Introduction
If you want your website to become really successful, domain name & hosting is the name of the game. Just like a brick and mortar store requires an eye-catching storefront, a domain is a pretty effective tool which attracts and brings in the traffic you require to succeed. A domain name provides you with a distinguishing mark on the internet. It’s the first few words which a customer would type and search in the website to view and read information and services which your company provides.
Just as real-world businesses require physical addresses in order for people to find them your internet, websites need a way through which people to find you. Your URL needs a host much like a house asks for a foundation to stand strong in one place. Hosting services are a little like our highway system; they offer the infrastructure for web surfers to navigate along in their searches what intrigues them. Hosting is got from a “host”. The charges of mere a domain name are determined by the Top Level Domain (TLD) that you want, for instance, a.org or a.com or a.net are all TLDs.
Essentially, you should not pay more than $USD10 per year for your domain name. However, you’ll find websites where the cost is higher ($USD15 per year), but these are normally hosting sites which offer the domain name registration and also web hosting.
While there’s not much to have a domain name, the moment there’s an issue, you’re going to require reliable customer service. Therefore, look for a company which offers that. You should not get a domain name from the same company which hosts your website. If you have trouble with the host and decide to change, it’s helpful if your domain name is registered with a separate company. It may not be an issue, but better safe than sorry.
Domain Name
Choosing a Good Domain Name
A lot of website owners regret the domain name they registered for their online business as they didn’t put much consideration into it. So, you should not rush into getting the first domain name which came into one’s mind before performing the necessary thoughts and assessments on the suitability and strength of the name for your website in the long run.
Don’t Hyphenate
Hyphens offer more space for error – people may forget where they go or entirely forget to put them in. Hyphens further make saying the domain out loud a little harder – particularly if you have more than one.
Keep it Short, Simple and Readable
In addition, your domain requires being easy to remember, straightforward to type and simple to sound out. Avoid words which can be mistaken for other words and make sure that people don’t have to look for a thesaurus or dictionary to understand it. A longer domain implies more space for typing errors on potential visitors’ behalf. Hence, keep it short.
EMDs and Brands
Branding
If you think of Google or Nike you immediately know how utilizing your business name in your domain assists brand your business. Your domain name can even be your business name if you’re fortunate enough to still find a.com business name. If the name is not available try keywords connected to your business.
Why Choose a Brand Domain
A brand name is one of the most significant elements of a business’ personal identity. It’s the basis of everything your business will do as it will be presented on your website, business cards, print material, invoices, letterhead, etc…
Your brand name is conclusively what people will identify and link you with. So if you have the chance to buy the URL which matches your brand name, then consider taking it. Notwithstanding, you should take these important considerations when choosing a branded domain for your business URL/domain name:
Easy to Remember
Word-of-mouth & SERPs dominance marketing, where your domain persistently comes up for searches related to the industry, both of them dependent on the simplicity by which your domain name can be remembered. Avoid becoming the company which has a terrific website but nobody can ever recall telling their friends about since they can’t remember that domain name.
Short and Memorable
Domain names ought to be user-friendly. It ought to be short, simple to type, and straightforward to remember. This way, your site would be undoubtedly advertised by the word of mouth as it would be simple to remember and easy when it comes to typing into a browser. It additionally allows for more characters in the URL in the SERPs making a better fit on business cards and other offline media.
EMD
EMD means “Exact Match Domain”. This is the time your domain name, precisely matches the name of your online business. For instance, if you have an online business with the name, “Great Internet Success” and your domain name is greatinternetsuccess.com that would be having a precise match domain.
What are the Benefits?
Beforehand, EMD’s had so much ranking power as far as web sites were concerned. Nevertheless, things have changed and their significance has diminished. This, though, doesn’t imply that they aren’t helpful anymore. Owning an EMD, with a weak competition keyword can actually assist with the rankings. Having your keyword in your top-level URL is much better from a branding point of view as it reinforces the idea that your site is related to that keyword which your visitor has searched, thereby making for the more relevant and targeted experience.
Where to Buy a Domain
Cheap Domain Names
To enroll a .com domain name, go to 1and1.com. You can get domain names there for $9.99 USD a year! Domains are sometimes on sale, but their normal price is $9.99 USD. I like GoDaddy just because their interface is straightforward to use. NameCheap.com sells domains at $9.69 USD. Moniker.com trades them at $9.73 USD.
There are means to purchase even cheaper domain names, but sometimes these websites can be complicated for the uninitiated. Nonetheless, if you want to save some bucks, try BustAName.com. They resell domain names from GoDaddy.com for $6.95 USD.
The registration process of a domain name is especially simple and needs pretty little skill. There’s sufficient protection and managing the domain is a breeze with their control panel. Apart from domains, Namecheap provides a lot of other services including email, web hosting, and websites. They additionally have a marketplace to make it simpler for you to buy your domain names.
One thing to be aware of though is that most of the time domain name registrars are going to charge a higher price for your domain name on its renewal date.
Country-specific Domain Names
Search online for “domain names”, [then enter your country name],” e.g., “domain names Australia.” Then go for the lowest cost.
In conclusion, choosing a website name isn’t always simple. Hopefully, the above information will have helped you in making that decision easier. Having a website name (and so domain name) you’re proud of and like is important, so do choose wisely!
Hosting
Choosing a Host for Your Affiliate Site
Hosting is pretty important for your affiliate marketing business. Therefore, you should wisely choose your web hosting provider. Definitely, you’ll want your website to be seen by the largest number of people. To do that it’s essential to take some time to go through certain basic but very important factors that will guarantee more visibility for your website.
There are numerous points to consider when choosing a web hosting. First, there are very many web hosting providers and packages offered today. Each one of them comes with their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
Even after you zone in on a specific provider, you still require choosing the hosting package which will fit you. Every web hosting site provides many different kinds of packages to choose from. The most popular kind is the ‘Unlimited Bandwidth’ package. Thus, how would one decide which one to go for?
Common Hosting Pitfalls to Avoid
Cheaper isn’t Always Better
There’s a substantial wide range of web hosting services over the Internet where web-users can explore and examine freely. Each of these plans is priced at different prices. All of us ought to be well aware that the cheapest plan doesn’t necessarily imply the best services or the most worth-while program to enroll for. One important thing to remember is to never sacrifice the quality of the web hosting services with the cheap cost that you want to pay as it is never worth it!
Low Reliability of a Free Web Hosting Provider
While it’s very difficult to refuse such a charming offer of a free web hosting where you don’t need to pay even a penny to get your website hosted. While it’s suitable for personal use, it’s not designed for commercial because of its limited functionalities & controls. Frequent downtime is going to badly impact the flow of traffic getting into your site, causing losses to your business while the lack of reliable security control increases your risk of being hacked or spammed. All these are going to eventually cost more cash to you than you would ever imagine they would in the first place.
Failing to Get the Right Web Host for Your Website
One of the most severe mistakes any webmaster would do is to sign up for the wrong web hosting company. This will end up bringing trouble to your relationship and also losses to your online business. To bypass this dilemma, you need to know exactly the needs and requirements of your site to be prosperous. Search for a proper web hosting company that can fulfill all these requirements of yours.
Relying on Others for Backup
Although the majority of web hosts promise that they are going to back up their server and customers’ data on a consistent basis, nevertheless you ought to never rely entirely on your web host to do some of these important tasks, but you must periodically restore these data on your own to ensure the data are in safe hands.
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the Same Basket
A few webmasters host many websites on the same server for cost saving and also for easier management. Nonetheless, this isn’t always the case. It’s highly recommended to host them on distinct servers to protect some of the websites if one of these servers goes down. Running them all on the same server essentially means that when your server is down, all your websites won’t be able to run during that time period.
The following points should make your task of choosing a web hosting simpler for you.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Host for Your Site:
Disk Space
Disk space is the amount of hard disk space your host gives you. In turn, this will restrict the number of files you can keep on your web space. If you use so many graphics, these files can consume a great deal of storage space. Anything less than unlimited ought to be examined pretty carefully in case they have other significant features not provided by the other options. Generally, however, most users should go for unlimited web space storage.
Bandwidth
The term bandwidth implies the amount of data you’re allowed to download or upload in a specific time period. Most of hosting services today offer unlimited bandwidth.
Site Building Software
For those that don’t, or can’t, use website building software like FrontPage and Dreamweaver, site building software is going to be essential. Such systems are HTML editors which generally also provide WYSIWYG functionality, letting you grow your own site. Most also provide a template-driven system, where you can adjust templates to satisfy your needs. Even those conversant with HTML find such a package helpful for transforming and extending existing web pages.
Multiple Domains
It’s possible to operate a number of sites from the single account. Add-on domains let you buy multiple domain names and operate these from their particular directories as absolutely unique websites. So you can own, for instance, 5 distinct domains names, and operate these as 5 various websites with the use of the one web hosting account. So, go for ‘unlimited domains’ – anything less would restrict you.
Traffic Analysis
A reliable hosting service ought to provide traffic analysis which informs you of your traffic statistics: the number of visitors you have to each page, the amount of time they spend on each page and even the most visited pages. A helpful statistic to have is the most visited entry and exit pages on your website, so you can optimize the former and better on the latter.
Email Services
You’ll require an email service to go with your site, an also one for each of your additional domains. Your web host might provide you with unlimited email addresses, though this isn’t required unless you need a reseller service. You’ll be fortunate if you can service 50 email addresses leave alone hundreds. What you ought to look for are webmail and spam protection. The latter will assist filter out spam according to precepts you can set yourself, while webmail lets you use a service like Eudora or Outlook to check all your emails from all your websites with one of the single webmail service.
Uptime Guarantee
You don’t want to spend time while you wait for your service to come online before you can access your website. At least 99.7% uptime guarantee is satisfactory, but 99.9% would be better. That implies that for every 1,000 hours, there would be an hour when your site was offline.
Customer Support
Customer support is important, and if you can access live support by telephone then all the better. The majority provide an email support system while a few may also offer a live chat service. The service ought to be toll-free, and optionally open 24/7 so that it can be utilized from anywhere in the world and at any time.
Scripts and Software
When carrying out research into the ideal service for you, you ought to make sure that you know what software services and ancillary scripts are being provided. For instance, MySQL is a personal database unit that is important for running numerous software applications comprising the collection of data. CGI/Perl and PHP support are essential as is Flash and Java.
If you register with a service which operates by the use of the cPanel control panel system, then all that will be included. CPanel additionally offers numerous other services including Fantastico De Luxe which enables you to set up applications like WordPress onto your sites with a click of a button so you can operate WordPress blogs from each of your domains.
Types of Hosting To Consider
As a newcomer, you may find it hard settling on a type of hosting package to buy. That’s understandable as in today’s market; there are different hosting packages that one can choose from. Of course, sometimes it can be very confusing. Below, have a look at the different packages for you to have a clearer idea concerning the features of each sort of package:
VPS
VPS are servers which are set up especially for you. Keep in mind that other websites may additionally be hosted on the very same machine. Nevertheless, only you can access dedicated resources. After the resources have been entrusted to you, others are going not to be able to utilize those resources. In numerous ways, a VPS runs in the same fashion as a dedicated server – except that it’s comparably powerful. When it comes to medium sized websites, this is the best solution. Some webmasters further like customizing their server settings and a VPS permits them to do that minus them having to meet the entire expenses for a dedicated server.
Vultr’s cheapest cloud hosting plan is 5.00 /month. Sign up to Vultr for get $50 and try their cloud hosting platform!
Reseller Hosting
For reseller packages, you’ll get more resources designated to your account. Actually, the costs are insignificantly higher in relation to shared hosting, but still profoundly affordable. Reseller packages are best for freelancers or website designers who require taking care of hosting for their customers. Rather than directing their customers elsewhere, they can deal with all the hosting requirements by offering hosting services themselves. They have this done by signing up for a reseller account. A reseller account lets them set up customer accounts and runs like a web hosting company. If you want to share or sell your hosting with another person, then, this ought to be the package which you should consider.
Shared Hosting
This is the most affordable kind of hosting which you will find in the market. Shared hosting implies that hundreds of websites may be hosted on a particular machine. This is absolutely fine as long as there are no websites which hog up resources. Regrettably, it’s very difficult to stop webmasters from hogging resources as the software is becoming more and more resource intensive because of the sophistication. If you’re considering starting a blog of a static site, then this package is for you. Nevertheless, if you’re thinking of setting up a community website, then a more powerful package may be more suitable.
Dedicated Servers
Lastly, you have dedicated servers. These are servers which serve you and only you. Here, there are no other clients on the same server. You have the full control and access to every the server resource. If you want to run some powerful software or if you have a running website, then this deal is for you. Some organizations opt to have their own dedicated servers for security reasons.
If you’re hosting your website on a shared environment, the entire machine may go offline simply because an innocent webmaster has uploaded a compromised script. Therefore, for several companies, dedicated hosting happens to be the safest and most reliable option. Of course, many of these businesses don’t worry about paying the heftier hosting charges.
Best Web Hosting Companies
Web hosting services differ in size, uptime speed, reliability, key features, customer support, and user-friendliness. For a beginner, you’ll need the most affordable web host. The following are some of the best hosting companies in 2019 I recommend to you:
KnownHost
If quality means a lot to you than price, you ought to consider KnownHost. KnownHost just provides high-performance dedicated server hosting and VPS, which ensures quick connection speeds, a lot of storage space and high availability.
For any online business that massively relies on its site, including an online store, these are the type of credentials you require to have peace of mind. You require qualified confidence which your website will continually be functioning each time your customers utilize it. KnownHost has two things that particularly boast of: the quality of its dedicated, 24/7 support and network infrastructure.
All of the data centers at KnownHost are profoundly reliable carrier-class facilities, having multiple connections to a few of the largest network carriers within Europe and the US. Its costs are affordable and start at $3.47 per month for shared-1.
Kinsta
If you’re looking for fast loading times, less site management task to deal with, and less downtime to mind about, then Kinsta should be the best website host to go for. The principal thing which distinguishes Kinsta from the majority of other managed WordPress hosting companies is their application of the “Google Cloud Platform”. This implies that WordPress sites are hosted on the facilities created and managed by Google, and utilized by companies like Snapchat, Spotify, HTC, Philips, Best Buy and Coca-Cola, etc. Being a “Google Cloud Platform” partner lets Kinsta host your site on a top-notch infrastructure with the option of 17 server locations on the globe.
As stated, automatic regular WordPress site backups are part and parcel of the services at Kinsta. Normally, automatic backups are retained for at least 14 days on the standard-level programs and many more days on the higher programs. It’s easy to restore the backups, with the choice of stationing them to your live website or the test situation. They have free CDN, ultra-fast hosting, and a constant live chat where one can ask various questions and receive help nearly instantly. Their fundamental tier is $30 per month. Nonetheless, you only receive one website. To get five websites, you’ll need to pay $100. Remember that in case your traffic takes off, you’ll have to upgrade to programs that provide for that.
Bluehost
Bluehost is a popular website hosting company and even one of the most famous, though it’s one of the oldest web hosting companies. Bluehost’s packages have gone through significant changes recently, and all of them go for the goodness of you and me: their customers!
As they increased the space you can get to host your website, their bandwidth and the number of domain names you get per account. These mentioned changes put Bluehost on the top of the market while keeping their prices cheap. With Bluehost, you can get an unrestricted number of domains! Bluehost’s performance doesn’t deviate much than most of its competitors. Customers’ reviews and feedbacks are important that Bluehost’s service level is high and good enough.
When it comes to pricing, shared hosting at Bluehost asks between $8.99 and $25.99 per month. All programs include a free-of-charge domain the first year. Furthermore, their WordPress optimized hosting begins at $39.99 per month, VPS is $29.99 per month, cloud hosting from $9.99 per month and a dedicated server for approximately $120 per month.
Simplifying Your Affiliate Business
As a beginner, you’ll need a reputable Affiliate Marketing Trainer who will effectively help you to succeed. Wealthy Affiliate is the trainer I highly recommend you. Wealthy Affiliate was founded by Carson and Kyle back in 2005 while they were in college. When Carson and Kyle first began internet marketing they had no prior experience in online marketing. Today, the company Wealthy Affiliate has grown a real success for a lot of people. The owners have trained everyday people, just like you and me, how to triumphantly make money with their own business online at the internet marketing school, Wealthy Affiliate University.
This company has numerous benefits to offer as an online marketing company which trains people on how to successfully market online. As an element of their membership, they provide some important tools to get your online business started and making money. Without going much into details, when it comes to finding a host & registrar for your online business, as I have mentioned above, you ought to go for Wealthy Affiliate.
Here, you’ll be required to pay $49 per month or $359 for a year as part of the membership fee in which the hosting is also included. This means that you can operate your whole business for only $1/day. Honestly, you don’t require any external tools so that you can have a successful online affiliate business. This is because Wealthy Affiliate is all that a new and struggling affiliate marketer needs.
Why Wealthy Affiliate?
- Excellent Domains and Hosting For Affiliates
Superior Hosting
The hosting at this company is incomparably superior to what one gets at Hostgator, Bluehost or any other hosting company. First, it is WordPress optimized hosting which ordinarily would cost you $100 per month at other sites like WPEngine. Wealthy Affiliate has their own established hosting structure with redundant servers, automated backups, and high-quality security.
WordPress optimized hosting businesses such as WPEngine are going to charge you $30 per month for a single website and they restrict the traffic amount you get. Even primary business programs are $100+ per month and they restrict you to merely five websites and they count the number of visits to your website. But at Wealthy Affiliate, one can host even 25 domains, with unrestricted visits, bandwidth (within reason) and storage. If your website actually takes off, you may require talking to them concerning paying some more cash.
Site Speed and Page Speed Insights Integration
Site Speed is a special caching system. To begin with, you don’t have to set up a caching plugin which decreases the number of plugins you require running your website. This implies you’ll enjoy a faster website, having fewer moving components to control. Secondly, you don’t require purging your cache every time you do a website update.
In addition, you don’t have to handle the caching plugins requesting you to update for additional features. The system simply works delivering your site fast to every visitor who comes there. In the site manager dashboard, you can further review a page by page to see how your site is running. Check your mobile and desktop scores to see if there’s anything you can do to enhance those scores to realize a quicker user experience.
Flat-Priced Domains
If though you may be charged $0.99 for domain names at Godaddy, you may be subjected to a recurring cost of $20 or even more. This implies that as much as the domains look cheap, you’ll end up paying more!
At Wealthy Affiliate, you’ll be charged $15.99 for .com/.net domain names and $13.99 for .com domains without any price increases for the renewals of the domain. Additionally, stuff such as SS, privacy, and email are all covered which really compounds your savings.
Free SSL Certificates, Email Addresses, Domain Privacy
SSL is important for your website’s security. It’s the HTTPS that you see in the network address. Presently, Google is weighting these kinds of websites more intensely in search since they are private & secure. Be ready to pay from $9 to $70 for a year of SSL with the majority of domain registrars. But, if you do your site by Wealthy Affiliate, you’ll pay nothing which is a great deal.
They additionally offer free domain privacy. This guarantees the security of your personal address and off databases which costs somewhere from $3 to $10 per year at the majority of registrars but offered free of charge at Wealthy Affiliate. On top of that, you get an unrestricted number of email forwards and email addresses for all of your domain names. The majority of domain registrars are going to charge you every email address and charge even more for email storage in case you receive a lot of mail.
- Free Keyword Tool
As part of your membership at Wealthy Affiliate, you’ll be able to access Jaaxy which is an important keyword analysis tool. Jaaxy is entirely free of charge to all the members. You can use this tool to get ideas for writing about on your website. Keyword tools such as SEMRush will cost you $99 per month for the elementary tier and for power users can ask $1000 every month or even more. Jaaxy is offered freely to Wealthy Affiliate members and will let you find keywords, export spreadsheet data, make keyword lists, and track rankings over time.
- Proprietary Affiliate Growth Tools
For sites hosted at WA, you enjoy access to SiteComments and SiteFeedback. The two tools are compelling ways to realize your first business expanding fast. Submit your website and ask for feedback, or receive comments from individuals who want your content.
SiteFeedback assists you receive a new pair of eyes on your job and receive knowledge of how to grow your website on a page-by-page basis. On the other hand, SiteComments is a way of kick-starting engagement on your write up, getting actual people to follow the conversation and flag to Google that real people like what you’re writing.
- Stepwise Affiliate Training
Apart from what you need to operate your online marketing, you also receive training. Online marketing training is not offered by any other host at the moment. Of course, Wealthy Affiliate concentrates on the affiliate aspect of everything you need.
In addition, there are numerous resources related to E-commerce and local marketing too. So, you can still buy some sort of “how to make money online” course. By so doing, you’ll comprehensively learn how to grow your online business and be clear on how to build a successful Affiliate website. Since traffic is traffic, you can utilize all the training to generate traffic to your site regardless of what you’re selling or promoting.
- One-on-One Affiliate Support
The support which is provided at Wealthy Affiliate is incredible which essentially stems from the forum, live chat, private messaging and personal blog. If you have a campaign which is failing miserably then the members there will be more than helpful in helping you overcome the barriers that have been set before you. The amount of info-rich laden posts is really astounding, and every day it’s likely you’ll experience a nugget of knowledge that will help you build your business further. With the one-on-one support at Wealthy Affiliate, you’re in a community that truly cares for your future.
In conclusion, making money online isn’t hard after you have the best training, tools, and resources. So, if you’re serious about making money online and want to get started, I highly recommend you to join Wealthy Affiliate. You’ll not be disappointed and you’ll have everything you need to be successful. The Wealthy Affiliate is always creating successful internet marketers each and every day and I believe it’s your turn.