Anyone who is new to affiliate marketing online, may have already come to the conclusion that having your own website – as opposed to utilizing merchants’ duplicated websites – is very important to your business.
If you’re going to have an online business, it just makes sense that sooner or later you will probably want the control that comes with having your own website or blog – and domain name.
Many people prefer to hire a professional to design their website for them, but if you feel like you’re up to the challenge of creating your own website, there are tons of tools, training, and tutorials available on the web to help you along the way – much of it for free. You’ll just have to put in the time and effort.
A common – and costly – mistake among a lot of people who are new to affiliate marketing is promoting from the same duplicated website provided by whatever merchant they’re affiliated with – meaning they have the same website as a million other marketers.
One problem with that is that if you have a website provided by the merchant, you probably won’t be able to capture your customer’s name and contact information before sending them on to the main sales page, which means they then become the merchant’s customer, and not yours. By not getting that contact information, your customer will most likely be gone forever. If they choose to buy other products from that same merchant (that you sent them to) you will not be getting credit for the sales.
Another problem that comes with not owning your own website and domain is a credibility issue. If you don’t take your business seriously enough to purchase a domain name (most are very cheap) and pay $6 -$10 a month for hosting that domain, your customers probably won’t take it very seriously either.
However, having said that, if funds are just too tight in the beginning, as they often are for many people just starting their own business, there are free options available to you such as Blogger blogs. Here, you can learn how to create your own website without spending any money, and it is a great place to get started. Blogger blogs have a very user-friendly interface that makes creating a blog/website very easy to do, even if you’ve never attempted to create a website before.
Keep Your Visitors In Mind
So – creating your own website is very important to your online business if you can’t afford to have it done for you. But not just any website – you want a search engine optimized site that is filled with quality, useful content with a pleasing layout that is easy to navigate. Your visitors should feel comfortable while at your site and be able to find what they are looking for, with ease.
There are many free website design tutorials and lots of training on the web should you hit a wall during this process, and once you start making some money from your affiliate marketing business, you might want to host your own website using a company that offers an online website editor such as WordPress. Most web hosts even offer a selection of pre-built templates to make the process even easier for you. I have used Bluehost hosting for quite sometime, and I would recommend them to anyone. Bluehost offers all of this and much more, including great customer support.
In Part 2 of Creating Your Own Website, we’ll go over some guidelines and some of the more important aspects you’ll need to keep in mind as you create your website.
Creating Your Own Website – Part 2 – Finding Your Niche
