How To Create A Website or Blog For Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a process whereby you promote other people’s products and earn a commission. When you join an affiliate marketing company, you get a unique affiliate link that you can promote. When visitors click on the link and make a purchase, you earn a commission.

Some high-paying affiliate programs pay as much as 90% per sale. Others also pay recurring commissions such as web-hosting companies. As long as people that you referred to the company continue paying for their subscriptions, you earn a commission.

Once you have a strategy, how to create a website or blog for affiliate marketing becomes stupid simple.

When l got started, l worked as a freelancer on Elance. Back then, Elance and Odesk were the major players in the field of freelancing. They boasted of a sizable share in the freelance market. The major of the two competing companies produced a formidable giant which dominates the freelancing world called Odesk.com.

At the end of 2013, l stumbled upon Wealthy Affiliate, learned about affiliate marketing through creating websites. l created my first website. Took it from $0 to earn $1000+ in commissions in 2 1/2 years. Sold the website in 2016.affiliate marketing success stories 2020

Netted $38 479 after deduction of 15% commission by the agent Empire Flippers

Niche – Make money online (MMO) program reviews.

Age – 2 1/2 years.

The number of reviews – 90 Program reviews. Average of 1 article per week.

Length of articles – 1000+ words.

Monetization – Google Adsense, Amazon products, and Wealthy Affiliate – 50% recurring income.

Email Marketing – 117 subscribers (started collecting emails the last 5 months before it was sold).

You can visit the actual website listing on Empire Flippers.

Then l quit the online world….

Due to the Covid-19 induced challenges, l am back online!

Why affiliate marketing? 

• Relatively cheap and easy to get started – most genuine affiliate programs are free to join.
• It is 100% legit – you promote products of reputable companies such as Amazon.
• No inventory – you are not required to buy any inventory or products before you can promote them.
• No Hustles – the Merchant processes payments, deals with refunds, and offers support to the customers.
• Low payment threshold – most programs will pay you after reaching a minimum threshold of $100.
• You can do it from anywhere in the world as long as there is Internet connectivity.

If you want, you can come along with me on this noble journey. If you want to put what you are learning into practice?

If you have no website or cash at hand to buy a domain plus hosting?

No worries…

Create one for free in 1 minute or less.

Alternatively, you can use blogger.com or wordpress.com. There are many tutorials on how to create an affiliate marketing website in WordPress.

Of course, free websites and hosting do have limitations, but you have somewhere to get started.

If you have any suggestions or questions, the commentary box below is all yours!

If you have any questions, suggestions or tips, the commentary box below is all yours.

1 Why Create A Website Or Blog?

If there were no websites, no one would not make any money online. When you come to think of it. Google, Facebook, Amazon, Youtube … use this same old method. Imagine if these three companies did not create websites… they could be non-existent.

Pros

• Has the potential to reach out to millions of people online 24/7 without breaking the bank.
• It allows the ease of sharing information by sharing links to articles.
• It is a real business on which you can promote your skills, affiliate products, or display advertisements of your choice to make money.
• Websites can be sold like brick-and-mortar businesses with prices running into millions of dollars.
• Articles can attract customers for years as compared to one-off payments you will receive as a freelance writer.
• Unlike years back, no special skills technical skills are required such as coding.

Cons

• Websites can be hacked – you need to choose your hosting company carefully and install security plugins.
• You can be issued with cease and desist letters – if you infringe on copyrights your website can be taken down.
• Wrong niche – if you choose an over-competitive niche, you may not make any meaningful income.
• There is a risk of website buying scams when selling your website.

Tip: Subscribe to website buying and selling platforms such as empireflippers.com and Flippa.com to get insights on website prices.

2 How To Create An Affiliate Website or Blog From Scratch.

In simple terms;

A blog is mainly for individuals to write about their experiences, passions, or hobbies. A website is mainly created by businesses and online entrepreneurs to share information about various products and/or services.

l prefer creating a blog on my website instead. Both a blog and a website can be monetized by promoting a merchant’s products to earn commissions or selling their own products.

l am a fan of affiliate marketing:

The Process Of Making Money With Affiliate Marketing.

 

a. Choose a niche, interest, or opportunity.

My main goal for spending my valuable resource, time creating a website or blog is to make money. If your writing is for the purpose of sharing your experiences as a hobby with the World… good for you.

When choosing a niche for a brand new website, l go for opportunity rather than passion. l am passionate about music. But l know people are usually searching for FREE music downloads or lyrics … l will labor in vain.

Instead:

l know a lot of people even before the lock-down caused by Corona Corvid 19 were looking for a way to make money online or at home. Whether full-time, part-time or as a way to complement one’s main income.

There are also so many make-money-online opportunities that l can promote and earn commissions.

Alternatively,

One can target ‘new’ niches… imagine if you had jumped on the ‘Drones’ Niche when it was in its infancy. The commissions are life-changing. Those are the kind of niches my hands are itching for!

Use your intuition, common knowledge …

lntuition – Avoid niches that are seasonal. Unless you don’t want to make money throughout the year.

Common knowledge – while people parrot about selling ‘Amazon high commission products’, have you ever asked yourself if you would ordinarily Google for a product worth $5 000. Read a 500 worded review. Click on the Call to Action Button and purchase the product within 24 hours?

Probably not.

You are likely to read 5-6 reviews, discuss them with family members. Then a few days later, go straight to Amazon and buy the product.

Tip: Write reviews for both lowly and high-priced items. You get paid for any products that the referrals (traffic) that you send to Amazon purchase after clicking on your link.

TIP: Go for opportunity rather than passion if you want to establish a website to make money online. Hobbies and passion rarely pay bills.

 

The Process Of Making Money With Affiliate Marketing

b. Choose A Web-hosting Company.

How to choose a web hosting for beginners

I am not a tech person.

For beginners, you need to start with a basic plan. Hosting can be heavy on your pocket.

My strategy at first was to use free options such as blogger or wordpress.com because l was not sure if it will work out.

Once affiliate commissions started tickling in, l purchased a domain for $9.99 and paid $10 for hosting in the first year from Namecheap. The company was running a promo.

Namecheap live chat support is excellent.

Unfortunately, most hosting companies more than triple their prices during renewal time. Unsolicited first-year add-on ‘freebies’ during the registration process can substantially increase the renewal price. Deselect unsolicited options!

Always confirm the renewal price before committing oneself.

Some companies will attract you with a low entry point such as $3.95 per month. Once you take on the hook and sinker, you are introduced to unending up-sells.

You can check out companies below for entry package ($2.95 – $5/month);

Hostgator.com

Bluehost.com

Godaddy.com

Greengeeks.com

Ipage.com

Hostmetro.com

Justhost.com

Namecheap.com

Some of the web-hosting companies above offer heavily discounted prices if one chooses 3-year hosting contract. The renewal price can be heavy though since the discount price only applies in the first 3 years.

c. How to choose a domain for an affiliate marketing website?

My website will be in the making money online niche – target population or main topic. l need a domain name related to affiliate marketing.

It must be short, memorable, and brandable. It must resonate with the niche. The name must be easy to pronounce or spell correctly on their first try.

That means avoid hyphens, numbers, acronyms…

Alternatively, you can personalize the domain name by using your name or second name.

l am not a fan of personalization of domain names because, to me, my website is a business that l can dispose of when the need arises.

l don’t want to ‘sell’ myself … lol.

Personalization is recommended for Multi-Level Marketing and Network Marketing though.

The domain name is important for Search Engine Optimization.

Most people will tell you that keyword-based domains are no longer important for SEO purposes.

But the truth is;

If there are two websites both with similar content, back-link profile, and so forth. The domain with a keyword in it wins.

If entering your main keyword in the post or page’s URL influences ranking, how can the domain name be totally downplayed?

No domain keyword staffing:

Imagine a domain name called: howtoloosefat.com. Then your article will be how to lose belly fat, then it will appear as howtoloosefat.com/howtoloosebellyfat.

Sounds awkward, isn’t it…

Search engines such as Google will also think that it’s awkward and punish you by downgrading your rankings

How To Brainstorm For A New Blog or Website Name?

In comes domain name suggestion or generator tools, my favorite is namemesh.com (Ask uncle Google for alternatives).

Name mesh is a great tool because it shows you domains that are available for immediate purchase. Finding a domain name that makes you feel warm inside, then only to discover that it was taken….. is frustrating.

Wow! Lots of suggestions. l am considering veryaffiliate.com, l can add another word in the middle such as ‘cool’ verycoolaffiliate.com. Other likely words that l could probably add in the middle include ‘popular’, ‘good’ to mention a few.

l can also go for cleanaffiliate.com. Clean as in smart or legit affiliate. Opposite of dirt as in scammy…

You don’t need to spend too much time choosing a domain name. Remember Amazon was a bookshop when it started, now it sells almost every product made on earth.

l chose cleanaffiliate.com. l can write about different make-money-online opportunities. Write reviews about website themes, plugins, and hosting platforms without a problem.

Since Namemash has already shown that it was available, l went to my host and grabbed it for $13.99 – renewable per annually.

Tips: As long as the domain name is not too specific, you can always add a twist to the focus of your website. You can add a diversity of content as you go.

If the name is too narrow, you will run out of topics to write about.

Avoid brand names. You can not name your website Coca-Cola affiliate…

That is how to choose a domain name for a blog.

d. How To Create A New Website Using A WordPress Web-builder?

best web builder for affiliate marketing website

l am spoiled because when it comes to building websites or blogs. l use one of the simplest but efficient WordPress web-builders online.

So l just populate the required information. Command the web building online software to do the heavy lifting.

How many minutes do you think it takes…? My website was ready in a minute or less!

1. Enter the website URL – as it will appear in the search engines. cleanaffiliate.com

2. Enter website name – Clean Affiliate as it will appear at the header or top area of the website.

3. Choose a theme – l always grab the theme l am used to. No need to scratch your head with something that you can change by a click of a button.
If you know of any website that you admire and was build using WordPress, no worries. Just paste the website link or URL into wpthedetector.com and it will spit out the name of the theme. Grab the theme from the WordPress repository. Install, customize and you are set…

4 Click on build my website – in less than a minute your website is ready. At least the framework.

The skeleton….

5. Essential plugins are already installed ready for activation. (Unfortunately, you can not add more plugins when you are on free membership).

Tip: Don’t spend hours scratching your head about which theme to use for a website with ZERO visitors. The ugliestwebsite.com makes a fortune. Besides, a theme can be changed by a click of a button.

Complicated themes will waste your time as you try to set them up.

6 Setting Up My New Blog or Website.

Deleting default pages – l deleted the ‘Hello World’ page, ‘Example Post’, and default ‘Comment’ that come with most themes.

You can edit the post if you know how to edit the ‘Hello World’ in your URL yourwebsite.com/hellowworld. Otherwise, just delete the page.

Making the Logo – My favorite tool is Canva. I use the free membership option.

Grab the recommended size of your log by the designers of your theme.

Log into Canva, select the logo template.

Create your logo, use the drag function to set the size, and download. Upload it from your desktop as a media folder of your website.

 

What The Heck Are Word Press Plugins?

Do you know a smartphone? Do you know Apps you can download from the App Store or Play Store?

I guess the answer is a big YES!.

Why do you download Apps?

If you said to enhance the usability of the smartphone and add on functions that ordinarily are not pre-installed on the smartphone.

You are answered!

To install a plugin, just search for it in the repository or purchase one. Upload (if you downloaded it). Install and activate. Customize if need be. You are done. Word Press Plugins are to a website; apps are to smartphones. They enhance the functionalities of your website.

Tips:

• Do not install too many unnecessary plugins.
• Deactivate and uninstall plugins that you no longer need.
• Just like smartphone apps, they will slow down your website loading time (a ranking factor in Google).

Update your plugins regularly when prompted to do so. If you add a plugin and your website starts to behave strangely. It may be due to plugin conflict amongst themselves or with your theme. Deactivate and remove the plugin. Search for an alternative one if necessary.

Plugins For A New Website:

Rank Maths – Giving this new plugin a test. Has been using All In One SEO. While an SEO plugin is important for making sure content conforms with Google requirements. No plugin will not magically rank your website. It will also allow the effortless insertion of Google analytics meta tags.

All in one SEO plugin – this is pre-installed automatically. You will use it to optimize URLs, site descriptions and add keywords. It also allows the adding of Google analytics, without touching any code. Google XML Site Map Plugin – allows the addition of every new page to the site map once l start publishing articles. It is important for Google ‘robots’ when navigating through the website.

Facebook Auto publish – since the website is still new, l will be relying on other sources of traffic including Facebook. If one is not posting frequently, then this sharing of information can be done manually.

Cleantalk plugin – I love this plugin because it allows people to leave comments without entering the annoying security capture code or registering.W3 Total Cache – Great plugin for making the website load fast.

Table of Contents Plus – l will be writing 1500+ worded articles, this plugin will automatically create a menu according to set criteria e.g. create menu only when an article has more than 7 headings. The article will be easy to navigate.

Pretty Links – as l will be sharing links to the new website, need to track them and they will be looking neat.WP Socializer – will allow visitors to share links easily and it will allow for social signals which are necessary when a website is relatively new.

Contact Form 7 – important if people want to send me personal messages.

Short pixel – Compresses images and makes them easy to load without compromising quality.

Will add more plugins later…

Important Pages For New Websites.

The internet marketing space is NOT a jungle. There is certain information that you are required to display on your website. l personally use pages to create the important pages that search engines love to see on any website. Otherwise, it will be flagged as spam.

Posts are for reviews. Search the web and learn about the difference between the two.

Imagine visiting a website without a;

About me page – you can write about yourself or about the website. Your goals, motivation, and principles. What you write is not cast in stone. Google websites in your niche and read their about me page for inspiration.

This is one of the most visited pages on any website. Readers want to know more about your experience and how you can help them. Explain what your website or business is about. Tell them where they can get in touch with you… Twitter handle, Facebook page and other social media platforms.

Terms of service – ”Terms and conditions often include an explanation or definition of key terms used in the terms, and outlines the legal limitations of responsibility of the website owner for any damages or harmed incurred during usage of the site” websitepolicies.com.

Private Policy – yes, it has to do with those pop-ups that talk saying ‘this website uses cookies. How you are going to treat the information you are going to collect from visitors. Your website and privacy policy must adhere to the GPDR (General Data Protection Regulation) law of May 25th, 2018 approved by The European Union if it receives visitors from such countries.

WordPress has implemented some of the requirements such as enabling visitors to delete their information after leaving a comment. There are many plugins that can assist in drafting GPDR compliant Private Policy. This page MUST appear on every page or post on your website. You can add it as a widget or insert it in the bottom menu.

Affiliate Disclaimer or Disclosure – Tell your visitors that you earn a commission if they purchase products by clicking links on your website without paying an extra amount. Very important if you are promoting products from Amazon otherwise you get banned. It reads more like this:”As an independent review site, we get compensated if you purchase through referral links or coupon codes on this page – at no additional cost to you”.

Tips: If you don’t’ know what to write on the bottom three pages. No worries. Copy and edit mine. Google knows the pages, don’t worry about duplicate content or just stop the pages from being indexed. (Disclaimer: You are legally responsible for all the content that you post on your website).

9 Website structure – Home, Program Reviews, comparisons improve Search Engine Optimization – search engine robots can easily navigate through the content if it is well arranged and interlinked.

The site structure will enhance the crawl-ability of the website. Enhances user experience – well-organized website will make it easy for visitors to find what they want.

Common products must be organized in relevant categories. A website selling ladies products will have categories such as Hand Bags, Shoes, Dresses, and so forth. Each one will have sub-categories depending on sizes, the material used, and or prices.

Improves dwell time – the time spent by visitors on your website is a ranking factor (bounce rate). A website that is easy to navigate will increase dwell time as visitors click on categories and sub-categories.

Tip: Logical hierarchy and keep categories to between 5 and 7. Non-monetary pages must be at the end (far right) or footer of the website. That’s is your Private policy, Affiliate Disclosure and About me (us) page.

10 How To Write Affiliate Product Reviews.

This method well with many niches although l am going to use ‘make money online’ reviews as an example. People are always searching on the internet for information about products before making a purchase.

Jay Abraham: “If you can define the problem better than your target customer, they will automatically assume you have the solution.”

1) Find a program to review by using:

Similarweb.com – shows which keywords the website is ranking for and most importantly the source or countries from which most visitors are coming. l will only target programs bringing traffic from the big 5 English-speaking countries. That is, 80% of the traffic must be from the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. Have you ever heard of people complaining that my website has so many visitors but there are no sales? The reason is simple, you are attracting flies to a flower with nectar instead of bees.

Sitexml.com – May favorite tool. It will extra all articles posted on a website. Paste the into Microsoft word or word pad. Use the search and replace tool to clean up the article list. Paste the list into a keyword tool to check on traffic and analyze SEO difficulty.

MLMgateway.com – (aff link) Join it for free, check on announcements for new programs to review. You will also get a summary of what the program offers. You can stumble upon programs that have not to be launched and you can effortlessly rank for such reviews in Google even if your website is new. You can also get some traffic to your offer too by publishing an announcement to earn free points you can use for advertising. You will get email updates for any new articles published.

Facebook Groups – Join several affiliate marketing or make money online groups. Check out programs being promoted and write well-researched reviews.

2) Carry out keyword research.

If you want your website to be found on the first page of Google you need to create good content and strategically insert phrases (keywords) people are searching for. – to me, this is by far the most important ranking factors of content on search engines including uncle Google.

Analyze competition.

Choose low competition keywords or phrases even if they have low traffic. It is better to be ranked on the first page of Google and get 50 visitors to your blog or website.

Instead of wasting time writing an epic article on high competition keywords (normally one or two words) that gets stuck on the 5th page of Google. Having zero visitors.

Besides, keywords with one or two words attract untargeted visitors. Would you know what people searching for ”make money online” are searching for? Are they searching for affiliate marketing, surveys, forex trading, freelancing …. the list is endless.

Writing content.

l prefer reverse engineering. Find keywords that a new website can easily rank for then write posts targeting the keywords. My posts will be guided mostly by keywords (l will show you how l optimize posts below).

Most people prefer doing the opposite; think of what to write and search for keywords. In the end, they just write ‘suicidal posts’ that are archived on Google’s 2nd page if they are lucky.

Some of the keyword research tools l will be using:

• https://www.jaaxy.com/ – take advantage of the 30 free searches to get started.
• https://keywordseverywhere.com/ – install the Chrome extension.
• https://keywordshitter.com/ – When you think you have written content on every topic in your niche get unlimited content ideas.
• Alternatives include https://keywordtool.io/.
• https://app.kwfinder.com/ – Paid tool and my favorite.

Take advantage of the limited searches during the 10 day trial period. No bank details are required. Search for keywords for a few articles to kick start your content writing. Try keywords with competition below 25% for a new website.

https://soovle.com/

https://keywordsnatcher.com/

https://questiondb.io/ – Free question keywords, alternative to Answer The Public

3) Plan your review – Since the reviews will be similar, l will use a template with similar headlines and sub-headlines. These are keyword phrases that people are always searching for when seeking to make money online opportunities. People also enjoy reading reviews that are well planned and follow a familiar sequence.

For example:

What is make money online program X?

Who is the founder of X?

How do you make money with X?

The good?

The bad?

X Compensation plan.

Is X a scam, pyramid scheme or legit program?

Tips: This format works even if you are reviewing any products or services.

X Orange Peeler Review,

How To Peel An Orange Using X,

The Good.

The Bad.

Is X The Best Orange Peeler?

Alternatives.

Conclusion and Recommendations.

(In my opinion, it is one of the best products to be invented after sliced bread. Although, as a left-hander, l don’t like the handle made with right-handers in mind. Still, it is a good buy. You can grab yours from Amazon (you insert an affiliate link) for the price of a cup of coffee).

4) Carrying out research.

•  Read 1 or 2 reviews (one negative and one positive).
• Jot some notes under each subheading.
• Read opinions on forums.
• Go through comments on reviews (most opinions are not covered by the review).

5) Write your review.

Include bullet lists to make it easy to read.

Write your conclusion and at least include 2 affiliate links.

Proofread your article – you will help me with this. Thanks. Do not strive for perfection. Practice brings improvement.

6) Plagiarism checker – Google hates duplicate content. Follow guidelines from the website on percentages. l will be worried if the score is below 80%.

Once the website is receiving more than 1000 victors per month, l can start posting generic posts that will NEVER get to the first page of Google.

l mean articles such as;

• How to drive traffic to your website.
• What is Facebook Marketing?
• How to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your website.

If you are a newbie or your website is new (less than 6 months old) keep away from such topics. Besides, visitors will not take you seriously when you want to teach them about ‘social marketing’ yet your website looks like a graveyard.

That is;

No sign of visitors as shown by the absence of comments. Insignificance numbers of content social shares as displayed on social sharing icons.

11 Basic On-Page SEO For A New Website.

Search Engine Optimization is very important if you want your articles or posts to be ranked on the first page of search engines. This assists the search engines to identify what the article is all about.

• Main keywords in the title (URL), First and last paragraph (Backlinko.com)
• Insert Picture (enter keyword in alt tag).
• Title with keyword – H1 Tag.
• All other titles (H2) tags + (H3).
• Interlink pages – keywords, brand name or website name, and other generic words.
• Link out to reputable websites related to your niche.
• Complete the SEO plugin field below the post.
• Copy & paste keywords in tags.
• Ping search engines – tell other search engines to also pass by. Inside WordPress: Click settings – writing – scroll down to Update services – enter the list of pinging websites – save changes.
• Rank Checker – Submit keywords into a rank tracking tool to monitor where your articles are ranked and for which keywords. You will get to know if your keyword research method is working.
• Build backlinks – links from other reputable sites linking back to your website (more detail as we progress).

Why Is My Website Name Not Appearing In Google?

What is website indexing’s because it is not in the search engine’s library where it can be retrieved for readers to read? Google robots must find your website and put it in their library under the relevant stack.

If a ‘new book’ has not yet been put into the shelves and bar-coded into the system, you can’t find it. It will be in what is often called the ‘Google sandbox‘. This can take days, weeks, or months.

There is no magic to it.

Keep on writing quality content consistently. You can check if your website has been indexed by searching for ‘‘site:yoursite.com” replace yoursite.com with the name of your website.

Luckily, the hosting that l use will send me an alert the moment my website is indexed.

How To Increase The Chance Of Being Indexed Fast.

Ping search engines – once you have published at least 5 articles, enter your website into the pinger and set the number of pings to 100 then press enter.

Send social signals – Create a Facebook page, Youtube Channel, Twitter handle …. to share your website link. Social signs are natural ways of alerting search engines of the existence of your website.

Use other social sharing platforms such as Addmefast.com to increase social signals. However, limit shares to 1-5 per day to avoid spamming.

Choose super low competition long-tail keywords which you can rank for easily even if traffic is very low.

Tips: Sub-domains such as yourwebsite.wordpress.com take ages to get indexed as compared to other domains such as .com, dot.net, and so forth.

Probably it’s a trust issue.

When to insert affiliate links on a new website?

This is one of the most difficult questions asked by anyone getting started with affiliate marketing. l will go with suggestions by Ezoic.com a pay-per-click company that collects data from a website and uses intelligence algorithms on the best positions to place adverts.

According to Ezoic;

Affiliate links or adverts are recommended when either your website is now attracting 1 000 visitors per month. Or you have posted between 20 and 50 articles on your website.

l totally agree with this position. We are building business colleagues.

Please stop whining about not earning any meaningful income after hurriedly scribbling and posting less than 20 articles on your website.

If it was that easy, everyone would do it.

Besides, you qualify for the Google Adsense program when your site reaches 1000 visitors per month. Amazon also requires you to make at least 3 sales within 180 days from the date of approval.

This is practically achievable when a website has more than 20 well-written articles. Or has reached the 1 000 visits per month mark even with a paltry 1% conversion rate. However, since there will be visitors who would link to join me on my journey. l will be inserting my Wealthy Affiliate links right away. This will enable me to connect and assist anyone who will have joined the program for free through my recommendation.

Now you are asking:

How do you insert the affiliate links on my website?

You can insert in-text links with Call To Action (CTA) such as ‘click here to grab your free website..’

You can use banners on the sides or bottom of your blog inside what are called widgets.

If you are displaying Google adverts on your website you can use the ‘Adsense’ plugin to inserts adverts as recommended by Google.

For Amazon products, you can use in-text links (click here to buy your electric kettle). You can also use plugins to automatically display Amazon native adverts or product pictures related to your content.

Affiliate Programs

Find affiliate programs by typing in the following into Google:

”your niche or keyword + affiliate programs” for example vegetarian affiliate programs.

Alternatively join established programs such as:

Clickbank

Commission Junction

ShareASale

BlueSnap used to be Plimus

MarketHealth

Kindly search for information on how each one works and how you can join the affiliate programs.

Pay per click options.

A company posts adverts on your website. When visitors click on your ads you will get paid if they don’t make a purchase. Payment per click varies mainly depending on your niche and traffic source (country). A click from the USA can earn you $20 while the same click from 3rd world countries can earn you a few cents.

Highly competitive niches such as Casino and Insurance can pay between $20 and $100 per click if traffic is from top-tier countries. Other niches such as clicks on a free lyrics music blog can earn you a few cents per click.

The payment also depends on competition and demand by advertisers to sell products to a particular niche. What is called Cost Per Click (CPC) increases as the two variables above increases.

Google Adsense – use the plugin ”quick adsense”. It’s easy to set up and use. Millions of people have adblocking software.

Kontera.com

Inforlinks.com

Chitika.com

Media.net

Alternatives to Google Adsense:

Monumetric and Ezoic require 10k visitors per month.

Mediavine 25k visitors per month.

Adthrive is 100k visitors per month.

Note: For Adsense approval, you need your own domain e.g. cleanaffiliate.com, not a subdomain cleanaffiliate.wordpress.com or cleanaffiliate.blogger.com. Apply when traffic reaches 1 000 visitors per month or you have written more than 20 in-depth articles.

Kindly search for the requirements of the other pay-per-click options. l hope l will have the opportunity to test which option pays more than the others since l only have experience with Adsense. If you know which programs pay more than the other help others to make a choice.

Building An Email List.

Another great way to make money with a website is to build a list, by capturing your visitor’s email addresses. By doing this it allows you to keep in contact with your visitors.

There are also marketers making money by promoting offers to their lists and getting paid – Solo Ads. By giving your subscribers value, you can promote affiliate products that solve their problems and earn commissions.

You can use autoresponders to collect and send emails to your list such as:

Mailchimp – has a free option and pricing starts from 9.99/month for 500 contacts.

AWeber costs $19 per month for up to 500 subscribers.

GetResponse – Plans starting from $12/month

Active campaign – The lite option starts from $15/month.

Promoing Amazon Products.

It is one of the biggest online shops in the World. The advantage is any websites visitors that you send to Amazon, you earn a commission if they purchase any product even if it’s not related to your niche.

The downside is if the traffic that you send to Amazon does not make a purchase in 48 hours. You will not earn a commission. The cookie (tag which shows the origins of traffic) expires in 48 hours.

Tip: Check the levels of commissions offered for products in your niche. The profit can be supper low. As little as 1%.

Contact Relevant Advertisers.

You can send them emails or If you want go through a company like buysellads.com which connects website owners or bloggers and advertisers.

Tip: Do your diligence, some companies are notorious for not paying affiliates. Search for company name + scam and read reviews or opinions on forums. Also, check the minimum cash-out amount. I personally choose programs with a minimum cash out below $100 to minimize risk.

Create Your Own Product.

This should be your long-term goal once you have gained some experience. For instance, l can turn this post into a PDF and sell it.

Now it’s your turn. You can read some of the Blogging Success Stories that l shared inside Iswebsitelegit.com.

Frequently Asked Questions.

No Email List: No one works up one day and finds out that they have a list. No one started with a list; you will build one or pig back on others who already have listed.

No Product: That is the very essence of affiliate marketing – selling other people or merchants’ products to earn a commission. You can always create your own products to sell in due course.

Nobody Knows Who I Am: Don’t worry, your website visitors will know you after visiting your website and reading your ‘About Me Page’.

It Won’t Work For My Market: l am still to find a market that can not be promoted through creating a website. A niche which when you search it in Google; not a single website pops up.

It Won’t Work For My Business: Creating a Website works in promoting: digital products, services, physical products, consulting, offline business…. you name it.

This Sounds Like A Lot Of Work – Yes, keyword research, Search Engine Optimization, writing articles, and so forth is not for those with a faint heart. If it was that easy, everyone would do it. Nonetheless, anyone teachable can do it.

This Sounds Very Techie: The days of learning how to coding when you want to create a website are over. One-minute website builders make it stupid simple to create a website.

I Don’t Have Money To Drive Traffic: That is why you are creating a website that will attract visitors 24/7 like clockwork. Let Uncle Google, Bing, and other search engines drive traffic to your website while you sleep.

l Am A Newbie: You are at the right place, these 10 free lessons will take you through the process of how to get started with affiliate marketing the legit way. You have support from thousands of experienced members.

Tried Affiliate Marketing Before But It Didn’t Work: l am not sure about the method you were using. Here, l am talking about a foolproof method that is systematic and has worked for billions of bloggers. Several years of testing, retesting and improvements make it almost difficult to fail.

Is Everyone is Doing This, Is The Market Not Saturated: It is human nature to carry out research and read about existing or new products on the market. With new products being launched every day, there is an endless demand for information. No one knew a year ago that a new multi-billion dollar drones industry will arise.

How long will it take to start making money? – This is one of the most difficult questions. But at least 3 months of consistent effort. At least 20 well-written articles or at least 1000 visitors per month.

However, in business, there are no guaranteed profits!

Affiliate Marketing Tools That l Will Use.

Google Analytics, Console & Webmaster tools – They are useful in requesting Google to Index new articles. Checking the amount of traffic visiting your website and monitoring the performance of your website.

Canva.com – l use the free membership to create logos and annotate pictures. It has thousands of templates to create graphics to post on social media.

Namemesh.com – Brainstorming domain or website names.

Similarweb.com – Check any website’s traffic sources, number of visitors, and main keywords. You can also spy on the affiliate programs they are promoting. Install the Chrome widget for ease of use.

Xml-site.com – Download a list of all articles published on any website to get ideas of what to write about. Use the find and replace Worpress feature to clean the list.

Wpthemedetector.com – Find out what theme and plugins were used to build a WordPress website. If you like the theme, go and search for it in the WordPress themes database.

Pocket.com – save links and tag them. Read articles offline. Copy and paste protected content.

Jaaxy – Find out what people are actually typing in Google, the number of searches, and how easy it is to rank for particular keywords.

ClickMagick.com – Check if visitors are clicking on your affiliate links using the tracking tool.

URL shorteners – Turn long and ugly affiliate marketing links to short beautiful links using Bitly.com and Prety links..

Fiverr.com – hire freelancers starting from $5. Useful for small tasks such as creating of logos, graphics, and so forth.

Evernote – keep notes in one place. Read notes offline and across devices.

Namecheap.com – Cheap website hosting and domain purchases.

Grammarly – Improve your writing by installing the Chrome plugin.

Screen capture tools – Windows Snipping tool, Snagit, scrolling screen capture, and full-page screen capture (Google extension).

Screen recording software – Screen flow.

Mind mapping tools – Dynalist.io.

Plagiarism checker – Small SEO tools. Check if any content was not plagiarised.

Mlmgateway.com – Were to find new programs to review. Free lead generation platform.

Buy or sell websites – Empireflippers.com, Flippers.com, and Latonas.com.

Now that you have learned how to create a website for affiliate marketing, create yours for free by clicking on this link (opens in a new window).

Any questions, let me know in the commentary box below.