The thought of setting up a website often strikes fear into the hearts of many beginner affiliate marketers.
In fact, many prefer to do affiliate marketing without setting up a website.
Their plan is to direct traffic directly to their affiliate links which will then lead to the product’s salespage.
Very often, this method fails because most visitors do not convert to buyers on the first visit.
Once they leave, the affiliate loses the chance to contact them again
because they didn’t set up a squeeze page to capture their email
or a website to provided visitor value.
In order to make money as an affiliate marketer, you do need a website.
Is it crucial? It depends on what your marketing style is.
For the most part, yes… it is crucial.
Even a simple website with a squeeze page, thank you page and a sales page,
all connected in a basic funnel is sufficient.
You can add the extra bits later on.
You might be thinking of setting up a free blog on WordPress.com or Blogger.com.
However, it would be much better to purchase your own domain name and hosting.
There are a few expenses involved
but these are investments that will pay dividends many times over down the line.
So, why should you create your own website?
Does it not seem easier to direct traffic directly to your affiliate link ?
One reason is that this style of marketing is getting more and more difficult to do.
You can’t use Google Adwords to direct traffic to an affiliate link.
Many marketers have lost their Adwords account due to this.
YouTube insist that your link leads to a website and not be a direct affiliate link.
So, even simple link direction is becoming difficult.
However, this shouldn’t be your sole reason for setting up a site.
You have immense power over your affiliate marketing when you have your own web property.
You can create content and target long tail keywords.
You can create squeeze pages to capture visitor emails.
You can even purchase PLR products
and sell them as your own through your website.
There are many more possibilities when you have your own website.
The more oppertunities you have, the more money making chances will be available to you.
This is an essential part of building a decent online income.
There are affiliate marketers with hundreds of websites
that they have built over time or outsourced to people to build for them.
Who promote products to people they have built a relationship with,
and are much more likely to make sales.
The best affiliates have very good rapport with their subscribers.
They provide information, useful tips, content, videos, etc.
Guess where most of this content is hosted ?
Yes… it’s on their blog or website.
Without a website, you will be severely limited.
Of course, you could write long emails…
but it looks more attractive and professional on your own website.
You can use attractive graphics, videos
and sprinkle your posts with links to your affiliate products.
By now, you should start to see the benefits of having your own website.
Marketers who have built their business on free web properties have seen all their efforts
disappear overnight when the site owner suddenly deletes their entire content
Or just as bad free web properties run ads which conflict with your content and offers.
It’s your business.
You must have complete control over it.
Create your own website with your own domain and your own hosting.
Of course, the autoresponder… will be your own too.
This is the best way to build a business that you can be proud to call your own.
