How to Flush DNS

When surfing the Internet, a problem that can arise for consumers is getting a number of DNS errors or 404 errors in the web browser despite a working Internet connection. If this is the case, then learning how to flush DNS for your computer’s operating system (OS) is key to restoring the proper quality of service for your computer’s web browsing capability. The act of flushing the DNS removes the local resolution for the website name saved or cached on your computer which can result in a slower initial revisit to the webpage; however, it will eliminate browsing errors encountered from the entry being corrupted.

What is DNS?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a database system which translates the plain language web address or URL into an IP address. The system was created since it’s easier to remember a domainname such as www.tech-faq.com than 123.456.789.10. Typically, every local computer network will have at least one server that handles DNS requests or queries (called a name server) which performs a caching or quick-lookup function to minimize the time it takes to resolve domain look-ups. If the local name server doesn’t have a domain name stored, it will request the identity from the next name server it knows about and so forth.

History of DNS

Before DNS was invented in 1982, the idea of using a name vice a computer host’s numerical address on the network dates to the ARPANET. Prior to 1982, every computer on the network would have a HOSTS.TXT file that would be retrieved from a computer at SRI. The field would map the names to numerical addresses. The hosts file is still in use on modern operating systems to map 127.0.0.1 to the “localhost.” The rapid growth of computer networks; however, made the hand edited hosts file almost unusable. As a result, Paul Mockapetris invented the Domain NameSystem in 1983 and wrote the first implementation. The original implementation was subsequently published as an IETF standard and has been superseded since that time. The first Unix implementation of DNS was completed in 1984 by Douglas Terry, David Riggle, Mark Painter, and Songnian Zhou referred to as BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) server. BIND would later be ported to Windows NT in the early 1990s.

DNS Cache Poisoning

Similar to other fundamental Internet constructs, the Domain Name System was not originally designed to be secure. DNS cache poisoning is the term used to describe a data integrity or security compromise in DNS. The vulnerability occurs when data gets introduced to DNS cache that did not come from or originate with an authoritative DNS source. This can occur from a malicious attack or from a bad or misconfiguration of DNS cache. Once a DNS server has received the non-authenticated information and caches or saves to the database, it is then considered poisoned when the bad information starts to be supplied to client machines of the server. At the minimum, a poisoned server will send end-users to incorrect websites. During malicious attacks, they may be directed to malicious web pages designed to infect the client computer or pretend to be legitimate websites designed to steal user’s information and/or money.

Preventing DNS Cache Poisoning

Many of the traditional DNS cache poisoning attacks are prevented by making DNS servers trust the information passed to them by other DNS servers less. This is accomplished by ignoring DNSrecords that are returned to the requesting server not related to the query. The most current version of BIND addresses poisoning attacks in this manner. Additionally, implementing source port randomization for DNS requests (makes requests harder to spoof) along with using cryptographically-secure random numbers to select the source port and nonce significantly reduce the probability of DNS attacks. Secure DNS or DNSSEC is the current initiative being slowly deployed to fully solve the DNS cache poisoning issue by using electronic signatures and public key certificates to validate the authenticity of data.

Common Problems with DNS

There are wide arrays of DNS issues that can arise at the network administrator or power user level. For the end-user; however, the majority of DNS problems arise from either bad configuration entries or the local computer’s DNS storage requiring flushing. Independent of the type of operating system, many home computer users will input the DNS Server for their respective Internet Service Provider (ISP) incorrectly resulting in a failed Internet connection. Each ISP will have a slightly different configuration process; however, the IP address of the DNS server for your home network to use will be provided on registration for service. Many times the ISP will use the address for their actual DNS server, where others it will be the same as the Gateway IP for the service (also the IP address of the router).

How to Flush DNS in Windows Using the Command Prompt

Step 1 – Close all open web browsers and applications on your computer.

Step 2 – Open the Windows command prompt by selecting the “Start” menu and entering “cmd” in the search text field box followed by clicking the “enter” key.

Step 3 – At the command prompt, enter “ipconfig /flushdns” followed by pressing the “enter” key. After a moment, Windows will display a message similar to: “Successfully flushed the DNS ResolverCache.” Once the message is displayed, the DNS will be flushed removing all incorrect entries.

Step 4 – View the DNS resolver cache by entering, “ipconfig /displaydns” at the command prompt followed by clicking the “Enter” key.

How to Turn Off DNS Caching in Windows

If clearing DNS cache does not solve frequent DNS errors on the computer running Microsoft Windows, client-side DNS caching can be disabled. When DNS caching on the client disabled, your computer will still be “usable,” but just not as efficient or “fast” as it is with the service turned on and working properly.

Step 1 – Open the Windows command prompt by selecting the “Start” menu button and entering “cmd” in the search text field followed by pressing the “enter” key on your computer.

Step 2 –  Enter “net stop dnscache” or “sc servername stop dnscache” at the command prompt followed by pressing the “enter” key on your computer. DNS caching will be disabled until the next time the computer is restarted or rebooted. In order to make the change permanent, the DNS Client Service will need to be changed to disabled using the Microsoft Service Controller or

Services tool.

Steps to Stop DNS Client Services in Windows Using the Services Tool

Step 1 – Open the Windows command prompt. Then, input services.msc at the command prompt and press the enter key.

Step 2 – Locate the “DNS Client” application and double click the program icon.

Step 3 – Select the “Stop” menu button. Conversely, the application can be restarted in the same location of the services user interface.

Changing DNS Cache Settings in Windows

An alternative method that can be used to modify Windows DNS caching on the client-side is to change two of the registry entries in the registry associated with the service.

Step 1 – Select the “Start” menu button and enter “regedit” in the search text field followed by pressing the “enter” key.

Step 2 – Click the “Edit” and “Find”  and enter “DNSCache” or use the menu on the left hand side of the editor to locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> Dnscache -> Parameters.

Step 3 – The MaxCacheTTL is the maximum amount of time that Windows will cache a DNS lookup. The default value at the time of this writing is 86,400 seconds. You can change this entry to 1 to force windows to clear the cache every second. This can result in a negative performance drop on your computer.

Step 4 – Another registry key setting that can be changed is MaxNegativeCacheTTL which is the maximum amount of time that a failed DNS result will be cached. This is normally set to 900 seconds, but if you change it to 0, Windows will not store failed look-ups.

*Note, the path to the DNS cache registry key will be slightly different based on the version of Windows installed on your computer. Modifying the registry should be done with caution and not by those who lack significant computer experience.

How to Flush DNS in Mac OS X

If you are an Internet or web developer or do a fair amount of administrator tasks on your Mac, then the requirement to flush DNS cache will arise. Depending on what version of the OS is installed on your computer (Leopard vs Tiger), there will be a slightly different command to flush DNS.

Step 1 – If Mozilla Firefox is installed on your computer, exit the application if it is open.

Step 2 – Open the terminal on your computer.

Step 3 – On a computer running Lion (Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6, or 10.7) enter the following command followed by pressing the “return” key:

dscacheutil –flushcache

Step 4 – In Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, enter the following command followed by pressing the “return” key:

lookupd –flushcache

How to Flush DNS in Linux

In many builds of Linux the nscd daemon is used to manage the client DNS cache. For builds that use this method, restarting the nscd daemon is the primary means to flush DNS cache. Other builds of Linux may run BIND or dnsmasq as the primary name service.

Steps to Flush NSCD DNS Cache

NSCD is used to speed up consecutive access to the same data and improve overall system performance.

Step 1 – Enter “$sudo /etc/init.d/nscd restart and press the “enter” or “return” key.

Step 2 – Once nscd restarts the DNS will be flushed. Alternatively, you can enter “# service nscd restart.”

Steps to Flush DNSMASQ DNS Cache

DNMASQ is used as a lightweight DHCP, TFTP, and DNS server. It was primarily designed to provide DHCP and DNS services to a LAN, accepts DNS queries, and answers them. It is also installed on a number of routers to cache DNS queries or look-ups.

Step 1 – Enter “$ sudo /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart”

Step 2 – Once dnsmasq restarts the DNS will be flushed.

Steps to Flush BIND Server DNS Cache

Similar to nscd and dnsmasq, to flush DNS cache in BIND simply requires a restart to clear the cache.

Step 1 – Enter “# /etc/init.d/named restart” followed by pressing the “enter” or “return” key.

Step 2 – Once BIND completes restart the DNS will be flushed.

How to Disable Firefox DNS Cache

Unlike other popular web browsers, Firefox runs its own DNS cache separate from the client services on your computer. As a result, if you commonly switch between a VPN, home ISP, or other connections, undesired results may occur if you access services which require use of your VPN, etc. For this reason, when you take actions to fully flush DNS on your computer, FireFox should be closed. If DNS issues persist on your computer and FireFox is your preferred browser, then the answer may lay in disabling DNS Cache in the browser specifically.

Step 1 – Launch Mozilla Firefox on your computer.

Step 2 – Install the Firefox DNS cache plugin.

Step 3 – Right click the “Home” menu button on Firefox and then select the “Customize” menu option.

Step 4 – Locate the “DNS Cache” menu button and then drag it beside the “Home” button on Firefox followed by clicking the “Done” button.

Step 5 – Click the “DNS Cache” menu button whenever you want to have Firefox DNS cache disabled.

Step 6 – Alternatively, you can change the FireFox DNS settings to have the cache expire after 0 seconds. To do so, enter “about:config” in the location bar followed by pressing the “enter” or “return” key. Right click at a blank location on the subsequently displayed record and select “New” and “Integer.”

Step 7 – Enter “network.dnsCacheExpiration” as the preference name with “0” as the integer value. If “network.dnsCacheExpiration” already exists, modify the integer value to “0.” If you want to restore FireFox defaults, simply change the value back to the default of  “3600.” With 0 entered, DNS cache in FireFox will automatically expire on your computer.

Video on How to Flush DNS

The following video provides highlights on how to flush DNS in Microsoft Windows, MAC OS X, and Linux.

What is Virtual Hosting?

Detailed guide explaining what virtual hosting is.

Virtual reseller hosting offers the appearance of a company's own server but the technical aspects of space sharing. Through virtual hosting, a developer can secure space on a server and have shared access to the server's features. Hosting companies provide this service by maintaining a large server and on that large server they maintain a number of virtual web hosts. The machine examines which "name" it is being called by and then responds appropriately. Thus, visitors to the site enter through the domain name of the developer and therefore cannot recognize that another company's server in fact, hosts the site.

Simply stated by Crowder and Crowder (2000), virtual servers are "nothing more than directories on a hard drive. The webmaster can make each one of the directories seem as though it were a fully functional web server". With a virtual web host, you will have your own identity, but you will not be required to maintain the equipment.

Virtual hosting packages are the most common on the Internet and offer a professional and well-established look for personal and small business web sites. Financially, the average virtual hosting account runs between $15 and $30 per month. Ample space and bandwidth for small businesses, multiple email accounts, cgi-bin access, and a T3 connection are common account features. Additional fees are often required for more advanced features including database software or SSL (secure server) functionality.

What to look for in a Web Host?

To evaluate a web host, the price is not the only important factor, the client will need to take consideration about other characteristics.

To evaluate a web host, the price is not the only important factor, the client will need to take consideration about other characteristics. 

Host's Connection to the Internet
One of the most important features is the quality of host's connection to the Internet. There are a bunch of variations T-1, T-3, OC-3, OC-256, etc. (Fig 5) A company that offers a T1 connection to the Internet can only allow 1.544 Mbps (Megabits per second) a T3 can allow up to 45 Mbps. Then again an OC-256 can allow 13,000 Mbps, giving the ability to transfer much more information at a higher rate of speed before getting bogged down. 

Speed 
Customers that are seriously worried about speeds that a viewer can see their site, need to consider how fast the servers are. Although bandwidth and connections are major factors, server speeds are equally important. A server that is a host to many sites that are being accessed simultaneously may get bogged down. No matter how fast the connection is this can seriously slow down a viewer’s speed to surf through a site. A simple way to test the speed at which a server responds is called "pinging" a site. This will determine how quickly a server can receive and send back a small piece of data through the connection you have to it.

Processor speed is also important. Certain sites will make greater demands on the host's CPU and will consequently run slower - and slow down every other site on the server as well (Beginner's Guide, 2000). Streaming video and audio, discussion forums and message boards, online surveys, and high-level animation all require huge amounts of memory and fast access to the main server. Overloaded processors can slow down a site's transmission considerably. 

Server SoftwareServer software can also affect a site. UNIX and Windows NT are the most common server software environments. Advanced developers should be aware of what applications they will be using and assess which software environment will best suit their needs. Some hosting companies only offer one of the two software options.

SecurityProtecting a site's data from unwanted intrusions is another key consideration for the web developer when selecting a host. The hosting company's security protocols should be outlined. Protection from everyday denial of service attacks and the various hacks and cracks that will be attempted on your server is essential. The hosting company should be responsible for upgrading and maintaining these security measures. "The only thing worse than having no security is thinking you have some" (Finding the Host, 2001).

Customer ServiceService is another important aspect to consider when shopping for a host. Hosts offer a variety of customer service options. Services offered can be 24-hour toll free number, 24-hour email help, Frequently Asked Questions pages and help forums. The amount of help you might need depends mainly on your experience and problems you encounter from the server.

ReliabilityChecking out the reliability of a service is also very important. Hosts usually have several backup systems in case something goes wrong with the main servers. They also can promise less "down time" by backup power systems such as a diesel generator.

Things You Don't Want To Hear From Technical Support

Create search engine friendly URLs with Apache mod_rewrite which rewrites requested URLs on the fly. It supports an unlimited number of rules making it perfect for dynamic web sites.

About mod_rewrite for Apache
This module uses a rule-based rewriting engine (based on a regular-expression parser) to rewrite requested URLs on the fly. It supports an unlimited number of rules and an unlimited number of attached rule conditions for each rule to provide a really flexible and powerful URL manipulation mechanism. The URL manipulations can depend on various tests, for instance server variables, environment variables, HTTP headers, time stamps and even external database lookups in various formats can be used to achieve a really granular URL matching.

This module operates on the full URLs (including the path-info part) both in per-server context (httpd.conf) and per-directory context (.htaccess) and can even generate query-string parts on result. The rewritten result can lead to internal sub-processing, external request redirection or even to an internal proxy throughput.

But all this functionality and flexibility has its drawback: complexity. So don't expect to understand this entire module in just one day.

Using Apache's mod_rewrite
The Apache module mod_rewrite can be used to perform various forms of URI acrobatic manipulation. A prerequisite concept before attempting to understand mod_rewrite are regular expressions.

When a URL is requested by a server, this does not necessarily map directly to the server's filesystem. This request can be twisted and turned to (hopefully) present more sense to the browsing user.

Why should I care?
 
A clean URL is part of a good user experience. It works as a breadcrumb trail - allowing the user to see where they are located in the site, it doesn't break in bookmarks, you can easily send it over email, and allows users to guess where they want to go next. Most importantly a easy to read URL will be indexed by search engines such as Google. Having all your pages indexed creates a huge advantage to getting visitors to your website. Many search engine robots cannot read a URL with symbols such as ? & or commas and therefor not indexing your website.

This is all possible by using human-readable URLs:

"In principle, users should not need to know about URLs which are a machine-level addressing scheme. In practice, users often go to websites or individual pages through mechanisms that involve exposure to raw URLs." -- Jakob Neilsen, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, March 21, 1999: URL as UI

"a URL should contain human-readable directory and file names that reflect the nature of the information space." -- Jakob Nielsen, item #4 Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design

By choosing a well thought-out URL, you won't have to change it during the next re-organization. URLs that remain the same tend to pick up more links over time.

Getting started:
 
First, Apache must be compiled with the mod_rewrite module for any of this to take place. Insert these lines into the vhost definition for the domain that you want to work with.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteLog /path/to/logs/server.rewrite.txt
RewriteLogLevel 1

The first line turns the RewriteEngine on. Otherwise, extra code doesn't get processed by the Apache webserver. Next, we specify where the logfile that records the rewrite activity should be placed. This is mostly for debugging, as your CustomLog should be keeping track of traffic.
 
A beginning example:
 
One of the simplest uses of mod_rewrite is to re-direct a web request from one page to another. Many times this will be done if the first has expired, was spelled wrong, or the site has a new naming scheme. It's nice to forward new users to the correct page in case they have the previous one bookmarked, or if a search engine has cached the old location.

RewriteRule ^/biogarphy.php3 /biography/ [R=301]

This forwards a browser request from one page to the other. because the [R=301] at the end. I've taken a file that was spelled wrong, and fixed it at the same time removing a an old filetype suffix. (php4 has replaced that suffix with .php) What if I were to dump php from my system, and go with *.html, *.jsp, or even *.willie? By rewriting my URI to look like a directory, it doesn't matter what filetype I'm using, nor what my DirectoryIndex options are.

Compound Example:
 
What if you used the above example, but didn't decide to create a "biography" directory at your Doc-root? Apache can still be told where the content resides by including another RewriteRule following the first. Rules will continue attempting to match until a "last" case is presented with the [L] modifier at the end. This is much like a switch programming structure, using break to prevent each option from being executed.

RewriteRule ^/biography/ /biogarphy.php3 [L]

This might seem a little redundant, since we just did the opposite. This line will tell requests to "biography" to read the content from /biogarphy.php3 instead of looking for a biography directory. Confusing? Well, I could do this instead:

RewriteRule ^/(.+)/?$ /content/$1.php [L]

I can search on anything that follows the beginning slash, and replace the file request to look for that file in the content directory through the use of the regular expression and the backreference.

I've also placed this inside another directory that I don't necessarily want the browsing user to see, or know about, but it's easier for the webmaster to keep track of the roles of each file on the site. Since I've upgraded from php3 to php4 the suffix has changed. 
 
More Advanced - the Query String:
 
The query string is passed in separately from the URL. This means that a simple regex doesn't necessarily do the trick, but a compound statement using RewriteCond (condition) is required.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=([^&;]*)
RewriteRule ^/$ http://%{SERVER_NAME}/%1/? [R]
RewriteRule ^/([^\/]*)/?$ /index.php?id=$1 [L]

The RewriteCondition matches only when the following condition is true, and continues until a "last" [L] is stated. The Condition's backreferences are different, using the % prefix, and their scope lasts beyond the Condition line.

This above example would translate "/?id=home" into "/home/", and then re-assign the value of "home" to the id HTTP_GET_VAR. One more thing to notice here is that the the second line has a trailing ? - this is used to negate copying of the query string into the new, re-directed URI.
 
More Reference Links:
 
http://www.engelschall.com/pw/apache/rewriteguide/ 
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html 
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/rewriteguide.html 
 

Linux 2.4 Kernel Exploit in Wild

Create search engine friendly URLs with Apache mod_rewrite which rewrites requested URLs on the fly. It supports an unlimited number of rules making it perfect for dynamic web sites.

About mod_rewrite for Apache
This module uses a rule-based rewriting engine (based on a regular-expression parser) to rewrite requested URLs on the fly. It supports an unlimited number of rules and an unlimited number of attached rule conditions for each rule to provide a really flexible and powerful URL manipulation mechanism. The URL manipulations can depend on various tests, for instance server variables, environment variables, HTTP headers, time stamps and even external database lookups in various formats can be used to achieve a really granular URL matching.

This module operates on the full URLs (including the path-info part) both in per-server context (httpd.conf) and per-directory context (.htaccess) and can even generate query-string parts on result. The rewritten result can lead to internal sub-processing, external request redirection or even to an internal proxy throughput.

But all this functionality and flexibility has its drawback: complexity. So don't expect to understand this entire module in just one day.

Using Apache's mod_rewrite
The Apache module mod_rewrite can be used to perform various forms of URI acrobatic manipulation. A prerequisite concept before attempting to understand mod_rewrite are regular expressions.

When a URL is requested by a server, this does not necessarily map directly to the server's filesystem. This request can be twisted and turned to (hopefully) present more sense to the browsing user.

Why should I care?
 
A clean URL is part of a good user experience. It works as a breadcrumb trail - allowing the user to see where they are located in the site, it doesn't break in bookmarks, you can easily send it over email, and allows users to guess where they want to go next. Most importantly a easy to read URL will be indexed by search engines such as Google. Having all your pages indexed creates a huge advantage to getting visitors to your website. Many search engine robots cannot read a URL with symbols such as ? & or commas and therefor not indexing your website.

This is all possible by using human-readable URLs:

"In principle, users should not need to know about URLs which are a machine-level addressing scheme. In practice, users often go to websites or individual pages through mechanisms that involve exposure to raw URLs." -- Jakob Neilsen, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, March 21, 1999: URL as UI

"a URL should contain human-readable directory and file names that reflect the nature of the information space." -- Jakob Nielsen, item #4 Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design

By choosing a well thought-out URL, you won't have to change it during the next re-organization. URLs that remain the same tend to pick up more links over time.

Getting started:
 
First, Apache must be compiled with the mod_rewrite module for any of this to take place. Insert these lines into the vhost definition for the domain that you want to work with.

RewriteEngine on
RewriteLog /path/to/logs/server.rewrite.txt
RewriteLogLevel 1

The first line turns the RewriteEngine on. Otherwise, extra code doesn't get processed by the Apache webserver. Next, we specify where the logfile that records the rewrite activity should be placed. This is mostly for debugging, as your CustomLog should be keeping track of traffic.
 
A beginning example:
 
One of the simplest uses of mod_rewrite is to re-direct a web request from one page to another. Many times this will be done if the first has expired, was spelled wrong, or the site has a new naming scheme. It's nice to forward new users to the correct page in case they have the previous one bookmarked, or if a search engine has cached the old location.

RewriteRule ^/biogarphy.php3 /biography/ [R=301]

This forwards a browser request from one page to the other. because the [R=301] at the end. I've taken a file that was spelled wrong, and fixed it at the same time removing a an old filetype suffix. (php4 has replaced that suffix with .php) What if I were to dump php from my system, and go with *.html, *.jsp, or even *.willie? By rewriting my URI to look like a directory, it doesn't matter what filetype I'm using, nor what my DirectoryIndex options are.

Compound Example:
 
What if you used the above example, but didn't decide to create a "biography" directory at your Doc-root? Apache can still be told where the content resides by including another RewriteRule following the first. Rules will continue attempting to match until a "last" case is presented with the [L] modifier at the end. This is much like a switch programming structure, using break to prevent each option from being executed.

RewriteRule ^/biography/ /biogarphy.php3 [L]

This might seem a little redundant, since we just did the opposite. This line will tell requests to "biography" to read the content from /biogarphy.php3 instead of looking for a biography directory. Confusing? Well, I could do this instead:

RewriteRule ^/(.+)/?$ /content/$1.php [L]

I can search on anything that follows the beginning slash, and replace the file request to look for that file in the content directory through the use of the regular expression and the backreference.

I've also placed this inside another directory that I don't necessarily want the browsing user to see, or know about, but it's easier for the webmaster to keep track of the roles of each file on the site. Since I've upgraded from php3 to php4 the suffix has changed. 
 
More Advanced - the Query String:
 
The query string is passed in separately from the URL. This means that a simple regex doesn't necessarily do the trick, but a compound statement using RewriteCond (condition) is required.

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} id=([^&;]*)
RewriteRule ^/$ http://%{SERVER_NAME}/%1/? [R]
RewriteRule ^/([^\/]*)/?$ /index.php?id=$1 [L]

The RewriteCondition matches only when the following condition is true, and continues until a "last" [L] is stated. The Condition's backreferences are different, using the % prefix, and their scope lasts beyond the Condition line.

This above example would translate "/?id=home" into "/home/", and then re-assign the value of "home" to the id HTTP_GET_VAR. One more thing to notice here is that the the second line has a trailing ? - this is used to negate copying of the query string into the new, re-directed URI.
 
More Reference Links:
 
http://www.engelschall.com/pw/apache/rewriteguide/ 
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html 
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/rewriteguide.html 
 

TemplateMonster Battles Paypal Problems

In this article we look at how creating a strong brand for your business can help you set yourself apart from the pack and lay the right foundation for the future growth of your business.

If you think only big corporate names need to think about things
like brand names, think again. Your brand says a lot about you
and your business, and that's as true for a one person home-
based operation as it is for a multinational conglomerate. In
this article we look at how creating a strong brand for your
business can help you set yourself apart from the pack and lay
the right foundation for the future growth of your business.

WHAT IS A BRAND?
Your brand is more than just the logo on your letterhead and
business cards or your business name. It is your corporate
identity. An effective brand tells the world who you are, what
you do and how you do it, while at the same time establishing
your relevance to, and credibility with, your prospective
customers. 

Your brand is also something more ethereal. It is how your
business is perceived by its customers. If your brand has a high
perceived value, you enjoy many advantages over your
competition, especially when it comes to pricing. Why do you
think people are prepared to pay stupid money for items of
clothing with the initials "CK" on them? Perceived value.
Perceived value as a result of very effective brand promotion
resulting in very high brand awareness.

Now, I'm not saying we all need to rush out and start creating
brands that are going to be recognized the world over. Most of
us simply don't have the time or other resources necessary. What
I am suggesting, however, is that it is possible for your brand
to dominate your niche.

WHY DO I NEED TO CREATE MY OWN BRAND?

=> Differentiation
We touched on this in the previous section when we looked at
what a brand is and how it can be used to increase the perceived
value of your products and services. The main reason for
creating your own brand is to differentiate yourself from your
competition. New websites are a dime a dozen. So are home-based
businesses. You need to constantly be looking for ways to set
yourself apart from your competition. Your brand can do that for
you.

=> More Effective, Efficient Marketing

Another good reason for creating your own brand is to make your
sales force (even if that's a sales force of one - you) more
effective and efficient.

Imagine if you didn't have to spend the first 50% of your time
with a new prospect explaining who you are, what you do and how
you do it. What if your brand had already communicated that for
you? You can spend 100% of your time focusing on sales rather
than educating your prospects about your business

Another benefit of branding is that the efforts you expend
increasing your brand awareness through promoting and marketing
your brand to your target market automatically transfers to your
products and services. So, even when you're advertising your
brand, you're indirectly also marketing your products and
services.



HOW DO I CREATE MY OWN BRAND?
OK, so you're convinced you need to create your own brand. Where
on earth do you start?

We saw earlier that your brand needs to say who you are, what
you do and how you do it. It needs to do all these things at the
same time as establishing your relevance to, and building
credibilty with, your prospective customers. Needless to say, it
is absolutely essential, if you are to build your own brand,
that *you yourself* have a firm grasp of who you are, what you
do and how you do it. If not, you're going to have the devil's
own time getting that message across to anyone else, let alone
establishing your relevance and credibility.

=> Write A Mission Statement

So, let's start by creating a mission statement. What is the
mission of your business? Obviously you're in business to make a
profit. But making a profit is a byproduct of a successful
business. Focus instead on how you choose to achieve that
profit. What are your core values?

A good place to begin thinking about your mission is to put
yourself in the shoes of your customers. Put yourself in their
target market. Let's say your business is web hosting. If you're
in the market for a web host, what things are important to you?
Different people will be looking for different benefits but you
can bet that they want their website to be accessible to site
visitors so reliability will be high on their list. Price is
also likely to be high on the list as is 24/7 technical support.
What about add-on features such as unlimited email aliases, cgi
support and what-not? These things will be highly important to
some and less important to others. So focus on the benefits that
are likely to be highly relevant to the majority of your target
market. Let's settle for our purposes on reliability, price and
technical support.

Your mission statement might read something like this: "I strive
to earn a fair return on my investment of time and money by
providing affordable webhosting with guaranteed 99% uptime and
24/7 telephone technical support". That's a pretty general
statement and if you decide to focus on a particular niche of
the webhosting market, such as small business, you may want to
more narrowly focus on that group in your mission statement.

Now that you've written your mission statement, you can begin
thinking about creating a brand that reinforces and supports
your mission. So, getting back to the fundamental questions of
who you are, what you do and how you do it, you can now begin to
think of your business in these terms. You're a webhosting
provider, you host websites of small businesses and you do that
by offering cost-effective webhosting solutions, guaranteed 99%
uptime and 24/7 telephone technical support.

When you create your brand, you need to keep the who, what and
how firmly in mind but also use the brand to establish your
relevance to your target market and build credibility with that
market.

Let's turn now to the nuts and bolts of creating your brand.

=> Describe What You Are Branding

List out your business's key features and characteristics, your
competitive advantages and anything else that sets you apart
from your competition.

Using our webhosting example, you'll focus primarily on the
objectives from your mission statement namely, reliable, cost-
effective webhosting solutions supported by 24/7 technical
support.

=> Identify and Describe Your Target Market

Decide whether you want to target the entire webhosting
community or only a segment of it such as small business
websites. Describe your market.

=> List Names that Suggest the Key Elements from Your Mission
Statement

The key elements from your mission statement were reliability,
cost-effectiveness and customer service. List names that are
suggestive of these elements. Let's use Reliable Webhosting for
our example. (I don't claim to be a creative genius.)

Don't limit yourself to real words, though. A coined name with
no obvious meaning is a perfectly legitimate name provided it
conveys something about your business. You will find coined
names easier to trademark and secure domain names for too - a
definite plus!

=> List Tag Lines that Reinforce Your Mission Statement
We'll use: "Outstanding reliability and technical support at a
price your small business can afford". I know, I know. You can
do much better, I'm sure.

[pagebreak title='Using your brand']

HOW SHOULD I USE MY BRAND?

=> Create a Logo for Your Brand

Your logo is NOT your brand but your logo should allow your
brand to be instantly recognized by those familiar with it. To
this extent, your logo helps create and reinforce brand
awareness. 

The logo you create should be able to be used consistently in a
variety of different media. It should be suitable for corporate
letterhead and business cards, as well as for your website and
corporate signage (if any). You do NOT want a confusing mishmash
of logos and banners and heaven knows what else. Everything you
produce needs to use the same, consistent style of logo so that,
over time, your logo becomes synonymous with your brand. Instant
recognition is what you're going for here, so don't dilute it by
using several different logos for different purposes.

=> Consistent Usage of Company Name, Logo and Tag Line

Going back to our webhosting example, putting the brand name and
tagline together, the physical manifestation of your brand will
be:

RELIABLE WEBHOSTING Outstanding reliability and technical
support at a price your small business can afford.

To establish brand awareness, this branding needs to be used
consistently and frequently in everything your produce, whether
that be letters to clients, business cards, brochures,
quotations, invoices, advertising, promotion, on your website,
on the front door of your principal place of business and on
your products. And don't forget to be consistent in your use of
color schemes. These can be powerful brand reinforcers.

=> Marketing and Promotion of Your Brand

Once you've created your brand, you need to market and promote
it, in addition to your products and services. This is how you
establish your credibility and relevance to your target market.
You can hopefully see why your brand needs to be suggestive of
your mission statement. If, at the same time as you're selling
your products and services you also push your brand, your brand
becomes synonymous with your products and services. And vice
versa.

A properly descriptive brand and high brand awareness amongst
your target market will allow you to more easily introduce a
wider range of products and services when they're developed
without having to start by again selling who you are, what you
do and how you do it first. Your brand has already presold YOU.
Your job then is to sell your products and services.

Branding Your Business

In this article we look at how creating a strong brand for your business can help you set yourself apart from the pack and lay the right foundation for the future growth of your business.

If you think only big corporate names need to think about things
like brand names, think again. Your brand says a lot about you
and your business, and that's as true for a one person home-
based operation as it is for a multinational conglomerate. In
this article we look at how creating a strong brand for your
business can help you set yourself apart from the pack and lay
the right foundation for the future growth of your business.

WHAT IS A BRAND?
Your brand is more than just the logo on your letterhead and
business cards or your business name. It is your corporate
identity. An effective brand tells the world who you are, what
you do and how you do it, while at the same time establishing
your relevance to, and credibility with, your prospective
customers. 

Your brand is also something more ethereal. It is how your
business is perceived by its customers. If your brand has a high
perceived value, you enjoy many advantages over your
competition, especially when it comes to pricing. Why do you
think people are prepared to pay stupid money for items of
clothing with the initials "CK" on them? Perceived value.
Perceived value as a result of very effective brand promotion
resulting in very high brand awareness.

Now, I'm not saying we all need to rush out and start creating
brands that are going to be recognized the world over. Most of
us simply don't have the time or other resources necessary. What
I am suggesting, however, is that it is possible for your brand
to dominate your niche.

WHY DO I NEED TO CREATE MY OWN BRAND?

=> Differentiation
We touched on this in the previous section when we looked at
what a brand is and how it can be used to increase the perceived
value of your products and services. The main reason for
creating your own brand is to differentiate yourself from your
competition. New websites are a dime a dozen. So are home-based
businesses. You need to constantly be looking for ways to set
yourself apart from your competition. Your brand can do that for
you.

=> More Effective, Efficient Marketing

Another good reason for creating your own brand is to make your
sales force (even if that's a sales force of one - you) more
effective and efficient.

Imagine if you didn't have to spend the first 50% of your time
with a new prospect explaining who you are, what you do and how
you do it. What if your brand had already communicated that for
you? You can spend 100% of your time focusing on sales rather
than educating your prospects about your business

Another benefit of branding is that the efforts you expend
increasing your brand awareness through promoting and marketing
your brand to your target market automatically transfers to your
products and services. So, even when you're advertising your
brand, you're indirectly also marketing your products and
services.



HOW DO I CREATE MY OWN BRAND?
OK, so you're convinced you need to create your own brand. Where
on earth do you start?

We saw earlier that your brand needs to say who you are, what
you do and how you do it. It needs to do all these things at the
same time as establishing your relevance to, and building
credibilty with, your prospective customers. Needless to say, it
is absolutely essential, if you are to build your own brand,
that *you yourself* have a firm grasp of who you are, what you
do and how you do it. If not, you're going to have the devil's
own time getting that message across to anyone else, let alone
establishing your relevance and credibility.

=> Write A Mission Statement

So, let's start by creating a mission statement. What is the
mission of your business? Obviously you're in business to make a
profit. But making a profit is a byproduct of a successful
business. Focus instead on how you choose to achieve that
profit. What are your core values?

A good place to begin thinking about your mission is to put
yourself in the shoes of your customers. Put yourself in their
target market. Let's say your business is web hosting. If you're
in the market for a web host, what things are important to you?
Different people will be looking for different benefits but you
can bet that they want their website to be accessible to site
visitors so reliability will be high on their list. Price is
also likely to be high on the list as is 24/7 technical support.
What about add-on features such as unlimited email aliases, cgi
support and what-not? These things will be highly important to
some and less important to others. So focus on the benefits that
are likely to be highly relevant to the majority of your target
market. Let's settle for our purposes on reliability, price and
technical support.

Your mission statement might read something like this: "I strive
to earn a fair return on my investment of time and money by
providing affordable webhosting with guaranteed 99% uptime and
24/7 telephone technical support". That's a pretty general
statement and if you decide to focus on a particular niche of
the webhosting market, such as small business, you may want to
more narrowly focus on that group in your mission statement.

Now that you've written your mission statement, you can begin
thinking about creating a brand that reinforces and supports
your mission. So, getting back to the fundamental questions of
who you are, what you do and how you do it, you can now begin to
think of your business in these terms. You're a webhosting
provider, you host websites of small businesses and you do that
by offering cost-effective webhosting solutions, guaranteed 99%
uptime and 24/7 telephone technical support.

When you create your brand, you need to keep the who, what and
how firmly in mind but also use the brand to establish your
relevance to your target market and build credibility with that
market.

Let's turn now to the nuts and bolts of creating your brand.

=> Describe What You Are Branding

List out your business's key features and characteristics, your
competitive advantages and anything else that sets you apart
from your competition.

Using our webhosting example, you'll focus primarily on the
objectives from your mission statement namely, reliable, cost-
effective webhosting solutions supported by 24/7 technical
support.

=> Identify and Describe Your Target Market

Decide whether you want to target the entire webhosting
community or only a segment of it such as small business
websites. Describe your market.

=> List Names that Suggest the Key Elements from Your Mission
Statement

The key elements from your mission statement were reliability,
cost-effectiveness and customer service. List names that are
suggestive of these elements. Let's use Reliable Webhosting for
our example. (I don't claim to be a creative genius.)

Don't limit yourself to real words, though. A coined name with
no obvious meaning is a perfectly legitimate name provided it
conveys something about your business. You will find coined
names easier to trademark and secure domain names for too - a
definite plus!

=> List Tag Lines that Reinforce Your Mission Statement
We'll use: "Outstanding reliability and technical support at a
price your small business can afford". I know, I know. You can
do much better, I'm sure.

[pagebreak title='Using your brand']

HOW SHOULD I USE MY BRAND?

=> Create a Logo for Your Brand

Your logo is NOT your brand but your logo should allow your
brand to be instantly recognized by those familiar with it. To
this extent, your logo helps create and reinforce brand
awareness. 

The logo you create should be able to be used consistently in a
variety of different media. It should be suitable for corporate
letterhead and business cards, as well as for your website and
corporate signage (if any). You do NOT want a confusing mishmash
of logos and banners and heaven knows what else. Everything you
produce needs to use the same, consistent style of logo so that,
over time, your logo becomes synonymous with your brand. Instant
recognition is what you're going for here, so don't dilute it by
using several different logos for different purposes.

=> Consistent Usage of Company Name, Logo and Tag Line

Going back to our webhosting example, putting the brand name and
tagline together, the physical manifestation of your brand will
be:

RELIABLE WEBHOSTING Outstanding reliability and technical
support at a price your small business can afford.

To establish brand awareness, this branding needs to be used
consistently and frequently in everything your produce, whether
that be letters to clients, business cards, brochures,
quotations, invoices, advertising, promotion, on your website,
on the front door of your principal place of business and on
your products. And don't forget to be consistent in your use of
color schemes. These can be powerful brand reinforcers.

=> Marketing and Promotion of Your Brand

Once you've created your brand, you need to market and promote
it, in addition to your products and services. This is how you
establish your credibility and relevance to your target market.
You can hopefully see why your brand needs to be suggestive of
your mission statement. If, at the same time as you're selling
your products and services you also push your brand, your brand
becomes synonymous with your products and services. And vice
versa.

A properly descriptive brand and high brand awareness amongst
your target market will allow you to more easily introduce a
wider range of products and services when they're developed
without having to start by again selling who you are, what you
do and how you do it first. Your brand has already presold YOU.
Your job then is to sell your products and services.