How I Host My New Dot-Com Websites For FREE!
by Michael Hopkins
When it comes to selling online, one thing is certain: a small focused website that features justone lead product will far outsell a big website thatfeatures lots of products and links.
By focusing on just one product, you avoid distracting your visitors or forcing them to make decisions. That way, they'll take the time to study your product and the chances of making a sale are vastly increased.
I can see the evidence for this in my own business.While the main company website continues to bring in a steady stream of sales, it's actually the individual websites for each of my ebooks that are responsible for the lion's share of orders.
The problem, however, with having one website for everysingle product is that it adds a lot of extra overheads. In general you're looking at minimum $100 for any kind ofwebhosting and somewhere between $8 and $35 for a domain name.
These are not huge figures, but let's face it, costs are costs and if you're in business you want to keep them as low as possible.
That's why I felt it was worth sharing with you my little'trick' for setting up brand new websites for just the price of a domain name.
This week I launched a new website for my ebook publishing guide. The TOTAL cost to set up this new website was just $8.97!
So how did I manage that?
Well, the first step I took was to set up a new folder(directory) in my existing webhosting account that would be the 'home' for my new website.
----------------NOTE---------------------This method can also be applied effectively to many free hosting services. Just ask your domain name registrar if they'll be able to redirect to your free hosting service address before you buy the domain name.-------------------------------------------
Next I designed the website, and published it to the folder I'd just created.
Then, I went along to the domain name registrar and bought the domain name I wanted for $8.97. The domainregistrar I used offers a whole range of domain name services completely free (domain parking, URL re-direction, e-mail re-direction, etc.). If you shop around, you'll find that there are lots of low-cost registrars that offer such services for free.
Once I had the domain name, it took me just a couple of minutes (via the domain registrar's website) to set up the new domain name to point (or re-direct) to the folder I'd just created.
I'm even able to 'cloak' the address shown on the browser's address bar, so that, even though people are surfing on mysub-folder, what shows up on the address bar is the proper domain name I'd just purchased.
Finally, the domain name registrar even re-directs my e-mails for free. This enables me to create new addresses and have any messages that are sent to these addresses re-directed to my regular e-mail address inbox.
And that's it! A brand new website -- hosted and all -- for less than $10.
Now there's no excuse not to create sales-focused mini-websites for ALL your products!
--------Additional Info Added May 17th 2003--------I've received quite a few questions regarding how to set up the 'cloaking'and 're-direction' ideas mentioned in this article. To help clarify things,here's a copy of a typical reply (in all its un-edited glory) that I've sent in relation to these questions.
"I'm delighted you like the hosting article. Having just re-read itfor the first time in months, I can see that there's a need to add someextra information. The cloaking is something that is taken care of by the domain name registrar (they call it 'framing'). At the time ofwriting I was using DNBuy.com, but now I use Name Cheap.comfor all my domain names. Both these services include 'Framing' asa free extra when you buy your domain name - once you havethe domain name you can set it up via your admin control panel.
There are probably other ways to do this using JavaScripts or such-like (if you already have your domain name and your registrar doesn't offer 'framing'), but I'm afraid I don't have specific info onthis off the top of my head.
Likewise, both these registrars (and, doubtless, many others) offer re-direction as part of the package. Again, this can be set up via the admin control panel once you've bought the domain name.
If you're in doubt, as to whether a given registrar will be able to provide you with the necessary services to set yourself up, just contact them and ask them these questions...
- Can I have my domain name re-direct to another URL of my choice?- Can I 'cloak' or 'mask' the real URL in the address bar so that my new domain name shows up instead.- Can I create email addresses with my new domain name and then have those emails forwarded to my regular email inbox?
(The first two are the most important. The third point is usefulbut not 100% necessary).
Another point worth noting (and that I need to add to the article) is that you should make a slight adjustment to the order links (ifyou have any) that you place on the page.
On my website http://www.create-pdf-files.com which uses this cloaking method, I noticed a problem. When someone clicked the order link and were taken to ClickBank's payment window,there were two problems. Firstly, the URL address in the address bar still stays the same which may make a potential customer feel uneasy - after all they would expect a ClickBank URL. Secondly,the browser didn't recognize that it was entering a secure page and didn't display the padlock towards the bottom of the screen. Again,this would have a negative effect on customer confidence.
Fortunately, it's quite easy get around this problem. For the order links you should include target = 'parent' to the link. This will break you out of cloaking and allow the user to continue payment in the environment he/she expects. Here's how the URL for the order link would look in HTML...
I hope this helps. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further help with anything."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Hopkins is a Successful Web Marketer and Owner of BizzyDays Ebook Publications. Visit Now to Download Original Ebooks for Free at: http://www.bizzydays.com This Article First Appeared in Michael's Newsletter, Ebook Times. To subscribe visit: http://www.ebooktimes.com
by Michael Hopkins
When it comes to selling online, one thing is certain: a small focused website that features justone lead product will far outsell a big website thatfeatures lots of products and links.
By focusing on just one product, you avoid distracting your visitors or forcing them to make decisions. That way, they'll take the time to study your product and the chances of making a sale are vastly increased.
I can see the evidence for this in my own business.While the main company website continues to bring in a steady stream of sales, it's actually the individual websites for each of my ebooks that are responsible for the lion's share of orders.
The problem, however, with having one website for everysingle product is that it adds a lot of extra overheads. In general you're looking at minimum $100 for any kind ofwebhosting and somewhere between $8 and $35 for a domain name.
These are not huge figures, but let's face it, costs are costs and if you're in business you want to keep them as low as possible.
That's why I felt it was worth sharing with you my little'trick' for setting up brand new websites for just the price of a domain name.
This week I launched a new website for my ebook publishing guide. The TOTAL cost to set up this new website was just $8.97!
So how did I manage that?
Well, the first step I took was to set up a new folder(directory) in my existing webhosting account that would be the 'home' for my new website.
----------------NOTE---------------------This method can also be applied effectively to many free hosting services. Just ask your domain name registrar if they'll be able to redirect to your free hosting service address before you buy the domain name.-------------------------------------------
Next I designed the website, and published it to the folder I'd just created.
Then, I went along to the domain name registrar and bought the domain name I wanted for $8.97. The domainregistrar I used offers a whole range of domain name services completely free (domain parking, URL re-direction, e-mail re-direction, etc.). If you shop around, you'll find that there are lots of low-cost registrars that offer such services for free.
Once I had the domain name, it took me just a couple of minutes (via the domain registrar's website) to set up the new domain name to point (or re-direct) to the folder I'd just created.
I'm even able to 'cloak' the address shown on the browser's address bar, so that, even though people are surfing on mysub-folder, what shows up on the address bar is the proper domain name I'd just purchased.
Finally, the domain name registrar even re-directs my e-mails for free. This enables me to create new addresses and have any messages that are sent to these addresses re-directed to my regular e-mail address inbox.
And that's it! A brand new website -- hosted and all -- for less than $10.
Now there's no excuse not to create sales-focused mini-websites for ALL your products!
--------Additional Info Added May 17th 2003--------I've received quite a few questions regarding how to set up the 'cloaking'and 're-direction' ideas mentioned in this article. To help clarify things,here's a copy of a typical reply (in all its un-edited glory) that I've sent in relation to these questions.
"I'm delighted you like the hosting article. Having just re-read itfor the first time in months, I can see that there's a need to add someextra information. The cloaking is something that is taken care of by the domain name registrar (they call it 'framing'). At the time ofwriting I was using DNBuy.com, but now I use Name Cheap.comfor all my domain names. Both these services include 'Framing' asa free extra when you buy your domain name - once you havethe domain name you can set it up via your admin control panel.
There are probably other ways to do this using JavaScripts or such-like (if you already have your domain name and your registrar doesn't offer 'framing'), but I'm afraid I don't have specific info onthis off the top of my head.
Likewise, both these registrars (and, doubtless, many others) offer re-direction as part of the package. Again, this can be set up via the admin control panel once you've bought the domain name.
If you're in doubt, as to whether a given registrar will be able to provide you with the necessary services to set yourself up, just contact them and ask them these questions...
- Can I have my domain name re-direct to another URL of my choice?- Can I 'cloak' or 'mask' the real URL in the address bar so that my new domain name shows up instead.- Can I create email addresses with my new domain name and then have those emails forwarded to my regular email inbox?
(The first two are the most important. The third point is usefulbut not 100% necessary).
Another point worth noting (and that I need to add to the article) is that you should make a slight adjustment to the order links (ifyou have any) that you place on the page.
On my website http://www.create-pdf-files.com which uses this cloaking method, I noticed a problem. When someone clicked the order link and were taken to ClickBank's payment window,there were two problems. Firstly, the URL address in the address bar still stays the same which may make a potential customer feel uneasy - after all they would expect a ClickBank URL. Secondly,the browser didn't recognize that it was entering a secure page and didn't display the padlock towards the bottom of the screen. Again,this would have a negative effect on customer confidence.
Fortunately, it's quite easy get around this problem. For the order links you should include target = 'parent' to the link. This will break you out of cloaking and allow the user to continue payment in the environment he/she expects. Here's how the URL for the order link would look in HTML...
I hope this helps. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further help with anything."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Hopkins is a Successful Web Marketer and Owner of BizzyDays Ebook Publications. Visit Now to Download Original Ebooks for Free at: http://www.bizzydays.com This Article First Appeared in Michael's Newsletter, Ebook Times. To subscribe visit: http://www.ebooktimes.com
This post first appeared on THE PALACE OF SUCCESS : FREE EBOOKS, SOFTWARES, AFFILIATE PROGRAMS ETC., please read the originial post: here
