What’s your domain / site ratio ?
I think many affiliates will recognise this . . . It’s a lot easier to think of an idea and buy a domain than it is to get your head down and develop a website (mostly due to the need for relevant, enticing and original content). Near the start of the year I decided to put a self imposed ban on new domain purchases until I had “completed” some more sites. I’m not saying I completely obeyed the ban but I was a lot more conscious of the need to get some more sites live.
Thanks in part to a few white labels, as of the beginning of the week I got my domain / site ratio down to 82%, something that I was well pleased with. Some of the sites are not quite finished and I’m still tinkering with them but I’m counting them as developed when they have got a site and content on.
And so today I have pushed my ratio way back down by buying a portfolio of 18 new travel domains (via eBay). Looks like I will be busy in August !
What’s your ratio? Have you got a domain name buying habit?
Travel domains at auction
Google Domain Parking
You can tell how often I look at my AdSense account,
Apparently this came out in December but I have just noticed that it seems like Google is cutting out the middle man and has launched a domain parking service as part of their AdSense suite of services which enable website publishers to make money from having relevant ads on their website / in their feeds. If you don’t know what I mean, I currently have one small AdSense advert on this site, all the way at the bottom, right hand side under the blogroll. In all honesty it’s just there in case Google gives me a better showing in the search results if they think my visitors may click an ad and add to their bank balance.
Now, I’m sure there will be people saying that big G is already too powerful and this domain parking is just a ploy to filter out all the parked domains from their search results. I’m not so sure about that but it is something to consider. Aside from that another concern is that payouts may not actually be higher than say with sedo parking because I’m guessing that Google operate some sort of tiered performance payout like many affiliate schemes do so sedo can probably negotiate a high margin or anyway move to yahoo.
Possible advantages of domain parking at Google.
- Payout should be higher. At least in theory.
- Keeps things simpler if you already have an adsense account, you don’t need another one at a domain parking company.
- Don’t have to list your domain for sale (as you do at sedo).
Possible drawbacks of domain parking at Google.
- No way to sell the domain with this method.
- For me and my 1and1 domains – the DNS settings on 1and1 are limited to 30 characters which is too short for Google so you have to first register with another DNS service.
I think it’s better to develop sites than park them, even if that means one page of your own content relevant to the keywords in the domain / the subject area you are wanting to market later on but this is an interesting development and will hopefully push companies like sedo to innovate with their exisiting domain parking service.
I bought a second hand domain name
Buying a “used” domain name
Well I bought 2 actually. I transferred the domains into 1&1 and notified nominet.
The charge at Nominet is £10 per URL (plus VAT), 1and1 charge their normal registration fees which last 2 years.
I am now the proud owner of www.losangelesflights.co.uk & www.cheaphotelsintenerife.co.uk
Just for the time being I have deeplinked them to relevant pages.
LA Flights is going to an LAX page at Opodo
While cheaphotelsintenerife.co.uk is going to a Playa Las Americas hotel page at Sunshine.
(Edit March 09 – it’s now a fully fledged wordpress site)
An alternative would have been to park them at Sedo but fact is that I will be lucky to get any revenue from either method.
This is an important tip I think : I need to stop buying domains and concentrate on developing websites, creating brilliant content, and encouraging my visitors to buy from my retail partners.
One of the reasons I put the info that I have got these 2 domains is to encourage me to get them developed. A bit of self motivation.
Custom blogger domain using 1and1
I wrote this tutorial while changing http://free-holidays.blogspot.com to http://winholiday.co.uk . This will be easier for people to type in / remember, I am also hoping this will look more professional, get a better search engine rank and better help me target a UK audience.
The great thing is that blogger still host the blog for free, so that’s one less thing to worry about.
“Your DNS-Settings have been saved, your domain will be updated accordingly“
6) Now you’re back at the Domain Overview screen, check the tickbox next to your domain name again, click destination from the horizontal menu then select edit destination from the dropdown.
7) Select Destination Type = select Forward Your Domain
Forwarding Destination = your domain name, so e.g. I put http://winholiday.co.uk
Forwarding Type = HTTP redirect
Press OK, you should get a success message and then press to go to overview.
8) Choose New from the horizontal menu then select Create subdomain from the dropdown. You come to a screen called New Subdomain. In the box just put www (not www.) and select the domain you are dealing with, then press create.
9) You should be back at the Overview screen and you should be able to see the new subdomain and the status is probably “Applying”. Go and make a cup of tea.
Next it’s over to blogger, but it’s best to wait until you see the status of the subdomain in the 1&1 control panel change to “Ready”. This can take a couple of hours.
How to setup a blogger blog with your own domain name
1) Log in to your blogger dashboard.
2) Choose the blog you want the custom domain to be used on.
3) Click on Settings
4) Click on Publishing, click to switch to custom domain and then switch to advanced settings under the bit where they offer to sell you a domain.
5) Put your domain name in the box, so in my example I enter “winholiday.co.uk”
6) Complete the word verification box and then “save settings”.
7) Try out your new custome domain blog.
Any problems with this post a comment and I will try and help you out.
More detailed info on the blogger process is here
Transferring a .co.uk domain with nominet to 1and1
Another tutorial to do with domains and 1and1.
This time it’s how to transfer a domain to 1and1 that you have bought from someone else.
If it’s a .co.uk domain, you also need to transfer the registration at Nominet the company that deals with all .co.uk domains.
How to deal with 1and1
Before you can do anything you have to tell the person who sold you the domain to change the “IPSTAG” to “SCHLUND”
1) Login to your 1and1 account.
2) Choose any of your packages and you will be in the admin area.
3) Click on manage domains, then you will see on the horizontal navigation “transfers”. Select that and choose “start transfer”.
4) You should now be on a page where you can input your domain in the domain check box. Do that including the .co.uk but leaving out any http:// or www. Press submit.
5) It will come up saying the domain is registered but suggest that you transfer registrar. Accept the terms and conditions and press next.
6) Press next again.
7) Choose “Use the 1&1 name servers.” and press next. Almost there.
8) Now you get to pay. You need to confirm it’s OK for your card to be hit for the 2 years registration and also that you are the rightful owner.
How to deal with nominet
Transferring a .co.uk domain through nominet is very automated.
1) You will recieve an email from nominet. Click on the link in the email.
2) Login to your nominet account. This could be the trickiest bit.
3) Fill in your name and address
4) Choose your VAT status
5) Pay.
Domain Registration
Domain Registration Tips
- In general, go for .co.uk domains as in travel industry you will be trying to attract UK web-visitors and registering a .co.uk domain is a way search engines know your target audience is UK. You might want to go for .com or .net if you will have general travel tips and are trying to make money from adsense rather than generating affiliate traffic for airlines, agencies and tour operators. In the case of adsense your visitors could be from any country and you can make money. Or you could be trying to attract visitors to the UK, then .com could be useful
- In terms of what you should go for my advice is to go for something as descriptive as possible. For example, if you have good knowledge of gambia then you might want to try gambiapackageholiday.co.uk. I think it’s useful to look at keyword searches in Google to give you an insight of what popular search terms are. You will find that a lot of your ideal domains are already taken so you might have to do a lot of searches. Sometimes the one you want is for sale though and can be picked up fairly cheaply. Sedo list 2 million domains for sale.
- Does hyphenating your domain-name help search engines or will it be just as effective as a non hyphenated domainname? I had been told many years ago that hyphenated was best for search engines if you have 2 or more words involved. However when I looked into this more recently it seems search engines are now clever enough to split out combinedwords in domain names so it doesn’t matter only to say that most people will more likely find your site naturally by a non hyphenated URL.
I have registered my domains at 1and1. I use 1and1 / 1&1 because when I was looking they were the cheapest way to register .co.uk domains. Every time I have checked they have been cheapest. It’s the 1and1 business model to offer domain registration cheap in the hope that clients will add extra services such as web hosting.
I find their control panel fine to use, if only a bit slow. It’s easy to forward domains and also switching blogger / blogspot blogs to the custom domain held by 1and1 was easy too. I have also bought a domain second hand from someone else and transferred it into 1and1 via nominet and that was trouble free and fee free. They do charge a transfer fee out though.
1&1 have an auto-renewal feature that will automatically charge you every time the contract runs out (typically after 2 years) and begin a new one. This is useful as you don’t want to have a domain you are using get bought up by someone else when it lapses, however if there are domains you no longer want then you need to tell 1&1. See the guide to cancelling auto-renewal of domains with 1and1
Cancel auto renewal of 1and1 domain
Cancel auto renewal of domain with 1and1 ( 1&1 )
“….. you must follow the link e-mailed to you. “
” Please note: Your cancellation will not be completed until you have activated your request by accessing this website link and confirming the cancellation request.”
Your cancellation request has now been activated and the cancellation of your package, or the component within your package, is now complete.”
