The Inital Steps In Building Your Affiliate Website

In the last post I suggested the first steps to be taken were to find your niche market, search for a domain name ( if you can use words in the domain name that reflect your niche it could add a few Brownie points and it will be obvious to someone searching the Internet what your site has to offer). Find a good webhosting company, and to utilise a software program to give you a professional looking website.

So…

  • Your Niche (In my case elottery)
  • Domain Name (I use 123-reg.co.uk but there are numerous others you could choose from)
  • Hosting Company ( I use 34sp in the UK and Dataweb in the USA. Just find and use a reputable one)
  • Website Software (Here again there is large choice and I have listed several below)

We will asume at this point you have now chosen our niche market,chosen a domain name and have found a reputable hosting company. Depending on how long you intend taking to build your website you may wish to design your site before setting up a hosting package.

So let’s look at a number of different web design programs. I will only go over ones that I have used or am currently using.

In no particular order……

  • Macromedia (Quite Expensive and wouldn’t advise for a first time user)
  • Secret Money Generator (Builds sites quickly but operates in select markets)
  • Traffic Hurricane (Builds sites quickly but operates in select markets)
  • XsitePro (Versatile, inexpensive, easy to use)
  • Bans (Builds Sites Quickly, inexpensive, currently only works with ebay affiliate program)
  • PhpBay (Builds Sites Quickly, inexpensive, currently only works with ebay affiliate program)
  • Wordpress (Free,extremely versatile, a good choice)
  • MemberSpeed (On the expensive side compared with some but extremely versatile, suit any business)
  • Website Content Wizard (Inexpensive, a great tool for adding content)
  • Website Article Wizard (Combines with Website Content Wizard, can be used to build and unlimited number of Google Adsense Sites in Seconds)

Each of the above software programs have their place in the market, but for our purpose of building affiliate websites I would choose from the following.

  1. Wordpress (This is free to use, you pay extra for unique tempates although plenty of free ones available)
  2. XsitePro (Inexpensive and this is probably a little easier to use)
  3. Website Article Wizard (Inexpensive and relatively easy to use. They did have an offer running, may still be available)

If you intend marketing ebay then Bans and or PhpBay is the way to go. Memberspeed Content Management system is at the top end of website development software. It has numerous professional templates and plugins for almost any situation. Plugins for autoresponders, articles,video, audios, products, press release, shopping cart, coupons, one time offers, the list goes on and on. You have to read about it to discover everything that is possible. It is ideal for experienced webmasters or someone wishing to become one.(Not a good choice for a beginner and a bit of an overkill for marketing affiliate programs alone).

If you want to test the water before lashing out that hard earned cash I would give Wordpress a go, as I said it’s free and there is a tremendous amount of help readily available. If you want to something a little easier to use to start then my choice would be XsitePro.

Depending on what Market I am working in and how I intend to make an income will ultimately determine the software I use from the list above. Happy hunting…………..