As part of our plans we are trying to help more people get into affiliate marketing. We posted our first mini tutorial recently about terminology used in affiliate marketing.
We decided a must needed guide for new affiliates is how to create your first website. The main starting point really in getting started in affiliate marketing.
Below are the steps to creating your first website. I imagine most people who have not created a website before will not have any knowledge of programming (or at least very basic!), so I have recommend WordPress below for a CMS – which I do highly recommend and we use on many of our own sites.
Also you need to figure out what your website will be about, what its purpose will be. Do you have any hobbies or likes? It could even be just a blog.
1) Firstly you will need to pick a domain name, check its available and purchase it. (est. cost: $6.50/£4.20 a year)
A domain name is needed for people to access your website. For example our domain name is www.wowtrk.com, you need your own domain. The hardest part is figuring out a domain name you like, is relevant and that is available. I recommend to a ‘.com’ domain name.
You can purchase a domain name from websites like WOW Hosting, it will only cost you around $6.50/£4.20 per year for a .com domain name.
2) Web Hosting for your Domain Name. (est. cost: $2.79/£1.80 a month)
Web hosting is where you will put the content of your website so that people can access it on the internet. You will need this along with a domain name.
WOW Hosting (which is also a part of WOW Media) offers a basic starter package from just $2.79 a month! You do however have to pay for a whole year when ordering. If you order a hosting package with WOW Hosting you can also order your domain name at the same time.
3) Site Content Management (est cost: FREE)
Once you have your web hosting setup and your domain name configured to point to your web hosting (if you ordered your web hosting and domain name from WOW Hosting at the same time the domain name will already be setup), you can then install scripts on your website. I highly recommend installing WordPress – its a free open source script which makes managing your website very easy, you can easily install ‘themes’ and ‘plugins’ to modify your website. If your hosting is with WOW Hosting, there is a tool to easily install WordPress with just a few clicks.
4) Monetising Your Traffic (est cost: FREE)
Now that you have your site setup if you have not already done so signup to WOW TRK. Once you have signed up and your account is active you can start promoting WOW TRK offers to earn money! If you installed WordPress on your site, WOW TRK has a free plugin you can install on your site easily to start showing WOW TRK ads on your website.
Hopefully this guide is helpful to new affiliates. 🙂
I plan to make another tutorial at some point on advertising/growing your website.
