Once you've got your website or blog up and running why not use it to earn money? The easiest way by far of doing this is to make it into an affiliate marketing site. In many cases affiliates can carve out entire careers for themselves simply by delivering high quality traffic to merchant websites on a regular basis.
Using Content Management Systems like Joomla! means you'll be able to choose designs that are fun and flexible to make your site just as you want it. Keep in mind that all you need to do to succeed with affiliate programs is to get your potential customer to click through to the affiliate website in an 'open-to-buy' mindset, so it's crucial that you write compelling copy to a) attract the attention of people on Google who are searching for the items you're advertising so they visit your site, and b) persuade them to purchase the items once they're on your site
Using Content Management Systems like Joomla! means you'll be able to choose designs that are fun and flexible to make your site just as you want it. Keep in mind that all you need to do to succeed with affiliate programs is to get your potential customer to click through to the affiliate website in an 'open-to-buy' mindset, so it's crucial that you write compelling copy to a) attract the attention of people on Google who are searching for the items you're advertising so they visit your site, and b) persuade them to purchase the items once they're on your site
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Once you've learnt about Joomla! and/ or WordPress you'll find it easy to add product endorsements and links to other websites that sell the product or service that you're promoting. Once you've done this you need to think about optimizing your site to bring as many visitors to your site as possible, to increase the chance of generating money from your web or blog site. Discover more about site optimization here. As well as getting your site known among the online community it's best to publicize it as much as possible so many affiliates add a link at the bottom of their outgoing email so they can advertise their affiliate website to family, friends and business colleagues.
Great Stuff on Amazon
The Complete Guide to Affiliate Marketing on the Web: How to Use and Profit from Affiliate Marketing Programs
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 01/08/2010) 
Make a Fortune Promoting Other People's Stuff Online: How Affiliate Marketing Can Make You Rich
Amazon Price: $14.93 (as of 01/08/2010)
Content
The best kind of content for your site is that which your visitors relish and search engines adore and the key to a successful affiliate website is getting this balance right. Make sure your content is always fresh and never duplicated. The beauty of Content Management Systems is that anyone with authorized access can update the content through a simple web administration tool, so you don't have to rely on IT support teams. This is obviously much more efficient and cost-effective than sending your content off to a webmaster each time you want changes to be made or a new article to be published.
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Affiliates
Affiliate sites work by generating traffic and sales for commercial websites in return for commission payments. New affiliate networks and independent affiliate schemes are constantly appearing in the UK as more companies are recognizing this as a good way to increase leads and product sales. If you join an affiliate network like Clickbank you'll find a wealth of affiliate schemes for you to take your pick from, but take care to ensure the products you're endorsing are relevant to your site and those who visit it.
A great way to gain an advantage over your competition is to create something of your own, such as a free eBook, and give this away to your members in small doses such as one chapter a week. This not only keeps them interested in coming back to your site to read the next chapter but also makes your site stand out from the crowd as you aren't just sticking the same product descriptions on there as everyone else, you'd be amazed at how many people just put the advertising copy that the merchant sites give them without putting their own slant on the product or service that you're recommending, and who wants to read the same advert over and over again?
A great way to gain an advantage over your competition is to create something of your own, such as a free eBook, and give this away to your members in small doses such as one chapter a week. This not only keeps them interested in coming back to your site to read the next chapter but also makes your site stand out from the crowd as you aren't just sticking the same product descriptions on there as everyone else, you'd be amazed at how many people just put the advertising copy that the merchant sites give them without putting their own slant on the product or service that you're recommending, and who wants to read the same advert over and over again?
Products
The latest research shows that at least 70% of sales in any affiliate programme are made by the small percentage of people who actually buy the products they recommend on their website as this helps enormously when it comes to writing a convincing personal recommendation. Once you're mastered the art of product endorsing you're on the fast track to success so be sure to join another program that offers related products and use the technique that marketers call 'back-end' selling. With affiliate websites there are all sorts of ways to make money from promoting different products and services in conjunction with each other.
Websites
Affiliate websites are a hotly pursued commodity on the internet and awareness of this kind of wealth creation system is increasing all the time so make sure you're one step ahead of the game. One way to do this is to ensure you have a lot of 'back links' to your site from other sources as search engines will see your site is popular and rank it highly, unlike sites with few or no back links which are considered unimportant and are therefore ranked poorly. To get these 'back links', write some articles that mention your affiliate website or products that you endorse there add links on them to take readers to your site. You can publish your articles on web forums and also write what's called a Squidoo Lens, which is a new and free way of making a page about yourself where you can promote yourself and your interests, such as your site.
These tips will help you create a great affiliate website, but also bear the following things in mind: avoid making websites that use a lot of flash as they are impossible for search engine spiders to crawl around, making it extremely unlikely that Google and the like will rank them highly and so it's highly likely that they'll have a poor conversion rate so you won't make much money from them. Try to find templates that are 100% CSS (cascading style sheets) as the spiders love to crawl round these sites and so you're much more likely to make lots of money.
Also make sure you use appropriate keywords in your domain name - this is very important as many of the search engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN give greater importance, and hence a better search engine position to websites whose domain names match the search terms typed in by the user. One of the best ways to improve traffic to your website is with the help of targeted websites who earn money promoting other peoples products.
If you follow these suggestions you should be able to build a successful affiliate website and profit from it. For more advice on this and similar topics read a few of our other articles on the Easy Web Develpment Blog.
These tips will help you create a great affiliate website, but also bear the following things in mind: avoid making websites that use a lot of flash as they are impossible for search engine spiders to crawl around, making it extremely unlikely that Google and the like will rank them highly and so it's highly likely that they'll have a poor conversion rate so you won't make much money from them. Try to find templates that are 100% CSS (cascading style sheets) as the spiders love to crawl round these sites and so you're much more likely to make lots of money.
Also make sure you use appropriate keywords in your domain name - this is very important as many of the search engines including Google, Yahoo and MSN give greater importance, and hence a better search engine position to websites whose domain names match the search terms typed in by the user. One of the best ways to improve traffic to your website is with the help of targeted websites who earn money promoting other peoples products.
If you follow these suggestions you should be able to build a successful affiliate website and profit from it. For more advice on this and similar topics read a few of our other articles on the Easy Web Develpment Blog.
New Del.icio.us bookmarks
- Digital Products Retailer: Affiliate Program & Sell Online - ClickBank
- Amazon.com Associates: The web's most popular and successful Affiliate Program
- Commission Junction - A Global Leader in Affiliate Marketing, Online Advertising and Search Engine Marketing
- WickedFire - Affiliate Marketing Forum - Internet Marketing Webmaster SEO Forum - Powered by vBulletin
- Affiliate programs - Learn from an affiliate marketing veteran
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