How to make an affiliate marketing website

An affiliate program for making money is a great way to generate passive income, especially in unstable times. Everyone can create their own website and profit from it.

In this article, I will consider in detail how to create a site for making money specifically for an affiliate program and what types of sites can be used for this: blog, single page and portal (listing).

Before I begin to describe each of the site types, I would like to highlight the common features inherent in all of them.

Affiliate marketing website. What's it about?

Before you start to run a blog or website, you need to think about a topic. This way, you will find it easier to navigate in the future, and there will be no problem of "blank paper" when there's nothing to write about. Write down topics that would be of interest to you, e.g. you can make a niche resource and write only about blogs (how to create one, where to start, post ideas, etc.) or sites. Mashable's blog started its career back in 2005 and focused only on social networking news. Now it is one of the largest foreign portals of the IT industry.

You can also pay attention to hosting services, domains, Internet earnings, and many other topics that somehow relate to the World Wide Web and everything in it.

Blog at Entrepreneur.com is a great example of the fact that you can write not only about hosting and domains but about the Internet and offline businesses in general. Detailed lessons, news, tips, and much more for all novice entrepreneurs and businessmen.

Don't forget to check your competitors' activity. Make a list of sprites, similar in topics, and, perhaps, that's where you will get some ideas or a future "signature" of your resource. However, copy-pasting post ideas and topics are never a good thing to do, as no one will be interested in reading something they have already read somewhere else.

Choose the right domain name

The general rule that still applies today is to use a keyword or phrase in the domain. If you have chosen a hosting or social networking topic, you can use these words or phrases with them in the domain. When you select a domain, you can use a free assistant that will tell you which names are already occupied and which are ready for registration.  

Now let's consider what site to create in more detail. There are several types of sites that can help us in promoting affiliate links, and we will start with the simplest way - creating a blog.

Affiliate marketing blog

In general, a blog is a type of website, preferably consisting of text content. Recently, blog posts can contain any multimedia content. Blogs are used for both personal and business purposes. You can use this type of site for yourself, namely, get additional income not only from an affiliate link but also to writing custom articles or install banners.

Blog platform

Many people choose WordPress or Google Blogger as their blog creation platform or CMS (Content Management System). This is a great option for people who are not very good at web design or do not want to pay for a domain/hosting. By the way, in general, 27% of sites on the network are managed by WordPress.

• WordPress is a free CMS with flexible settings. Read here how to install WordPress. https://wordpress.org/support/article/how-to-install-wordpress/

To start working with WordPress, you need to decide whether you want to be able to fully customize your blog or standard services are sufficient.

If you are not going to buy a domain and hosting and just want to try to work with a blog, then register at WordPress.com which already includes hosting WordPress and the ability to choose your custom site link.

In just 4 simple steps, you will have your own ready-for-work blog. It is worth noting that in the free version doesn't let you choose the design, download high-quality video files or add plugins.

If you are ready to register a domain and buy hosting, then you only need to download WordPress and transfer it to hosting. Don't be scared, everything is easier than it seems, especially if you use an auto-installer. All you need to do is fill in the blank fields and wait for a little, it will do everything automatically for you. You can also contact tech support on the site.

• A good alternative to WordPress is Google Blogger. To get started with it, you need to have a mailbox on Gmail. Then you will be able to create your own blog by filling in corresponding fields.

This platform has very flexible settings, as well as a lot of plugins that will not only improve the work of your blog but also help to promote it. For example, you can download the "All In One SEO Pack" plugin and optimize your posts as needed for search bots. You can also purchase design templates for an extra charge.

Another advantage of working with this system is that, unlike WordPress, it does not require a separate hosting.

After registering your blog, you can start writing your first post.

Writing exciting content

We've come to the most interesting part - the content for the blog. Despite the fact that this blog is created exclusively for earning on an affiliate link, you should not neglect the quality of content. Here are a few tips to follow for writing a good text:

• Uniqueness. Keep an eye on that when writing your articles. Never copy. No one is interested in reading this, and search engines can also "punish" your site.
• Find a few topics and write them down. Think about your topics in advance, so you can write at least one article a day. The more new content you have on the site, the more readers you will have.
• Even if you can't find topics for your blog posts right away, don't worry. You will most probably come up with some ideas during the day. Write them down right away. You can also use the help of a post-generator to find unusual headings for further writing a large article.
• After you find a few ideas, check what your competitors write about that. You may want to refute some thesis or write your own based on an article.
• Watch out for grammar mistakes in the text. You can correct them in a regular text editor or with the help of Grammarly-like apps.
• Be an expert in what you write about. Read more about your chosen topics, take some time to study it and test it yourself.
• Leave a link to an affiliate program unobtrusively. There is no need to devote a whole post to advertising. Better give your readers advice on, e.g. how to choose a hosting or how to create your own site, share a lot of helpful information with posting an affiliate link as well.
• Find images/photos related to the topic and dilute them with text. At the moment, there are a huge number of free images with quality pictures and photos. You can also add video or animation to your message. Do not forget that an image can be sent to the desired site, prescribing it in the HTML-code.
• If you are not ready or do not want to spend time on writing permanent, high-quality content, ask professional writers for help. They can be found on freelance exchanges.

Single pages for affiliate marketing

An alternative tool to promote an affiliate link is a single page site.

A single page, also known as a landing page, is a custom page - a site aimed at selling any products, in our case an affiliate link. Typically, it's about the specific interests of a particular target visitor. Such a site has one full page with content which makes an ordinary reader a buyer. The advantages of such a site are that it can be relatively quickly made and filled. You can use a free site designer.

Creating a landing page

In order to create a single page, you can use the help of WordPress. This CMS, thanks to the flexible options and set of special possibilities, will help you make a site for earnings literally in a few minutes. 

Landing page content

In general, creating a single page, there is a wide range of topics for content, as well as options in terms of earnings. You can create a site with a table comparing hosting companies, i.e. you can earn not only on an affiliate program but also with the help of other similar programs. An example of such a site is a single page Top 10 Web Hosting. Here you can find the ratings, rate, and read all the detailed information about a company. By the way, when you click "Visit site" button and automatically get to a provider's site via an affiliate link.

Also, any step-by-step guide, e.g. how to make your own site, how to sell an e-book or an online course, can be used as a basis for creating a single page. One of the items can be a step-by-step guide on how to buy a domain, e.g. Websitesetup.org and startbloggingonline.com work on such a principle.

As for the site's content on a website, a text that will be on a single page is called "selling text." It is written according to certain rules. For example, there is a model of writing text as AIDA (Attract - Interest - Desire - Action). Many advertising booklets and articles are written based on this principle. If you are not sure that you will be able to apply this formula, then the task of writing a text can be given to a professional author, specialized in writing texts for target pages.

To wrap it up, I’ll leave 5 most useful tips when creating content for a landing page:

• Highlight benefits, not the product. Describe why readers should use this hosting instead of any other.
• Use specific graphs or numbers. The more specifics in the text, the greater the confidence.
• Do not ask or beg. Write not as if you have a burning reason to give something to someone, serve it as friendly advice.
• Be sure to leave a call-to-action at the end of your text or use special services, such as ShareThis to enhance your site and engage visitors.

Affiliate listing

Another way to promote an affiliate link is a portal (listing). The portal is a very large site with several sections (forum, blog, chat, etc).

To create a high-quality portal, you can ask for help from specialists that deal with any types of sites. Naturally, not for free. In this case, the price range starts from $20. And don’t forget that you can always use a CMS like mentioned WordPress.

Portal topic

So, you have dealt with the tech part and now the portal has to be filled with content.

Wpbeginner.com offers a very large list of providers and their services. The site is filled with a number of reviews, ratings, comparisons, and reports that help users decide who to work with, and who is better off.

The well-known Businessnewsdaily.com also has some helpful information on hosting providers and how to choose the best one.

As you can see, there are many ideas for creating this type of site. By the way, it is through the portal that you can get the maximum income by placing not only affiliate links but also banners or other ads.

A huge advantage over other types of sites is that thanks to the communication of a large number of people on the site, they themselves can later generate new content by offering their own news, topics for discussion, or other information that can be used on the page.

As for posts and articles, they can be made with the help of pictures, videos, and infographics that you can create on your own or order from professional designers. The more visual and useful content in the article, the more credibility to your site, and, therefore, the more willingly people click the link.

Also, when creating your text for a site, enter keywords that will help to quickly “promote” it in Google.

Should you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me, I am editor-in-chief of reclinerfaq.com.

Featured image by Carlos Muza on Unsplash