With ambitious plans to clean up in the affiliate space, Gareth gets some feedback from Dan on domain choice.

“Hi Doctors.

I am looking for your experienced feedback on the domain name ‘VacuumSupermarket.com’.

6 million vacuum cleaners are sold each year or 16,500 each day.  I am confident that a strong website can affiliate sell 250 vacuum cleaners each day, generating £410,000 annually.

I have launched one site, www.vacuumsales.co.uk, but I am interested in your views on using the domain VacuumSupermarket.com.

Many thanks.

Gareth.”

Dan

Hi, Gareth.

I’m not sure whether you’re asking “which of these 2 domain names should I use?” or “should I launch a second site on this other domain?” or “I’m trying to use one of these for the UK, one for the USA, will this work?” – so here are my quick thoughts on all 3:

1. VacuumSales or VacuumSupermarket?

Stick with the one you’re using. The only difference between the 2 in terms of potential is the .co.uk vs .com . You already have some content there & the domain name isn’t holding you back, so stick with it.

2. Should you launch a second site on it?

If you’re just targeting the UK & you’re thinking of launching the second site to try and get more sales, I think you should forget aout it for the time being. When your first site hits the top few spots on google for your primary terms, then take a look at launching the second.

3. Should you launch the .com as a USA site and the .co.uk as a UK site?

Yes: If you have the time & the energy to do both, why not sell in both markets? (I assume they call them vacuums over there? and supermarkets?)

4. Bonus thoughts

Bonus thought A: If you’re already making money through vacuumsales, and you’re serious about wanting to make this really big, why not try and get one of the generics? There are at least 8 decent generics  (vacuums/vacuum/vacuumcleaner/vacuumcleaners.co.uk or .com) – even more if you hyphenate!

Bonus thought B: I’d love it if you did make £0.41m through this site per year, but it would be tough. If my maths is right & your numbers are right, that’s just under 2% of the entire market. I suspect offline sales are fairly high with vacuums, and that many people go to a brand they trust online direct when buying a vacuum (i.e. just go straight to John Lewis/Argos without ever hitting search).

Bonus thought C: You may want to put together a ‘Vacuum Buyers Guide’ and give it away in exchange for the visitors email address. Send them an automated ‘top 10 vacuum cleaners’ email (with aff links) in return. It immediately gives you extra chances to sell to them with no real ongoing effort.

Hope that’s useful & good luck with the site.

Dan.