Affiliate Website Design for Proper Layout of Internet Small Business Web Site

The design layout for an affiliate website design is in some ways the easiest and in other ways the hardest. There are just a few proper layouts with good templates out there for this type of site since everything on your small business web site is pointing to other sites on the internet that actually make the sales. You need good content to bring visitors to your site and a smooth transition to the affiliate link. Here is the biggest key to making your site profitable with affiliate sales: focus on one idea! In the next section of this book we will cover all the affiliate marketing sites available and you will quickly see there are countless programs available. You cannot just plaster endless links to countless programs all over your site and expect to be profitable. Your site must still have a “point” so to speak. For example, if you want to build an office supplies site that offers reviews of online office supply stores with affiliate links so you can share in the profit, you would not want links to other affiliate programs that are unrelated. Visitors want to gain something of value by coming to your site. Consider for a moment the sites that you frequent when shopping. Why do you visit these sites? Is there just a long list of unrelated links or banner ads? Or does the site provide you with added value? The best affiliate sites do not look like “affiliate sites.” We have all seen these types of sites and do not trust that the “reviews” offered are legitimate. Here is an example: Google “grants” and click on a couple of the sponsored links. Do these sites convince you they have your best interests at heart or do you get the impression they are just a list of different grant programs (by the way, 90% of these are affiliate sites). Now visit www.shermanstravel.com and look at all the information provided in addition to the affiliate links. You probably wouldn’t even know this site is based on affiliate sales! We now book all our travel through this site, because we get the same rates we would get by going directly to orbitz.com or hotels.com but we also help a fellow webmaster. By the way, we are not an affiliate of shermanstravel.com and we have not received any compensation for mentioning them. We just want you to see the difference content can make on your site. Over time you will learn to spot an affiliate site but remember we are all on here to make money and wouldn’t you want someone to enter those big corporate sites through your links so you can make a little from the purchase as well?? Do not assume that by choosing to build an affiliate site you can just throw something together, stick it on the internet, and get rich in a couple of months by doing nothing! Every scam artist on the web wants people to believe it is this simple, but the truth is you must know your product and give your readers something they want. The biggest mistake you can make is to work backwards . . . meaning that you review the affiliate programs on the sites suggested in the next section, pick the ones with the highest payout, and start posting them all over your brand new site. Creating an affiliate site is the same as writing a blog or selling products. You must first have a topic or purpose for your site. Then you seek out affiliate programs to match your site. *TIP*Never build a site to match “high paying” affiliate links! Once you have chosen the focus of your site, you are ready to get some information published to your small web site. It is important that you build the basic elements of your site before applying for affiliate programs. The best quality programs do not accept every applicant and your site will be reviewed before you are approved. This means you need to develop the core pages to your site first and insert the small affiliate links later. We will use a travel site as an example. Begin with an index page and navigation system that is easy for your visitors to use. Divide your site into categories and add content to those category pages. Once you have developed 4-5 pages of category content, you can begin applying to the programs featured in the next section. This allows the affiliate programs to see your site will attract customers and creates the desire for them to partner with you. Okay, you know what you want your site to focus on and what you need to create first, but now I am sure you are asking, “How do I actually build my site?” This is why I say an affiliate site is the easiest in some ways and the hardest in other ways to build. You will use a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) html editor to build the pages of your site. This is easy because there is no code to write or edit, but it is also more difficult because finding a good template for free is difficult and buying a good template can be expensive. This leaves you two choices: spend a fortune on a template that will probably still need some editing or build the site from “scratch.” We recommend starting from “scratch” first. Should you find this to be too time consuming or just not turning out the way you envisioned you can then purchase a template. To get started you need site building software. Microsoft recently introduced Expression Web which is a good site building tool but it is expensive. You can download a free trial copy by clicking the “Expression Web” link on WebPalPro. We are not going to cover how to build pages using Expression Web (if you buy the software, get a good user’s guide too). There are other web design programs available for download. Some of them are free and others cost as much or more than Microsoft Expression Web. Should you decide to use any of these programs, we recommend downloading a free trial first to ensure you like the program. We have never tried any of these programs so we are not in a position to make a recommendation. Another alternative is to use the Site Builder included with your web hosting. If you have chosen Bluehost as your hosting provider, a site builder is included. Building pages with Bluehost is a simple process. First, you will log in to your cPanel. Then click on the PageWizard Site Builder under the Software/Services tab. Before you begin, take the tutorial. This will guide you through all the features of the site builder and put you on the right track to design your site. Site design will be an ongoing process especially for small affiliate sites. You may find some of your programs are not profitable or are no longer offered. This means you will need to be able to easily edit your site’s pages and add new pages. We hope that this has been helpful in you affiliate website design and layout.