Forum Moderators: skibum
I've been developing sites for a few years now and browse WebmasterWorld almost daily. I'm inspired from what I see in this forum regarding affiliate programs etc and I'm now up for the challenge! I have my niche market which and I've purchased a domain...but what now?!
A little background on my experience...I know HTML, a little CSS, some basic PHP/MySQL and a little on seo. I also feel reasonably happy with my graphics skills. I've build around 10 sites over the years, one of which uses a database to hold some date related info but nothing special.
I don't feel I have the ability to create some large content management system for my site so should I be looking at a pre-made seo friendly CMS or should I create the site with simple links and pray it doesn't get too messy over time? Also, should I use a pre-made template etc? I'm so confused! I plan to have around 30 pages of content to start with on my chosen niche.
I 'm sure this site won't be an instant hit but I need to start somewhere at some point! Would anyone be willing to give details on what they do when they just purchase a domain? I have a million other questions, but one step at a time I suppose! I hope someone can help, it would be really appreciated and I'm sure the info would benefit other newbies! :)
Thanks PH.
(Mods if you think this thread would do better in another section, please feel free to move)
If you already have the domain name picked out AND it's inline with where your personal interests are then it's a good start, one of the key things for affiliate marketing when you get started is to work in an area you enjoy. If you hate cars, don't do car parts just cause everyone else is, start where you have an interest and select merchants that fit in. This make it far easier to build a site and keep adding to it.
My recommendation is to focus on content. Initially 10 pages of good content, 400 words per page and add one page per day, keep the site focused on a core product set, don't get to broad too fast else you'll not benefit from SEO.
Once you have a site built, promote it on sites like DMOZ, Zeal and others, then once listed, build in your affiliate links, not too many, don't turn it into a banner farm, but maybe a header banner and then 4-5 text links per page.
Once you have the content done then start expanding into a number of product pages, again staying content rich and making sure your content is unique
Hope this is a helpful start.
Cheers
Chris
Thanks for the reply Chris. The site I have in mind is related to my job. Not exactly something I think is fun but it's something I don't mind too much and know a bit about.
I don't have a product to sell, so I plan to create 'free' tutorials for this niche and general information on it's background.
I purchased a domain which is directly related to the niche (e.g nicheworld.com) after reading through these forums.
I already have around 10 pages of content in plain html format. My main stubling block for the past few months has been how to get started with the actual nuts and bolts of the site (see initial post).
I'm going to concentrate on the content until I find out which way to go. I'd hate to go down the wrong route at such an early stage by (for example) creating a plain html site when I should have used a content management system.
Any ideas?
As far as CMS goes, Mambo I feel is the most SEO friendly, Nuke can be tweaked to do the same. I have used e107 for userbase related sites and it is awesome, it ranked the site quite high on google, but I don't know how it would work with affiliate style sites.
The affiliate site's I have seen appear to be much more simple than a CMS though. They look like simple HTML pages with a table covering the page.
Am I wrong guys?
I use Movable Type, since it generates static HTML in a url format I specify, and has good organization. I've also used plugins to add additional reference material, collect key words, etc.
Monitization is through AdSense, though I've been adding in some links to CJ that people reading might be interested in. While it's my biggest moneymaker, that's not saying much :(
Sean
1. Add content html
2. Create a simple template and use php includes to display the content from the html pages
3. Create more content
Chris could you please explain...
"don't get to broad too fast else you'll not benefit from SEO"
Thanks for the help all, any more site tips before I look into my first affiliate programs?
Just be clear are you aiming to be a merchant or affiliate, I wasn't left to sure by your last post?
'don't get to broad too fast else you'll not benefit from SEO'
If you are aiming to be an affiliate I find tha sites benefit on search engines by keeping a close focus on what they aim to promote.
For example if you aim to promote "Home fitness" then keep the focus there...don't start drifting off on to vaguely related items, start a new site for that and link them together, it's better I believe to have more sites with a tighter focus than one site with a broad coverage...unless you have a commuity to back it up and ensure traffic to it.
Cheers
Chris
