Wisconsin Lt. Governor: We Get It Award

Wisconsin Lt. Governor registers .com domain to forward to government site.

Wisconsin Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton just launched a fresh web site to help Wisconsin residents save money. The actual web site is ltgov.wisconsin.gov/issues_view.asp?issueid=30&locid=126. Try marketing that domain! So Lawton went out and registered a .com domain to forward to it: GuideforPennyPinchers.com.

Now this domain isn’t going to get blind type-in traffic other than from people who hear regarding the site. And sure, it’s a little long. But for $10 a year Lawton was able to get an easy-to-spell and memorable domain name to promote her fresh site.

I often times see government organizations try to market domains like ltgov.wisconsin.gov/something. And when they try to make it simple they usually screw it up. Remember what the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles did to simplify its domain name? It changed the domain from hsmv.state.fl.us to flhsmv.gov. That’s not easy to remember.

So Kudos to Lawton for having the foresight to register an easy-to-remember and easy-to-spell domain name to market her fresh site.

[Article on LaCrosse Tribune]