Whether you are a small business owner and want to expand your customer base, an affiliate that wants to sell more product, or you just want to start some sort of home biz, the Web offers potential other mediums can't come close to. BUT, you need to do your homework, and you need to have your own domain, or at least a domain name.

With domain names cheaper now than ever before, it really does not make sense not to own a domain name. You don't even have to host it if you don't want to. With registrars like GoDaddy.com (our pick for #1 domain name outfit) you can even forward your name to whatever site you want. So an affiliate could have THEIR-NAME.COM send folks to their affiliate link.

What is the benefit of that? Many! First of all it looks better and more professional. Another benefit is that you can register YOUR-NAME.com with the search engines, when most will no longer allow you to register an affiliate URL that looks like:

www.someoneelsesname.com/member/urls/domain5.YOU

or something similar. Your own domain name is also easier for someone to remember!

The most successful affiliate marketers set up their own web sites and send their traffic there instead of the affiliate site (if there is one). The only link to the affiliate web site is the order link. This way you can create your own list, follow up with your visitors and have much more control and contact with your customers.

Should you decide to host your domain (which simply means that you are going to send visitors to your own web pages and not redirect them to someone else's site as in the affiliate example above), hosting fees have come WAY down over the years as well. You can even house several domains with one hosting account with companies like:

http://209.204.204.249/domains.html

Why Would You Want More Than One Domain Name?

The old school of thought was for sites to try to have something for everybody. While that model may work well for Wal-Mart it has failed miserably online. The more focused your site is, the higher it will rank in the search engines, the more easily you can target your traffic, and (as a general rule) the more sales it will generate for you.

That is why you will see winning ebook authors put up a new site for each title they publish. Again, with the proper hosting account and registrar, it does not have to be a huge expense to set up another domain.

If you are not familiar with any techno garble web lingo, don't be alarmed. There are several individuals just like you who are earning massive amounts of income with very little web design know-how. On the other end of the spectrum are individuals who can make any program run like a well oiled machine. Many times these Web Masters have spent hour after hour, week after week, month after month, or even years perfecting their web education. Many of these types know very little about marketing. If I had to know the tech or the marketing end, I would choose marketing hands down!!!! After all, if you know how to make sales, you can easily hire the tech crowd. My favorite saying is that experts are a dime a dozen.

The Net is truly tying the world together and offering opportunities that never were available to the average person before. Where else can someone with a little creativity come up with an idea, and immediately put it into action? All for little or no cost! Why, with the know- how and the right product or service, you could be the next Internet Millionaire!

One thing is for certain though - YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK - (again, you don't have to be a techno expert, you only need to know how and where to get the job done) and You Are Going To Need Your Own Domain (or at least a domain name).

Doug West is the author of E-Empire, Top 10 E-Bizs, and several other books on Internet marketing. To learn where the best online ad buys are, you need to get a copy of his latest "Lifeline Guide To Low Cost Net Advertising Sources" @ http://www.oiopro.com/whydomain.htm