Affiliate Marketing - 9 Top Tips on How to Choose a Domain Name so you can be successful in Affiliate Marketing
When someone starts out in Affiliate Marketing, they ALWAYS obsess over how to choose a domain name.
But is it REALLY that important?
Well, many SEO’s and Affiliate Marketers may tell you not to worry to much about it.
But not so fast!
Let’s think about it for a second...
Your domain name is essentially an advertisement for your business.
It should pretty much sum up what your website is going to be all about.
Before your future visitors even clicks your domain address.
It really could make or break your business.
Though with that being said, you shouldn't overthink it.
Because if you do, you could waste precious time that could have been spent actually doing work that gets you visitors.
Let’s talk about the facts:
- It is your first impression: Your URL is the first thing your visitors are going to see, whether they’re coming from someone else’s site or they’ve found you directly Google's SERPs. A good domain name can make for a good impression, whilst a bad one could send them packing.
- It affects your SEO rating - While exact match domains are no longer necessary for a site’s success, it can still help to have keywords in your domain name to give you a little bit of SEO juice.
- It defines your brand - This is sort of linked to first impressions, but your domain name essentially defines what your brand is.
These are a few reasons why I believe your domain name is important, but not success defying.
Before we get into those juicy tips on how to choose blog names for your website, let's cover the basics; What is a Domain?
What's a Domain?
"What are domains", you ask?
A domain, in internet terms, is a location of a website - each website has its own IP address and can be found this way but domain names are easily remembered (assuming you follow the advice in this article) and are much more brandable than a string of numbers which make up an IP address.
This is why what domain name you pick is important, you'll want to take advantage of catchy phrases and niche keywords to ensure that your website is a roaring success for many years to come.
9 Tips on How To Choose a Domain Name for Affiliate Marketing
Let's get into the main part of this website naming article; 9 tips on how to choose a domain name for your blog...
1. Use the right domain name extension
First and foremost, even before you pick out a good name for a blog, you should be looking to use the right domain name extension.
Whether that's .com, .co.uk, .org, whatever makes sense for you and the brand.
In my opinion, you should almost ALWAYS go .com.
Unless you have a very specific site catered towards people from the UK, then you should be using ‘.uk’ or ‘.co.uk’.
Almost 50% of the websites on the internet are using .com.
People are most familiar with .com and but trust in the website, even before the page has loaded.
Take advantage of this familiarity.
AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE: Do not use extensions like pizza.com club.com.
These extensions suck, and from an SEO point of view, they just look really spammy.
So, when coming up with blog names, stick to the most common extensions: .uk, .com, .org, .net!
2. Make sure it’s brandable
This is a fact I pointed out earlier, but your blog name should be creative and brandable.
Here is how you know if a name for website is generic or brandable:
If your name of website is stuffed full of keywords and nothing else = Generic
If the name of a blog is creative, unique but still has keywords = Brandable
So you can understand what I mean further, here are some examples of generic names for blogs:
Dogcollars.com, supermarket.com, americanfootball.com
Now, although arguably great names for a website in terms of SEO, for a customer looking at this list of blogger names, they don’t give away much about the BRAND.
As these names for websites are not unique at all.
Now, here are some cool, brandable names:
Google.com, PETA.org, Facebook.com
When people read these names, there is an element of trust which can be developed because they stand out from the rest and are not simply just generic names, like the examples I gave above.
Here’s how to find some of your own brandable blog names examples:
- Create new words: Create words that are catchy but may also relate to the chosen niche, that’s what the likes of Facebook and Google did and they are industry giants.
- Using interesting words: You should try to incorporate existing words that fit your brand.
- Use domain name generator: Although the name you may be given from these sites might not be ideal, they will at least help you to brainstorm some better ideas for your brand.
Now that this how best to choose a domain name tip is done, let's move on to the next tip on how to come up with blog name ideas...
3. Shorter is better
In general, when it comes to naming a blog, shorter is better than longer.
The most 'popular' websites have a 12 character long domain names; 'popularity' in this case means is the amount of traffic these blogs are getting.
Ideally, you’d have a domain as short as possible but as of 2021 all of the short and brandable web names have been taken.
Sure you could buy these same website names from merches for $1000 upon $1000 but if you're sat here reading this, I'm guessing you don't have that sort of money.
So, if you can’t find a short idea for a website name, at come up with a domain name idea that is brandable.
Although this website, affilaitefromhome.com, is 19 letters long, it is VERY brandable in my not so humble opinion.
4. It should be easy to spell
Think of all the most popular blog name examples on the internet today…
Google, Amazon, Facebook, Telegram, Twitter…
The list goes on.
Despite them all being a part of their own unique niches, they all have one thing in common.
Their domains are easy to remember and easy to spell.
Your users should be able to type out your domain in their search bar without any problems.
They might even end up on a completely different site if your domain is too hard to spell.
5. Make sure it's easy to pronounce
As much as your domain name should be easy to type, your website name idea should also be easy to say.
This makes it so users can easily share your domain by word of mouth.
Theres nothing much more to it for particular ideas for domain names tip.
6. Hyphens and numbers are also a no-no
It's not only hard for your audience to remember where the hyphens and numbers need to go to get to your site.
Which makes getting to your website much harder than it needs to be.
But from the point of view of SEO’s, hyphens and numbers actually impact the SEO juice.
The reason for this is that we believe Google feels like it's unnatural or spammy to have anything but letters in your domain business name.
So from me to you, I would avoid hyphens and numbers like dog doo on the street.
This might truly be an SEO conspiracy, as there is no comment from Google if this is the case or not.
But if you look at all the best domain name suggestions on the web, pretty much NONE of them have hyphens or numbers in them...
So do with that information as you wish...
Not to mention domains with hyphens and numbers in them just look plain ugly; I'm sure you have the creative juices in you to come up with a good website name ideas when creating a domain name for your business.
7. Use niche keywords
I'm aren't suggesting you make a domain full of keywords.
Since this will not only just look spammy but it isn't very brandable.
Though if it makes sense to have them, then I would highly suggest using keywords that reflect what niche you’re a part of as an easy way of showing people know what you’re all about.
Ideally, you’d put them at the start when you're coming up with a list of cool domain names.
For example, look at this website's business name domain:
Highlighted in bold is the keyword I really wanted to be a part of the domain and thankfully I got it!
AND it's even right at the beginning.
Perfect.
This, in my opinion, is a great example of how to put a keyword in your domain name ideas without making it look awkward or spammy.
8. Think Long-Term Rather than Short-Term
Make sure you're always thinking long-term when your creating domain names you think you might actually purchase.
Though this is the sort of headspace as an SEO you should be getting into it anyway.
You should ALWAYS be thinking about the long-term when thinking about names for websites ideas.
But let's not get into that into this article...
What I'm trying to say is, think about what your brand will look like in 10 years' time.
Will your domain name still fit what your brand is all about?
Don't get me wrong, it is incredibly hard to think this far in the future, especially when you're just starting out.
But it really is worth the hours of pondering you might go through
If you decide to change your domain in the future, if it no longer reflects your brand, will be a massive blow to your SEO.
So, make sure the domain name you're choosing today, reflects your brand 5, 10, 20 years into the future.
9. Make sure no one else is using the name
You might be able to get your available domain name on a site like Namecheap.
But I would advise first checking to see if it's available on all of the social platforms you intended to be using across the web.
There is nothing worse for the look of your brand and your audience if all of your socials have different names.
To build your brand as best you can, you should try to make everything as consistent as possible.
This is so you can build trust with your audience much, much easier.
You should also check if your new name is trademarked yet.
Avoiding legal issues should be a top priority.
Ye, ye I know it's a little boring but you don't want things to take off in the next 5 years and then realize that there is a company already out there with the trademarks you want, now do you?
Besides, it will take a simple Google search to find something like this out.
And as I mentioned before, rebranding is going to take a big hit to your business and its SEO juice.
Where should you get your domain name from?
If you’ve never bought domain business names before, it might be hard to figure out which registrar is the best to use, since there are so many to choose from.
After quite a few years of being an SEO, I can tell you that Namecheap.com is my favorite place to go buy my blogger name ideas; its also a great place if you want to double check if your domain names are available before you start planning your project.
I also have my servers hosted with them too so I can get things online as soon as possible.
Not to be a shill or anything, but they are seriously one of the best places for this sort of thing.
The customer service is great and so are their prices.
I'd never go anyplace else.
Some Domain Name Examples you can steal
You now know everything you need to know about coming up with good names for website; the things you should do and the things you shouldn't.
With that being said, I want to give you a little bit of a head start and give you some interesting domain names examples that will hopefully inspire you when you try to come up with a blog names list of your own, so you can finally get on with that web project you keep talking about.
Choosing a domain name for a personal website
First off, I want to talk about how to choose a domain name for a personal website, since this is the most common niche I get asked about.
If its a personal website, I would absolutely go with something that is related to you - that could be your full name (excellent if you're publishing a CV on this website) or something that you're interested in/your site is going to be about.
If your called Dean and your website is about duck hunting, then deanduckhunting.com is a great idea.
Since you've got your name, and your niche all in one.
If you're coming up with blogger name ideas for your site all about cats, then madaboutcats.com is another excellent one - its brand able and it does what it says on the tin (Its a site about cats.)
The key thing to remember here when you're coming up with a blog name list is to remember what you're wanting to write about, and cater your domain name around it.
This goes for names for blogs about everything really, think of your niche and come up with blog name examples that will fit it perfectly, using the rules I've given you above.
Names for blogs about life
Here is a list of blog name examples that you can use if you're doing a domain name search for a blog about life.
- madaboutlife.com
- lifeislit.com
- betterlifebasics.com
- polandtravels.com
- improveyourlife.com
- healthnumber1.com
- timeofmylife.com
- awalkinmyshoes.com
If these lifestyle blog name ideas don't quite satisfy you, there are plenty of domain name generators out there you could use, here is my favorite blogger name generator.
Blog names for Writers
Here is a blog name ideas list for people looking for company name ideas for their writing career.
- canstopwriting.com
- hittingkeys.com
- yourpenpal.com
- storytellers.com
- inksociety.com
- inkmein.com
- bigpencil.com
- paperbrains.com
Just like a personal site, using your name isn't a bad idea in my opinion, although it's not necessary.
Hopefully with these ideas, your domain name search can come to an end and you can finally begin doing the real work; producing content that is going to make you $$$.
Finals words on how to choose a domain name
As you can see here, there is quite a lot to think about when it comes to knowing how to choose a domain name for your brand.
But it really is worth the time investment.
As your domain name could make or break the success of your internet brand. and can hide your success down the line if you don’t at least give it some thought.
Though, don’t obsess over it too much.
You could be waiting weeks to come up with the perfect domain name and waste time that could have been spent actually building your site.
But as long as you follow the advice in this how to choose a domain name article, you’re going to find it much easier to find your perfect domain.
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