Internet Marketing 101 (Part 2)

This is the second in a series entitled Internet Marketing 101. This series focuses on the basics of Internet Marketing; it will cover the basic pre-requisites to creating an income online and will outline all of the basics steps required to get started. This is a 5 part series and the five parts are: finding your interests, selecting and buying a domain name, selecting and finding a web host, joining affiliate programs, and building your website.

Part 2: Selecting and Buying a Domain Name

Have you been a good student? In part 1, I concluded with asking you to sit and think about specific things that you find interesting in the world. Hopefully you were able to write down your list and think about what you wrote down so that you could find one thing with which you would be passionate about working. So get your list and let’s get started.

I’m here to tell you something that you may find discouraging but if you’ve been online long enough, you will think it is expected. All the good domain names dealing with your topics have probably already been purchased. Unless you have a topic so specific and original, you will find at least a little frustration in this part of the lesson.

Now that you have been warned, head on over to your favorite domain registrar (I recommend Godaddy.com) and start searching for domain. Here are some strategies:

• Try to find good .com domain names. If .com domains are absolutely not available, look for .net or .org domains.
They are cheap but are not good for your profit potential.
• It’s OK to use dashes in your domain name. If www.widgetfactory.com is taken, try www.widget-factory.com.
• Get a domain name that is relevant to your product. Don’t get the domain www.oil.com if you are promoting water.

That’s all there is to buying domain names. You will probably find that you’ll need to spend more than 30 seconds finding and buying your domain, but I encourage you to sit back and relax. You will find something good. Get a thesaurus if you need to and look for alternate words that can help you.

Now you have a domain name but nowhere to host it. In the next article, I will help you figure out what is important in a web host and show you which features to seek out when shopping for a host.