Lets Get Started:

First thing you need to do is find a good hosting company, if you are going be an affiliate. Preferably one with add on capabilities so you don’t have to purchase hosting every time you build a new site. The best hosting I could recommend, is Blue Host. Go there for your hosting and you will find all the tools you will need for your websites, security, emails, ftp clients, and so much more. After you are signed up there, then turn around and join there affiliate program. One of the highest paying, for web hosting affiliate programs.

Then go to the affiliate gold mine, which is Click Bank. They have 1000′s of companies who have signed up with them just so affiliates like us can find them. Open an account there, and turn around and join there affiliate program. If you have a digital product to sell then join click bank here.

Another thing you need to do is open a Google account, so you can add adsense to your sites later, for a little more income. Google has a lot of programs for you to use and make money, and to help you along.
Open an AdWords account too, (also in google) but don’t start AdWords until you have studied it, top to bottom, front to back and all around. Don’t leave one word unread or you will wind up learning the hard way like I usually do. Use AdWords only after you have completed my whole process and have made a high quality, helpful site, for someone else to learn by. ( Thats what this whole thing is about, helping people find what they are looking for.) So if you know something very well and can teach it very well, thats what your first site should be about. There almost certainly is an affiliate program out there, that you can match to what you are teaching. Do a search in google for the subject you are writing about / affiliate. This should bring up some sites in your subject with an affiliate program.

Next place to go is the w3schools website and add it to your favorites. In fact, add all of these to your favorites list so you can get back to them quick and easy. ( Don’t forget to write all of the passwords down, and store them on your computer, so you can’t lose them. )
First things to learn there is how to make words linkable, and how to change colors on your sites background and how to make letters red and so on, to personalize your sites. ( W3schools is the easiest one that I have found.)

Spend a few days in each account and learn it from top to bottom. Study all of there terms of use. Then learn all of the copyright rules. Then go to the Name Your Site Using The Adword Keyword Tool page , and find a name that is being searched, from 4500 times a month or more and has medium to low competition. Then come back to the next step, which is buy your domain name. To buy your domain, go to the buy website domain page.

Add On Your Domain

Now that you have your domain bought, you want to add it on in your Bluehost account.
Being able to add on in your hosting account saves you a lot of money, this is another reason that I chose Bluehost. Go to the Add On Your Domain page. The next step will be install WordPress on your domain.

Install WordPress On Your Domain

Go to the Install WordPress On Your Domain page, after you are done there, we go through choosing a theme and install and configure plugins.

Choose A Theme

Now we login to our admin area using the username and password we got when we installed WordPress on our domain. If you can’t find it, then go back to your simple scripts button, then go to WordPress, under the blogs button, you will find your login info there. After you are in your admin area, click on appearance, and then on themes. I like the theme they load automatically.

Install and Configure Plugins

There are 3 plugins that I always use, all in one SEO, spam free WordPress, xml sitemaps. Go to and click on plugins, then do a search for the plugin, and click on the install. Then you will need to configure the seo plugin.
This is important, in the home title, your want to use you keyword that you use in your url, in a question, or somthing that arouse people’s curiosity. Make them click, after read your title. In the home discription, you want to use the key word again in a sentence. If you are teaching something then say that in the sentence with your keyword. In your home keywords, your use your keyword again, then add one more that fits into what you are teaching on your site. You can find one in the adword keyword tool. Then you click on the enable button on the top and update button on the bottom. Make sure all of your plugins are active, in the plugins section.
Now it is time to add your pages, contact, privacy, and the about page. Then its time to add content to your new site. Make your articles 350 words or more and use your keyword a couple of times. Any parts of what you are teaching that are big, then use a seperate page and put a link to it from your post. ( make sure you hit the html button before you put in the link.) Next you want to submit your site to the social bookmarking sites with a page rank of 3 or more, and to about 15 or more rss sites. Your rss url will be your url/feed. Now if you are happy with your site, and all the information on it, you can add your affiliate links and Adsense. Study the Adsense rules first. If you do Adwords, to drive traffic to your site, make sure you study it closely before doing anything. I hope this information was helpful. Thanks for visiting.

Web hosting affiliate programs are so popular because everyone who is thinking about getting into online affiliate marketing needs hosting for there websites. The bigger question is which one do I use and which one is the best and which one is the best deal. The questions just keep going and going. I have been using the same hosting company now for the last 5 years and I have no complaints at all. I have talked to people that have been somewhere else for there hosting and most of them trade up when we were done talking about them, or wish they would have started with the same one that I use,(moving the hosting is a pain). Enough about the hosting. When you join a web hosting affiliate program, you are sending people to sign up for hosting at the hosting company that you are an affiliate for. You make a percentage of what the company gets when they are signed up. Another affiliate program that works a lot in the same way is web template affiliate programs. There are so many affiliate web programs out there that I have not even scratched the surface in 5 years. I can give you some advice on which hosting company to use for your hosting though, Blue Host. I like Blue Host because they have all the tools you are going to need for your websites, security, emails, anti spam, auto responders, forwarders, ftp accounts, passward protect directories, editors and on and on. I can’t even begin to touch on all the tools in there c-panel.  It will take a while to get to know there website, so take your time do a lot of reading before you get ahead of yourself. There is enough hi tech there for the advanced website builder, yet it is easy enough for someone like me to understand it.  Wordpress is my favorite part of there hole system. It makes it so easy to get a webpage out if you have never done any of that before.  I hope that this information has helped you make an informed decision.

Good luck and have fun with it!

by: Shanon Lewis

What is an affiliate web program? Everyone who surfs the web has come across affiliate programs. You may have seen a banner on a website that says, “click here”, and once you do, you get access to whatever’s being promoted. Or you could click on a link in an email you’ve received. You’re using someone’s affiliate program. Basically, the company that sells the product sets up an automated way for people to be paid a set amount to help them promote their products or services. The links send you to the company’s website where you can buy the product. The owner of the originating website or email gets a fee for taking you there. The bookstore Amazon was the first company to heavily promote affiliate marketing on the internet.  Although this type of marketing is ideal for businesses that only operate online, it’s also become popular with businesses that have both an online and bricks and mortar presence.  Affiliate programs are an ideal way to make your web site profitable. With the huge range of affiliate programs now available, there’s almost bound to be something to suit you and your website.

How it works

Perhaps you’ve created a website about the city where you live. People find your website while searching for information about your city. Once they’ve read your pages they check out your recommendations. They might click a link to book a flight there. You get paid a commission. Then they clink your link that points them to somewhere they can book a hotel room. Another commission for you. Then they might want to buy a guide-book or street map. Yet another commission. Or perhaps you have a website connected with your hobby. Maybe you want to share your enthusiasm about the crafts you do. Your website could point people towards suppliers, books on the subject, magazine subscriptions…the list is endless. And all the time you’re earning your commission. The commission is paid in different ways according to the company you’re affiliated to. You can be paid per impression, per click, per lead or per sale. The stronger the likelihood of a sale, the higher your commission will be.

The advantages for you

There’s no need for you to develop the products – it’s already been done. All you need to do is to pick the best out of those available. You don’t need to spend money on making or storing the product. Sending people to your affiliate merchants means you don’t need to take or process a single order, or worry about processing payments. You don’t have to handle or mail the product – your merchants do that. You don’t have to offer customer support. Affiliate web programs are usually free to join. You can run your affiliate business part time for a little extra cash while making minimal effort.

Choosing your affiliates

It’s worth spending some time making sure that you choose the right companies to affiliate with. Different companies have different requirements. Some require you to have a minimum number of visitors to your website, while others require you to have your own domain name. The best way to choose an affliate program that will suit you is according to the type of people who visit your website. If your website is about guitars, you’re unlikely to have much success with affiliating with a company that sells gardening products. The first thing you need to do is know your target audience. You also might consider whether you want to join every single affliate program that comes your way. A lot of people find that they make the most money from using only a small number of programs. Also, concentrating your advertisements may allow you to be paid faster. Sometimes, it can be hard to choose between two similar companies. What works well for someone else may not be the best choice for you. It’s not just about how much money you can make – you’ll want to feel confident in your recommendations.You can maximize your income by thinking beyond the obvious. If your website is aimed at parents, obviously you might think of affiliating to a toy company. But what about books, clothes, videos, DVDs, child oriented software…If you’re thinking about affiliating with two similar websites, you might want to choose the one that easiest to use or offers the greater benefit to a visitor, even if it pays less in commissions. You’ll do best with programs that represent a subject you’re personally interested in. Your own interest in the subject will entice others.To join an affiliate program, you simply go to the site and complete their online application form. Some programs approve you instantly, while others check out your application before it is approved. Once it’s approved, you’re given some HTML code that you can cut and paste onto your web page. How do I make my money? Before joining any program, you should probably be aware of the different payment programs available.

Pay Per Impression

Here you are paid according to the number of times the advertiser’s banner is displayed on your site. The amount paid is usually small, but it is easy to earn as everytime a visitor loads the page, you earn. The more vistors your site attracts, the more you earn.

Pay Per Click

With this method you’re only paid when visitors click the advertiser’s banner on your site. It generally pays higher than the pay per impression program. You’ll get better results if your banners are carefully selected to suit your target audience.

Pay Per Sale or Lead

You only earn if your visitors click through the banner and buy the product or service. Often, to avoid wasting resources in issuing checks for very small amounts, advertisers will accrue the amount owed to you until it reaches a certain amount before they pay you. How do they keep track of referrals?Every affiliate banner or link that a visitor clicks on has some type of coding added to the URL – this differentiates it from other affiliates’ links. The most common means of tracking affiliate links is by “cookies” Cookies are tiny files stored on your computer by a web browser when you click on an advertising link. Cookies are generated to track visitors to websites. This is how they can “remember” what you bought when you visit there again. For an affiliate company, the cookie records information on which affiliate referred the visitor to the company, and when. As some computer users block or delete cookies, there are other methods used to track referrals. For example, CGI-based scripts related to the individuals affiliate code attached to the URL links and database matching algorithms are used.

Second tier programs

A two tier program allows you as an affiliate to sign up other affiliates under you. You earn a smaller commission on the referrals or sales that arise from their advertising efforts as well as your own. This costs you far less time and money for each sale if some of them aren’t yours. In effect, you have your own sales force and pay a commission to your sub-affiliates. Except that the commission comes out of the affiliate company’s profits rather than yours.
The affiliate company benefits by a possible exponential growth of its sales force for no more effort on its part – you’re providing that. It’s not hard to recruit people under you in two tier programs. A second level can be a great advantage to you as an affiliate. Even if you only spread the word amongst friends and family, you never know when someone who signs up under you will really take off. They could earn you a lot by their own efforts in spreading the word about a program. You might not get rich, but you’ll get some welcome extra income. A multi tier affiliate web program builds on the concept of a two-tier program. Not only can you earn from sub-affiliates, but you can also earn from their sub-affiliates, and perhaps their sub-affiliates. With a two tier program, you have an incentive to sign up sub-affiliates. A multi-tier program gives you the incentive to help your sub affiliates sign up others.
Is it for me?
If you have a website then there’s guaranteed to be an affiliate program to suit your needs and audience. For minimal effort you can make your website earn money, even while you’re happily sleeping. Perhaps it won’t make you a fortune overnight. And it’s true that no-one hands you money for doing nothing. But with some careful thought and planning, choosing an affiliate program that fits in with YOUR website and sells products that YOU are confident in is a straightforward way of increasing YOUR income. And it costs you nothing.
About the Author
Shanon Lewis is a web marketing specialist with over 7 years of search engine placement, e-mail marketing and affiliate management experience. She is part of the expert team at affiliateprograms.com, the premiere affiliate programs directory online.