How To Design A Website For Affiliate Marketing

How To Design A Website For Affiliate Marketing
It's widely accepted that to become a successful affiliate
marketer, you need a website. If there's one thing the
gurus all agree in, it's that to make serious money you
need to have your own presence on the web.

Which is fine. To be an affiliate marketer, you need a
website. Simple enough, right?

Well, not really. Because anybody with a basic knowledge of
the internet, or even just the ability to follow
instructions, can build a website. But only a few people
ever become successful affiliate marketers.

And it's normally easy to see why ? when you visit the
websites most people create.

The first thing to do is scrap any website you've received
free as part of an affiliate marketing program. It might be
the easy option, but it's the easy option being used by
everyone else who's bought that program. Nobody ever got
rich being exactly the same as several hundred other
people. Free websites are obvious ? to build sales, you
need a website you've created yourself.

The first thing to do is decide what content you're going
to include. Get out a piece of paper, and draw a quick site
map. You're going to need a start page, introducing
yourself and the site. To make your site more than a
collection of affiliate links, you're going to need some
content. If you don't want to write it yourself, use
article directories to find relevant articles you can use.
This is important: sites without content aren't accepted
into directories, aren't ranked highly by search engines,
and don't attract repeat visitors.

And you'll need the tools of any affiliate marketer:
affiliate links, an autoresponder form for collection
e-mail addresses, and sales pitch for the products you're
promoting.

Unless you're good at web design, get a free website
template from somewhere. Google them. Choose one that looks
professional, clean, neat, and easy to navigate. Try to
choose it from a site that has a forum for asking help in,
especially if you have little experience of HTML. It's also
worth searching for a quick, free course in HTML. You're
going to need some basic knowledge.

Your next task is to upload the content onto the site. The
template will probably have spaces marked where you need to
copy and paste text, or write in your own links. Another
important thing to think about is images. If you don't have
any pictures of your own to upload, try searching a free
image site for something relevant.

One important thing to consider is the placing of your
affiliate links. You might want to devote a separate page
to each product. You might also want to have a side-bar in
which you link to and give brief descriptions of some of
your best selling products. This is a good way of finding
out what sales copy works and what doesn't: pay attention
to which links achieve the most clicks.

Of course, it's important to remember that you are trying
to make money. But, at the same time, remember that
visitors don't want to constantly feel like you're trying
to sell them something. If your site has genuine content
that they find helpful, they're more likely to come to
trust you ? and therefore more likely to follow your
recommendations in future.

Another important thing to remember is to make your site
search engine friendly. This is gone into in much more
detail elsewhere by people more knowledgeable than I; just
remember to use meta tags. Also make sure that the first
paragraph on your main page contains important key words,
as many search engines pay attention to this.

You should also consider having a page of links. This is
important for link exchanges, which raise your search
engine ranking and gain you some free traffic.

Finally, you need to make sure your website contains
contact information ? not just for those who have a
question about the products you are advertising, but also
in case there is a problem with the site.

One of the best ways to get an idea of what your website
should be like is to visit the websites of other affiliate
marketers. You will see they can be quite different in
style, depending on how that person chooses to market their
product.

In the end, the most important thing to remember is that
your website needs to be more that a collection of
affiliate links ? and if you cannot see why, you will
probably never become a successful affiliate marketer.

----------------------------------------------------
Anita Buchan is a full-time affiliate marketer who now
wants to help others become as successful as she is. For
reviews of genuine affiliate marketing opportunities and
free resources visit http://www.dont-get-scammed.biz