Creating Your Affiliate Marketing Website
Your next step as an affiliate marketer is to create a website
People are often afraid of creating a website or blog but it's fairly easy with some of the amazing site builders out there.
You have two basic options for creating a site.
You can go with a traditional static website or create a blog, both do very well. I have no evidence that one does better than the other. How well your site or blog does is directly related to the quality of content you place on it.
Blogs tend to do well because people update them with posts on a more consistent basis, a blog also solicits comments and feedback which also adds to your content. The more comments you get, the better. That's free content your visitors are creating for you! Typically the better your content the more comments you will get.
Whatever type of site you decide to create, it boils down to one thing, quality, that means creating a site that is easy to navigate, gives your visitors what they are looking for and contains fresh, unique content.
Creating Your Website or Blog
In order to publish a website you will need to subscribe to a hosting service. I use and highly recommend Hostgator. I use them and have great luck with their service. They have 7/24 support and have always been super helpful. If you need a host and decide to use Hostgator, here's a first month free coupon.
Next you will need to purchase a domain name for your website. I use Godaddy simply because of their high security standards, but domain names are fairly cheap and if you find a service you trust, by all means use them. (btw, I don't recommend Godaddy for hosting, users have had too many complaints - and they can be slow).
Once you have a hosting service and a domain name you're ready to start building your website.
Sitebuildit! (it's all included)
If you've never built a website before and are confused about hosting services, domain names, finding profitable niches, site design, search engine optimization, finding keywords and all the rest of it, you'll love Sitebuildit, SBI includes all of this in their package.
Sitebuildit! not only includes hosting, domain name registration and site building tools, you get their world class, step-by-step training. No purchasing extra training guides, no being left to your own devices. Sitebuildit even puts you in touch with other Sitebuildit users and has 7/24 support help.
Xsitepro
This site was created using XSitePro. It's powerful, flexible and incredibly easy to use website creator.
I actually started out using Dreamweaver, but if you've ever used Dreamweaver you know has a large learning curve.
Xsitepro isn't Dreamweaver, but it has all the tools and flexibility you'll ever need to build an attractive, visitor centric affiliate website - and it's a lot easier to use! Needless to say I dropped Dreamweaver and have stuck with Xsitepro. Here are more details in my latest Xsitepro review that I posted to my blog.
Xsitepro is a standalone site builder. Unlike Sitebuildit, you will need to subscribe to your own hosting service and register your domain name yourself.
Create a blog
Blogs are free. If you decide to build a blog I personally use and recommend Wordpress. There are two Wordpress options:
www.Wordpress.com and www.wordpress.org
Wordpress.com is a blogging service, simply sign up and follow the instructions. Answer the questions it provides and it will create a blog for you. Hosting and domain names included. You won't have a domain name of your choice instead it will look something like this:
www.yourname.wordpress.com
Wordpress.org, on the other hand is a free blogging software only. It requires you to have a separate hosting service and purchase your own domain name. It's a little more complicated to set up but if you use a hosting service that offers CPanel and Fantastico the installation is easy to set up yourself. By the way if you're interested in Hostgator it has both Cpanel and Fantastico.
Oh, before I forget, you can get 500 free website header graphics to use for your website or blog. There's no sign up or sales pitches, just free headers.
Enjoy!
Until Next time,
Elizabeth
