Since I can’t really share my niche sites with my readers, and I’ve covered most of the basic affiliate marketing strategies that I wanted to talk about, I figured instead why don’t I provide you with an actual example of a site I’ve been working on.  This of course is not a niche site, but instead an actual website I’ve developed.

While finishing my WordPress eBook over the past few weeks, I’ve also been throwing together a new informational/reference website named Iowa Guide, which is in the process of being monetized with affiliate marketing.

Probably the first thing you’ll notice when visiting the website is the incredible logo (courtesy of Mark) and the beautiful theme it uses (at least in my opinion).  Recently Brian Gardner released a new City Revolution theme which was designed specifically for these types of portal websites.   One of my favorite things about this theme is that it contains a drop-down menu for both the pages and the categories, which isn’t something you see very often.  It also does a great job of maximizing screen real estate, which is something I really appreciate.

Why I picked this domain? I am fortunate to own a number of GEO domain names in both the dot com and dot org extension.   As someone that is located in Iowa, I felt why not start with developing one from Iowa?  I already know my way around pretty well, and live near most of the states attractions and other things I’d want to write about.  Besides, now if I were to visit a restaurant, hotel, or other landmark and then write a review of it, that is a business expense!!  :mrgreen:

For this particular domain, I was unable to obtain the dot com extension, but I’ve found that with Geography-based domain names, sometimes you have an advantage with dot org.   Dot org has developed a strong trust with internet users because it is traditionally used to house non-profit organizations.  With dot org, readers feel more trustful because org domains are typically informational and usually aren’t trying to sell you something.

In my next post, I’ll be talking about how I’m monetizing this domain name with affiliate marketing.