But I Know I Gave Them The Right URL...

It's no fun losing a commission or a prospect you earned because they wandered off on their own and ended up buying or coming in under someone else.

Unfortunately, it's something we all have to deal with when doing business online.

One of the easiest ways for this to happen is when a prospect is given a website address over the phone. But it can also take place through an email or any other conceivable way they might view your link.

One of the most common reactions the first few times this happens to someone is: "But I know I gave them the right url."

The problem, however, was not that it wasn't the right url... the problem was that the prospect didn't like the url they were given.

You see, anytime you're marketing a product online for another company (whether as a network marketer or an affiliate or whatever), the url you're going to be using is going to look something like this:
www.yourname.xyzcompany.com or like this: www.xyzcompany.com/1a2b3c4d

The first kind of url is called a sub domain and it has a few advantages over the second kind which is called a file or a folder, but either way...

Both of them are causing you to lose business.

Which is why the very first thing I tell someone to do if they're planning on doing ANY kind of marketing or advertising on the internet (and especially if they're planning on doing offline advertising that leads TO a website... ) is to...

Buy your own domain name!

This is simply a must if you want to use the internet to grow your business. It's not optional.

And here's why...

Most people, when they see a url like this www.xyzcompany.com/123abc, will simply chop off everything after the "/" and just go to the main company site. Whether out of curiosity or because they can't remember the full url or because they actually don't want the affiliate themselves to get the commission (c'mon, you know you've done it yourself ; ), this happens all the time.

Sub domains (www.yourname.xyzcompany.com), like I said, are a little better... but you're still dealing with the same problem. For any number of reasons people will leave out the "bob" part and just go to the main site.

The problem is most pronounced when you combine the offline world with the online world (which is kind of a bummer because this is the most powerful way to grow an online business).

It's even worse on the phone.

If you've got a big, complicated url, no matter how many times you repeat it someone, even if they genuinely do want to go to your site, the odds of them getting it wrong are astronomical.

And heaven forbid you don't give them any url at all. Give them the name of the company or the product you're promoting, leave them to their own devises to find it themselves and you're basically building someone else's business.

Your prospect does have a mind of their own and they will go off and do their own research... and this isn't like the innocent "going to the library" type of research. With the kind of research we're talking about - research that involves cookies and ip addresses and all that fun stuff - merely "clicking" on someone else's website can mean they're connected to that person now and not you.

You have to do everything you can to ensure you get credit for your efforts. This means having your own domain.

If you're talking with a prospect on the phone you want to be able to direct them to www.yourdomain.com, NOT your affiliate url. This way, your domain is the only place they can go. There's nothing for them to remove from the url, there's no main site to go to. Your domain is the main site.

Then... you have your domain name redirect the prospect to your affiliate url.


You see, if a program that you're promoting uses cookies and ip address identification to ensure you get credit for the sale, once someone visits your affiliate url you've pretty much locked in the commission when they do end up buying. Even if they clear their cookies - something that many internet users do on a regular basis - they're still tied to you through their ip address.

The key thing is getting them there so that that they can be tagged. Once they're tagged to you, even if they totally forget about you and your url for 3 months and then end up coming back to the main site, they're still tied to you.

However... even cookies and ip address identification aren't bullet-proof. It's still possible to lose a prospect after they visit your url even if they never clear their cookies.

How?

By using a different computer.


Many people who work in an office surf the internet during the day and then come home later and buy whatever they were looking at.

Whatever cookies their office pc picked up won't carry over to their home computer and of course the ip addresses are different.

If the url you were using was something like www.xyzcompany.com/456789 do you think they're going to remember the whole thing? Are they going to remember the part that ensures you get the sale?

Maybe. But probably not.

The majority of the time they're just going to remember the main part of the domain and type that in.

See the problem with using affiliate or referral urls like this? They're not easy to remember. Having your own domain makes it easier for your prospect to come back to you later. If www.yourdomain.com was the only url they were given, that's the only place they can return to.

But even more important is that there's nothing unique or differentiating about having an affiliate url. Everyone's got one. You need to stand out from the crowd as someone worth paying attention to.



Is it worth it?

Well, if it helps you keep just one sale you would have otherwise lost you've made up for the $9 or so registration fee right there.

But that's not all.

Those are all just tracking problems - merely one way you're losing money by not having your own domain name. Another way (and perhaps a bigger way) these long, ugly, cumbersome urls are costing you money is...

Conversions!

It's very simple. More people will click on a url that looks like this www.bobsmlmreport.com as opposed to this www.xyzcompany.com/456789



The problem with www.xyzcompany.com/456789 is that it's nothing special. There's nothing exciting about it because you're blatantly stating right there in the domain itself that you're just one of who knows how many people that are promoting that website. It's missing the "curiosity factor" that is sooo critical in good salesmanship. There's nothing that really makes the prospect want to find out more.



www.bobsmlmreport.com however... is different. No one else has a domain like that. It immediately makes your prospect think "Hmm, I wonder what that's all about... "

In order to "pull" people in to you, you have to have a unique edge that sets you apart.

Plus, bobsmlmreport.com is cleaner... more attractive... it "flows" better... and it looks more professional.

Let's face it, who's gonna take someone seriously that claims to be able to help them make money online... when they don't even have their own domain name!?

This is the offline equivalent of not having your own phone number.

I can say for myself that there have been more than a few times in the past where I haven't clicked on an ad for the sole reason that an affiliate url was being used.

People want to do business with people who know what they're doing. It's very hard to convey this image without at least being able to say that you own a $9 chunk of internet real estate yourself with your own domain.

If you don't already have one, this is the first thing I would recommend you do before taking any further steps in your business.

You can do so through GoDaddy here. This is where I buy all of my domains and their prices are about as good as you can get.

Just make sure that you redirect your domain name to whatever url you really want it to point to. It's very easy and you don't have to know any code to do it. Go Daddy's help section covers the whole process.

Now, something else you really want to consider doing is getting your own email account. For example: bob@bobsmlmreport.com instead of bob_1963@hotmail.com.

This step is crucial because, again, it's all about positioning yourself as a valuable resource and an expert who's able to help people.

If you saw the two addresses above in your inbox, which one would give you the impression of a business owner who takes what they're doing seriously?

GoDaddy offers email accounts at your own domain and this is super cheap as well. I think it was $10 a year last time I checked.

What this all boils down to is getting people to come to you, right? That's the ultimate goal we're all striving for. Well...

... The key to attracting people is giving them good reasons to follow you (aka - "uniqueness").