Registering your domain
Your blog is going to focus on „dog training problems‟, hence it makes sense to register a domain name that is appropriate to this particular market.
However, because domain names are always unique, you will probably need to come up with a list of half a dozen alternatives as many of your first choice domain names will already have been taken by someone else.
If possible, you should try to register a top level may name, preferably a .com or failing that, a .net domain.
Although many domain name registrars will „sell off‟ other domain suffixes (i.e. „.info‟ domains) cheaply, it is generally accepted that these domain names are less search engine friendly and therefore less valuable.
Thus, you might save a few dollars by registering a .info domain but lose hundreds of dollars further down the line when you attempt to sell your blog because of the domain name suffix.
Once you have a shortlist of potential domain names, check on availability by using a domain name registrar like GoDaddy.com before registering one of the names that you discover is available.
In this case, whilst DogTrainingProblems.com has been taken (as I would have expected it to be), DogTrainingProblems.net is still available:
I would probably go for this as a three word URL is usually easier to remember than a four word one and it is the exact term that I am targeting. In this case, the slightly weaker .net domain name is acceptable given these counterbalancing advantages. However, if you are in a particularly popular market, you may find it difficult finding any version of the domain name of your choice. In this case, try adding words like „expert‟, „reviews‟, or „reviewer‟ after your keyword phrase, or something like „best‟ or „top‟ before it.
Web hosting and why blog flippers need to think differently…
With your domain name registered, the next thing to do is create a web hosting account, an account with a company who will rent space on their web server (i.e. their computer) to you from where you can present your blog to the world.
As there are with domain name registrars, there are dozens of web hosting companies but be wary of trying to find the cheapest web hosting account available.
Generally speaking, the reason that an individual web host is noticeably cheaper than others is because the services they provide are nowhere near as good. This in turn means that your site might be off-line for considerable periods of time, during which you are obviously making no money. For this reason, going for the flat-out cheapest is generally a false economy.
There is another important consideration regarding web hosting for anyone who is considering flipping blogs as a business as well.
Most new marketers who are creating a website or blog which they intend to keep will use what is known as shared web hosting, mainly because shared hosting is the cheapest and it is good enough from most marketers, especially in the early days.
In terms of shared hosting, the best deal on the market is that offered by HostGator.com, with their „Baby‟ shared hosting plan at $7.95 a month:
However, as an active blog flipper, using shared hosting would mean that you miss an opportunity to generate a regular monthly income from your business, which I’m sure you don’t want to do!
This is because at the next level of web hosting account you have what is known as a reseller account where you control a chunk of space on a web server. As a reseller, you can offer web hosting services to other website and blog owners, which is where your advantage as a blog flipper comes in.
If the blog that you want to flip is hosted under a shared hosting account, it means that you have to physically transfer all of the site files to the buyer on successful completion of the sale transaction. In effect, you give the site away completely and all of your income from that site has gone forever.
However, if you have a reseller hosting account, the situation is different.
To continue with our example, if you have a reseller site, you create an individual password protected account for DogTrainingProblems.net that you will use whilst you are still the blog owner.
But when you come to sell the site, you can offer to continue hosting the blog under your reseller account simply by giving the login information and password to the buyer. By doing so, you keep a valuable income channel open.
For example, you might offer the buyer free web hosting for three or six months on the understanding that after this period, they start to pay you for hosting. In this way, you quickly build up an additional income stream from your web hosting activities.
It is therefore well worth considering investing a little more money in a reseller hosting account rather than plumping for the „plain vanilla‟ shared hosting highlighted previously.
As someone who is a hosting reseller for exactly these reasons, the best deal that I have come across in terms of value for money allied to both professionalism and reliability is Lypha Networks whose reseller plans start at just $14.95 per month, assuming that you can pay three or six months in advance.
Using basic shared hosting misses a great opportunity to generate an additional income. You should therefore give serious consideration to a reseller account because it will very quickly pay for itself many times over.
Tying your domain name and hosting account together
With the domain registered and a web hosting account established, the final job is to tie the two together, a process that is known as „changing the DNS‟.
Although this may sound technical or complicated, it is in fact a fairly simple process.
Open your domain name registry account, click on the domain that you have just created (1) and look for the „Name Server‟ button at the top of the page (2). This is the GoDaddy „look‟ but even if you are using another domain registrar, it should look similar:
Next, go to your e-mail box and open the „Welcome‟ e-mail that you received from your web host. Look for the „Name Server Information‟.
You will have a primary and a secondary address that reads something like „GT.DNSPROTECT.COM, 75.9.289.110‟.
Copy and paste either the name or number allocated to both the primary and secondary address into the appropriate boxes on the name server change page before clicking the „OK‟ button shown at the bottom of this screenshot:
Within 24 hours, the changes will be finalized. Now, anyone who types DogTrainingProblems.net into their browser will be redirected to your web hosting account.
That‟s another job done.
