Now that you’ve sorted out your domain name and hosting, and you’ve chosen a product to promote, you’ll need to create a website.
Actually, that’s not strictly true. You can sell affiliate products without having your own website. One way to do this is with (free or paid) online advertising. You would simply use your affiliate link in your advertisements, directing traffic directly to the merchant’s website. Another way is by creating a free web page, or a Squidoo lens, for each product you want to promote, and sending traffic directly to the merchant’s site.
These methods can certainly work, but they don’t give you as much control as having your own website (or your own network of websites). They also place you at the mercy of third party services, like Squidoo or whatever ad service you use.
Having decided that a website is a good idea, there are a few options available. You can build a one-page ‘micro-site’ or a small ‘mini-site’ using nothing but HTML. If you have the skills to do this, that’s great.
You can use a publishing system, or ‘CMS’ (Content Management System). There are dozens of excellent CMS systems available (and some really dodgy ones), but many Internet marketers have chosen WordPress as the foundation for their websites, for some very good reasons.
Why WordPress?
Firstly, WordPress is easy to install – if you chose a hosting company which provides Fantastico, you can set up a new WordPress site in under a minute. If you have to install WordPress manually, you can probably do it in 5 minutes or so.
It’s also easy to use. Content management systems are supposed to be designed to make it easy for non-technical people to update their own web pages, and WordPress makes it easier than most. The developers of WordPress take usability seriously, and it seems that each new release makes the software easier to use.
For example, a year or two ago you would have to upload new plugins and themes to your server using FTP – just like most other content management systems. Now you can choose, install and update themes and plugins without leaving the WordPress dashboard.
Themes and Plugins
Talking about themes and plugins, there are thousands of these available. WordPress “out of the box” is a framework – a very powerful framework, but one which can be easily extended depending on your requirements.
WordPress allows plugins to be added which extend its capabilities in ways that the developers never envisaged. There are plugins and associated themes which turn a WordPress site into a shopping mall, a social networking site, a website directory, a classified ads site, an article directory or practically any other kind of site you can think of.
Because the WordPress framework supplies the core functions like user management, image handling and so on, a developer can concentrate on the features they want to add. This can result in WordPress doing a better job than software which was written specifically for the purpose.
WordPress Security
Some people feel that WordPress is not sufficiently secure. To be frank, if a hacker wants to break in to your website, they’ll probably find a way to do it, regardless of what CMS you’re using. In fact, all they need is your user name and password, and one way to get those is by installing a keylogger on your computer, which sends them the information.
It’s a good idea to make sure that the anti-virus software on your computer is working properly.
OK – I’ve spent most of this post waffling about why WordPress is the way to go. There are many people who disagree, for a variety of reasons. They may prefer to use a different CMS, because of its perceived capabilities or because of familiarity. I’ve tried most of the alternatives, and I keep coming back to WordPress. It’s a bit like Mac fans vs PC fans though – whatever floats your boat.
In order to install WordPress, you’ll need a MySQL database. Most hosting accounts come with this automatically (although it is possible to get a “cheap” hosting account in South Africa without a database, so it’s a good idea to check.)
Installing WordPress (at last!)
Installing WordPress can be done in one of two ways. The quick way is by using an installer provided by your web host. If your hosting account provides CPanel, you’ll usually have access to Fantastico, which is a program which lets you install any of a wide selection of software, including WordPress. All you’ll need to do is fill in a simple form and click a button.
The alternative method is by uploading the files from your computer to the server, using an FTP program like Filezilla. You’ll also need to create a new database, which is easy to do using CPanel. Once you’ve completed these two steps, run WordPress for the first time by entering your domain name in your web browser. WordPress asks you for the database name and password, then installs itself.
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Affiliate Marketing 6: Installing WordPress
Now that you’ve sorted out your domain name and hosting, and you’ve chosen a product to promote, you’ll need to create a website.
Actually, that’s not strictly true. You can sell affiliate products without having your own website. One way to do this is with (free or paid) online advertising. You would simply use your affiliate link in your advertisements, directing traffic directly to the merchant’s website. Another way is by creating a free web page, or a Squidoo lens, for each product you want to promote, and sending traffic directly to the merchant’s site.
These methods can certainly work, but they don’t give you as much control as having your own website (or your own network of websites). They also place you at the mercy of third party services, like Squidoo or whatever ad service you use.
Having decided that a website is a good idea, there are a few options available. You can build a one-page ‘micro-site’ or a small ‘mini-site’ using nothing but HTML. If you have the skills to do this, that’s great.
You can use a publishing system, or ‘CMS’ (Content Management System). There are dozens of excellent CMS systems available (and some really dodgy ones), but many Internet marketers have chosen WordPress as the foundation for their websites, for some very good reasons.
Why WordPress?
Firstly, WordPress is easy to install – if you chose a hosting company which provides Fantastico, you can set up a new WordPress site in under a minute. If you have to install WordPress manually, you can probably do it in 5 minutes or so.
It’s also easy to use. Content management systems are supposed to be designed to make it easy for non-technical people to update their own web pages, and WordPress makes it easier than most. The developers of WordPress take usability seriously, and it seems that each new release makes the software easier to use.
For example, a year or two ago you would have to upload new plugins and themes to your server using FTP – just like most other content management systems. Now you can choose, install and update themes and plugins without leaving the WordPress dashboard.
Themes and Plugins
Talking about themes and plugins, there are thousands of these available. WordPress “out of the box” is a framework – a very powerful framework, but one which can be easily extended depending on your requirements.
WordPress allows plugins to be added which extend its capabilities in ways that the developers never envisaged. There are plugins and associated themes which turn a WordPress site into a shopping mall, a social networking site, a website directory, a classified ads site, an article directory or practically any other kind of site you can think of.
Because the WordPress framework supplies the core functions like user management, image handling and so on, a developer can concentrate on the features they want to add. This can result in WordPress doing a better job than software which was written specifically for the purpose.
WordPress Security
Some people feel that WordPress is not sufficiently secure. To be frank, if a hacker wants to break in to your website, they’ll probably find a way to do it, regardless of what CMS you’re using. In fact, all they need is your user name and password, and one way to get those is by installing a keylogger on your computer, which sends them the information.
It’s a good idea to make sure that the anti-virus software on your computer is working properly.
OK – I’ve spent most of this post waffling about why WordPress is the way to go. There are many people who disagree, for a variety of reasons. They may prefer to use a different CMS, because of its perceived capabilities or because of familiarity. I’ve tried most of the alternatives, and I keep coming back to WordPress. It’s a bit like Mac fans vs PC fans though – whatever floats your boat.
In order to install WordPress, you’ll need a MySQL database. Most hosting accounts come with this automatically (although it is possible to get a “cheap” hosting account in South Africa without a database, so it’s a good idea to check.)
Installing WordPress (at last!)
Installing WordPress can be done in one of two ways. The quick way is by using an installer provided by your web host. If your hosting account provides CPanel, you’ll usually have access to Fantastico, which is a program which lets you install any of a wide selection of software, including WordPress. All you’ll need to do is fill in a simple form and click a button.
The alternative method is by uploading the files from your computer to the server, using an FTP program like Filezilla. You’ll also need to create a new database, which is easy to do using CPanel. Once you’ve completed these two steps, run WordPress for the first time by entering your domain name in your web browser. WordPress asks you for the database name and password, then installs itself.
If you have any trouble, you can watch Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick’s great free video tutorial series.