Affiliate Website Guide
Before we focus on the Affiliate Website Guide, we first need to establish a few points of relevance. Firstly, an affiliate site does not hold any stock. An affiliate site does not ship any products. an affiliate site does not have to handle shipping arrangements. A typical e-commerce site will expect you to hold stock and arrange to ship, not the case with affiliate sites or drop shipping for that matter.
Some of the most common Affiliate programs are:
1. Clickbank
What is an Affiliate Website:
A website which does not hold or stock any products and/or services and yet sells these products could be considered as an affiliate website. The Affiliate site will sell on behalf of other suppliers/provides. Websites selling Amazon products is a great example of an effective affiliate website
Can Affiliate Websites earn money?
Yes, they can and they can also be quite lucrative. If you are looking to get a large ROI, then you should perhaps consider many niche websites. Targetting a specific demographic, based on search analysis will give your site a better chance against larger web sites. The aim of any site is to remain relevant, focusing on a niche can often make this easier to achieve.
Who can have an affiliate website
I guess the question is who cannot have an affiliate website.
- Are you over the legal age to run a business in your country
- Are there any laws or by-laws prohibiting these types of websites within your country
If the answer to the above is Yes and No then it looks likely that you are eligible to start up and run an affiliate business website.
Please bear in mind that any earnings from an affiliate business do count as income and appropriate taxes and other deductions will often apply.
How do I get started with an Affiliate website?
Perhaps the best and first thing to do is decide on a niche to sell. This Affiliate Website Guide can only advise but you will need to look closely at shopping trends. Analyse Google search data and identify a product which you feel is trending and in demand. It is often good to start with something you know or understand well but this can also lead you to perhaps focus on too much detail and not enough on the business itself.
Once you decide on the niche, you will then need a website and with that comes the questions of:
- Hosting
- Domain Name
- Website Name
Hosting
Sometimes tricky to understand at first as you have to consider:
- Speed
- Reliability
- Management Access
- Cost
Mammoth Commerce recommends 1&1 website because they utilize SSD technology at an affordable price. Management access refers to the ability to access the backend of your website for updates, content refresh, and general housekeeping. Good secure site access is a must to allow you to control your own business more effectively.
The Domain Name
Absolutely should scream out what the site is all about. Yes, you can go for something obscure and catchy, it has definite advantages if you do but if you consider the straightforward approach first, you may find the initial marketing much easier. If your niche is “bus memorabilia”, then www.busmemorabilia.com would make a lot of sense but only if this is available and is also popular in search trends. If you go down the obscure route then you could be starting off with a need to create a market in the first place.
Website Name
is a fairly easy one to resolve. WordPress sites come with a huge variety of already optimised templates for your business. You could go down the bespoke development route but this will involve costs, some of which may negate any possibility of profit within the first year.
What does this Affiliate Website Guide recommend next; What should I do first?
The below is merely a guide but is a fairly decent one at that. The approach should be systematical and follow a logical process. Take notes and write down any issues encountered or lessons learned as you go.
- Decide on a niche
- Analyse your nice for a keyword or phrase
- Identify the best platform to use for your website
- Select an appropriate Domain Name
- Arrange for Hosting for your chosen platform
- Setup social media accounts and link these directly to your website.
- Keep your content relevant to the niche
- Update and review your products regularly
- Respond to issues or queries from your customers promptly, fairly and with honesty.
- Re-read this Affiliate Website Guide and ask questions on any points you require to be clarified
Affiliate Website Guide recommends further reading and suggests: Marketing Affiliate Websites and Managing Your Affiliate Website