Choosing a Domain Name For Affiliate Marketing [Step By Step Guide]

Today I want to share with you step-by-step guide on how to choose a domain name for affiliate marketing website.

The first step before creating your affiliate marketing website is to choose a domain name. Choosing the right domain name is not an easy task and this for a few reasons.

First, it could affect how fast you rank. So certain domain names might have a faster speed to get ranked.

It could also affect how easy outreach comes to you.

Or how easy it is to sell your site later so it’s a very important decision to make.

But first, let me go through a few definitions for you on the different types of domain names you can have.

Exact Match Domain Name

Exact Match Domains contains all of your main keywords. The benefit of EMD is you can rank fast. And the reason is this, the topic is pretty set in stone when you pick a domain name.

And if I were to decide to pick a domain like BestVitaminCSerum.com, I’ve just decided, I set it in stone, this is what the topic of my domain is going to be about, I’m committed to it.

So, Google has a really easy chance to figure out what your site is about.

And that’s to have the name, and again when you’re creating your onsite SEO, is just to tell Google what this is what it is about. This shortcut that process.

The bad side of EMDs that, they’re hard to do outreach for. People don’t like to link to the BestVitaminCSerum.com.

It’s also easy to over-optimize for example when it comes to anchor texts and sending links to your site. And in addition, they’re not as easy to sell later on.

Exact Match Domain Examples

Some examples of EMD’s would be like

• “BestVitaminCSerum”

• “BestGamingLaptops”

Partial Match Domain Name

The definition here is it contains some of your keywords that you wan to rank for.

So, this would be kind of like on all the points that I mentioned before, the speed to rank, the ease at which you can do outreach, and the ease at which you can slip it.

It’s moderate on all these fronts.

Partial Match Domain Examples

So, some examples of this might be:

• “VitaminCResources”

• “NailFungusPros”

• “Wartrollnfo”

So that makes it a Partial Match Domain.

We’ve mixed in some extra words in there and it gives us some moderate effect on all those factors before.

Branded Domain Name

The definition is it just contains none of your main keywords but it could be related to the topic you’re trying to rank for.

The characteristics of a branded domain, at least as it applies to you and ranking and monetizing is, typically, they rank slower, it’s because they don’t have any topic branded or built right into the domain name itself.

It’s much easier to do outreach because people like to link to branded domains that don’t have a commercial intent automatically built into the domain name.

And also, they’re easy and nice to flip.

Branded Domain Examples

So, some examples would be:

• “Businessolution”

• “SkinStartsWithC”

• “ToeFixers”

These are all examples of branded domains.

5 Tips to Choose Best Domain Name For Affiliate Marketing

Here are the five tips for your affiliate marketing domain name:

1. Keep your domain short
2. Make your domain name easy to pronounce
3. Make it unique and brandable
4. Choose the right domain extension
5. Try to think a year ahead

And I’ll go through these points here now and then afterward I will actually go and I’ll go and choose a domain name along with you.

So, let’s talk about these points here.

1. Keep Your Domain Short

Fairly obvious, right?

The longer the domain name, the more awkward is because it’s more difficult to brand, spell, and write into the URL bar.

And most importantly, it’s more difficult to remember.

And if it doesn’t stick in people’s heads is more difficult to make a long-term sort of bond with your audience.

So, let’s say you’ve chosen a micro-niche within the weight loss niche and you’re thinking of doing a domain name called “losingweightwithkatetoday.com”

It’s too long.

Shrink it down.

And I’ll tell you how to do it in a moment.

2. Make Your Domain Name Easy to Pronounce

Don’t use any abbreviations, no slang, no “z” instead of “s’s”, no hip hop language, no localized language or localized slang.

So, if you’re in America don’t use American slang as only known in America.

If you’re in the UK, don’t use local slang that’s only known to your local area.

Your audience is worldwide.

Keep it simple, short and easy to pronounce.

3. Make it Unique and Brandable

I’ll give you two examples of two different domain names. Now you tell me which one you think is more unique and brandable.

Imagine if you’re in the Atkins diet niche. You’re creating a blog about the Atkins diet and you choose a domain name called “LosingWeightWithTheAtkins Diet.com”, or you have “WeightlossJourney.com,”

Which one do you think is shorter, easier to remember, and more unique and brandable for the future?

The second one, “weightlossjourney.com.”

So, again, you want something short, simple, unique and brandable, easy to pronounce.

4. Choose the Right Domain Extension

Here are the most common domain extensions:

• .com
• .net
• .org
• .co
• .us

“.com” is still the most trusted domain extension in the world.

I highly recommend sticking with the .com domain.

If for any reason you cannot use the .com, try out the .org or .net because they are also very recognizable.

Don’t go for “.biz” or “.io” or “.online” if you want to build a serious affiliate marketing business.

5. Try to Think a Year Ahead

And last one, number five is, think a year ahead.

Because as you grow your affiliate site, in a year or two years from today, you are going to develop as a marketer, you will develop new skills, you’ll network, you’ll expand, you’ll become a full-time marketer which means your business is going to grow in terms of the volume of content, videos and paid traffic and so on and so forth.

So, you do not want to pigeonhole yourself or trap yourself into one particular niche, which means that you want to think a year ahead, and again, I’ll give you an example.

Let’s take that the Atkins diet again, for example, you’re thinking about creating a blog about the Atkins diet.

I’ll give you two domain names.

The first domain name, “loseweightwithatkinsdiet.com”.

The second domain name, “weightlossjourney.com”.

Weight loss journey, you can then expand into other niches.

So, let’s say in a year from today, you want to elaborate and move from the Atkins diet or include the Atkins diet but also move into the keto diet or to some sort of plant-based diet, you can because the domain name is “weight loss journey”.

Whereas the other one, you’re trapping yourself within one niche because you mentioned the Atkins diet in the title.

Summary

So, you want to make sure that you think a year ahead and try and follow these rule:

1. Keep it short
2. Easy to pronounce
3. Unique and brandable,
4. The right extension
5. Think a year ahead

And then you will choose a domain name for your affiliate website that is going to be okay.

Is it going to be perfect?

No, you cannot choose the one and only perfect domain name for your first time.

Because you are brand new and in a year from today you may think, “I should have chosen a different domain name”, but you know what?

It doesn’t matter right now.

Don’t overthink it.

How To Choose a Domain Name For Affiliate Marketing Step-by-Step

Now, I’m going to show you how to choose a domain name for your affiliate site by doing some research.

Let’s say my niche is going to be horse race trading.

And now I’m going to show you how to use these five points to sort of eliminate any potential mistakes.

If you don’t understand what that niche is, it’s simply a niche within the gambling industry. It’s a micro niche within gambling.

So, let’s look at the list here.

Let’s say for argument sake, I want to go for something like horseracetrading.com.

But that in itself is a good domain name because it’s short, sweet, it tells you exactly what it is so technically that is a good domain name.

But there’s one problem, this word “horse,”. This here will pigeonhole me because horse race trading means that domain name is going to be very, very stuck in that niche.

Imagine in a year, in two years from today I become an authority within the horse racing business. I make money, I grow, I’ve gained more followers, I’m making more money.

And then I want to delve into football trading or soccer trading. If I’ve got a website called horse race trading, that’s going to be difficult.

I can still rank, I can still get in traffic, but on the sort of the branding scale and in terms of like the business overall feel, if you are looking for football or soccer trading tips, going to a site called horse race trading isn’t really that relevant.

So, if I were to go for “horseracetrading.com,” I can absolutely, but I have to be matured enough and except I’m pigeonholing myself into that one niche.

Could I expand to other ones?

Yes, but it will be more difficult to brand.

So if I would like my affiliate site to be in a more general gambling niche I would need to search for other domain names.

Affiliate Marketing Domain Name Ideas

• “ProTrading.com”

• “EasyTrader.com”

• “Fulltimetrader.com”

I’m just brainstorming her so you guys can understand how you can take a very specific niche and turn it into a single one- or two-word domain name but still applicable to your niche.

And those ones will do just fine if they’re available because there’s trading and it’s easy to remember.

But there is one problem with those domain names…

Narrowing Down to Match Your Affiliate Niche

Then again, I’m thinking, well, these here, my guess is these will probably flag up more kind of forex, stock trading, and that kind of thing. I want to kind of narrow it down to the sports area.

So, I could say, for example, let’s say

• “ProSports.com”

• “ProSportsTrader.com”

• “Full-timeSportsTrader.com”

• “UKtrader.com.”

• “TradingCenter.com”

• “TradingAcademy.com

So, you can see how if I were to go for full-time sports trader or pro sports trader or something along these lines, suddenly I could later expand into other avenues.

So that’s the idea; you want to kind of try and hit these points here and think a year ahead and be logical about this.

But like I said, if I wanted to go for “horseracetrading.com”, that’s absolutely fine because I know for a fact that if I were to only focus on horse racing, that’s enough because there’s more than enough content, ideas, expansion, paid traffic and free traffic and stuff like that I can do and work with.

So, for me guys, you know what, I’m actually quite happy to go with “horseracetrading.com,” that’s simple.

Why?

Because I know my niche, I’ve run these things for a while and I know that for me there is enough content within the horse racing industry for me to have enough content for years to come.

I know that because there are so many strategies, methods, ideas, theories, stuff to discuss that I’m going to have too much content already on my own to cover within that niche.

So, I’m more than happy, I’m happy to pigeonhole myself into only the horse-trading niche because it’s okay.

Avoid Copyrighted Content

Also on a side note, a little extra tip here, as an affiliate you want to avoid copyrighted content.

So, you want to make sure that you don’t include the product name in your URL because it’s very important because that is going to cause problems for you later.

Where to Buy a Domain Name?

There are many domain registrars like Namecheap, GoDaddy, Domain.com, and more. What I recommend is Bluehost because they offer a free domain name if you decide to purchase a hosting web host from this provider.

Conclusion

So this is how to choose a domain for your affiliate marketing business. I think you get the point.

Make sure your affiliate marketing domain name is short, simple, easy to pronounce and think a year ahead.

And as always guys, please any questions, drop comment below!