August marks the 24th anniversary of being in business for myself.
How did I choose Adventures Online as the name? Yes, I know how to spell and I know proper grammar. How’d I get there?
There are 2 reasons why I chose Adventures Online for a business name.
Reason #1:
Prior to all of us getting onto the Internet, the WWW was used by scientists and the scholarly to share information (large research papers) across the world.
The tools were bare bones and cryptic.
As more and more regulars like you and me started getting on and “using” the WWW, the tools were revamped and improved for general consumption, and new tools were created.
Along with changes in the tools came new procedures. It felt like every other day, I would log on to do something the same way that i had done it two days before and that didn’t work at all, the process had changed.
So every day became an Adventure. I’d ask myself, “Will I already know how to do thus-and-such or will the procedure be totally different today?”
Reason #2:
I wanted the business name to represent what the work was (24 years ago).
The work, plain and simple, was Advertising and it happened On Line, so, Advertising On Line was the starting point.
I did not want to be confused with a WWW giant at the time (AOL), so, I took poetic license and squished “On Line” together in order to have different company initials.
In the midst of the naming exercise, I experienced numerous of those Adventures I mention above.
Since the constant process changes were the norm, I switched Advertising out for Adventures. (You know, the fasten your seat belt kind of adventures.)
I “wore” Adventures Online for a while, and, I and everyone I polled liked it.
In the very beginning, many people thought for sure it was a travel website and the others thought it was a porn website.
Nah…Just me…helping you…present your best face to the world 
.
About 16 years ago, I decided that the name needed to change in order to reflect the then-current work I was doing.
I worked with a fabulous Marketing and Branding professional in Westborough, MA (who has since retired and moved to one of the Carolinas to be closer to her grand kids). I spent many hours with her, in person, on the phone, in email discussing the new direction of the business, the clientele I wanted to attract, possible new names, researching whether they were available in the .COM version, and, waiting a couple of weeks as each possibility came about to see if “it” still resonated.
When we reached the two or three we liked the most, I sent a poll to my clients asking them to help me choose the new name.
ALL of them were shocked and appalled. “No, I like your name. I understand it. I don’t want you to change it. It fits you perfectly.”
Oh boy, should have started there. Could have saved some dollars and lots of time 🙂 But, it felt good to be validated.
And here I am, 8 years later. Just me…helping you…present your best face to the world .