In the affiliate marketing business, you have to have a great website in order for your business to flourish. Let’s face it — you’re not going to be making much in commissions if your website is only attracting family members. So, in order to maximize your income potential, there are a few keys you should keep in mind when setting up a website for your affiliate business.
“Determine what your website is going to be about by examining your interests. Is there something that drives your passion? Are you currently an affiliate for any companies?”
1. Create a Business Around Your Interests
Determine what your website is going to be about by examining your interests. Is there something that drives your passion? Are you currently an affiliate for any companies?
You want to make sure that you are interested in whatever your website is going to be about and make sure you have merchants related to the topic.
2. Target Your Merchants
Choose compatible merchants. Make sure the merchants you include on your website are targeted to the people you expect to be visiting your website. If you create a website to promote your clothing merchants, then you’ll want your website to touch on the fashion industry or something related to clothing. This way, you increase the chance of someone clicking on your affiliate link
3. Keep Your Content Topical
Using the clothing example, if you are running a website devoted to fashion, and then keep it that way. Avoid adding content that does not in some way relate to fashion.
4 Stay Current
Keep it current. Maintaining a web presence means making sure that your website never goes out of date or gets stale. Keep up on the industry and make posts daily if you can.
The more posts you make, the faster the major search engines will begin picking up your website. Before you know it, your website will creep up the page rankings to the point that visitors are flowing to your site.
5.Optimize
Utilize traffic generating tips. When you place an article on your website, or when you make a daily post, be sure to include search engine-friendly words. This is called “search engine optimization.” When someone uses a search engine, they type in a few words and the results are displayed from web pages that feature those exact words. Be sure to include industry keywords often in your articles or posts so the search engines can notice them.
6. Keep Your Website Clean
Don’t overwhelm your visitors. Make sure that the website is clean and easy to navigate and read. Avoid over-filling the site with affiliate ads.
Choose certain ones that add to the overall look and design of the site. The last thing a visitor to your website wants is to be confused or overwhelmed by glaring advertisements. Your ads should compliment your site, not overshadow it.
7. Publish a Newsletter
As your website’s readership grows, you may want to consider making an opt-in newsletter available. This will provide you with an additional source for advertising your merchants and it adds value to your website.
After all, if someone is asking for your newsletter, they will probably be more likely to trust the merchants you have advertised.
8. Choose a Quality Host
Make sure that you choose a reputable company to host your website. Nothing can kill visitors like having a “Website Not Available” sign pop up. Do your research and find out which web hosting services are the most reliable and then consider which one fits your budget best.
9. Include Audio and Video
We live in a multimedia world, so why not take advantage of it and incorporate it into your website? Statistics prove that websites that feature audio and video, in addition to quality content, exponentially fare better than their featureless counterparts. You have to give someone a reason to stay on your site when there are so many other ways for them to spend their time.
10. Promote Yourself
Visit your favorite forums or forums dedicated to your industry and begin building relationships. Don’t come out and shout “Hey, check out my site!” because no one will. Build friendships, be polite, show that you are knowledgeable in your field and eventually people will visit your website on their own accord.
Creating a website for your affiliate business takes a lot of time and creativity. This is one industry where you will get out of it exactly what you put into it. When you consider what it takes to create a successful affiliate website, the only question that really needs answered is, “How bad do you really want it?”
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