One of the most lucrative opportunities online at the moment is Affiliate Marketing. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that many people are already raking in six figures from profitable niche sites. That said, there is no better platform for Affiliate Marketing than WordPress. Personally, I like to make a copy WordPress file that I can deploy the second that an idea appears in my head.

Taking The First Steps

Once you have installed an affiliate blog on your new or existing domain, you are going to want to publish some unique articles as posts and pages. In the case that you are using WordPress as an affiliate blog, I highly recommend creating a custom page as your landing page, and setting it as your home page in the WordPress reading settings.

By doing this, you have full control over your landing page, and you can easily improve the page based on what exactly is going to convert your visitors into clicks. You can do this by adding buttons, images, links, or even an email opt in form.

Personally, I use sidebars on this page, although many will disagree with me. The reason that I use sidebars is quite simple. It allows me to embed affiliate links in images, and I can also link to other pages within the blog, which has the added SEO benefits as well.

Secondary Steps

I like to drip content out to affiliate blogs at a rate of no more than two posts per day. If you choose to post content to your blog, be sure that you also create a link to a blog index as well. This is a big mistake that many do make.

When optimizing content for the search engines, I prefer to use the All In One SEO Pack so that I can set title tags and descriptions. This will allow you to appear more relevant to the search engines, and at the same time, it will allow you to convince searchers as to why they need to visit your website.

Taking The Advanced Steps

Many established affiliate marketers will tell you tales of woe when others steal their affiliate links. This is a dodgy tactic where people will republish your content on their websites, which could have an impact on your affilaite program membership.

As a safe fall, I use a plugin called “Pretty Link”, which allows me to cloak my affiliate links, and also monitor my click through rate for each link. This is a free plugin that is available from WordPress, and is a great safe fall in the case that someone does steal your content, as you can simply change out the link at any time.

In Summary…

Although this is going to be slightly off track, I want to remind you about what your job is as an affiliate marketer. It is to find high quality products that match what it is that your market is searching for. It is not to sell garbage that may not be relevant, it is about honesty, integrity, and true care for your market. Without that, you are going to find it hard to get started.

Oh, and if you get a perfect installation of WordPress that works, dont forget to make a copy WordPress installation so that you can be up and running in no time on your next project.

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