Establishing credibility online, especially if you wish to operate as an internet marketer, has some similarities with the real world.  The first thing to think about when launching yourself onto the online world would be your online name. Seems an easy enough concept.

But it’s not that straight forward. Naming your business requires you to consider your entire business strategy up front. It means you have to decide what you want to achieve, what you might wish to sell and what image you are going to want to present to the internet world and more specifically to your possible customer.

Let’s have a look at some of the issues here.

Calling your company ‘Sexy Girl’ or ‘Hot Stud” will not be the right move if you are hoping to establish a serious business that sells computers, serious books or even green technology.

It will take a considerable amount of time to brand those names to make people think of them as representing a serious business. The image that pops up in your possible customer’s mind when he sees those names has nothing to do with serious business.

If you want to sell sexy lingerie, or naughty pictures, possibly even pornography then the name would be an advantage and certainly add to the credibility of the business.

If you are an avid gardener and want to start up a small business online you might want to go for a name such as Gardening Guru. In that way you already establish in the minds of a visitor that you want to be taken seriously and that your intention is to be knowledgeable on this topic.

Regardless of the examples above, the only person who knows what the best name would be to select is yourself. You need to be able to identify with the name you have chosen and feel comfortable with the fact that it represents you as a person and that it shows your integrity and credibility.

Once you have your name selected then it is important to decide whether you wish to go the free route and create your blog using a free service such as WordPress or Blogger or whether you will pay the small fee to have your own domain name and site.

In general, if you wish to be taken seriously and have a credible presence online, it is advisable to buy and establish your own domain name and if you can get it, one with the .com extension.

This means that when selecting your name you need to keep an eye on whether the domain name is actually available. Sometimes it means you have to tweak your name. Most often it means you might have to add a word or two to make it unique.

It also requires you to pay for your hosting. One advantage is that the internet has become so popular that hosting services are truly competitively priced and it is affordable for even  the smallest business to set up their own name site.

Once you have your name and domain name selected and reserved you are ready to start with the next step in building your online credibility.