Put Some Lipstick On That Pig: Domain Name Forwarding

Posted by Nick Niesen on November 1st, 2010

Have you heard this phrase before, ?Put some lipstick on that pig, and prettier her up.? Well, have you got an URL that is long and ugly. Maybe you have an affiliate link or maybe you have multiple URLs that you want to point to the same place. In this article, I am going to step you through the process of getting the URL and forwarding the domain name.

First, for the sake of this article, we will be using GoDaddy.com to handle the forwarding. Buy your URL(s). During the buying process, if you do not already an account with them, you will set one up.

Next, login to your account. In your main screen, there will be a list of your URLs. Put a check in the checkbox of the URL you want to forward. There will be a button that says ?Forward Domain Names?. Click the button.

You will be taken to the forwarding domain names page. To the right, there will be a textbox asking for the URL that you want forwarded by the ?prettier URL?. The next option is to mask the original URL. The purpose of this is to hide the original link from the user. The next option is to enter a masked title. This masked title will show at the top of the browser. The next option is the Masked Description Meta-Tag. This option is to enter a different description of the site. And lastly, there is an option for Masked Keyword Meta-Tag. Here you can enter in some new keywords. After you have entered in the information, click the ?Save Changes?

After you have saved your changes, allow up to 24 hours for the change to take effect. Usually it happens within a couple of hours. When completed, your user will click the ?prettier? URL and they will be forwarded to the original site. Example:

http://www.myprettylink.com
|
-> http://username.myaffiliatesite.com/somefolder/anotherfolder/home?c=12345

Maybe you want to sell a product from ClickBank. You will get an affiliate link. Now you want to track how much traffic you are getting for a particular ad. What you can do is use a tracking site to keep a count of the traffic. Go to the tracking site and setup the tracking link. Then take the tracking link and have it forward by a ?prettier? URL which will forward it to the original link. Example:

http://www.myprettylink.com
|
-> http://www.trackersite.com/track?username=1234&ad=4321
|
-> http://username.myaffiliatesite.com/somefolder/anotherfolder/home?c=12345

If you want to a more visually appealing and easier to remember URL for your long and cryptic URLs, then domain name forwarding is the trick you need. Domain name forwarding is a great Internet marketing technique. It allows you uniqueness when displaying an affiliate links or referral links. When the user sees the link, it will be less ominous than a longer link. Check out my resource box. Both links are forwarded to another site.