Want to increase your affiliate link click-through rates and profits?

Then you’ll need to learn how to master your domain.

One of my favorite episodes of Seinfeld was the “master of your domain” show where the gang bet each other as to who could hold out the longest without giving in to self gratification. Whoever ‘caved in’ would have to lay down the cash.

The question - will the domain master you, or will you master the domain? There is a price to pay if it master’s you.

In today’s power tip, of course, I’m talking about an Internet domain. One that describes your piece of Internet real estate. If your mother catches you mastering this domain, she may actually be proud of you!

If you’re not using this technique, you may be paying the price of lost customers. So let’s get right to it.

Affiliate programs are the most popular choice of making money online. However, they’re so common that most people recognize an affiliate link and are less likely to click on one because of the selfish notion that they might be contributing to someone else’s success. But that’s another Oprah …

I want to show you how to conquer this issue while looking like a pro.

Take a look at the following examples. Each are affiliate URL’s. But 2 of 3 are ‘masked’; you don’t know that they’re affiliate addresses.

1. www.greatproduct.com/98765/aff?=dude

2. www.mysite.com/greatproduct.html

3. www.thegreatestproduct.com

In should not matter which link to click if you are compelled to click to find out more information. However, human nature says that we are guided by our emotions. Therefore, each link may portray a different image to you.

Here’s how to make your affiliate link stand out in the crowd.

Typically #2 is the most widely used and is very easy to put into place using a redirect script on your own domain.

You simply create a new file on your domain server, name it (ie:”greatproduct.html”), copy and paste the script code. Then enter the affiliate url address (where specified) that you want to forward to.

Now when someone clicks on the new sub-domain you created (ie: www.mysite.com/greatproduct.html), their browser will redirect to the affiliate site but appears to the prospect that it is your site.

A simple redirect script can be obtained by sending any email to the following address mailto:script@6figuremarketing.com

Now here’s a really cool technique as seen in example #3.

Get your own domain! It’s the most professional strategy and will gain instant credibility and trust which can increase your rate of click-throughs. More click-throughs equals more traffic which means more eyes on your product or service, which means more cashflow in your pocket. Just be sure to sew up that pocket hole you’ve been neglecting since 1977!

Ok, here’s the cool part and you don’t even need your own website to pull this off.

Go to godaddy.com and search for the availability of your desired domain. Register the name, but be sure to choose the ‘redirect’ and the ‘mask’ option. Cost? About $9 for one year. In about 48 hours, your domain will be live and kicking.

In example #3, if you chose www.thegreatestproduct.com and someone types that address in their browser, it not only redirects to the site you chose, but will show up in the prospects browser window instead of the site’s real URL www.greatproduct.com/98765/aff?=dude

Did someone break out the pixie dust? It’s marketing magic at it’s finest!

Use this powerful technique to add credibility and professionalism to sub-domains and affiliate urls or any url where you want to increase your conversion rates.

Tip: Use your domain solely for tracking reponse rates to specific advertising campaigns such as pay per click, etc.

Follow these techniques and you’ll soon be the master of your affiliate domain!

Copyright 2005 David Lovelace

About The Author

Dave Lovelace an experienced Internet marketer, publisher, and product creator who holds the self-proclaimed title, “Third Laziest Man on The Internet”. Subscribe to Dave’s free course, How To Generate Free Traffic, Prospects, and Profits On a Zero Dollar Budget in 4 Easy Steps! Click here http://www.6figuremarketing.com.

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When owning a domain name the owner is required to submit certain data about himself to complete the registration. Name and address information as well as a phone number and an email address are required to be on file. If these pieces of information are not provided the registration can either not be completed or is not valid and the domain name could be taken away.

Often people forget to keep this information updated. This is not a dramatic issue until the domain name expires and needs to be renewed. If the owner keeps track of the names it is no problem, but too often people tend to forget. Email reminders are usually send out by all domain registries. But what happens if the email addresses associated with the domain name are no longer in use? The domain name expiration notification cannot be delivered and the name expires.

What happens when a domain expires?

When a domain expires it will remain in this status for approximately 30 days. During that time the DNS servers of the expired domain will be reset to the domain name registry and the website behind that domain name is down. If the domain name does not get renewed during 30 day time frame, it will be deleted from the domain registry database and at that time the domain will go into Redemption status at the Registry level. The domain name is still recoverable, but only for a significant amount of money. After around 40 days the domain name gets deleted and released and is available for a new registration. Domain Grabbers pick up these expired names and sell them with a profit to whoever pays the most money. If an owner happens to lose a domain name by forgetting about renewing the name and by not acting fast enough when the name is expired, it can mean that the name cannot be recovered by him and that the name belongs to somebody else now.

Therefore it is highly critical to always maintain correct WHOIS data for a domain name and to keep track of expiration dates to renew domain names in an appropriate time frame.

About the Author

Christoph Puetz is a successful entrepreneur and international book author. Websites of Christoph Puetz can be found at Pregnancy Announcements and at Highlands Ranch Colorado.

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A sub-domain is an individual and separate web folder that can be created and attached to the main domain. This sub-domain can have its own FTP password. It can also have its own private CGI-Bin folders, and all other characteristics of an individual domain. But this sub-domain need not be registered as a separate domain and this means that the affiliate need not spend additional money for the setting up of the sub-domain.

How can a sub-domain help an entrepreneur achieve success in his affiliate marketing business? A sub-domain can help the affiliate in two ways. These are optimization in search engines and diversification of the affiliate’s website.

Optimization in Search Engines

Sub-domains are usually recognized by search engines as an individual online entity. And since it is a separate URL (as identified by search engines), it will be listed on its own and not be a part the main domain. In affiliate marketing, such a situation is advantageous. The affiliate can promote products in a dedicated website that will most probably be ranked high, provided that all other search engine optimization techniques are used.

Of course, there is a specification that the affiliate must comply with. That is, the sub-domain’s name must be attached to the main domain’s name using a dot. For example, the URL will be “subdomain.maindomain.com”. The affiliate should avoid using the hyphen, such as in http://subdomain-maindomain.com. The hyphenated name will need to be registered as a separate domain and this will demand additional expenses for the affiliate.

Diversification of the Affiliate’s Website

The contents of the website of an affiliate should be relevant to each other. This means that products that are extremely different from each other should not be located in one website. Otherwise, the affiliate runs the risk of discouraging and confusing the Internet visitor. But how will an affiliate promote products that are wholly unrelated to each other but are both interesting and financially feasible?

The affiliate can create sub-domains. One sub-domain will be dedicated to one product, while another will be focused on another product which is distinct from the first one. In this way, when the visitor opens the website, he will only find the products and information that he is looking for. He will not be distracted by the presence of another product banner that he has no interest in knowing about.

Of course, the creation of sub-domains may need to be consulted with the web host. Some web hosts offer free sub-domains while others demand a charge. The creation of sub-domains also involves work. But, after such work, the income of the affiliate will significantly increase.

Peter Garant’s affiliate marketing site offers high quality but cheap unique website content to webmasters who wants to maximize traffic and revenue on their affiliate sites.

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