The thought of building a website is a daunting one for many, but the reality is that building a highly successful affiliate marketing website is not difficult.
In fact, depending on how you go about it, building a site can be VERY simple to the point where you can have a Live, fully-hosted website up and running in less than a minute.
Yes, really.
But before I get to that, let me give you a quick breakdown of WHY you need a website and the main components that go into building a successful site.
Why Do You Need a Website?
Many people entering the affiliate marketing space wonder if they even need a website, and there are plenty of “gurus” out there selling fake push button “systems” that claim you don’t need one, which only adds to the confusion.
So, allow me to clear this up for you real quick…
Yes, you do need a website.
And not only do you need one, but your website is the foundation of your business.
Why? Because for one thing, when you have a website, you have the ability to create niche-related content that can rank in search engines like Google. And when your content ranks high enough in Google, you can get highly targeted traffic to your site – for free.
Not only is traffic essential to earning money as an affiliate, but not having to spend $1,000s on paid advertising is what allows you to learn and actually build a successful business without going broke.
I will go into more detail on how to get traffic on the next page, but for now, just know that traffic is ESSENTIAL to a successful affiliate marketing business, and there are only two ways you can get it – free or paid.
Paying for traffic can work (very well), but it’s also a good way to go broke as a beginner because you don’t yet understand the fundamentals of affiliate marketing, so it’s a recipe for disaster. So, what you want is free traffic, which you get by building a website and creating helpful, niche-relevant content on your site.
Now, you can get quality free traffic without a website by utilizing YouTube and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
But the problem with that is you are very limited in how you can promote stuff as an affiliate on most social media platforms, and your account can be shut down for (insert one of many reasons) practically overnight and without warning.
So, even if you do leverage those traffic sources, it is still well worth having your own website, as you have free reign to promote whatever you want, however you want, whenever you want.
Because it’s YOUR website that you own and control.
So, whichever way you look at it, you need a website if you want to become a successful affiliate.
The Basic “Mechanics” of a Website
You don’t need to know the ins and outs of how a website works to build a successful affiliate website, but knowing the basics will come in handy as you move forward.
In short, there are THREE main parts that go into building a website, and these “parts” are each essential to making your website work and making sure others can find it:
- Domain: Your domain name is your site’s address. Think of it like your home address, but it’s for your website instead, and this is how people (and search engines) find your site. For example, the domain for this site is affiliatejournal.org.
- Website: Your website is the part you are actually working on and what people see. There are different website-building platforms out there, but the best one for affiliate marketing is WordPress. Not only is WordPress the most widely used platform in the industry (there are 100s of millions of WordPress sites out there), but it’s the best for getting rankings and traffic.
- Hosting: Web hosting is what makes your website Live and visible on the internet. Your website is essentially a collection of files, and when a company hosts your website, they are making sure it is available whenever someone types in your domain or clicks on a link to your site from a search engine or social media site, for example.
So, that’s the gist of what goes into making a website work.
And there are different ways you can go about starting your site.
One way is to try to figure everything out on your own by going to a random site that sells web hosting packages, which is not ideal because the process can quickly become confusing, expensive, and downright frustrating. Not to mention, with this route, even if you do manage to get a site up and running, you will not know what to do with it without the step-by-step training you need to succeed.
In contrast, a much better way to build a website is with Wealthy Affiliate because they make the entire process of building a website incredibly simple. Everything you need (domains, hosting, website building platform) is all under one roof, and they give you all the training, marketing tools, support, and mentoring you need to succeed as a Premium member.
Not to mention, when you do the comparisons, this is the most cost-efficient route.
So with that said, let me show you how to build a site the simple way…
How to Build a Website in Under a Minute
If you want to learn how to build your very own fully-hosted affiliate marketing website (and get step-by-step training), create your FREE Starter account here.
The above link will take you to the Wealthy Affiliate homepage, where you can create your free account, and once you’ve signed up, you will get access to step-by-step training that shows you how to start your very own website for zero cost.
There is a Premium membership available, too, which costs $49/month.
And I would highly recommend taking advantage of that if you are able, as you will get your own domain that way (the free sites are built on a shared domain). You also get access to a lot more training, tools, and support as a Premium member, so it’s well worth it.
But the free Starter account is essentially a good “test drive” of the platform, so that is where I would recommend you start out before making any decisions. And the cool thing is you can keep your free site no matter what you decide!
In any case, I hope that helps.
And if you want to continue with the training here, the next page is all about traffic.
Next up: How to Get Traffic to Your Website
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