How small businesses can save with digital DIY
As the global recession deepens and costs continue to rise, every business is looking for new ways to save money. One of the most effective ways to do this is to cut out unnecessary costs by bringing things in-house and ‘doing it yourself.’. In the last couple of years, Namecheap has invested heavily in tools to help you do just that.
Our tools break down into two key areas, core business (our Business Toolkit) and design (our Visual suite of products). Let’s take a more detailed look at Namecheap’s DIY tools and the ways they can help solopreneurs and small businesses save big.
Easy business DIY tools
To have a great online presence, any business needs to create awareness via Social Media and should probably consider collecting reviews. That’s where these two Relate tools can help you out.
It’s worth noting we also have RelateLegal, which can help you with business registration and other legal filings, but it’s currently limited to North America.
RelateSocial
Improve your management of social media more efficiently with RelateSocial. Save time by editing and reviewing multiple platforms from one place. Schedule or publish posts across Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Twitter, and Google Business and track their engagement with detailed analytics, and view comments and reactions.
You can also monitor mentions of your brand more generally (or even other relevant topics), allowing you to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to trends or any feedback you might want to be aware of.
Additionally, collaborate with your team on campaigns and content creation. Learn more about RelateSocial could do for your business.
RelateReviews
Manage your reputation and improve your business’s online reviews easily with our review management tool. By bringing all your reviews together (from platforms like Google, Yelp, and Facebook), you can easily reply to them and be sure you don’t miss any vital information your customers might be sharing.
Use our analytics tools to understand your reputation better and identify areas for improvement. Customize our tried-and-tested templates to contact customers and inspire the maximum number of reviews. You can also use our ‘reputation management’ tools to compare yourself to other key businesses in your industry.
All-in-all, RelateReviews will help you build customer loyalty and improve your overall online reputation in ways you might not have considered before. Learn more about what RelateReviews could do for your business.
Security tools
Online security is a hot potato and will only become more central as we integrate more and more elements of our lives into the Internet of Things. As a company, we are always expanding how we can help you secure yourself online, for less. These are our newest offerings.
Domain Vault
Your domain is a key part of your brand identity, but in many cases, it can also be an incredibly valuable asset. And, like all valuable business assets, it deserves the best protection. Domain Vault is a unique product developed by Namecheap to prevent the main kinds of domain hijacking and fraud.
By combining human and machine verification, Domain Vault aims to tackle both social engineering and computer brute force attacks at once. This service is available for all the domains we offer, but for 26 TLDs (including .com and .net), our Titanium plan includes a registry lock — which means rigorous ID checks need to be carried out before nameservers can be changed or before your domain can be transferred out of Namecheap. Learn more about Domain Vault.
Sitelock
Sitelock is our latest security product that helps protect your website from online threats, including malware, hacking, and data breaches. Easily scan your site for vulnerabilities and patch them with our out-of-the-box solutions. With Sitelock, security is ongoing, so you can be sure you’re up-to-date with protection from the latest attacks. See what Sitelock can do for you.
Design tools
Looking good is essential for any business, but logos, graphics, and general online design don’t always come cheap.
Stencil
The latest addition to our line-up of design tools is Stencil. We all know images, especially those of people, help customers feel at home on your website. More than this, competent graphics give sites an air of professionalism that is hard to achieve otherwise, even using design templates.
That’s where Stencil comes in. Choose from an extensive library of over 5 million stock images. Edit them to add text and icons, and make other adjustments until they’re perfect for your needs. If you already have an image you’d like to edit, you can upload it to Stencil and benefit from the easy-edit facilities.
Stencil’s free plan allows you to create up to 10 images every single month, but the two premium plans give you the full breadth of the tool — complete with the entire library of images and icons, extra fonts, more edit options, and much more space to store images. Try Stencil for free.
Logo Maker
It’s one of the simplest tools in our selection, but arguably the most fun. Simply type your business name, choose your favorites from six sets of typefaces, and from there, our algorithm will narrow down thousands of fonts based on your preferences.
Next, you can choose to add an optional symbol, select your preferred color scheme, and then mix and match until you’re totally happy with the result. Logo Maker is totally free, and
Why not make several logos and try them all out over a period of a few weeks? Or play around with the extensive customization tools to swap out the fonts, colors, icons, and orientation of your logo. Try Logo maker.
Personal & Business Site Maker
Site Maker is possibly our easiest way to create both personal, and now business, websites. Have a web presence almost instantly with our easy design wizard taking you through the main steps in a similar way to that of Logo Maker (above).
Site Maker is the perfect option for those seeking a basic website to act as almost an online business card, including brick-and-mortar businesses that’d like to create a hub online. Learn about Site Maker.
Business Card Maker
Exactly what it sounds like, Business Card Maker allows you to create custom business cards for competitive rates with a selection of professional templates to choose from. Our prices include delivery to over 50 countries, and you can upload your existing company logo — including the easy-import function from Logo Maker. You can design business cards for free before purchase.
Learning made easy
While our DIY tools are built to be intuitively easy to use, you’ll probably think of other ways that you can help your business. Some of these might require you to learn new skills, so you’re able to bring more in-house. We may not have a product for everything (yet), but you can almost guarantee we’ll have a blog, guide, or video to talk you through anything else you might need.
The Namecheap Blog
AKA: What you’re reading right now. Our blog offers advice from business experts, the latest tech news, and comparisons of products and services online — all alongside our trademark aspirational content and opinion pieces.
The articles are designed to be engaging, easy to digest, and give you new ideas for your business and online presence. Check out the latest.
Guru Guides — learning at all levels
Our Guru Guides are more detailed articles and modules to help you learn and grow, whatever your level or experience level. For those starting out, we have beginner guides that start from the very basics of each of our core products (domains, hosting, security, and online DIY). Simply apply the beginner filter, and then choose your category to find those most useful to you.
Whether you need instructions on how to purchase hosting and link it to your site or want bite-sized guides about how to get a basic site online, take a look at our beginners’ section.
Start with the 101 (series)
We’ve put together an incredible array of articles to give you the ‘101’ on just about every web-based topic you can think of. If you’re unsure about where to start your journey, or just want some inspiration on your next craze. They’re perfect quick reads for when you want to get some new practical knowledge without going too deep.
Taking it further
Of course, you may already have your website, email, and even some pretty cool design work in place on your website. But online, nothing is ever finished. The Internet is constantly evolving, so you must too. Our breadth of resources can help even the most seasoned web pioneers to dive deeper and develop their skills.
Think about those things you have on your to-do list — the tasks that become dusty as they’re thrust to the back of the queue as day-to-day activities take over. We can dust those off, and make them approachable.
Set up a coherent email marketing plan that reminds customers of your activities, or improves your site’s SEO so people can find your website more easily on search engines. Perhaps your landing pages would perform better with a bit of a tweak, but you aren’t sure where to start. These are all topics that our gurus go into in detail. And even they are just the start.
So check out our newly-designed Guru Guides hub. Type your question into our advanced search, or select one of our newly-configured categories that make finding what you need to learn an intuitive, interesting exploration process.
Knowledgebase
Finally, in case you’re after instructional guides on how to use Namecheap products or services, you can’t do better than our Knowledgebase. Here, you’ll find a breakdown of articles by product, and incredibly detailed instructions for just about anything you could want to do with your Namecheap account or website. Check out our Knowledgebase.
Start making more online, for less
As you can see, we’re serious about our ethos, and have plenty more DIY products on the horizon. Let us know what you think in the comments, and leave your wishlist for what you’d like to see us release next. You can discover more about how to save money as a small business with Namecheap, or head over to our Solopreneur Sale (March 15-21, 2023) to find savings of up to 97% on products perfect for small businesses and solopreneurs.
