Affiliate Marketing Basics

A Domain name is the starting point for any website. You need to find an
available name and register it. What web address would you like or what www. do
you want to be known as. What will your URL look like - for example the URL of
this site is

http://www.affiliatemarketingbasics.com

Ideally the name should relate to the purpose of the site and be easy to
remember. Domain names ending in .com are best. Its better to have something
unique than a crib on some well known existing site with a .net instead of a
.com ending or hyphenating words to the left of the .com etc.

Finding an available name will require a bit of patience as most popular
words and combinations with .com are already taken. There are lots of websites
offering availability searches and registrations. My choice is Godaddy a top
site for all your
Domain name needs. Type
in the words you'd like and see if they are available. A list of related
suggestions is also displayed.

Registrations are charged on an annual basis normally with discounts for
longer term upfront payments. Rates vary but should be below $10 per annum.
Godaddy  often has specials at very attractive rates. For a free account
look at
Enom.com

Most web hosting services offer domain name registration services also
however I think its a good idea to separate the two and not have all your eggs
in one basket. This way it is a lot easier, if for example, you want to change
webhost sometime in the future.

Domain hosting

Once you have a web address the next step is to hire space on a web server to
store the domain. The provider of web server space is known as a web host. In
addition to the server space web hosting facilities offer a range of essential
services and file maintenance which are bundled together into plans.

Web hosting services vary enormously in quality, reliability, cost etc. There
are  thousands of web hosting plans available. Take into consideration
whether this is a one off exercise or whether there are likely to be more web
sites and domain names in the future.

Not all hosting plans allow multiple domain names (not sub-domains) in the
basic plan and will charge for any extra domains. For multiple domain hosting
see Dreamhost,   Hostgator or Towerhost.

Lunarpages and Godaddy have
excellent web hosting plans.

Its worth putting in time and effort to carefully research domain hosting.
Bear in mind that the reliability of the service is very important. If your site
is down you lose customers and credibility. For this reason you might also want
to keep your domain registrations and hosting with different entities.

Trying to move registered domain names and web hosting from one supplier to
another can be a frustrating and costly exercise. Sometimes the cheaper plans
charge for these services.

Some affiliate marketing solutions like Sitesell and PIPS include both domain
name registration and web hosting facilities.