How to Build an Affiliate Marketing Website – Anyone Can Do It

As you can probably see, this site that you’re on now is an affiliate site. Throughout this article, I’m going to show you how to build an affiliate marketing website. The great news? It’s easier than ever thanks to current technology.

You Can Build an Affiliate Marketing Website in Seconds

When I first had an interest in building websites way back in the day, I had to build everything little by little with HTML coding. Imagine allll the work that went into making a site. It used to take hours just to get one page up. And if there was any little coding error, it could break your entire site. While I enjoyed the learning experience and the challenge of it all, I’m glad we’ve moved on with technology.

This site that you’re on lierally took me just a few seconds to get up and running. I know that sounds unbelievable, but I’m going to tell you how I did it in a minute. First, let’s go through some things that you need to build an affiliate marketing website.

You Need a Domain Name

Now, there are some places out there where you can get a free website with free hosting and they’ll provide you with a domain name. But that domain name will be some long, drawn out phrase that no one will remember. If you’d like to be a successful affiliate marketer, you will need a domain name that people can remember. It’s inexpensive and super easy, so there’s really no excuse not to get one.

There are numberous places where you can purchase a domain name. Some of these include:

• 1&1
• Go Daddy
• Namecheap
• Hostgator
• Name.com

I personally have used Go Daddy in the past. I still currently use 1&1, however, I think their platform is a little hard to get around, and I actually wouldn’t recommend them, especially if you’re just starting out.

I’ve recently tried a site that I find to be the absolutely easiest to use, and it will be my current recommended domain registrar. I’ll tell you all about that a little later.

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You Need a Place to Host Your Site

After you have your domain name, you’ll need a place to host your website. Again, there are numerous hosting sites out there where you can set up shop. Many of the domain registrars also have website hosting. Some of the hosting sites available out there include:

• Bluehost. This is a popular hosting site with a great reputation. Their prices start at under $3 / month.
• Hostgator. Hostgator is a hosting site I’ve personally used in the past. They are a popular, decent hosting site that starts at just under $3 / month. I never had any issues with Hostgator and I think they would be a fine place to plunk down your site.
• GoDaddy. GoDaddy will host your site for a little less than $2.50 a month (with a 1 year contract). They seem to be very reliable with good uptimes, however I can’t personally speak to how good or easy they are to use as I haven’t used them for hosting myself.
• 1&1. These guys will do basic hosting for just under $1 / month. I’ve only used them for domain names, but again, their site is not easy to navigate. Just based on ease of use, I really wouldn’t recommend hosting your affiliate marketing website here.
• Wix. Have you heard of Wix before? They’ve been doing a lot of advertising lately, so I’m sure you’ve seen their ads. They offer free websites (with an ad placed at the top) and they also have paid website hosting (with no ads). Now, Wix is what I use for my other site, PickPlants.com.There are definitely things I like about Wix. Do you want a site that’s super easy to build? Wix is great for that. I’ve also had no trouble ranking in the search engines. But, you have to pay for “extras” like adding search and comments to your site, which seems kind of crazy to me. My first year of hosting was $84 ($7 / month) and the following year went up to $168 ($14 / month).

There are many, many more hosting sites out there. There are too many to name. But I wanted to give you an overview of  what’s out there.

For this site, I use a different host. One that has been great so far and one that I would absolutely recommend due to its ease of use and cost. It also has tools to keep track of your site’s health. Too many plugins slowing down your site? Not putting enough content up? SiteHealth will let you know. This allows for better ranking in the search engines. Important if you want to make money as an affiliate.

Sorry, no spoilers. I’ll tell you all about this host later in the article.

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You Need a Niche

A niche is the topic that your website and your content will be focused around. There are endless amounts of niches out there and endless amounts of niche-related products that you can promote. The hardest part is narrowing it down to something that you’ll enjoy writing about and creating content for.

For instance, I love running, but that’s way too broad. So, instead, I could do a niche site about running shoes for women, or plant-based running, or running marathons for women (someday!), or moms who run.

Start with something broad and narrow it down until you find something that you like. Now, there are two schools of thought on creating niche websites.

1. Find a niche that will make lots of money.
   Of course, as an affiliate marketer, you want to make money. And some people start with that. They find a niche that is either really popular, has a lot of sellable items or has high-ticket items. This can definitely work and does for many people.
2. Find a niche you’re passionate about.
   Have you heard that if you follow your passion the money will follow? That’s the thought behind this path. If you’re passionate about something, it shows in your content and people trust you more.

Either one will work, and it’s a personal choice about which way you want to go. For me, I prefer working in a niche I’m passionate about. Because you have to create lots and lots of content, it makes is so much easier when you’re excited about a subject. I am working from home doing affiliate marketing because I enjoy it and because I’m writing about things I love. To me, it makes “work” fly by and I feel fulfilled. That’s the whole point of being an affiliate marketer for me.

What do you think? Go for the money or go for the passion? Leave me a comment below. 

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You Need Keywords Related to Your Niche

Keywords and keyword phrases are what people type into Google or other search engines. For instance, let’s say I want to know how to train my cat. I type “how to train a cat” into Google, and here’s what comes up.

These are all related keyword phrases related to “how to train a cat”. If your niche was on cat training, you could use all of these keywords (ok, maybe not the one about the cattle dog!) and create articles and content centered around each one.

The real trick is finding keywords that people search for but aren’t too competitive. In other words, you want to find keywords that have enough people searching for them to make it worthwhile to create content, but you also want to be able to rank for that keyword phrase in the search engines without getting beat up by bigger sites.

These are what we like to call low hanging fruit keywords. Easy pickin’s. We could do a whole series on these suckers, but let me just say that this is an important, important, important piece of the affiliate marketing puzzle.

Do you want to learn all about where and how to find these magical keywords? I’ll give you the scoop just a little later. 🙂

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You Need to Create Content

Without content, you have no affiliate marketing website. You have to give people something to read or view. You have to help them solve issues or answer questions. Where do you get ideas for that content? From those magic keywords we just talked about.

The keyword phrase for this article is “How to Build an Affiliate Marketing Website”. People like you were searching for this and I’m helping answer that question. There are tons and tons and tons of keywords out there that you can write content on. There are billions upon billions of keywords. You will never run out of ideas.

Just a side note. Content doesn’t just have to be an article like this. If you’re not a super huge fan of writing, videos are the way to go! There are something like 4 billion people on YouTube. You would find keyword phrases in the same way as mentioned above, and focus your video on that phrase.

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 You Need People to Read Your Content

It’s like that saying, “If a tree fals in the forest but no one is around to hear it, did it actually fall?” Well, “If you write a piece of content and no one is around to read it, did you actually write it?”

Why yes, yes you did write it. You probably will spend a good amount of time creating content. So you want to make sure people are there to read it! Otherwise, what’s the point?

There are a few ways you can get people to your site to read your content: 

• Use those magic keywords and get ranked in the top spots in the search engines
• Pay for ads that send people to your site
• Use social media to bring people awareness that your site exists

The best way to get traffic when you’re first starting out is the first way. At the same time, you also want to be active on  social media so that you can build up trust and your brand. Paying for advertising does create faster traffic, but it’s also riskier because you may put in a lot of money and get nothing out of it.

It’s better to start with free methods until you get a feel for how the whole process works, and then you can start dabbling in paid traffic. Yes, it’s slower, but you’ll also learn more along the way and you’ll get better and better at affiliate marketing overall.

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Where to Get Everything in One Place

Now, the fun part! I finally answer those questions above. Where is my recommended domain registrar? Where is that awesome hosting? Where do I get those magic low hanging fruit keywords??

The great part is that they’re all in one place. Everything you need to create a successful affiliate website is. All. In. One. Place. You get:

• The easiest domain registration
• Extremely reliable hosting for up to 25 websites
• The best keyword tool out there (so you can easily find the low hanging fruit phrases)
• A content builder with thousands of free images you can use (it’s what I’m using right now to write this article)

Not only that, you also get: 

• Step-by-step training to get your website up and running. I’m talking about start-to-finish training. From getting your site set up with the right plugins, to creating the right content, to finding the right keywords, to using social media.
• Weekly live trainings on various topics including Facebook marketing, video marketing, email marketing, etc. All of these live trainings are available to view at any time.
• Member-created trainings. I have learned so much from these trainings. From getting Instagram followers, how to use Pinterest for marketing, and my favorite, how to use Canva!
• Support 24/7. There’s always someone available day or night for support, help, or just a nice chat.

I know what you’re thinking. What is it, how much does it cost and what’s the catch?

I get it. That would be me too. The site is called Wealthy Affiliate. I have an entire review on it so you can read more about it. Just click the link below. The best part is that it’s 100% free to try out. I mean so free that you don’t have to put in your credit card. I love this because you get to try it worry-free. You don’t have start thinking “ok, when is that charge coming?”

I encourage people to try it out free, have a look around and see if you like it. If you don’t, you at least gave it a fair chance. After that, if you want to sign up for a Premium Membership, that’s great. That’s when alllll the fun happens. I don’t want to bore you with all the details. Instead, check out my review.

Click Here for My Honest Wealthy Affiliate Review

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How to Build an Affiliate Marketing Website in Seconds

Finally, we get to that question. How did I build this site in just a few seconds? Wealthy Affiliate is so awesome and so easy to use that they can have your website up and ready in less than 30 seconds. As mentioned, once you’re a Premium Member, you can host up to 25 websites. (You can have 2 as a Free Member.) Here’s where you do it.

Click on “Websites” and then choose the domain option. Here’s where you can also easily find and register a domain.

I clicked on the “free domain” option just to take a look. Again, I would recommend you have your own domain for branding purposes.

From here you pick a site name, a title for your site and a Theme that you like. (You can always change that later.)

 

Once you do that, just hit that green button and it takes less than 30 seconds to be live.

 

Isn’s that amazing? Technology is great! We are living in awesome times, my friends.

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What do you think? Have you learned how to build an affiliate marketing website? Or at least, all the things you need to know to build a successful website? (Wealthy Affiliate can teach you all the details, step-by-step.) Do you have any questions? Please leave them below and i’ll get back to you as soon as I can.