Choose an Appropriate
Domain Name
Although you are
going to attempt
to generate income by promoting a dog food related products as an
affiliate, the primary focus of your site is going to be on boxer dog
training. The next job is to register a domain name that is relevant to
the subject matter of the site that you are going to create.
Ideally, this
domain
name should be one that is directly related to the primary subject
matter of your site, although that may be situations where you choose a
domain name that is related to the product or service you are promoting.
This is important,
because having a domain name that is appropriate or related to the
primary subject matter of your site makes it easier for both human
visitors and the search engines to understand what your site is about
from that domain name.
It also helps when
you
are promoting your business a little further down the line, so choosing
the domain name that is directly related to your topic has plenty of
value to your business.
I mentioned that
sometimes, you will choose a domain name that is related to a product
or service that you are promoting. This is most appropriate if you were
going to create your own product as in this case, you would try to give
the product a name that is directly related to your subject matter.
Hence in this
situation,
the topic of your site, product name and the domain name you choose
would all logically tie together very neatly.
For example, if
you were
going to make your own product that is specifically related to boxer
dog training, you would choose a name for your product where the
appropriate domain name is still available.
If you were going
to
create 'The Boxer Training Bible' for example, you would check that the
same domain name is available before starting the product creation
process.
As every domain
name on
the internet has to be unique (there is, for example, only one
Google.com or yahoo.com), if someone else has already grabbed the name,
you cannot do so.
Because every
domain
name is unique, you should try to come up with a list of the least half
a dozen viable alternative names before beginning the registration
process. By doing so, you ensure that a least one of the names which
you are considering registering is still available.
In the current
scenario,
the primary thrust of the site that you are considering building is to
give people information about dog training and in particular, how to
train boxer dogs. Consequently, it makes sense to focus on boxer dog
training when you are registering your domain name.
In order to
register a
domain name of your choice, you need to use an online domain name
registration organization like The Internet Company. On their website,
you simply type in the domain name that you want to register to check
for availability.
This is a name
that
might work for the market in which you are thinking of building a
business:

Click on the
'Search'
button to check on availability and note that I have left the domain
name suffix on the default setting so that I am applying for a '.com'
name. Wherever possible, you should always use .com in preference to
any other suffix because despite the surfeit of new domain name
suffixes over the past few years, the vast majority of net users still
think of the World Wide Web as being a '.com place'.
This in turn means
that
when they vaguely remember a domain name, most people will type their
best guess plus .com into their browser window. Consequently, if you
have any other suffix rather than owning a .com site, you will lose
visitors who are trying to remember the name or URL of your site.
As suggested,
because
every domain name is unique, you will undoubtedly find that many of the
most popular names that immediately pop into your head when you are
tried to think of something suitable for your new site will already be
taken.
However, in this
case,
the name that I have selected is still available, so I would go through
the process of registering the domain on The Internet Company website:

As part of the
domain
registration process, you will be offered a choice of how long you want
to register the name for. Although you can register for as short a
period as only one year, I would recommend that you register your new
domain for at least two years. This is because it is generally agreed
that Google and the other major search engines accord more credibility
to domain names that are registered for more than one year than they do
to those that are registered for the shortest possible time.
However, there is
a
counterargument to this, especially in a situation where you register a
domain name that is very specific to one particular product (as many
marketers do).
In this case, you
have
no way of knowing how long the product you are promoting is going to be
popular in the market, and it becomes unpopular, no-one will be
interested in buying it. It is therefore possible that you could end up
with a product-specific domain name with no attractive product that you
can realistically promote by using it. Thus, there is a degree of care
necessary if you're going to register a domain name that is very
product specific.
Remembering
however that
the main target market for the site that I am creating in this
particular example is populated by people who are looking for
information pertaining to training boxer dogs and that I am not
promoting a specific product in the domain name, this is not a problem.
I would therefore
register this particular domain name for a period of at least two
years, which is something I would always recommend you should consider.
BoxerDogTrainingExpert.com it is then!
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