Niche Website Building Tips | Niche Reaper Lenses

Websites are hard to make, right?

Well, yes and no. Sure, there is a learning curve and it is steeper than using Squidoo but not by a lot.

There are many website editors out there, both paid and free, that really are very easy to use and most now have a WSIWYG option so that you barely need to touch the 'raw' HTML.

And I can tell you, if you can master the basics of HTML in Squidoo, you are well on your way to being easily able to create websites.

Here a couple of 'must see' lenses for help on basic HTML within Squidoo:-

Basic HTML for Squidoo

Advanced HTML for Squidoo

So, what are the advantages of using a website?

> Control. You have absolute control of your content and what you want to appear on your website. (There are certain limitations of course in relation to obscene or offensive material)

> Flexibility. You can grow and diversify a website as much or as little as you want. It needs to be relevant to your audience but you can use it as a base for many different types of marketing campaign : Articles, PPC, List Building, CPA

> Expansion. Once you have got over the initial hump of creating your website the possibilities to expand you campaign are limitless, only dependant on your own creativity or desire.

First off, you'll need some kind of editor to create your websites and we'll mention just a few here. There is a poll below where you can vote for your own favourites (and please feel free to add to the list).

At the AffiliateNicheClub, Thad I both use Dreamweaver. It's not cheap and the learning curve is steep but in our opinion it is THE best bar none. Particularly, if you collaborate on building websites like we do.

It's closest rival is probably XSitePro which is certainly cheaper but as we have not used it we are not really in a position to make any kind of recommendation.

A couple of others worth mentioning are MS Frontpage and Web Studio 4.0

There are many free web design programs out there such as NVU and Weebly and you can get Site Rubix 'free' if you are a Wealthy Affiliate member.

It's obviously not possible for us to actually show you how to build a website on this lens, so instead we are going to talk about the basic structure of a website. A website that, no matter which website builder you use, will function well for any type of marketing campaign.

Our Basic Mini-Site Model



Home Page - A basic introductory page introducing yourself and your website.

Review Page - Contains reviews or comparisons of your product offerings.

Info Page - Contains any articles you may write. To start off with, just find some relevant articles from Ezine Articles but make sure that properly give credit to the original author.

Contact Page - Your Contact Details.

Privacy Page - Your Privacy Policy.

We'll talk in more detail later about the Landing Page but this model is great for basic Article Marketing where you would link back your articles to your Home or Review page.

Before we move onto a more complex Website model we should first understand the Customer Buying Cycle.

Put simply when people search the internet they go though three main phases:-

1.Research Phase. Where they are looking for general information on a topic.

2.Decision Phase. Where they are looking to compare different products and are likely looking for more information and reviews.

3.Buying Phase. They have come to decision and wish to buy.

So what is the best way to market to the customer at each phase of the buying cycle?

The Relevant Marketing Method

At stage 1 of the buying cycle a customer is unlikely to buy but they may do. They are interested, so we would look to capture them using an opt-in form on our mini-site.

At stage 2 of the buying cycle a customer more likely to buy but they may not. They are more interested, so we would look to capture them using an opt-in form on our review pages whilst giving them an option to buy via links to our merchant sites.

At stage 3 of the buying cycle a customer is likely to buy. They are very interested, so we would look to pull them directly to our targeted landing pages probably using Adwords.

Yes, it really does look more complicated than it is in reality.

The point is to get the customer at the right point in the buying cycle.

In the Research and Decision phases we can present more general information to assist our customers to make an informed decision. At the same time we would look to get them to opt-in to our list.

In the Buying phase our Landing pages are much more targeted, probably around specific products.

In this way we are maximising our potential of first capturing leads and then making sales!!

Knowing how to create an effective landing page is essential if your targeted customers are to be converted into actual buyers.

A landing page's main purpose is to compel the reader to take some form of action, to visit a merchant's page, or to sign up for a report or newsletter. If you are the merchant it will be to make a purchase. Ideally this action should be taken as quickly as possible.

A Compelling and Relevant Headline

Here is the headline from the AffiliateNicheClub sales page:-

"Tough Time Finding Ideas For a Niche?...Well Hey, It's Your Lucky Day Because We've Got More Than We Know What To Do With"

Enclose the quote in italics and bold it up in red font colour. In this case the headline compels the reader to 'READ ON'...

A Clear Exit to Your Merchant

Whether, it is a single product or multiple product review type of Landing Page you need to have clear exits to your merchants. Both pictorial and in your text:-

[Click Here To Grab Product X Now!]

Into Action

Use 'call to action' phrases telling the reader what to do in order to receive whatever you are promoting e.g. "Buy Here!", "buy now, limited offer!" or "sign up now!"

No Other Distractions

Avoid any distractions to other areas of your site or the web.

Short Punchy Text - Use Bullet Points

Use short, punchy phrases and break them up into easy to read bullet points. Answer any questions your reader may have before they take action. Ask questions yourself and then provide the answers.

Bonuses

If you are offering a bonus make sure it is clear what it is and how to get it. Are there any time limits on the bonus. It may be a good idea to set a time limit, as this in itself, is a call to action.

Opt-ins

Don't miss an opportunity to capture leads. It may be that that is the purpose of the landing page. If that is not its primary purpose, capture a lead anyway. Use a free bonus to do this. There could be opportunities to sell to the customer via a list series.

THE most important thing about landing pages is they must be relevant!

Keywords > Ads > Landing Page(s) > Merchant.

Everything must be relevant to what your searcher is looking for.

Check out Thad's video here:-

Understanding Landing Pages

In this video Thad talks about the importance of relevancy on landing pages and some other cool stuff.

Affiliate Theme!

Using WordPress? Then you MUST check this out.

Affiliate Theme! is THE simplest and best system for setting up Affiliate Marketing Review sites using WordPress!

- Choose Layouts to Improve Conversion!
- Optimized for your PPC and SEO campaigns.
- Built-in Color Picker - Perfect for every niche!
- Need to test more? Change everything you need!
- Hate coding? No problem. Love it? Great!
- Lifetime access to Resource Center and support.

Just a very brief word on Web Hosting here. There are tons of website hosting services out there.

Prices and services vary hugely and it really does depend on what you are looking for. We could probably devote a whole lens to this topic but we won't. (It would be as dull as dishwater IMO)

So, we'll just mention that FREE web hosting comes with membership of Wealthy Affiliate so you might want to check that out.

Thad and I use KnownHost which is absolutely top notch if you really want or need ALL the bells and whistles!

Another popular alternative is Hostgator which many people might prefer for basic hosting.

More to come...

We'll be building these up as we go... so keep an eye out...

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