entrepreneurs connect with their own wisdom and creativity, and that’s becoming harder and harder because we are so addicted to technology.” (Source: cnbc.com)

According to Hype Magazine, 65.7% of Americans admit to sleeping with their phone at night. “We are constantly engaging in notifications, social media, texts, emails. And yet the most creative moments come when we put all that aside. That’s why sometimes people’s best ideas come in the shower. So as an entrepreneur, make time for that reflection, ability to connect with your best ideas, and not to be constantly distracted,” Huffington said (Source: cnbc.com).

2. Love What We’re Doing

When Huffington was asked her best advice for starting a business, she said that we need to make sure we really love what we’re doing and believe in our products and services. She said, “When the Huffington Post was first launched in May 2005, there were so many detractors. I remember a critic who wrote, ‘The Huffington Post is an unsurvivable failure.’ . . . So when you get reviews like that and detractors like that, you have to really believe in your product. And when you believe in your product, you are willing to deal with all the naysayers and persevere. That for me is the best advice I got and the best advice I can give.”

Key Takeaways

Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. We have to remember to take care of ourselves and give ourselves time to rest and recharge.
2. Guest blogging can be beneficial for both the host blog and the guest blogger. 
3. Huffington has gained many followers and gained a lot of credibility by being very prevalent in the media throughout her career.
4. Technology can inhibit our ability to be creative as entrepreneurs. Consider setting aside time to step away from it.
5. To persevere through hard times and reviews from harsh critics, we must love what we’re doing and believe in our product. 

Connect with Arianna Huffington

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about Huffington or connect with her, you can find her on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ariannahuffington/. 

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"A better domain name will lower your lifetime marketing costs."

-Frank Schilling

I recently published an episode about bootstrapping to fund our businesses. In that episode, I told the story about buying or selling millions of dollars worth of domain names over the years to help finance the growth of my companies. 

I’ve helped numerous companies find great domain names for their ventures. For example, I’ve helped buy and/or sell adoption.com, today.com, stockmarket.com, advertising.com, law.com, retirement.com, families.com, familias.com, woman.com, and many others. In this episode, I’m going to share tips, tricks, and tools to help us find great domain names. 

Choosing a great domain name is important for many reasons. It is often one of the first impressions a potential customer has with our companies. It can add to or detract from our credibility. It can help or hurt our SEO. And, it can be a great branding opportunity if done right. 

Here are my tips, tricks, and tools for finding and choosing great domain names:

1. Play the long game.

I recommend we try to play the “long game” with our primary domain name to get it right the first time. We shouldn’t buy a domain name we are planning to change. It can take a lot of time and money to change domain names, and a lot of the value we’ve built up in a domain name can be lost when we change it.  It’s worth it to invest the time and resources upfront to get the right domain name the first time. That doesn’t mean we can’t change it in the future. It just means we may lose a lot of value if we do. 

2. Make a master spreadsheet of possible domains. 

At the beginning of our research, avoid getting too emotionally connected with one domain name. Entrepreneurs often decide they like one domain and they stop their research or stop considering other domains. This is a mistake, because there may be a better domain name we can uncover in our research process. Or, we may hit a roadblock and get paralyzed in our efforts to buy the one domain name. 

Instead, I recommend we do a bunch of research and create a list of all of the possible domain names,  including information about them, into one spreadsheet. I recommend Google Sheets for this because it can easily be shared with others in a collaborative way. 

I recommend keeping good notes on the research we do. Which domain names are available? Which domain names have sites already? Are they listed for sale, and what are the asking prices? What is the contact info of the owner? What is our communication history with the owner? If we don’t keep good records, they will start to blend together, and important data will be forgotten, and work will need to be duplicated.

3. Include a top keyword in your domain. 

I recommend using a tool such as SEMrush.com or KeywordTool.io to find the best keywords related to our niche. Then, I recommend we try to find a domain name that includes one of the top keywords. This can help with our SEO in the niche, and make it easier for our target audience to know what our site is about. For example, the word “monetization” described our niche focus well and had a large number of monthly searches in Google, so I decided I wanted to include “monetization” in my domain. 

4. Use a .com domain name… usually. 

There are many other extensions we can use to register a domain name today such as .me, .store, .info, .biz, .io, and .bargains. However, .com domains have more credibility than these other extensions. Plus, when we tell people our business name, they will often put a .com after our business name when they are looking for our website. For example, if the name of my business is Monetization Nation, people will naturally expect my site to be at MonetizationNation.com and will type that in when they are looking for my site. So, if I try to save money by buying a domain name other than a .com, I’m going to lose a lot of my potential customers to whoever owns the .com version of my domain. It’s not worth it. Get the .com.

If we become very successful at an extension other than .com,  we may have to pay a lot of money to buy the .com version. For example, early in my career, an executive of Alta Vista came to my office to meet me. Alta Vista used to be one of the top internet search engines. This executive told me Alta Vista had purchased AltaVista.net as the domain name for their search engine early on. However, when their search engine took off, they were losing so many visitors to the owners of AltaVista.com that they had to pay $4 million to buy the AltaVista.com domain name. It would have been much less expensive if they would have started out with a .com domain name. 

For example, I own the shorter Monetization.org domain name, but I use the longer MonetizationNation.com domain name as my primary domain because it is at the .com, along with some other reasons. 

There are a few exceptions to this rule. For example, like a non-profit or an association, people might expect the domain name to be at .org. However, if we use a .org, we need to realize that many people will still type the .com version of our domain name, and it is a good idea to get the .com version and redirect it to the  .org site.

5. Avoid dashes and numbers.

We should try to avoid dashes and numbers in our domain names. If we use dashes in our domain, such as over-the-counter.com, many people will mistype our domain as overthecounter.com. Numbers are also confusing because when we tell people our domain verbally they don’t know whether the number is in numerals or written out in letters.  It then requires additional explanation. This makes sharing our domain through audio marketing problematic and prone to misspellings. 

If you remember, Walmart used to be Wal-Mart but removed the dash. 

6. Keep it short and simple.

I try to keep domain names shorter if I can, but this is not an absolute rule. Longer domains sometimes are the right choice. As a general rule, we should try to keep it as short as we reasonably can. I recommend trying to keep the domain name at two words or less, if possible. One word is ideal, but often very expensive. I pay a lot of attention to syllables and try to choose domains with fewer syllables because they are easier to say. Remember, the longer our domains become, the easier they are to forget or misspell, and we may lose some credibility if they are too long or complicated. 

I love domains that don’t require explanation, where potential customers can see our domain name and easily understand the focus of the site. 

7. Pick a name that’s easier for your target audience to spell. 

We should try to choose a domain name that is difficult for our target audience to misspell. Here is a list of some of the most commonly misspelled words. I try to avoid homophones, which are words that sound the same but have different spellings, such as “won” and “one”. Here’s a list of common homophones.  If our target audience knows how to spell our keyword or brand, we have more flexibility. For example, monetization is a word regularly used by entrepreneurs and CEOs, so I felt comfortable using it in my domain name even though it is more difficult for people to spell. 

Sometimes people intentionally choose a misspelled domain name believing that the misspelling will make them unique and brandable. I strongly advise against this strategy. This intentional misspelling will probably make it much more difficult for our customers and may send a lot of our hard-earned potential customers to a competing website. 

8. Use a thesaurus.

When trying to come up with a great domain name, I regularly use one or more thesauri to help me identify synonyms and think outside the box for my top keywords and domain names. It’s a great way to generate new word ideas. Thesarus.com is a great resource to check out.

9. Use a domain name generator.

A domain name generator allows us to enter our keyword and then it combines that keyword with possibly thousands of other keywords that can be used in the domain name. It checks availability and then gives us a list of the available domains. I love domain name generators. Before domain name generators were popular, I created my own domain name generator and used it to find available domain names to register. This can be a very effective tool to find available domain names. There is no way we could ever think of all the variations on our own. I recommend trying domain name generators such as NameMesh.com, LeanDomainSearch, Wordoid, or NameBoy to find potential domain names.

10. Try to create new words. 

We might try to take one of our top keywords, and create a new word with it, or merge two keywords together to create a new word. For example, if our new company was about branding, we might try new words such as Brandly.com or Brandify.com, etc. Good domain name generators like NameMesh can help us come up with many of these new word options.

11. Register a domain name the moment it expires.

Very frequently people buy domain names, and then forget to renew them, or decide they don’t want it anymore. When they don’t pay the renewal, the domain name eventually “drops” and becomes available for other people to register. The lists of expiring domain names from many domain name registrars are published. And, there are various services that specialize in helping their customers register those domain names right as they expire. 

I recommend NameJet and DropCatch as services to register expiring domains. Both of these services have been very successful in grabbing domain names for me. Some people say Pool.com is the best service to grab domain names as they expire, because they have such a huge amount of servers doing the grabbing, but I have not had a lot of success with that service. It is ok to try to use several services to grab a domain name because most services don’t charge anything unless they are successful in registering the domain name for us. 

I have set up email alerts with NameJet, and I receive those emails each day with expiring domains that match my keywords and other criteria. Most days, the lists don’t have any domain names I’m willing to register, but sometimes, I can get a great deal on very valuable domains. 

To give an idea of how effective and valuable this service is, for years I have wanted to write a book with the title Credibility Marketing. I tried to buy the domain name CredibilityMarketing.com and tried contacting the owner many times. I would have paid thousands of dollars for that domain name. However, I was never able to reach the owner. Years after I started trying to buy this domain, the domain name expired, and I was able to register the domain name for about $170. Normally, registering an expiring domain name costs less than that, but multiple people were trying to grab this domain. So, the company that registered the expiring domain name held an auction between the different parties. 

This expiring domain name strategy is probably not a short-term strategy that will help us get a great domain name we love this month. However, this can be a cost-effective strategy to pick up great domain names in our niches as they expire over time. 

12.  Expired domains. 

Regularly, people buy domain names, allow them to expire, and nobody immediately registers them. One website, ExpiredDomains.net, has made a publicly searchable database of these expired domains. When I’m looking for a domain name for one of my projects or for a client, this is one of the first websites I go to in search of a domain name containing one of my top keywords. The problem with this database is the massive amount of data it contains. I recommend using filters to narrow down the domains we are shown by keyword, length of the domain, .com domain extension, no dashes, no numbers, etc. This will make the number of domain names we have to go through much more manageable. I have found and registered many domain names using this service. 

13. Domain name marketplaces.

There are numerous domain name marketplaces that allow domain name owners to list their domain names for sale. Then, domain name buyers can search to find a domain name they like, and use the marketplace to contact the owner and negotiate the purchase. Some of the best domain name marketplaces are SEDO.com, GoDaddy Auctions, Flippa, Afternic, NameCheap Marketplace, and BuyDomains.com. Domain names listed at marketplaces can sometimes be a little pricey, but there are often deals as well. 

14. Contact domain name owners of your favorite domain name options and ask for pricing. 

It may be a good idea to reach out to the owners of top domain names on our list and ask for their pricing. If the domain name is listed for sale,  we can sometimes type the domain name in a browser, and find pricing information on the domain name. Or,  we might find a form on the domain name that we can fill out and request pricing. If we can’t find information on a site, we can try to find the owner’s contact information through the Whois database. It’s often best to start here:

lookup.icann.org or who.is.

However, these sites often do not list the contact information of the owners because the domain name is privacy protected. However, they often list the whois of the registrar for the domain. I recommend finding the whois search for that registrar and see if it’s possible to find more information or a way to reach out to the owner there. 

15. Buy Domain History. 

If we can’t find the owner,  we might try buying a whois history report at who.is. Maybe the current owner registered the domain name with their real name and later added privacy protection. In this case, a whois history report for that domain name may allow us to find the contact information of the owner. 

16. Trademark search. 

Once we have found some possible domain names we are considering, we can do a trademark search to see if there are confusingly similar trademarks for the term in the domain name(s) we are considering. 

1.  Once we are ready to search the trademark database, go to this page on the US Patent & Trademark Office site. 
2. Click on “Search our trademark database (TESS)”. 
3. Click on “Basic word search (New user)”. 
4. Type your search term in the “Search term” box. Don’t include the .com in your search term, and add a space between words. In addition to searching the exact phrase, you might want to search for the keyword as well. For example, when I wanted to buy the domain name MonetizationNation.com, I searched for trademarks containing “monetization nation” and also “monetization”.  
5. If you find a trademark that might be confusingly similar, look at the status of that trademark. Trademarks with the status of “live” are the ones that present the greatest issue. Some trademarks have a status of “dead”. The USPTO defines a dead mark as: “a dead or abandoned status for a trademark application means that specific application is no longer under prosecution within the USPTO, and would not be used as a bar against your filing.”  If you find a confusingly similar trademark, it is often best to look for a new brand and domain name, unless you want to buy the confusingly similar trademark from the owner. 
6. Be sure to read the instructions. 
7. I’ve successfully registered a lot of trademarks. However, I’m not an attorney, so be sure to get advice from an attorney instead of relying on any advice I give you. 

17. Search Google for your keyword

We should try to identify other competitors using the brand names or domains we are considering. This will give great information, but just because we find something here does not necessarily mean we need to abandon our proposed new brand. We may find the term being used before, but make a calculated decision that we still want to proceed with a domain name and brand. 

18. See if you can register or buy the social media usernames with your brand. 

I recommend searching the social media sites where we want to create social channels and see if we can register or buy the usernames or accounts with our brand or keyword. For example, before I purchased MonetizationNation.com, I made sure I was able to register social usernames such as instagram.com/monetizationnation, youtube.com/monetization, and facebook.com/monetizationnation. I also searched the podcast platforms to ensure nobody already had a podcast with a name similar to “Monetization Nation”.

19. Get feedback.

Once we’ve generated a list of our best options for a domain name, and gathered all the relevant information we need, I recommend asking for feedback from people who belong to our target audience. For example, if our target audience is lawyers then we need to ask for feedback from lawyers and not from our friends and family members who aren’t lawyers. We can ask for this feedback with direct phone calls, or through a survey tool such as Google Forms. 

20. Get a domain name valuation. 

Before we make an offer on a domain name, it’s a good idea to understand the fair market value of that domain name. Two great tools that provide valuations for free (at this time) are Estibot.com and GoDaddy Appraisals. However, please understand that these valuations are generated by a computer, so they might not be completely accurate. However, they may be a good starting point. To get a great domain name, we often may have to pay more than the domain name valuation from these two services. 

21. Research the domain history before buying.

Before we buy an existing domain, it is important to try to understand the history of that domain name to be sure it wasn’t used for something spammy, pornographic, or illegal. One great way to do this is to search for our domain in Archive.org and look through the history of what was published on that domain in the past. If the domain was used for something sketchy in the past, it may be blocked by internet service providers and search engines after we purchase it. If we find this out, the domain name may be important enough that we still choose to go forward with the purchase, and invest the time to work through whatever issues the domain name might have. But, it’s at least good to know what we are up against. 

22. Consider using a domain negotiation platform.

There are numerous reasons why we might consider using a domain negotiation platform. For example, maybe we are concerned that when the seller discovers who we are, they will ask for a higher price for the domain name. Or, maybe we’re having a hard time finding the contact information of the owner, and need someone who can contact the owner for us. For these and other reasons, we might consider using a platform such as DomainAgents.com that allows us to submit offers anonymously,  helps us contact the owners, and uses their platform to negotiate a sale price for the domain. 

23. Use an escrow agent.

If we are buying a domain name from another party for a substantial price, I highly recommend using an escrow agent for the domain name purchase and transfer. I recommend escrow.com as a great and reasonably priced escrow agent to buy or sell domain names. They have a smooth process to enter into an agreement with both parties, receive payment, coordinate for the domain name to be transferred, and release the payment after the domain name has been transferred. This reduces the risk for the buyer and seller, because the seller knows they will be paid after the transfer, and the buyer knows that the seller won’t receive money from the escrow agent until the buyer has received the domain name. 

24. Protect Your domain names. 

Many people have domain names spread across different registrars. This can result in domain names “slipping through the cracks” and being lost. I recommend keeping all domain names together in one domain name registrar account to make it a lot easier to manage and renew the domains. 

I recommend we set our domain names to “auto-renew”, so our credit card is billed automatically when the domain name comes up for renewal. This way, we don’t lose a domain name if we accidentally forget to renew it. 

I also recommend turning on the “registrar-lock” to our domain names to help prevent them from being transferred to a different registrar without your permission. We can also turn on privacy protection on each of our domain names to block people from seeing the registrant’s contact information and reduce spam.

As our business grows, the value of our domain name will grow. Our domain name may become the most valuable asset of our organization. This is certainly the case with adoption.com. 

So, I recommend we only register our domain name in an account we own. NEVER register a domain name in the registrar account of any other party. If our domain name is in the account of another party, then I recommend working to get that domain name transferred to an account in our name and with our email as soon as possible.

The same is true for social channels. Our social channels should always be registered in our name and account. I had a client who spent a lot of money building a social account, but the social channel was in the name of the marketing manager. The business owner had a falling out with that marketing manager, who left the company. The business was never able to regain access to that social account.

I also recommend we be very careful with the login information of our domain name registrar account. As our domain name grows to be very valuable, we may treat access to our domain name registrar account with higher security than access to our bank account. We need to be very careful with who we give access to that account. Don’t share domain registrar passwords through insecure communication channels such as email.

25. Buy and Redirect Misspellings.

I recommend registering the common misspellings and variations of our domain and redirecting them to our primary domain name.  

Key Takeaways

Here are some of my key takeaways from this episode:

1. Play the long game and try to get the right domain name the first time.
2. Make a master spreadsheet of possible domains and all relevant information.
3. Consider including one of your top keywords in your domain name. 
4. Use .com unless you are a non-profit or association. 
5. Keep the domain short and simple, without any dashes or numbers, and easy to spell.
6. Use a domain name generator and a thesaurus to come up with many domain name variations.
7. Try to find a great domain on an expiring domain registration service, an expired domain name service (such as expireddomains.net), or a domain name marketplace (such as SEDO) to find a deal on a great domain name.
8. Contact the domain name owners to get pricing, and use a domain agent if necessary.
9. Do a trademark search, and search Google for your brand to see if there is anything that would prevent you from using that brand. 
10. Make sure you can get the social media usernames you will need.
11. Get feedback from your target audience about the domain name options. 
12. Get a domain name valuation and research the domain name history before purchasing. 
13. Use an escrow agent and be sure to protect the domain name carefully. 

Want to be a Better Digital Monetizer?

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2. Subscribe to the free Monetization eMagazine.
3. Subscribe to the Monetization Nation YouTube channel.
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Read at: https://monetizationnation.com/blog/85-how-to-find-great-domain-names/