A large number of new blogs go online everyday. This explosive growth raises the question: Should you start a blog for your business? I believe you should as this becomes an effective marketing tool. Like any other marketing tool, blogs are most effective when used properly. What you are reading now - Nairahost Blog - is an example of a blog.

Aside from generating new sales leads, blogging also offers the following potential benefits.

1. A blog creates a platform for you to engage with both existing and potential customers in a direct, informal, no-pressure way. You can use blog to communicate the strengths of your product or service, the expertise of your top executives and the breadth of your company’s experience in ways that traditional marketing and advertising won’t allow. This can inspire customer loyalty.
2. Blog is collaborative nature. As such, it can can help you gain insight into customers’ needs and interests. This information can be used to develop new products or services or fine-tune existing ones.
3. A blog can make your company appear more “alive” and approachable. A website promoting your products or services is an essential marketing tool. But a blog, in effect, gives your company a personal voice, which also can help boost customer loyalty. Continue Reading »

   Emmanuel Oluwatosin :: Apr.01.2008 :: business :: 1 Comment »

Over our three years in the web hosting and domain registration industry in Nigeria, we have been asked then and again with questions like this, “Why are you not giving out free domain names with your hosting packages?”, or “Why do you charge [x]Naira for a domain name when I can get one from [one of our competitors] for [ less than X ]Naira?”.

I am pretty sure that more of this relative question would be asked in the future, even after this post. To begin with, free domain names, are not free, they come with conditions or “strings”. No Registry gets domains for free, For example, a .com domain name, costs the Registrar $6.00 approx 750Naira per year (one .com domain name for one year).

Nairahost even though it uses dedicated servers, resells domain names through a registry. Nairahost, obtains the domains from the registrar at a far more higher price, because the registrars have to make profit from their products. Nairahost is considering becoming a registrar in the future. So perhaps then, it could further reduce its domain costs overhead.

Some Registrars sell directly to the public (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, etc.) and some sell through resellers such as ISPs and web hosts (Tucows, eNom, etc.). Registrars provide WHOIS services for their domains, handle abuse reports, and provide the management tools to their customers.

People should not accept any offers for free domain names because they are usually tied to a package which you must be paying for otherwise you would lose the domain name, because that would entail breaching the contract, you agreed to, when you received the free domain name.

It is advisable to pay for a domain name, even if it is just N1.00 than to get a free one. When you pay as little as N1.00 there is a monetary commitment between you and the provider, so the provider cannot withdraw or seize the domain name, should you decide to move away from the provider for whatever reasons, you might have.

Furthermore, paying as low as N1.00 for a domain name should not be done, as services provided under such low cost, are very questionable and often are pre-packaged with hidden contractual agreements that would cost you your domain name, when you breach it.

Some registrars ensure that you can only renew with them at a higher price, some only enable the ability to transfer the domain after a 2 year contract, and others have even more ridiculous terms. So its very imperative, that the customer reads the providers term of service before he or she signs up for a free domain name.

Why does Nairahost charge for Domain names?
Continue Reading »

Kayode Muyibi :: Mar.23.2008 :: business :: No Comments »