Eco - final name vote

[Webby]

Closes Sunday, Semptember 13th

Electronic Cigarette Users Group - Poll for New Name FINAL VOTE

[sattec]

too bad the word "cigarette" has to be in there, I don't know why you would want to be associated with cigarettes at all...

[Webby]

too bad the word "cigarette" has to be in there, I don't know why you would want to be associated with cigarettes at all...

Sattec,

Take a look at the link, none of the top five choices contain the word "cigarette" at all. "ECO" is just a working title for the organization until the final name is chosen. www.ecigusers.org is just a placeholder domain as well. I need a name in order to register the actual domain and start the SEO process.

Association for Tobacco Alternatives (ATA or IATA)
Consumer Advocates for Smokeless Alternatives (CASA or ICASA)
Tobacco Alternatives Group (TAG or ITAG)
Consumer Advocates for Tobacco Alternatives (CAFTA or ICAFTA)
Advocates for Tobacco Alternatives (AFTA or IAFTA)

The "I" is for International should that option pass.

VOTE!!!

[Territoo]

Just a couple of comments.

Right now "Consumer Advocates for Smokeless Alternatives (CASA)" seems to be leading, but I do have some concerns about that name. "Smokeless" may be interpreted as "smokeless tobacco", ie chewing tobacco, snuff, etc. This is definitely not what we are about. (I like the acronym the best however.)

Secondly, having the group start out as an international one may be too much too soon. The issues will be different from one country to the next, and I think that may be too much for a fledgling organization to take on. I suggest something like CAFTA-USA, which then can be followed by CAFTA-Canada, CAFTA-UK, etc.

[sattec]

I apolagize. A reference to tobacco is probably just has bad. I wish you all the luck in the world to further the cause...ATTY- Association for True Tobacco ?????(Y) what starts wth Y? or C = cessation.....R=rerform.....ATT....what?

[seminolewind]

How bout "Toss your cigarettes in the trash association" or TYCTA for short?

[Webby]

Just a couple of comments.

Right now "Consumer Advocates for Smokeless Alternatives (CASA)" seems to be leading, but I do have some concerns about that name. "Smokeless" may be interpreted as "smokeless tobacco", ie chewing tobacco, snuff, etc. This is definitely not what we are about. (I like the acronym the best however.)

Secondly, having the group start out as an international one may be too much too soon. The issues will be different from one country to the next, and I think that may be too much for a fledgling organization to take on. I suggest something like CAFTA-USA, which then can be followed by CAFTA-Canada, CAFTA-UK, etc.

This seems to be what I'm hearing from my friends in the corporate legal and financial world too. I would think we certainly wouldn't dissuade anyone from joining, but our initial focus would be U.S issues. That seems to be where they battle lines have been drawn already and are being fought the hardest.

One other thought - from an SEO standpoint, should ATA be chosen, it would be hard for me to push it higher that the Air Transportation Association (IATA) If we were to ammend the name to ATAG (group) I would have much beter luck meeting Google's algorithms and getting a top 10 placement.

[Thulium]

Instead of "Smokeless" which has been associated with tobacco products, how about "International Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives"? I think that "Smoke-free"
sounds more inviting and for me, it is the smoke that is the biggest problem that is eliminated by PVs.

Personally, I'd rather be the E-Cigarette Organization since e-cigarette has developed its own meaning than one that is inherently linked with Tobacco. I'd love to have e-cigarettes and Big Tobacco work together for the benefit of all, but the reality is that we can't be afraid to throw them under the bus (so to speak). BT is big money, and we may be fighting against that money at times because their goal is not the same as ours. This organization should be centered around consumer health, safety and choice, where Big Tobacco obviously has a history of placing shareholder interest ahead of consumer safety.

Personally, I'm not necessarily interested in an alternative to Tobacco. I want an alternative to the noxious poisons in smoke.

[mtndude]

just a thought...

Whatever the acronym may be, consideration of domain name availability will be a factor. e.g. Google gives high priority to search returns when the searched term(s) is included in the domain name itself.

I would encourage private discussions (although not sure how to go about it) as some groups who should be ASHamed of themselves may be quick to disrupt planning and execution of these ideas.

[Webby]

just a thought...

Whatever the acronym may be, consideration of domain name availability will be a factor. e.g. Google gives high priority to search returns when the searched term(s) is included in the domain name itself.

I would encourage private discussions (although not sure how to go about it) as some groups who should be ASHamed of themselves may be quick to disrupt planning and execution of these ideas.

+

True, but there are more ways around cybersquatters than worrying about them snagging a name. There are 36 algorithms that Google uses to rank a site (meta tags are ignored) At random, the engine grabs 12-18 of those to calculate rankings. "Is the keyword in the domain name?" is certainly one of the top ones, but there are other factors playing in our favor.

It's a good idea, but pretty much all 3-5 letter acronyms are long gone anyway. What ASH can NOT override, will be having tens of thousands of user's personal and business web sites all with a link back to our organization. Add blog entries and sig files and you meet Googles biggest algorithm which is "how many sites link back to this domain?"

I tell my clients to think of it as the "High School Cool" scenario. Who was the coolest kid in school? The one everyone thought was the coolest kid in school. Every time a site (on a different IP) has a link back to our group, it counts as a "vote" for our site in Google's rankings.

It may sound like I'm giving away trade secrets, but it's only one of the ways we will get high placement and something that ASH can do nothing about. If we choose ATA (for example) and ASH (or anyone else) buys up 5,000 domains, we simply register ATAgroup.org or something else and brand that. The ECA is www.ecassoc.org, an awkward domain name at best - but shows up well in a search. By posting the link in this thread, I just cast another "vote" their way as far as SEO is concerned.

There's no silver bullet, just a lot of individual methods that all work in concert to get a site high in the search engines.

Case in point: many companies have a web operations department. Google web operations and tell me what you see...