Making a Successful Affiliate website: If it was a piece of cake to build a profitable website, everyone would be doing it. Building a website in itself isn’t that difficult. Building one that can help you make a good amount of affiliate case, however, can be a bit more difficult. If you want to build a site that makes you a successful affiliate marketer here are a few steps you should follow when you create your site:

Give your customers what they want on your site—People will tell you there’s no “magic formula” for success in building an affiliate website. While this may be true to some extent, there are a few things your customer will want that will help make your site successful. These include:

1. Quality content—I can’t stress enough how important it is to give your readers content that they will value and appreciate. Filler content just won’t cut it. When you create your site, focus on building one that gives your readers revolutionary new information, quality advice, and valuable resources.

Remember that it’s just as easy for a reader to “click out” of your site as it is for them to “click on” it. I’m sure you’ve searched for something on Google and found a site that looked interesting by the title. You open it, and find something that doesn’t give you any help whatsoever. The first thing you do then is click the “back” button and go back to the search to look for something that does

give you something you can use. Your readers will do the same thing. Give your readers information you would find valuable.

Everything on your website—your articles, your blog posts, your videos, your pictures, etc—should give the reader what they were searching for. This will, more than likely, make them want to continue reading. It may also make them want to make a purchase.

If you’re worried about providing quality content, here are a few tips that will guide you:

– Don’t try to optimize your site solely for search engines.

Optimize them for the people who visit your site and will read it. If you do this, you’ll get more people to your site, so the search engine numbers will take care of themselves.

– Research your content thoroughly to be sure it is correct.

Just like giving quality content adds a positive impact to your site, giving your readers incorrect information can have a negative impact on your site.

– Give the reader what you say you’re going to give them. There’s nothing worse than wasting your time reading an article that doesn’t tell you what it says it’s going to. If you say you’re going to give them 10 ways to overcome their fears, you should give them 10 ways to overcome their fears. If your title suggests it, and they click on you in the search,

make them glad you did by giving them the valuable information they want.

2. A design that is neat, attractive easy to use design—Thank goodness the days of ugly websites are coming to an end. It isn’t acceptable to have tacky animated graphics or banner ads on your site. Often, however, you still see affiliate marketing sites that look like they came from the ‘90’s.

Your website is your potential customer’s first look at you. It gives them an overall impression of you. You want it to be one that will inspire confidence so people will trust you. Visit other sites online. Look at the ones that make you want to read them and the ones that make you want to click out immediately. If you don’t have a site that is neat, attractive, and easy to use, it will look unprofessional and make your viewers hit the dreaded “back” button.

You don’t have to have difficult coding know how or purchase expensive design software to have a really nice, professional looking website. On programs like WordPress, you can create a great site with a few clicks of the mouse and an attractive theme. That means there’s no reason at all you should have an old- looking, unattractive site.

3. Great opt-in forms—Although there may be some exceptions to the saying that “the money is in the list,” it is basically a solid

framework for getting the most for your money in affiliate marketing. You can build good relationships with your readers by encouraging them to “opt in” to your list. As a result, you may also be able to increase your profits through the use of pre-selling and by having multiple sales per customer.

Getting people to do this isn’t as easy as it may seem. One of the biggest challenges you may face as an affiliate who uses email marketing is implementing opt in forms and squeeze pages that are able to convert your readers to members of your list. You can have great content and pre-sells, but if your opt-in forms are ugly or misplaced, you may end up with only a few subscribers.

You can create effective opt-in forms hat can give you an unstoppable opt-in magnet if you have two important things:

A great hook—The hook should be something that makes people want to subscribe to your list when they see it. It might be an eBook that they would usually have to pay $30 dollars for that you’re giving them for free. It may be a free gift of some kind. Whatever it is, write the hook so that it sounds irresistible! Make them think, “Wow, they’re giving that to me for free just for signing up? I’d be stupid to turn that down.”

Opt-in forms that convert—You should design them with high conversions in mind. Make sure they’re attractive. You want

to make sure they are well placed. Place them where they will be clearly seen but not in a manner that they distract from your content.

4. First-rate customer service—If you have a competitor that offers pretty much the same merchandise, one way to win customers over that competitor is to have better customer service. I mean if site one and site two are alike, and site one has bad customer service, where is the customer going to go…straight to site 2— YOU!

You can have the most attractive website in the world with the most attractive, well-placed opt-ins, but it won’t matter a bit if you don’t treat your customers with the respect and courtesy they deserve.

No, you don’t have to handle their orders or returns, but you still need to offer customer service. You need to make sure that you reply to email inquiries, blog comments, and even complaints promptly. Be kind and courteous in your replies and try to give your customers the answers they want. If you don’t know, don’t say, “I don’t know.” Look it up! Sure, they could look it up themselves, but then you might lose them as a customer. If you take the time to look it up for them, they’ll remember that. They’ll also pass on to their friends how kind you were to them. This will give you that “site 2” customer service that wins over that “site one” site in the battle for new and returning customers.

If you want to build an affiliate website that will bring you good profits, you need to make sure you do it right. Make sure it has everything you need and make sure it’s done in the right manner. A good baker wouldn’t leave out ingredients or add salt instead of sugar. Put in everything you need and do it in the right manner, and you’ll have a successful, professional looking website.

Conclusion

If it’s done right, affiliate marketing can be a profitable business. The thing to remember, however, is that it does require some work on your part. You can’t just set up a site and do nothing. You have to promote your items.

The more you do and the more effectively you do it, the more you’ll sell.

Affiliate marketing isn’t something you can dive into with enthusiasm and give up after a few weeks with no profit. Building your audience, email lists, and customers takes a little time. Patience is a virtue—stick with it, and your patience will be rewarded. Be impatient and give up, and you’ll fail.

In order to succeed in affiliate marketing, you really need to get passionately involved. You need to actively work to grow your business and to solving your reader’s problems.

It is important to remember that doing things just for the money seldom works out right. That’s why you should select products you would use yourself. Be passionate about them and have confidence in them, and you’ll be able to promote them more effectively. It’s easier to write about things you are confident in. Sometimes, that won’t even seem like work to you because you enjoy doing it.

Affiliate marketing isn’t for everyone, but if you’ve bought this book, and read this far, you’re definitely interested in it. One key thing you need to remember is that “without customers, you have no business.” That’s a very literal comment, but it’s also a very powerful comment with two separate and definite meanings:

1. If you don’t promote your product and attract potential customers to your site, then it’s pretty much useless to have a site. You’ll never make a profit if the customers never see your products. Know your target market and find ways to get them to see what you have to offer. Promote it in a way that will attract them to your site.

2. Your customers are your lifeline—treat them well! Don’t give up once you’ve attracted customers. Know you need them to keep your business profitable. Center your business on those customers. Get to know your customers and what they’re looking for. You can survey your target market to find out exactly what they want. Once you know that, give it to them.

One of the biggest mistakes an affiliate marketer can make is to misjudge their customers. It’s not enough to think you can sell product X because someone else did and made a profit. If your audience is only interested in product Y, then you’ll never sell product X to them. What you should be offering instead is product

Your customer’s wants and needs should be what your site is all about. Tell them what they want to know and offer products they want to buy, and you’ll have satisfied customers and your audience will grow.

People who passionate about the niche they are working in and truly like the products they sell can do really well in affiliate marketing. This is because they believe in what they’re selling and enjoy what they’re doing. That doesn’t mean you have to be passionate about it to make a profit— you don’t. What you do need to be, however, is dedicated to it. It’s YOUR business. YOU decide what to sell. YOU decide how you want to promote it, and YOU have to do the work. It does take a little effort, but by doing the right research, finding the right products, and promoting them in the right way, YOU will be the one making the profit!