Questions about Domain Name and Landing Pages (7)
Hello all, I'm very new here and am trying to learn as much as possible. I've been following the beginner's guide found in the index thread, and had a few questions hopefully some of you could help me with...
I was hoping to start off with some direct-link affiliate ads (not using my own landing page), but It seems like every affiliate network I see recommended here asks for a domain name on the signup form. Are there any networks that do not require a domain name to sign up, or have a higher frequency of direct-ads? I was hoping to just jump right in and start testing without having to craft my own landing page, set up hosting; mainly because I don't understand enough about it yet to even choose a domain name... I come from a background in software, so the website creation part isn't an issue, its the semantics of how the site is presented that I don't understand yet...
So, If do need (or someone here with experience recommends that I need) to start with own domain, it is also unclear to me how you craft the websites that are used to host the landing pages. Perhaps I am overthinking it, but a few questions come to mind that I haven't been able to find answers for elsewhere:
Do you buy a new domain name for every unique niche/campaign you go into? For example, if I am thinking of starting out with international low-payout adult ads through exoclick, would you buy a domain that makes the landing page look like part of a legitimate adult community site? Or do you generally just have 1 arbitrarily named domain that you use just for hosting landing pages, media, etc. ? like "news-media-today.com", "76media.com" or something random like that?
Maybe some of you can shed some light on this topic?
The domain name they ask for on signup forms at affiliate networks has nothing to do with your campaigns and landers or what they have at the network.
Consider yourself as the owner of an internet marketing agency. You would have a website right? That is what you would put here. If you don't have a website, just put www.idonthaveawesbite.com.
However, it is wise to treat this as a business and accordingly having a simple website for your business is sensible. E.g. www.zd-marketing.com. Here's a quick page I made a while ago that you can use - http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...ighlight=slick
As for your other questions:
Domain names are cheap. Buy a generic one for tracking purposes (i.e. that tracking systems will work under). Get a generic one for various niches. For mobile for instance you could get androidapps-index.com.
I think you may be confusing terms a bit. A website is just a set of webpages. It is hosted on a server somewhere. That server has a specific IP address. A domain name points to a specific IP address, which then resolves to some set of webpages.
So, if you were to buy a domain name, you would change the domain name settings at the registrar (where you bought it) to point to specific 'nameservers'. When someone tries to go to www.mydomain.com, it queries these nameservers, which have specific details for many domains. This all falls under the umbrella of DNS configuration by the way. So, those nameservers might have details such as "mydomain.com" points to IP address "123.123.123.123". That server then has the website contents of mydomain.com hosted on it.
When someone goes to mydomain.com then end up landing on that server, which you might own and control, and are served some page from a specific directory. You can then have multiple subdirectories, so you can host unlimited landing pages there and get to them by mydomain.com/adult/lp1.html, mydomain.com/gaming/offer2/l1.php, etc. It's exactly like (other than / vs \) the directory structure we are all used to.
You can also have any number of domains point to a server. You can easily move all folders/files from one domain directory to another. Think of domain names as desktop shortcuts that just traverse a few more nodes in their path to their destination.
As for creating webpages, you can use whatever software you want - Dreamweaver, Muse, Notepad, etc., and then upload those files via FTP to your server (using e.g. FileZilla).
Thanks for the quick reply Zeno 
That definitely clears up some confusion about the website that is asked for on affiliate signup forms. About the domain name though, I think I may not have been clear on what I mean. I understand domain names, hosting config, web development/design, etc. (I do it for a living 
), but what I was trying to get at is how "authentic" a domain name like "zd-index.com" will appear in terms of convincing the potential buyer that the landing page they're on is indeed associated with the product. For example, If I have say "zd-index.com/adult/landing.php" for an adult offer, then "zd-index.com/gaming/landing.php" for a gaming offer, wouldn't those URLs look fishy to someone thinking they're on a legit site buying a legit product or service? Intuitively, my brain tells me that I would need something more along the lines of "bestlocalhookups.com/latest-offer.html" for an adult offer, and "gamersadvice101.com/get-deal.html" for a gaming offer, or is that simply unnecessary in your experience?
That question has been asked a bunch of times and the general consensus is that the URL won't have too much of an impact on conversions (people in general pay way less attention than you might think, especially the target audience of your typical CPA offer).
What you can do with generic ones like "zd-index.com" though is create subdomains for specific niches, e.g. "dating.zd-index.com", "androidapps.zd-index.com" etc. This won't cost you any extra money and might give it a more legit touch.
Pretty much what andy said - it is of little consequence but you should go to some meager effort to appear authentic, either by using subdomains or different domains for different verticals.
Apologies if I was patronising! - there are a lot of newbies around at the moment, especially in terms of technical knowledge, so I try to be verbose with certain explanations where possible as it may help others lurking about.
Just hijacking this thread as I was wondering the same thing! 
Am I right in assuming it is all about the landing page itself? The site url, site content etc. doesn't matter?
Having dealt almost exclusively with Google/Quality Score etc. for the past few years are there any similar factors that may affect your chances of getting ads approved and conversions made? The days of one page (or a few page) sales letter, Clickbank-type sites on Adwords are long gone of course, do they still work elsewhere?
Thanks!
@andyvon, great idea with the sub-domains, I like! @zeno, no worries at all, I totally understand. and thanks for the help from both of you, that clears that up for me perfectly.
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