With years of experience under our belts, there are a few issues that seem to rear their ugly heads over and over again with respect to domain name registrations. In an effort to help save YOU from this headache (although in most cases it actually becomes a real nightmare just a mere headache!)

1. PRINT your domain name purchase receipt and keep it in a file. Having a hard copy of this receipt can save you hours of your time later on down the road.
2. BOOKMARK your domain registrars website. Your domain registrar is the place where you actually purchased your domain name. For instance, www.insurancewebnames.com is a domain registrar. If you purchase your insurance agency domain name from there, you would want to bookmark that location so that you can easily get back there to update your records, renew your domain, etc...
3. WRITE DOWN your username and password and keep it in a safe place.
4. MOST IMPORTANT!!! When you register a domain name, it will always ask you for an email address. This email address becomes a part of the registration - which ultimately means - you MUST have access to that email account if you ever lose your login information, need to respond to a domain name legal challenge, want to renew your domain and the list goes on! We highly recommend that you use an email account that isn't dependant on whether you stay at the same job, live in the same city, or switch internet service providers or not. If you lose your job, move away or change internet providers, what happens to the email address associated with it? YOU LOSE ACCESS TO IT!
   
   Use a free email account service by a reputible provider such as www.gmail.com or www.yahoo.com Just make sure that you login into it once every few weeks so that you keep the account active.

There. That's our two cents on domain name registrations!

We're excited to announce that we've recently partnered with Foresight Publishing to offer Insurance Web Designs clients a full selection of client marketing tools including print and email newsletters. Subscribe to any service from Foresight and receive a 5% discount on your first order just for being an Insurance Web Designs client.

Looking for an easy way to stay in front of your clients and prospects? Consider an eNewsletter from Foresight Publishing. Foresight can help you create and send an eye-catching and client-focused newsletter in just minutes. Just select the topics you wish to send, import your mailing list and they'll handle the rest.

Foresight's eNewsletters are completely customizable and amazingly affordable. Send a newsletter to 100 clients for only $29.00/month. And, of course, you can send as many as you want.

Looking for even more advantages? With an eNewsletter, you can easily see how your campaign is doing...who's reading...and even which articles are being read.

Best of all, your eNewsletter will be packed with client friendly articles your clients can use. All professionally written. And all fresh and ready to be read.

Foresight eNewsletters cover the lines offered by most agencies:

* Employee Benefits

* Life and Health

* Senior Markets

* Personal Lines

* Commercial Lines

With a Foresight eNewsletter, you can:

* Choose from more than 1500 articles (that can be easily edited) or use your own.

* Add a personalized mail merge greeting to address your client by name

* Upload your photo and/or your logo to help build your agency's brand.

* Create your own masthead. Or let our designers create one for you.

Not interested in an email newsletter? Check out Foresight's full line of high quality print newsletters available in a wide range of topics. Or perhaps you create your own newsletter, but struggle to come up with quality content each issue? Purchase Foresight's ghostwritten articles to use in your own newsletter under your byline.

For more information call toll-free 866-850-7526. And don't forget to provide the promo code (must be a client - contact us for the code) to receive your 5% discount.

Consumers are turning to the internet in droves for shopping, learning, playing, and most importantly (for you anyway) is that they are also looking for insurance. What can you do today to help raise the visibility of your agency's website?

Here are some ideas that you can implement today:

Your Insurance Web Designs Website Control Panel Has ALL of These Features Ready For You!

Insurance Website Tool #1: Blog

Your website already has blogging capabilities, all you need to do is login to your control panel and unleash the potential of your insurance blog. What is a blog? A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.

You can really go a few ways with your online insurance blog:

1. Write insurance specific articles that are packed with GREAT information. Some sample topics might include: How to buy auto insurance, how much coverage do I need, should I purchase an umbrella policy, how to save money when buying insurance, etc..
2. Keep it on the light side. Post funny stories about insurance claims, new insurance agent mishaps, etc..
3. Why not a combination of the two? Keep your readers interested and entertained!

Insurance Website Tool #2: Autoresponders/Drip Marketing

Login to your website control panel and make use of that handy autoresponder feature. What is an autoresponder? Quite simply, it’s a piece of software that enables you to send emails to people automatically. This doesn't mean that it writes the emails for you and it doesn’t involve spam or sending unsolicited email. What it means is that you set up a sequence of prewritten emails that are sent out to prospects on your database at regular intervals. You can use an autoresponder to essentially send emails out to your prospect list, even when you’re not at a computer. What you do is you create, lets say, a seven part email course. Then you can set the intervals for the emails to, say, once a day and send them one part of the course each day. So you write the emails one time and then anyone joining that list will automatically be sent those emails for the next seven days.

Insurance Website Tool #3: Give Your Prospects A Tour of Your Office

It's always nice when you can "put a face with a name." Take some digital still shots of your office and staff, upload them to your website and voila! You have instantly provided your website visitor/prospect with a glimpse of who you are, your office & staff's professionalism and have given them a sense of familiarity with your operations.

Insurance Website Tool #4: Polls

Engage and connect with your visitors. With polls, you can find out if your website is providing the type of services your visitors are looking for; what type of insurance they are shopping for; how they were referred to your website, etc..

Polls are easy to set up and use with your insurance web designs website. Just login to your control panel, click on the add page button, click on the "poll" option and then insert the questions you want your poll to ask. It's that easy.

Insurance Website Tool #5: Guest Book

Simple as the click of a button. Add a guest book to your website and allow your visitors to instantly gain feedback from your clients and prospects alike. The messages left in your guest book can be very revealing and even help you gain insight to your visitors wants and/or needs where your website is concerned.