Art Of Money

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This article builds off of my previous post about how I discovered the technique of using domain names as affiliate links. In the last couple years I have used the technique quite a bit and have noticed the following 7 major benefits.

They Become Valuable As Domain Names

Aged domain names have value. I like to grab something generic, so that it can be re-purposed easily. For example if YouTube had an affiliate program I would grab a domain (always a .com) like OnlineVideos.com. That way it can have value beyond what it is currently being used for.

This way, as I use and promote my affiliate link, the domain is being aged and is developing value that a normal affiliate link would never have. It has turned into an asset in your online business. Rich Dad fans will know that you get rich by acquiring assets.

You Can Use Them on Forums and in Emails

The other advantage of using a dedicated domain as an affiliate link is that you can use them in forum signatures and email signatures without raising suspicion.

In these places, especially email, where you can’t create an anchor text, most affiliate links are so ugly or long (think Amazon) that they would be ridiculous.

They Can Get Listed In Search Engines

I have actually had one of these “sites” which is nothing more than a domain name redirected to the merchant’s site, show up on the front page of MSN search for the keyword that I was targeting. I had many many clicks and sales directly from the search results page.

I’ve never seen it happen on any other search engine, but it is still worth a shot. This one will work with a regular redirect as well, you don’t need to have a domain to have this happen.

Use Domains to Build Out Virtual Real Estate

Once you have used a domain for an affiliate link, you have another great option available. To build out the site into a full fledged website, and still benefit from the traffic.

If you have used the link extensively, you could also leverage the traffic by putting a squeeze page, or mini-site on it to grab email addresses before you pass people onto the merchant’s site.

Both of this techniques can leverage the power of your domain and increase the earning potential of your business.

Pick up the Page Rank of the Destination Site

When you 301 redirect a site, it will “suck up” the Page Rank of the page it is redirected to. Strange phenomena, but it works.

Side note: This is how a lot of online scams are setup. Take a domain and redirect it to a page on Yahoo.com, then remove the redirect, build a bit of content on the site, and sell it as a Page Rank 8 site, or sell links from it. Be quick though, it will all crash down the next time Google updates Page Rank.

Up until a couple weeks ago I was using this site http://www.smdwebhosting.net/ to promote a page with a Page Rank 4. As of today, this “site” has a Page Rank of 4 and it has never even had a website on it. All I did was setup a redirect and then use it in an article which I submitted to E-Zine Articles.

Get More Clicks

As I mentioned in my previous story, it is difficult to test definitively but based on circumstantial evidence there is a 4 to 5 time increase in click throughs with a related domain redirect as opposed to a standard affiliate link.

No way to know if this traffic converts higher or not, but just getting 4 times as many people to look at the merchant’s offer has to be a good thing.

Use in Distributed Articles

Another way you can use a redirected domain as an affiliate link is to use it in articles that you are distributing. A typical affiliate link would probably get your article rejected, and even if it was accepted it would just look tacky.

The other benefit of this method is, that you can still control where the link is point to, even if the articles are published all over the Internet.

Let’s say you promoted an insurance affiliate program. You wrote a bunch of articles and were doing great, and then the merchant closed their affiliate program, or changed their links. You can simply update the redirect on your domain and not lose all the investment you made into building traffic through that link.

There you have it, my highly Stumble-icious list of 7 great reasons to use domains as affiliate links.

You’ll likely never hover over a link the same way again

Jon