Affiliate Marketing 101: 4 Steps for Beginners

While affiliate marketing has been an often discussed and frequently misunderstood component of e-commerce since coming of age nearly 15 years ago with Amazon.com's affiliate programs, the industry has seen a great growth curve over the years. Forrester Research estimates the affiliate marketing industry will grow to $4.5 billion by 2016 as companies continue to grow online revenues and scope out new opportunities overseas. Clearly, there's money to be made with affiliate marketing, and if you own almost any type of website you can potentially earn monetary commissions by referring visitors of your site to the sites of merchants with whom you are affiliated. So, what do you need to know and do in order to become a successful affiliate marketer? Just as one doesn't open a store without first identifying the kind of merchandise to be sold or the location of the business, an affiliate marketer doesn't just build a presence on the internet without knowing what audience to target or what to offer visitors who come to their website. There are four basic steps a person must take to start the journey toward affiliate marketing: 1. Choosing your type of website: First, you have to decide what kind of affiliate you want to be, and therefore what kind of site to create. There are a number of types to choose from: Blog: This is probably the easiest type of affiliate site to set up and one of the most popular. Blogs can be as informal, as interactive and as wide ranging as you want them to be. However, no matter which direction you choose, in order for a blog to be successful you must write about topics you're passionate about and with which you have a real connection. Your content should be original, targeted to your audience and updated frequently. You want people to visit your site and return to it. Review: Created with a sense of authority, review sites can also be flexible in their subject matter and in how the public interacts with them. The key is to provide reliable and up-to-date information that visitors find useful. The content should compel visitors to return to the site and refer it to their friends. Coupon: Focused on the vast audience of bargain seekers, coupon sites can generate a lot of traffic, but as with review sites, visitors will expect up-to-date deals and won't tolerate anything less. Download: Download sites are among the most lucrative of the different types of affiliate sites, particularly if you can become an affiliate of a great number of companies. These sites are aimed at consumers who are looking to try software before they pay for it. The goal is that they'll purchase a full version of the product after a trial period. 2. Choosing your domain: After choosing what type of site you want to use to refer visitors to affiliates, the second decision to make is choosing your domain name. The name is important and will be a huge part of your online presence. It may take time to settle on a domain simply because so many are already taken, either because they're being used or have been previously purchased and are being held for later sale. You'll have to choose whether to buy the domain name from a third party (usually at a markup) or extend your research to find one that's available through the domain registrars. You may find that your chosen name may not be available as a ".com" but rather with ".net" or ".biz" extension. Whatever you choose should reflect the kind of affiliate site you've decided upon. Choosing "BestCoupons.com" when your site focuses on reviewing appliances will not only confuse visitors, but also lead to bad word-of-mouth from the internet community and penalties from the search engines. 3. Choosing your host: The next step is to choose a hosting service, also known as an ISP (Internet Service Provider). This host will connect your site to the internet. You'll be paying rent, so to speak, to a company to use its servers and storage capacity for all your web files and data. Many companies offer hosting service plans in addition to domain name registration, but you should first know or have a good idea of what your particular needs will be so you can choose the plan best suited to your site. 4. Choosing your theme: Unless you know HTML and CSS code, in which case you can build your own website, a theme will ensure that your site is readable and functional. Website themes, written by experienced web designers, can be used for free or purchased. Generally speaking, purchased themes will allow you greater customization and provide more built-in features such as easy formatting and traffic analytics tools. Keep in mind that paid themes can provide you with a "unique" look so your site can stand out from the crowd. They're also less prone to security issues, updated more frequently and come with a higher level of support from developers. You need a clear understanding of what sort of affiliate you intend on being so you can choose a theme that's suitable for your needs. That said, you'll most likely want a theme that allows you to grow. You may not have any intention on including video now, for example, but maybe in a year or so you will. Deciding on your type of affiliate site, domain name, hosting company and site theme are only the first steps in creating an affiliate website. Continue investigating the process of website building and the world of affiliate marketing if you want to succeed. John Hernandez is an affiliate marketing manager at cleverbridge, a global, full-service e-commerce provider for international software and SaaS corporations.

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Affiliate Marketing 101: 4 Steps for Beginners

John Hernandez

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