You want to start an affiliate marketing business. You want to set up a website that contains a blog or an e-commerce shop to sell your
items on. Where do you start and what do you need?
Firstly you will need a custom domain name and secondly, you will need a hosting platform with that domain to host your website. This all sounds very easy, but for many, when you start your affiliate marketing career, this can be a headache.
What most do not realize is that choosing your domain name is probably one of the most important aspects of starting an affiliate marketing blog or e-commerce website.
What is a domain name?
May beginners will ask, so what is a domain name. Some will even confuse a domain name with a website or website hosting service.
A domain name is the address of your website that people will type in their internet browser URL bar to visit your website. The website is the visual page that loads once you have entered the domain name and pressed enter. The website needs to live somewhere, it takes up space and receives traffic as visitors visit your website. For that, you need a website hosting service.
Typical domain name examples are freecomputerassist.com or twitter.com.
Choosing a domain name for Affiliate Marketing.
Domain names are available in many different extensions such as .com, .org, .net, .co, .biz etc where .com is the most popular and for affiliate marketing it is also recommended to go for a .com domain.
The reason is that .com is a Top Level Domain (TLD) and is most common and easy to remember.
Once you have decided on your extension, you need to pick a domain name that compliments your affiliate marketing niche or even have a keyword of your niche in the domain name.
It can be hard to sometimes pick a domain name especially .com as many of the shorter domain names are already taken. Let us say you will be selling coffee. You will then try and find a domain name with the word coffee in the name for instance thecoffeepot.com or mycoffeeshop.com.
I would recommend that you keep the domain name as short as possible and not longer than 16 characters as it makes it easier for people that visit your website to remember the domain name. Also, try to avoid hyphens (-) and do not rush your decision when you are registering a new domain name. It is important that you do this right from the beginning, and it can be costly if you later decide to change your domain name.
Other things to avoid are brand names and names that are trademarked. This might land you in hot water.
TIPS:
1. Make your domain name easy to remember.
2. Will you target a certain region or location? (capetownrealestate.com)
3. Keep the domain name short.
4. Think of the future and do not be trendy.
5. Choose the right extension. (.com, .biz, .co.uk)
6. DO YOUR RESEARCH!
