How to Effectively Plan an Affiliate Site

How to Effectively Plan an Affiliate Site Copyright 2005 by Shannon Herod I was running out of patience and the hatred of it all was setting in. Whirling around the net searching for that one piece of gold that was going to set everything in motion and bring a windfall of cash was just a big waste of time. Thousands of dollars wasted and countless hours wasted with not one single return of investment. That was the way that I started my business. As you can imagine I was getting nowhere fast. Setting up running and profiting from an Internet business takes more than just a web site, an e-mail account, and a computer. You need a plan of action, what direction are you going to go with your web site, what products will you promote, what other sources of revenue will you have, and many other factors will determine your success. Affiliate Game Plan I can give you a quick glimpse or taste of a simple plan that you can put in effect. This plane is going to focus on affiliate marketing in the arena of Internet marketing. OK, here is a simple little plan but at least it's a plan. The first thing you need to consider is the products or services that you will be promoting. There is a ton of different products and services available for you to promote. Finding the right one that pays is the most important part. When considering what you will promote you need to look at a few different areas. 1. What percentage does that product pay 2. How well does the sales page convert 3. Does the sales page have cookies and how long does the cookie last 4. What is the minimum payout and how often do they pay 5. How long has the Company been in business 6. What type of reputation and customer service does the company have These are a few things that I consider when looking at a product to promote. Always try and test a product before you put your name on a recommendation for that product. Just as this you are going to open a brick and mortar business your reputation is very important. Web Site and Hosting Next you need to consider the type of site you will build and the hosting company you will use. Your web site will be your virtual real estate and you need to assure that is in a good location. You can find many hosting options by just going to Google and doing a search for hosting company. When choosing a hosting company here is a few things that I consider. 1. How much bandwidth do they offer 2. How much disk space do they offer 3. How many mysql databases do they offer 4. Can I host multiple web sites from one account As a beginner those four things should be the only things you really need to worry about. As you become more experienced and building web sites and programming there'll be a few other options you will consider, but for now I think that should do. The type of web site you build is going to be very important. Don't worry if you are a complete moron when it comes to HTML there are plenty of what you see is what you get (wysiwyg) web site builders available just go to Google and search for web site builders. A simple direct response web site should be your goal. You do not need to worry about building a fancy web site with a ton of graphics and fancy navigation bars. That piece of information alone should take your fear out of trying to build a site. Remember keep it simple stupid. A direct response web site is just what it sounds like. Your main goal should be to capture your visitors