Why is a domain gateway page a MUST?

Why is a domain gateway page a MUST?


When someone visits http://www.company_site.com/?your-id=xxxxxxyyy the tendency that happens quite often is that the /?your-id=xxxxxxyyy part of theURL will get left off the URL (web address); so you are no longerget credited for the order. Another common problem is that a visitor gets the long complicated URL wrong (ie:http://www.collector-club.com/DET/members/101321/index.shtml); so again it is a lost order for you. What happens if they come backto the main site in the future and don't put in your id#? You got it. It's another lost order for you.

Another problem with associate program self-duplicating pages is that some search engines don't accept the /?your-id=xxxxxxyyy portion of a URL. As you go out and market your site across the Internet, some (many) of the search engines will not accept the/?your-id=xxxxxxyyy in the address, so will drop that part of the address.... thus, people get dumped into the main company site instead of your site.....more of your orders get lost or redirected to the main company site.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not bashing associate programs or the way their self-duplicating pages are set up. I am simply providing information to help you use those programs more effectively.

2--Business centered marketing:

With your own domain name, you can do all of your marketing by promoting http://www.your-name.com vs. another web site name. This will also allow you to have your email address as you@your-name.com (it can be automatically forwarded into wherever you currently check your email, so nothing on your end has to change). This puts the focus of your marketing efforts around YOU and YOUR domain name vs. the vendor company's domain name and creates a business centric marketing stategy for you. You can then set up additional businesses around this same name to market additional products.... such as http://www.your-name.com/company2/ and http://www.your-name.com/company3/. Now, what happens if someone drops off the /company2/ portion of that URL? They are dumped into another of YOUR companies and you never loose a potential client!

Here is an example of business centered marketing model that I use. I have two sites in which I promote (among others).
Here are their cumbersome URLs:
http://www.collector-club.com/DET/members/101321/index.shtml
http://www.outsource2000.com/?id=908596093

I market these two sites as:
http://ahwa.com/netdetective/

http://ahwa.com

My email is sent out as me@ahwa.com. When I join other associate programs, I create new gateway pages on my own domain such as http://ahwa.com/new-program/. My entire business and marketing strategy is centered around MY domain name, not someone else's.