Part 2
- Build Site
- Create content
- Join affiliate networks
You should assume that any link within this post might be an affiliate link for which I might receive compensation.
Building Your Site
Have you completed the steps in part 1 yet? If not – go and do them, then come back here 
Alright, the next thing you are going to do is build your site. If you are technically challenged, this may seem like a really difficult thing to do – but it’s not. As I mentioned before, you will be using WordPress to build your site. What you need to do first is install WordPress using Fantastico – here is a video from HostingTutorials.com on how to use Fantastico. Once you watch that, you will see how incredibly easy it is to get your site up and running. If you are still too nervous to do it yourself, I might be able to give you some-one-on one help – go here for more information.
Wordpress is a blog platform that can be configured in many different ways. The primary reason that we will be using it is that there are so many great options out there to customize WordPress – and man of them are absolutely free! Free is good - right?
So what you are going to do is start familiarizing yourself with your new Wordpress back-end. There are tons of free tutorials out there to help you get started. You will need to know how to change your theme, put up a post, and add plugins. There are a lot of other things to learn, but with those basics, we can get started.
So once you’ve played around a bit in the WordPress dashboard, you are now ready to pick a theme. Don’t take up too much time because many of you will end up changing the theme anyway. A quick guideline for you is that you should pick a theme with a single side-bar and is somewhat wide – 840-1100 pixels in total width (you aren’t likely to find those exact sizes – they are simply parameters). The reason that you want a decent width is that you want enough width to make sure that when your site is displaying products, they won’t be/look squished.
Don’t buy a theme – at least not until you have started to make money with your initial site. There are too many great free themes out there that are fully customizable that there is no need to buy a theme if you are just starting out. Just look through the themes under “Add New Themes” in “Appearance” in your WordPress dashboard. If you want to look at a few themes that I like to use on sites, you can look at the free themes found at http://wpthemes.info, http://themehybrid.com, http://themes.bavotasan.com, and http://heatmaptheme.com – most of these have paid themes as well, but the free ones are top-notch. Some of these also have paid support forums – this is well worth the money if you want to stick with a theme and get help from the creator and community.
Okay, once you have put up a theme that you like, we can move on to the next step. Oh, and by the way, you are almost guaranteed going to change your theme – so this was an exercise to show you how easy it is to change themes and to have something in the back of you mind as the rest of the site comes together and you decide on the final design.
Creating Content
I mentioned before that for now, all you have to really know how to do is change the theme (hope you just did that), utilize plugins, and put up a post. The plugins will come later – right now you need to tackle adding a post.
Your posts are actually the very most important part of you site as it will constitute what is referred to as the “content.” Your content is what is going to separate your site from others and will be of vital importance in gaining traffic to your site. Your content needs to to be unique – meaning there are not exact duplicates of what you are posting on your site already existing on other sites. The best way to accomplish this is to write the content yourself. This is why it is so vitally important that you picked a subject you are interested in. If you are wondering why I said write the content yourself, it is because many people will use PLR – or private label content. Basically they are just existing articles that on particular subjects that are resold over and over again. People buy these article because writing is time consuming. Don’t fall for the trap of PLR – write it yourself. If you take a look back at this sites posts over the last year – they are essentially PLR and my site suffered a loss of “authority” in the search engines. Why? Because what I was allowing to be published on my site was available at lots of different sites all over the web – I didn’t have anything special. Let me be as clear as possible – if you cannot take the time to write the content yourself – you will not be successful at this.
You will put new content up on your site by creating a post. Creating a post is exactly what I am doing right now – typing in the post editor in the back-end of WordPress. When you are in there, you will notice a lot of options. Over time, familiarize yourself with all of it, but for now all you want to do is start putting in your content under “Posts” → ”Add New” in your WordPress dashboard, proof-read your content, and then publish.
So what does your content need to consist of? It is an extremely simple thing, but so many people miss it. I know I did for so long even though it is common sense. You need to provide information that solves a problem – or at least attempts to provide solutions to a given problem. Let me go back to to my previous example of dog collars. If I know quite a bit about choke collars and their proper use in dog training, a could write an article (or series like this 3 part one) on how to properly use choke chains. Inserted throughout or at the end of the article would be statements such as “I only recommend insert product name here choke chains” and either provide a link to a site that sells dog chains that you are an affiliate of, or insert pictures ads that are linked to a site that sell dog collars. Something like this:
If you are going to train your dog using a choke chain, I only recommend TopDawg Pet Supply’s C Titan choke chains. I think they provide the best control while not hurting your dog. The best place I have found to get these chains at the best price is Buy.com – here’s a direct link to the collar I recommend:
Don’t concern yourself with how I created that little ad box – it is super simple and we will cover that next time around.
Now, you will want to put your own spin on this and use your own wording. The better you can make your sales copy sound, and the more that you have come across as an authority on the subject, the more likely your readers are to click on the link and potentially buy your recommended product.
Does this make sense though? You need to provide solutions to a need – not just write about a product – that really is lame and the internet is full of people doing that. Provide people with information they can use, position yourself as an authority, and people will buy through your links. Can’t you just put up a site full of links without all the written content and make money? The answer is yes, but let me ask you – how good are you at driving traffic to a website? You want to start out with just a storefront type site? You better be able to generate a ton of traffic or be able to rank above Amazon. Wouldn’t it be easier to bring people to your site and then as their “friend” refer them to Amazon and make a commission when they buy something?
Start off with the authority type of site – if you can provide people with a solution to their wants/needs – you will be able to generate income.
I am going to repeat myself in another way here, but this is so that you understand how important your content is and why it will make or break your money making abilities online.
You could simply start writing about your subject, but a more intelligent way to approach it would be to do a little bit of research and find out about what subjects people are looking for so that you can provide solutions to their problems. Use resources like the top Amazon listings in a category, eBay Pulse, or even better – visit forums on your subject. You will be using forums later in this series, so join a couple of subject related forums now.
People always have questions, leaving aside pornography and Facebook, obtaining information is what people use the Internet for. They are looking for solutions to make their life easier. While that may seem simplistic – it is – so don’t make it complicated. Provide solutions and you will make money.
Let’s say for example, your site is about car care. Lot’s of people out there want to know how to best take care of their car and they are confused by all the different car wax formulas available. You could write about car waxing and its importance to the longevity of your car’s paint or just how it makes it look good (this could be one, or several articles), you can write articles on all of the detailing aspects of car care, fuel additives, etc. - giving a thorough rundown in each article explaining the processes you go through in the care of your car and in some or all of the articles you could talk about how you’ve tried products x,y, and z – and how product x gave you the best results – of course you’d have a courteous little link to make it easy for the reader to find more information and perhaps make a purchase. Unlike the example above, I would just include my affiliate link in the text of the article like this:
I have used a lot of different car wax formulas and I have found that Zymol Z503 works the best – you can check it out here.
You can make your links any number of ways including ads (like the first example), clickable pictures, hyperlinks like the one above or a combination. The way you do it will have to depend on your style and what “looks” appropriate. Don’t be afraid to ask friends or family to take a look and see which they feel is more user friendly. You should also try switching it up on your site and see which way gets more clicks. This is testing, and as an internet marketer, you need to get in the habit of testing your sites because a small change on your site could make a huge change in your income.
To re-cap what you need to do as far as providing content – it is quite simple. Provide reviews or solutions to people and mention associated products for which you will have affiliate links inserted in your content.
What’s that? You don’t have affiliate links? No problem – we will cover that next.
Joining Affiliate Networks
In order to have affiliate links, you need to be an affiliate. For the purposes of this type of website, I am going to recommend that you join on the following affiliate networks: Amazon.com, Linkshare, Commission Junction, ShareASale, Pepperjam Network, and Ebay Partner Network. These “networks” as they are referred to are going to give you access (combined) to millions of products – no kidding – millions of which you can choose to promote. Below are links to each of the sites – I will caution you though, that you should actually put up a site with some content before applying to these companies. I think the easiest ones to get into will be Amazon, LinksShare, Commission Junction, and ShareASale. If you need to get accepted right away, you might want to indicate on your application that you are going to do e-mail marketing – but I recommend you just get your site going as soon as possible. Think about it this way, if you have a blank site – no one is going to go to it – even if you do have ads – nobody is there to click on them anyway. Get some content on your site – then you apply.
Links to recommended affiliate programs:
Click here to become an Amazon.com Affiliate Residents of certain states are not eligible
Click here to become a LinkShare Affiliate
Click here to become a Commission Junction Affiliate
Click here to become a ShareASale Affiliate
Click here to become a Pepperjam Network Publisher Page takes a little bit to load
Click here to become an eBay Partner Network Affiliate
Next week, we will cover part 3. For now you have homework – very important homework. Get your site up and get content on there. Turn it into a resource that someone could gain some valuable knowledge from. Even if you only have one article – make sure it is a good one….then work on another and another.
Even thought this is a long post, there is a lot that I have left out – so ask if you don’t understand something and I will do my best to get you a clear answer.
