Hi there, What are the advantages of registering a .info domain rather than .com ect for masking an affiliate url? As lots of people talk about registering .info, and other than the costs I cant see a benefit. As surely people would rather trust .com ect. Thanks, Sam
Sam, I think there's no advantage apart from the cost. If you're using it only as a way of concealing a hoplink, I don't think the fact that people trust .coms more is relevant, for the most part. After all, before they get to that you've already attracted the traffic (by articles, Adwords, or however you promote) and you've already done the pre-selling with your blog/site/opt-in or however you do it, and interested them enough to be willing to go to the vendor's sales page as a qualified, targeted, potential buyer. By this stage, surely whether you're using a .info or a .com just as a clickable link to hide your hoplink shouldn't lose anyone? I use a forwarded .info just as a hoplink-shield for every Clickbank product I promote (that's 12 at the moment) and buy one for everything I'm trying out (no point in "testing" with a hoplink showing or using a silly 3rd-party shortening service!). They're only $1 each. I haven't tested this, myself, but why do you think the fact that people collectively have more trust in .coms than in .infos (which I agree is true) is relevant here?
.info looks really spammy to me; but then many .com's do as well. There are no significant SEO benefits and the only benefit I could see would be availability of the name VS the cost. If you're trying to promote guitar learning ourses, I'd much prefer to look at http://www.guitarstarsecrets.com rather than http://www.top-guitar-training-courses.com or http://www.top-guitar-training-courses.info
*.info == Ghetto of the internet. If you cant afford the +$2 for a "real" domain i think you have a problem. I know that in terms of SEO *.info do fine, but they still look like junk to me and MOST of the *.info sites are indeed junk. Would you buy something from an *.info domain?
.info is just for saving money. Nothing more than that. If you really want to build a business around a domain then give other options a serious thought.
People aren't buying it "from a .info domain", though, are they? They're buying it from a Clickbank order page. And they have to be willing to do that anyway, otherwise you can't sell to them. You're surely not suggesting that otherwise qualified, targeted, interested, potential buyers won't buy it just because the hoplink itself is cloaked with a .info domain?! It certainly looks a damn site better than a "tinyurl"! (Nobody's suggesting you should use a .info domain-name for the site/blog on which you do the pre-sell - only for forwarding from there).
See guys, one more thing, the price element of .info domains is only know by webmaster community. Its not gone upto the layman. If you are thinning people will not buy on your site because its .info then you have to think again.
If your site is for a company .com is better, if it is primarily an information source, .info is better imho I think people judge the sites themselves way before the domain extension
One other advantage is that way fewer .info domains are taken. Personally, if all I'm doing is cloaking a hoplink, I'd rather have a short .info than a loooooooong .com. "niche.info" looks a lot better than "reallylongpaddednichenamesite.com" in my mind.
The only people who look down on .info domains are other webmasters and other internet marketers. If you write good articles then a single "expert" article on a .info domain can look very authoritative and garner garner you lots of affiliate sales.
Exactly. The average web browser has no idea how much a .com or .info costs and I don't think they care either. I know before I got into IM I couldn't have cared less what was on the end of the domain as long as it contained the information I was looking for. I always thought .info just meant it was for information. If you're targeting other IMers with your site or something then maybe I can see it having an effect but the average person I think doesn't care.
Cheers for the response guys. Another advantage I have toiled over is: Since its a .info rather than a .com or .co.uk, it sits outside country specific domains, so could attract both American and English buyers. Sam
Possibly. The .com/.co.uk "debate" often misses the point, though. The reality is that whereas a .co.uk domain-name will definitely put off some American buyers, a .com will hardly put off any UK buyers at all these days (unlike 5 years ago) because so many entirely UK-based businesses with entirely UK-based customers are now using .com domain-names that there's no longer any UK "alienation factor" left with a .com name.
Its look like interest forum... The other side, people better choose .com. But some of my .com site, when google do update PR just my site that have .info going rise for PAGE RANK Cheers
Exactly. This is all that matters Sam. The average web surfer won't give half a damn if you have a .com or .info. So there is your answer! Better to have any easy to remember .info then a long .com.
Super_Vendor @ J1218 you people are absolutely right, last month I have registered a short keyword rich .info and planing to build a information based site on it.