How to Register and Use a Vanity Domain with Your TapKat Sweepstakes
A “vanity domain” is a short, easy-to-remember, and pronounceable web address used to help your audience more easily recall and share your TapKat sweepstakes site. You may have also heard the terms “marketing domain”, “branded link”, or “custom URL”, but for this blog post, we’ll refer to it as a vanity domain.
Why is a Vanity Domain Important?
All TapKat sweepstakes sites are hosted on the TapKat website, making is easier for our nonprofits to set up their sweepstakes quickly. However, this does mean that the URL for your TapKat sweepstakes site will be long and difficult to remember — something like https://www.tapkat.org/shelby-american-collection/e5Lq2E.
Because of this, we highly recommend that our customers register a vanity domain for their sweepstakes site: it’s much easier to remember!
Something like ShelbyGT500Contest.org rolls trippingly off the tongue, making your TapKat sweepstakes easier for you to market, and easier for your donors to share.
In today’s blog post, we’ll walk through exactly how to register and use a vanity domain for your TapKat sweepstakes. It’s easy, it’s affordable, and it will make a big difference in your marketing and promotional efforts.
Select and Purchase a Vanity Domain for Your TapKat Sweepstakes
Step 1: Choose Your Vanity Domain Name
We suggest selecting a vanity domain that is descriptive and easy to remember. Relate it back to your prize, something like, “CorvetteContest.org,” or “HawaiiDreamVacationSweepstakes.org”.
Step 2: Purchase Your Vanity Domain Name
Once you’ve chosen a clear, short vanity domain, the next step is to purchase it. You can do this from any number of sites, but here are three reputable domain registrars:
Disclaimer: TapKat does not receive any referral fee for including these links.
Hover.com is one website from which you can purchase a vanity domain.
Hover.com is not the cheapest option, but since they specialize in domain registrations, it is the simplest to use.
In some cases, the vanity domain you want may not be available and you’ll need to find something similar that is available to purchase. Hover will help by offering suggested vanity domains that are similar and available for purchase.
Step 3: Acquire .com and .org Versions of the Vanity Domain
Whenever possible, purchase the .com and the .org versions of your vanity domain and set both of them to forward to your TapKat sweepstakes site (see Step 4). We suggest that you primarily market the .com version of the vanity domain, since people are most accustomed to using and seeing websites that end with .com.
Purchasing the .com and .org versions of your vanity domain accomplishes a few things:
It avoids confusion by ensuring that no one else will set up a similar sweepstakes. For instance, if your sweepstakes uses CorvetteContest.com, and someone else sets of a sweepstakes using CorvetteContest.org, your donors may become confused and accidentally donate to the wrong fundraiser.
It prevents scammers from impersonating your sweepstakes. It’s unfortunate, but it does happen from time to time that scammers will try to impersonate a nonprofit fundraiser. Purchasing the .com and .org (and .net if you want to be really safe) will make it harder for someone to impersonate your sweepstakes online.
Step 4: Set Up Domain Forwarding
Set up domain forwarding through your domain registrar so that a visitor to your vanity domain will be automatically redirected to your TapKat sweepstakes site. Below is a step-by-step example of how to forward your vanity domain to your TapKat sweepstakes URL.
Set Up Your Vanity Domain Today
The process of purchasing and setting up a vanity domain is easy and quick. If you plan to run yearly TapKat sweepstakes (this is recommended, as nonprofits who run sweepstakes year after year tend to generate more money year after year), use the same vanity domain each year to build some brand recognition.
To recap, the advantages of purchasing and using a vanity domain are:
It’s an easy-to-remember web address,
People are more likely to share it with their friends,
If you use the same vanity domain year after year, you’ll build brand awareness.
Ready to get started with a TapKat sweepstakes? Click here to apply for an account today.
