(1) Setting up your domain account
I have bought domains from both namecheap.com and godaddy.com.
I suggest using domains from godaddy if you would like to mask your domains as godaddy provides this Masking Your Domain feature (domains from namecheap.com do not come with this feature).
You can goggle for "discount coupon codes in godaddy" to get discount codes. The most attractive deal I have found so far is a deal which offers 35% off domains (i.e. I paid $7.67 for one ".com" domain, I actually purchased for a 2-year period to capture the low pricing). You can click on the icon directly if you would like to grab this same deal.
You can also visit namecheap.com by clicking on the below banner to compare the prices of the domains you would like to purchase.
(2) Setting up Your Hosting Account
For me, I bought the baby plan under hostgator as it's the recommended plan since it can host unlimited domains. You can compare the plans here at http://www.hostgator.com/shared.shtml.
Do also google for coupon codes to find the best deal. One of the best and valid coupons which I found and used is "Valuediscount25". Just remember to key in the coupon code you want to use before payment in order to get the discount.
Another thing I like about Hostgator is that they have a very good "Live Chat" support system. They helped me solve my problems almost immediately. Just click on the "Live Chat" icon at the top right hand corner of their home page if you need their help.
One other thing to note, please use "Firefox" as your browser, it can help you prevent issues that even Hostgator cannot resolve. That was what happened to me. My problems were automatically resolved when I changed from "Internet Explorer" to "Firefox".
* Do remember to change your DNS settings if you are hosting your Godaddy domain under Hostgator.
For Ewen Chia's students, please refer to your own training materials. For others, please search for relevant videos in youtube. Alternatively, if you haven't invested in Ewen Chia's Cloning Program to physically attend his workshops, you may wish to invest in the tutorials found by clicking on the below banner to get access to his videos. The cost is really insignificant when compared to the cost of the training workshops, but these materials are also very helpful to you when it comes to starting your internet business.
(3) Basic Forwarding of Merchant's Page
First you need to understand what is the purpose of doing this. This is also known as "Masking Your Domain".
What is "Masking Your Domain"?
"Masking Your Domain" is also known as "link cloaking". People by nature generally don’t like to be sold and will trust you less (in the same way people don’t trust sales persons) and are less likely to buy when they suspect that you earn a commission for recommending a product. Using an uncloaked affiliate link, can decreases conversion rates and that means less sales and less money for your efforts.
Therefore, it is useful to mask your long affiliate link with a domain that you purchased, such as http://www.xyz.com/. For detailed instructions on how to mask your affiliate link using Godaddy, go to youtube and search for videos using "Domain Name Forwarding and Masking in Godaddy". This is the link to a step-by-step video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHUH-4k_2fE.
Summary - What I did:
(a) Find a product that I want to promote in clickbank. Register as an affiliate and obtain the long affiliate link.
(b) Go to my godaddy account and forward and mask my link following the instructions per the youtube video.
Yes, I have my new affiliate link page under my own domain name now!
That's all for today. I spent quite a lot of time figuring the above. If you follow all the instructions above, you would have already achieve something in a shorter time compared to me! That's the reason why I am documenting all these down, to help remind myself.
For any technical questions, please go directly to your vendor, such as Godaddy and Hostgator.
