Your campaign’s website is one of the most important tools you have to reach the voters who will determine the outcome of all your hard work.
It’s there 24/7 to help answer voters’ questions and to convince them to vote as you would like them to.
Every voter who fails to hear your message has a greater potential to vote for your opposition. Make your message as easy to reach as possible.
Just as location is vital to success in real estate, your internet address, your domain name, is vital to success on the web.
Qualities of a Good Ballot Measure Domain Name
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It's active, not passive
- Contributes to the success of your campaign 24/7
- Reinforces your primary message to the voters with every glance
- Domains like YesOn1.org or VoteNoOn2.com get the job done right
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Short and simple if it's your primary domain
- Enables larger font size for signs
- Easier to read from a moving vehicle
- Easier to remember
- Secondary domains meant to capture type-in traffic can be slightly longer
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Easy to remember or guess
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Standard format voters expect to see
(Ex. YesOn2.com, YesOnProp2.com, VoteYesOn2.com, YesOnAmendment2.com, NoOnMeasureD.org)
- No committee names or other words that are hard to remember or spell
- No hyphens; .com or .org only
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Integrated with your campaign
- Choose the right domain name EARLY
- Integrate the domain into all campaign materials
- If done right, your campaign should be known as the "Yes On 2 Campaign" or the "No On Measure B Campaign", etc.
Multiple Ballot Measure Domain Names
Are Strategically Important
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Encourage type-in traffic. Avoid search engine over-reliance.
- According to studies, the goldfish can focus on something for 8 seconds. Humans can only make it to 7 seconds when dealing with digital distractions. Don't force voters to use a search engine to find your website... the odds of them getting there are pretty slim. Those digital distractions are screaming "click me"! One of them may be your opponent!
- Ballot measure campaigns typically use standard-format domains like YesOn2.com, VoteYesOn2.org, NoOnProp2.com, NoOnQuestion2.org, etc. Voters know this and will guess at these domain names first.
- Your campaign website can have multiple domain names pointing to it including your domain name from before you received your number/letter assignment.
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Help prevent interference by your opposition
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Opposition campaigns occasionally register domain names applicable to your campaign and either forward them to their website or, worse yet,
post a website pretending to be you, a spoof website.
It’s unethical but it happens. Here's an interesting
Time Magazine article on the subject.
- Acquiring these secondary ballot measure domain names not only helps prevent interference by your opposition but it enhances your ability to capture more voter non-search engine traffic.