It is imperative that you have the domains and hosting up and running for your internet business to make money successfully. In essence, the “domain” is simply the web address. It is what you type into your browser to find a particular website. For example, google.com or facebook.com. You will buy a domain from a “registrar”, and then point your domain to the hosting.
“Hosting” is where you store your website files. This is the place where you will store the text and pictures, your website database, and any other files that inform your website on how to perform certain functions when visitors interact with it. Hosting is acquired from a “host”.
Domains are normally priced per year, and the average cost is around $15 for a TLD (.com .org .net). Hosting will be priced per month, or you will have the option to prepay for a year and receive a discount. Hosting may vary from $5 to $250 monthly for an average website. It is advisable to look into the $10-$50 per month price range unless you are looking for optimal hosting right off the bat (you WILL want to upgrade at some point. This can cost in the region of up to $300/month.)
Domain and hosting service can be purchased together from the same company, alternatively you might choose to purchase them from different companies. Anyone who visits your website won’t know the difference. Some people like to just work with one company to keep it simple. For others, nothing short of excellence will do, and they won’t accept anything less than a great host plus a great domain registrar, as opposed to a company that does a mediocre job at both.
Choosing A Domain & Hosting For Your Affiliate Website
DOMAINS
Choosing A Good Domain Name
How to choose a good domain name. It seems like a minefield, right!? It’s something I worried about when I got started too. Here are some guidelines, suggestions, ideas that I have come up with through experience, trial and error. They definitely help me to decide on how to choose my domains now. I hope they will in some way give you some clarity or guidance and help you in choosing an inspiring name for your website and future business venture.
I would recommend Avoiding Numbers, Dashes, and Misspellings!
The fundamental concept behind all of this advice is that you want to avoid any confusion or difficulty with people getting to your website. When visitors land on your website for the first time which is Gr8-restaurants.com, it takes quite a bit of effort to explain that to someone without looking at the domain name. If your link doesn’t work, or someone is discussing it via chat (great restaurants dot com) or they hear of it by word of mouth, it’s a real pain to explain that it’s, “Great-spelled-G-r-eight-like-the-number-eight”.
Dashes pose the same problem. Superbeachholidays2buy.com is very straightforward. Super-beach-holidays-2-buy.com is suddenly a little awkward to say “super dash beach dash holidays dash 2 (number two, no, not T-W-O) dash Buy dot com”. There have been some case studies that also show that domains with dashes rank lower too (although this is an often debunked idea). However, here are a number of factors that contribute to rank, the top 3 ranking domain extensions in order of rank are:
.com
.org
.net
Avoid all those bizarre ones like .fun or .cool.
EMDs versus Brands
EMD stands for Exact Match Domains, meaning that the domain name is the main keyword you want to aim for. For example, bestbeerclubs.com or housetrainourkitten.org. Brand examples could be Pepsi.com, twitter.com.
Almost a decade ago, EMDs were ranking very well for the keyword in the domain name. For example, highqualityskijackets.com would rank super well for the phrase high quality ski jackets when someone typed that into Google search.
This resulted in internet marketers going crazy and creating loads of low-quality domains to rank for keywords. They basically played the system. However, a couple of years ago, Google updated its algorithm and this caused many of these sites to lose their rank.
This caused a lot of commotion in the niche marketing community, and many affiliate marketers began to believe that EMDs no longer ranked and that Google would treat them as a spammer. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
EMDs still rank just the same as any other domain, and since the dust has settled from the Google update, there are many that rank well for their intended phrase. It’s really not an issue, and it could actually still be an advantage to have EMDs.
Should I Choose an Exact Match Domain?
It is likely that choosing an EMD will give you the advantage of ranking for your chosen keyword. If you have a low competition, high traffic keyword in your domain name, this could bring you lots of easy traffic.
An added bonus is that an visitors will immediately be aware of what your website is about. If you are looking for a holiday to Las Vegas, and land on lasvegasholidays.com, it really isn’t difficult to work out that you’ve landed on the correct page. Land on scoobydoo.com, and it might take you a few seconds to realize where you are.
In the online world, a few seconds could make the difference between a click, a sale, or a closed window.
Why Choose a Brand Domain
A brand is totally versatile. If you have your own brand then you have the luxury of using it almost anywhere and for almost anything. You don’t need to associate it with one single product or service. It can be whatever you want it to be. For example, you could be the next Richard Branson. His Virgin brand promotes everything from banking to flights to holidays to almost anything you can imagine.
Where should I buy a domain
Godaddy is a good place to start, however they can be slightly annoying with how much they try to sell you on ‘stuff’. Also, be careful as they will try to pull a fast one by making your first year cheap, then every subsequent year will be super expensive. For example, you could purchase a relatively cheap domain that could end up costing you an absolute fortune each year after. So do your research wisely.
Namecheap can also be a good choice. Their prices are reasonable ($10/year for .com) and they are also very reliable.
There is another registrar that use and I will give you more details on them at the bottom of this post. There are many reasons I use this particular registrar, but the most important things to know right now are:
- Flat pricing: $15/year with no increases
- Free privacy (costs $3 – $10 per year in other places)
- Free SSL certificates (costs $9 – $70 in other places)
Moreover, this platform does a whole host of other stuff including hosting and affiliate training too. To find out more about this platform click here.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, you are the person that owns your domain. It is your business, your brand and your website. The most important on part about your website will be the content that you write. That’s what people will read, and it’s what they will care about. It is the key to whether or not they will engage with you or not and it is what will eventually lead you to make sales.
An amazing domain name with zero content will not make you any money, however a bad domain name with great content and lots of traffic can potentially earn you a full time income.
HOSTING
Hosting is super important, even more so than you would probably imagine. In this post I want to go various problems that I’ve run into, and help you to avoid them. Please don’t stress out about this, I simply want to explain a few important qualities that you should look for in a host to allow you can make a good decision.
Choosing A Host For Your Affiliate Website
There are a whole variety of hosting companies on the market, and each one will offer a different type of hosting service. The vast majority of people will choose to start out on a very basic plan, then upgrade the plan as their website starts to get more traffic. There are advantages and disadvantages to doing things in this way. It is possible to do it this way, however you could end up giving yourself a headache. I could well be better off spending an extra $20 per month and saving yourself hours upon hours of problems.
Pros:
- Super cheap to start your business
- Allows you to try a host without a big commitment
- Can upgrade later easily
- Can save $100-$300 in your first year of business
- Fixing hosting problems by yourself is like knowing how to fix your own car
Cons:
- Basic hosting is often very slow
- Support quality will be poor
- Other websites on your server can affect your site performance
- Resources run out relatively quickly if you are serious about your business
- If your goal is to earn $10,000 per month ($120,000 per year) it doesn’t make sense to worry over $300 extra per year
- Hosting issues will cause you unnecessary headaches and frustration
- Like fixing your own car, you need to know what your own time is worth and outsource things to save time
- Time saved by having good hosting can be devoted to growing your business instead of tuning up your website
Common Hosting Tricks To Watch Out For
Cheap Won’t Always Be Cheap
A big mistake can be to go with the cheapest hosting that you can find. However, in most cases, this “cheap hosting” expires after a year. You could well find yourself paying a tiny fee like $3.95 per month for unlimited hosting for 12 months. Then, a year later the price of hosting could very well triple.
This lack of integrity with companies can be quite annoying so you should always look for alternatives before signing up.
If you have a long term vision for your business, then saving $50 for one year of hosting really isn’t worth it. Over a 5 or 10 year period, that $50 or even $500 equates to nothing really. If your goal is to earn a six figure income with your website, then it makes sense to pay a bit extra for the tools that count.
Unlimited Hosting Isn’t Really “Unlimited”
Another challenge is assuming that “unlimited” actually means that you have unlimited resources for your business. It’s quite simply an advertising gimic, as usual. Unlimited hosting does not mean that you will never need to upgrade. On close examination, it would appear that the “unlimited” part refers to the size of the files, not the number of files.
If you begin to build multiple websites a basic hosting plan then it is likely that you will find that your websites will begin to crash on a regular basis. You will find yourself with too many files on your server even think that you have ‘unlimited space’.
You will find yourself having to upgrade times and again, to the point where you could be paying in excess of $150/month. Your ten-dollar-per-month-hosting plan could balloon to over 10x!
Issues You Should Class as Important
Security
Malware protection and other security features is something that should most definitely be a top priority for you. Hacking is real. It’s happened to me and it could potentially happen to you. It can be serious stuff and cause you major problems.
Some services will give you ongoing protection, however, others won’t do anything until after a problem has arisen. Some won’t be able to help you at all and will quarantine your website. Cheap hosting will not offer you much support, however many high-quality hosts will install extra security plugins and have their own security features to keep you protected, even as a basic user.
Backups
It is your responsibility to regularly backup your own website, although it is possible to get a host that does it for you. If you get hacked or crash your site, they should have the facility to “roll back” your sever to a previous date and hopefully erase any problems that have occurred. Unfortunately, it will erase your work during that time period too, however, this is preferable to having your site hacked!
Pay attention to what is actually being backed up. Cheap hosts may backup files but not your entire website. They may only do automatic backups for a certain amount of data, or only with certain plans.
Support
As someone who is just starting out in the industry, a lot of this information will be confusing and even overwhelming. How do you create an email address? How do you add a sub domain? What is a 500 Server Unavailable Error? There are so many issues that will crop up. It really is reassuring to have some fast, and helpful support available and a live chat is an absolute must in this day and age. However, depending on who you have decided to go with, you could be waiting an age and this can be extremely frustrating.
Technical Issues & Down Time
I don’t want to freak you with tech and other details, however, there are a few issues that you should be aware of.
Your site could go down for a few hours, a few days or if you are extremely unlucky it could be even longer. This is really no good, especially if you are not receiving the technical support that you need and you are constantly being fobbed off and the never, ever gets resolved in the way it should do.
You might not think that down time is a big issue, however, as your website grows and you are raking in several hundred dollars per day, a few hours of downtime could potentially cost you some serious money. It may well damage your rankings in the long term if this is a frequent occurrence. Google doesn’t want to rank websites that provide poor user experience.
Types Of Hosting To Consider
Shared Hosting
When you start out, you’ll be creating small websites and they won’t really be making much (if any) money to begin with. Traffic will start slowly, and as you build your website out, it will increase incrementally over time.
Owing to this, it’s perfectly OK to begin with shared hosting. Although this hosting is less reliable, it is cheaper, so this will help you start out on a low budget until you start coining in the cash.
You shouldn’t feel any obligation to upgrade to super expensive hosting at this point. You can upgrade once you start making money and you build out sites that need more technical capabilities.
VPS
VPS can be explained simply as a virtual version of renting your own server. It’s almost like a step up from shared, although not quite as advanced as a dedicated server. It’s a pretty good middle ground where you can obtain pretty fast speeds, but still maintain a reasonable price. Also, VPS will usually give you unlimited websites on your account. Your only real concern should be bandwidth (how much traffic you get). One website getting 1,000 visits a day is the same as 10 websites getting 100 visits a day. Prices vary from $30 – $100/month depending on where you host.
Dedicated Server
This is again another upgrade but not really worth looking at this point. This is for more serious webmasters with multiple large websites. It comes with many dedicated privacy advantages and will section you off from all other sites. Therefore, you won’t be affected by someone else overloading the server with traffic.
SIMPLIFY YOUR AFFILIATE BUSINESS
One of the main companies I personally promote on my website buildaffiliatewealth.com is called Wealthy Affiliate. They are THE ultimate affiliate marketing programme and have taught me how to build websites and make money online.
As part of their membership, they offer quite a few different tools to get your business off the ground and making money. I won’t go into the finite details at this very moment, however, I will say that in terms of finding a host and registrar for your business, you should consider going with Wealthy Affiliate.
The membership costs $49/month or $359/year, and hosting is included. Therefore, you are able to run your entire business for $1 per day. There is no need for any external resources or tools in order to have a money-making online affiliate business. Wealthy Affiliate is simply a fantastic home base for any new or struggling affiliate marketer.
Why?
Superior Domains & Hosting For Affiliates
One Of A Kind Hosting
Wealthy Affiliate offers hosting that is far superior to anything you will experience on the market whether it be at BlueHost, Hostgator, or any other Endurance International Group junk hosting company. WA is WordPress optimized hosting that would cost you $100/month at other places such as WPEngine. They have their own proprietary hosting setup with redundant servers (so your website is always up, no matter what), automated backups, and top-notch security.
WordPress optimized hosting companies like WPEngine will normally charge around $30/month for one website, and you will have a limit on the amount of traffic you get. Even the basic business plans are $100+/month and you will be limited to only five websites visits to your website will be counted. At Wealthy Affiliate you have the ability to host up to 25 domains, along with unlimited visits, storage, and bandwidth (within reason).
Flat-Priced Domains
Perhaps you have already noticed those $0.99 domains at Godaddy? You may not be aware of this, but they can have a recurring price of $20 or even more! Therefore, the cheap domain you thought you had just purchased will end up costing you more in the long run. Wealthy Affiliate charges $13.99 for .com domain names and $15.99 for .com/.net domains.
That’s the price you can expect to pay every year – there are no price increases for domain renewals! Included in the price are all the essentials such as SSL, email, making it even more worth the price!
SiteSpeed & PageSpeed Insights Integration
SiteSpeed is the unique caching system. You do not have to install a caching plugin. This reduces the number of plugins you need to run your website. This in turn means that you’ll have a faster website, with fewer moving parts to monitor.
No need to purge your cache each time you update your website, and no need to deal with caching plugins asking you to upgrade for extra features. It simply works as a system. Your site is efficiently delivered to every visitor that lands there.
Inside the website manager dashboard you have the facility to check out your site on a page by page basis to monitor its performance. You can have a look at how it scores on both desktop and mobile, then use this data to improve these scores for a faster user experience.
Free SSL Certificates, Domain Privacy, Email Addresses
SSL is a security thing for your website, which is the HTTPS you see in the web address. Google places a lot more importance on these types of sites in search quite simply because they are private and secure.
They typical price for a year of SSL with most domain registrars is between $9 and $70. However, should you choose to do your website through Wealthy Affiliate, it’s free. That’s an awesome deal. They also do free domain privacy, which is something different – it keeps your personal address protected and off databases. Most registrars will charge you between $3 and $10 for the privilege, however it is free at Wealthy Affiliate.
Wealthy Affiliate will also provide you with an unlimited number of email addresses and email forwards for all of your domains. Most domain registrars will charge you per email address, and charge more for email storage if you get a lot of mail.
Proprietary Affiliate Growth Tools
Another amazing facility at Wealthy Affiliate is the access that you will have to SiteFeedback and SiteComments. These two tools are invaluable to get your first business growing fast. Simply submit your site and request feedback, or receive comments from people who are interested in your content.
SiteFeedback helps provides you with a fresh pair of eyes on your content, and get insight into how to improve your site on a page by page basis. SiteComments is a method to kick start engagement on your content, getting real people to join the conversation and signal to Google that real people love what you write.
Free Keyword Tool
Being a member of the Wealthy Affiliate platform, you will have access to Jaaxy, a keyword research tool. Jaaxy Lite is completely free to all members. It’s a brilliant to and it is the one that I use to find ideas to write content on my website.
Other keyword tools will cost you from around $99 a month for the basic tier, and for power users they can cost $1000 per month or more. Jaaxy is free for WA members and is an excellent keyword finder which also allows you to create keyword lists, export spreadsheet data, and track rankings over time.
Step By Step Affiliate Training
The Wealthy Affiliate platform also offers online business training that no other host offers at this time. Wealthy Affiliate
focuses on the affiliate side of things, however, it also provides a vast array of e commerce and marketing resources.
An amazing added bonus is that you have the facility to make use of the training within the community to drive traffic to your website no matter what you sell or promote.
Do you know how to build your online business? Are you already clear on how to build a successful affiliate website? I’m guessing that on top of hosting you’ll want to buy some kind of “how to make money online” course. You will already be aware of what I am talking about – $49 and you’ll get rich in 2 hours! Follow my course and it’s easy 1-2-3 to become a millionaire!
Yip, you’ve got it, these are all internet scams! You buy a cheap guide for $49, then they up sell you to a special deal for $199, then they entice you further and sell you a programme for $10,000. It’s utter nonsense.
Wealthy Affiliate has been around for over a decade training affiliates. The training works, and it is improving every year.
1-on-1 Affiliate Support
Even with fantastic training, it is still possible to fail. People can get confused, overwhelmed and give up, or they simply lose interest at some point and move on to the next shiny obsession. Wealthy Affiliate is structured in such a way that you can talk to both peers and mentors in a 1-on-1 environment.
You have access to a live chat, forum, personal blog, and private messaging where you can contact people who are doing exactly the same as you on a daily basis. Link with other people new to the industry of gain a wealth of knowledge and experience from people already earning a six-figure income. You can discuss business strategies, technical problems, or simply have a moan about where you might be going wrong and why the money isn’t coming in fast enough.
Should You Host With Wealthy Affiliate Or Somewhere Else?
My personal recommendation for anyone new to the industry is to go with Wealthy Affiliate if you plan to build an affiliate website. The training is exemplary and it works, the hosting is legit, and you will have access to a community of like minded online entrepreneurs to help you learn and grow and will inspire and support you on your journey. By hosting with Wealthy Affiliate, you not only get a fast and secure home for your website, you also get a support network for building your online business.
The thing about building an affiliate website is that you’re going to need help sometimes. Yes, you can ask questions on blogs and social media, but the answers you get are often short and insufficient to truly help you out.
Sign Up for Free Hosting With Wealthy Affiliate
Learn More About Wealthy Affiliate Training + Membership
Got any questions so far? Let’s hear them in the comments!