I thought I wouldn’t be able to post this until monday but here it goes! The sooner I make money, the better!

So this is the first week into this case study and I gotta choose a domain name and get a web host. Remember that my budget is actually $100 at this point and I will not spend more money than this unless I make profits.

Choosing A Domain Name

I cheated a bit on this one cause I already got a domain name a couple of weeks ago. Finding a good domain name can be a pain cause all the obvious ones are already taken.

Here are the criterias I look for in a domain name:

• it must contain important keywords at the beginning of the domain name (no prefix);
• it must be easy to remember and not too long;
• I try to avoid dashes;
• I try to get a .com since it’s the most easiest extension to remember for most people (this may not apply to every market I’m getting in though);

So based on these criterias, I chose to register couponcodesvault.com. I registered it with VoxDomains since I’ve already got many domains registered there and I don’t want to have a gazillion registrar to deal with. But if I were to start all over, I’d register my domain names with GoDaddy.com.

You can get a .com domain for only $7.95 if you use this GoDaddy coupon code: cjc795dom

Click here to register your domain with GoDaddy.com

Getting A Web Hosting Account

I’ve already got some web hosting accounts with HostGator.com, HostPapa.com and 1and1.com but since I want to start this project from scratch, I’m gonna get a brand new account.

Here is what I look for in a web host:

• reliability and performance
• 24/7 support (phone support is better but live chat is ok)
• a good control panel like cPanel or DirectAdmin
• PHP and MySQL support
• cron job management so I can schedule some maintenance tasks
• the possibility to have a dedicated IP address
• the possibility to host multiple websites on a single account

Usually I try not to make pricing one of my criterias but since I’m on a tight budget, I’ll try to find the right balance between pricing, reliability, performance and features. Let’s not forget that performance is now part of Google AdWords quality score so if I want to advertise on Google eventually, I better have a performing web host.

Also, I mostly never consider disk space and bandwidth since most blog-based websites will not use more than 200MB or 300MB. Most web hosting companies are overselling and offering 1.5TB of storage which you will never use. That said, I prefer reliability, performance and support over storage and bandwidth.

Let’s compare some cheap PHP and MySQL hosting plans:

As HostPapa only have a yearly billing cycle, I can’t go with them or I’ll spend all my initial budget on hosting. HostGator is a really good host but it’s more expensive than GoDaddy. And 1and1 isn’t bad but they don’t deliver enough performance.

So my choice is GoDaddy.com. They’re one of the largest registrar and they offer a good quality-to-pricing ratio.

Let’s register a hosting account with GoDaddy.com:

I chose PayPal as the payment method as I don’t wanna bother with credit card authorization and such. The credit card linked to my PayPal account has a limit of $500.

I wouldn’t recommend taking a monthly hosting plan as this can become quite expensive, especially when you have multiple hosting accounts (I don’t like putting all my websites on a single account). You should go with a yearly plan instead.

Conclusion
So I’ve now got a domain name (couponcodesvault.com) and a web hosting account with GoDaddy.com. Here are my expenses so far:

• Domain Name: $8.95
• Hosting Account: $6.86
• Grand total: $15.81

So I’ve got $84.19 left for my project.

Stay tuned as I’ll show you how to install your blog. If you’re starting out in this business, this is your chance to see it all happen step-by-step. Each post will take you through the whole process of putting up an affiliate website as I’ll document everything in video format.

Click here to get updates by email!

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