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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) 1. Is a Website really necessary for a Political Campaign? Answer: Yes! No matter how big or small your campaign, a website can do all of the following for you:
2. Does a Political Website have to be big and complicated to be effective? Answer: No! It can be as cheap and simple as a scan of your campaign's brochure or pushcard. Obviously the more you do with your website the more it can do for you. But its main function is to give voters who want information about your campaign a place to find it on the World Wide Web at their convenience. It is easier to match a voter with a candidate if the voter is the one doing the seeking out. 3. What is the best way to use a Campaign Website? Answer: Marketers always talk about AIDA: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. Bumper stickers, yard signs, billboards, or advertisements (TV, radio, newspaper, etc.) may make voters Aware that you are running. But for giving voters Interesting and detailed information about your campaign to help them come to a Decision, nothing is as cost-effective and flexible as your campaign's website. For that reason you should use it as a follow-up tool to your Awareness campaign-- drive traffic to your website by putting your domain name on every pushcard, yard sign, letter, and advertisement. The goal is that they should be able to remember your campaign website's domain name when they are sitting in front of their computer without any of your campaign material. 4. Why should we rent a domain name from PoliticalWebNames.com? Answer: Because our names are simple, tested, and effective. Other firms offer domains that are easy for voters to forget, hard to distinctively pronounce, or with dates in them that require the candidate to change domains if he wins the race! Plus you don't have to worry about renewing the domain's registration. Read our article on what makes for an effective campaign domain name. 5. Why not use the candidate's own name as his domain name, i.e. JimHayes.com? Answer: Three reasons pop to mind.
6. Should we buy a bunch of domain names for our campaign? Answer: That depends on how much money your campaign has to spend. First you should decide what domain name you want to be the primary domain name for your campaign: the one you are going to put on all of your campaign materials and advertisements, i.e. HayesForSenate.com. Next you should see if the DotOrg version of that DotCom domain is available (HayesForSenate.org). Also check to see if the candidate's FirstNameLastname DotCom and DotOrg domains are available (JimHayes.com/org) as well as the year of the election (HayesforSenate08.com or JimHayes08.com). Last but not least, check on obvious misspellings of the candidate's name (he can probably tell you how people have misspelled it over the years), i.e. HaysForSenate.com. If you are running in a local race you probably only need the primary domain name your campaign wants to use and (maybe) the most common misspelling. If you are running for a statewide or national race and can afford to do more, then you may want to consider acquiring all the ones listed above since there are a lot of ways that people across the nation can mess with your campaign. 7. If we rent our domain name from you, can we renew our lease? Answer: Absolutely. In fact, most campaigns rent their domain names from us for a short period of time and then extend the lease as campaign money comes in once they get up and rolling. 8. Do you rent your domain names to people opposed to a particular candidate? Answer: Yes, on a case-by-case basis and with certain restrictions. For instance we will only rent our domain names to non-candidates in three month blocks. Non-candidates must also agree that any website they put up on one of our domains will comply with all federal, state, and local laws-- particularly those relating to Campaign Finance, Libel, and Intellectual Property Rights. 9. Will you keep the Domain Name Leasee's name confidential? Answer: Yes, within reason. We don't answer press inquiries about who is leasing a domain name without the permission of the leasee. On the other hand, we are not going to ignore a criminal subpeona or court order to reveal the leasee's name. |
