Now we know that an affiliate business needs a website for ideas.

In this lesson 5, we will discuss the requirements for an affiliate business in details, which are:

• the idea itself
• website domain name and space
• website content management
• basic knowledge on business and marketing
• affiliate marketing community
• support tools /software
• writing skill and habit

The idea itself

This is the subject matter to be made the theme and subject of the site.

The idea to discuss must be commercially worthy at the end. It must get significant visitors while also produce money through sales, advertisement, or other ways.

How to find an idea: The subject should be something you have interest in and are already familiar with. Just look around. What stuff or subject have you regularly interacted with within the last few months (or better yet, years?)

The subject should be something you have interest in and are already familiar with. Just look around. What stuff or subject have you regularly interacted with within the last few months (or better yet, years?)

Example:

I have a sister that loves diving. If she were into affiliate marketing, she could write about her diving experience, the equipment she has trusted, recommended diving sites /equipment, what it would cost for a diving trip, etc.
For the commercial articles, she could write reviews about diving equipment and collect revenue from its sales (diving equipment are quite pricey which are good for commission). If the revenue were to be gained from advertisements, the ads could be about diving equipment. Yes, a hobby (especially an expensive one) can be a very good affiliate site subject.

Even our daily work can be a source of idea too. If we work in an IT job, practical advice on computer stuff or service can be a visitor collecting subject too.

If we don’t like to write about work, what about leisure subject? It is very nice isn’t it? We can write about tourism destinations, hotel or food reviews. Anything that pleases us on wonderful time.

Website domain name and space

So we also need a space to write, which is the affiliate website. What we need is a domain name, website space, and content management.

A domain and hosting services can be bought at site hosting providers (such as HostGator.com or GoDaddy.com).

There are also free hosting services available on the internet, but with limited features, such as siterubix.com. These free ones are still good for learning to build first websites.

Site content management

A site content management is a platform where a website owner manages the site content, puts in new pages, arranges them, determines how the site looks, etc. it helps to easily and quickly build a functional and good looking site

For an affiliate marketer, it will help to concentrate on the content, in stead of how to build a website.

There are many content management platform available. One of the most popular is WordPress. It provides ready-to-use templates, where users do not need to work much on building a website.

Some affiliate marketing courses, such as wealthyaffiliate.com, already includes space hosting and WordPress content management system in its features (but domain name must registered separately by site owners themselves).

Basic knowledge on business and marketing

To run a business, some basic knowledge on business is required. The business lessons should start from general information geared toward the affiliate marketing. Such sample is what available on this Affiliate Marketing Debunked site. It is prepared for easy comprehension in a step-by-step learning. Just follow the sequence and don’t skip the site.

An affiliate marketing community

Having an affiliate marketing community is really helpful. With people with the same interest surrounding us, it will be easier to tackle the affiliate marketing works and questions. There will always be people with deeper or wider knowledge, with better experience that can help.

The community itself can be found in various forums on the internet. It could also be already available on some affiliate marketing courses, where the course’s members can interact and help each other. Becoming a member of a good affiliate marketing course will give a substantial benefit in this matter.

Support tools /software

There are many tools that can help improving an affiliate business. An indispensable tool an affiliate marketer is the keyword search tool. A keyword research tool is a tool that tells which the words /phrases are most helpful to bring visitors to a website. It is a definite requirement for an affiliate site.

Some affiliate marketing courses include a basic keyword tool in their courses. More complex ones, with more features are also available, such as Jaaxy. See the Jaaxy review for a more thorough information here.

A website will be more lively with good graphics and videos. Graphic /video software editing software will make it easier to make interesting and useful graphics /videos, especially a video editing tool. An example is the Wondershare Filmora, which does not take a long time to learn.

Writing skill and habit

Another skill an affiliate marketer should acquire (and learn) is writing content. Writing a quality, useful content for a website is not actually hard, but it is not easy either for people who aren’t used to writing. The key to this issue is just pushing oneself to write regularly. It might take some time, and some articles, before finding one own writing style and know what useful content to write.

Next we’ll introduce you to wealthyaffiliate.com, an affiliate course which is worth a look. Click here to continue with lesson (6) Introduction to Wealthy Affiliate.