Event
planning is a part of all events
-
and event planning must include a web domain
Register
an Event Domain Name
As
part of your event planning you should seriously consider
registering a special event domain. That should in fact
be the first step for YOUR planning of all events.
Whatever
it is
- your
big wedding event
- any
other big family event
- a
festival
- a
course / training event
- a
celebration event in your local community
- an
international seminar or conference event
- a
campaign event / promotion event
It
is much easier to find a proper domain name for an event
website than for a permanent website.
In
many cases you can use the formula:
www.EVENTNAME2005.com
or
...Net
or
with
a national domain like ...co.uk
You
can use the formula:
You
can use this formula or similar ideas for domain registration
for all events of any kind, whatever it is special events
or annual event or more frequent events. Think of
A
course day for training: www.DomainTraining2005.com
A
sports day: www.Soccer-championship-2005.com
and
so on for all events.
If
your event is an ongoing event, year after year, (I
don't think of your wedding!) and you can get a really
good domain name, then register this domain name, and
use it year after year for the annual event.
This
is only fine for the branding of the domain name, as
well as for the re-use of printed material, internet
links etc.
Make an Event Website
You
only get help from the domain name registration if you
also set up a website.
In
the big picture to register a domain and to have it
hosted is a very little part of the expense for all
events.
If
you are really on a shoestring consider a service like
Direct
Nic. The registration costs as little as 15 USD
per year and you can set up a free website without any
extra costs. This web hosting company allows you to
upload 20 MB of web pages on the free account just for
your cost of the domain name registration. That is more
than enough for most event websites. Just be careful
with the graphics, including pictures. All the graphics
have to be optimized for the lowest possible file size.
I
have registered hundreds of domains with Direct
Nic and here I have started many websites free for
just the annual fee of 15 USD in total. They even offer
a simple statistics that are better than nothing to
follow the flow of visitors to the new event website.
You just have to keep in mind that Direct Nic demands
to show their banner at the top and at the bottom of
your website pages. It has never given me any real problems.
I used to make extra space beneath my text at the bottom
so most visitors to my websites wouldn't see the second
banner.
Just
to give you my full story I have later moved most of
my domain names to be hosted at New
Website, because they offer multi domain hosting.
In this process I had absolutely no problems getting
my websites 'out' of Direct Nic.
What
to use event domains and event websites for?
In
your event planning make use of your event website to
tell about:
- What
is the background of the event?
- Where
and when and for whom?
- Will
it cost something and how to register?
- Are
you expecting presents other things guests have to
prepare for?
After
the event - this should also be a part of your event
planning
Most
visitors will use the event website after the event,
so remember that in your planning.
You
can post photos from the event - this is a very popular
aspect of any modern event, so plan for that.
You
can highlight special messages, lessons learned, info
for further work, cooperation and event planning - may
be try to coordinate all events after the common big
event?
I
am sure you have many more ideas already to be included
in your event planning - just remember for all events
- plan in time, that makes everything much easier for
yourself and for other event participants.
And,
PLEASE, don't close down your successful event website
just after the event. Visitors will first arrive in
numbers after some time to websites on the internet.
Lesson:
If possible include in your event planning some years
of hosting of your event website and keep your event
domain as long as you can.
Soren
Breiting
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