Get Started Affiliate Marketing
If you are looking to becoming a successful affiliate marketer you have come to the right place. This is a step by step checklist that will give you the information to create a successful affiliate marketing business.
The first thing you will need to do is build a website. A website is basically your replacement for a brick and mortar building.
What You Need to Build a Website
1) Domain Name
The domain name creates the address of your site. So, mywebsite.com would be an example of a domain name.
GoDaddy is a great place to register your domain name, that is where this website is registered
2) Web Host
A website cannot exist without a web host. This is the company that houses your files and provides the environment for you to create and save pages to the Internet.
Web hosts are usually paid for monthly (some are yearly).
3) Web Building Software (Optional)
Some web hosts provide website building tools so you do not need any additional software. It’s important you find out about this before you sign up with any host.
CoffeeCup & Dreamweaver are popular web editing software programs that people use to create and maintain their sites.
If you don’t use any software, then you will need to learn how to code HTML from scratch. All you do is open a text editor (Notepad or BBEdit for example) and then write the HTML that will create your page. It’s pretty easy to learn.
Then you save the file as filename.html and save it to the Internet through your web host.
If you’re not interested in learning HTML, I’d strongly recommend downloading some of my free HTML templates and buying a software program like CoffeeCup to edit and continue building your site.
Nvu and Komposer are two free editors you can download. As you might expect, they do have some limitations (free is not always best) but they can get the job done.
Other Website Features
Want a gaming site? Looking to create a message forum or chat room for your visitors to communicate? Maybe you want an online guestbook where people can leave you messages on your site.
This is where it gets a little tricky but don’t let it discourage you. As the Internet matures, it’s getting easier and easier to setup these kinds of things on a website.
Any kind of user interactive feature on a website requires some kind of script. A script is nothing but a file that contains a bunch of code that tells the browser how to behave.
Depending on what you want to create for your site, you’ll need to go to your favorite search site (Google, for example) and search for the appropriate script (game script, message board script, etc.) Some are free, some are not-so-free.
Say you want a message board/forum, you can go to http://www.phpbb.com and get a free message board script. The trick is you have to install it yourself.
They do provide instructions and it really isn’t that difficult but you’ll need to get setup with your web host first.
Most web hosts will help you if you need some guidance and some even provide scripts to their customers for free. Powweb and Website Palace both do.
Important! Before you select a web host, make sure they support the kind of script and functionality you want to use.
The next step is the main reason most, if not all people, want to begin an affiliate marketing business. How to make money from your website.
Making Money from Your Website
More and more people are coming to the web to either make a living or earn a part-time living from a website or blog.
It’s certainly possible to make a full-time living online (like me), so if that’s the route you’re looking for, you’ve come to the right place.
Affiliate marketing basically is when you become the middleman (or middlewoman) for the company you are affiliated with, therefore you don’t have to deal with customer service, taking orders, etc. The companies you become affiliated with provide you with a tracking link to use to link to their official ordering site. That’s how they track how many sales you’ve generated.
Almost all affiliate programs are free to join. It usually involves filling out a sign-up form and within moments the company sends you the links you need to use on your site or blog.
The key is to choose a subject you love (hobby, passion, topic, etc.) and build a content-rich, informative site or blog about it.
Here is an example, Say you love dogs, and you have the ability to train dogs really well. You could create a “how to” site on training dogs that provides all the tips and techniques one needs to become a successful dog trainer.
First you’d have to read up on SEO (search engine optimization) to learn how to get your pages ranked high in Google, Yahoo, Live, etc.
Then you’d make money by joining affiliate programs that offer dog related products. Link to these products from your site and earn commissions when your visitors buy through your links.
Affiliate marketing advertiser sites:
Commission Junction
Linkshare
Pepperjam Network
Clickbank
Amazon
After registering with these affiliate advertisers, find products or companies that are related to the info on your site. For example, if you have a website on training dogs, don’t put iPhone news and accessories products on your site. Make sure you find dog training accessories and books to advertise. As people use the search engines searching for information on training dogs, they will click into your site from Google and be presented with the items to purchase. You have to basically give them free information (blog post) to lure them to the site, where in return they will make purchases.
You can also earn money from programs like Google AdSense which is a program where Google automatically inserts ads relating to your website topic. You will earn a small amount of money for each and every click that someone makes on the link. You can also make money by having other Webmasters/Websites advertise on your site. The possibilities are endless! Thousands of people (including myself) make a living from affiliate marketing.
Some recommended books from Paid by the Web.com are:
