Despite what some individuals might claim, affiliate marketing is still one of the best and most stable methods to make money on the internet. It may take a bit of time initially to set everything up, but once your gears are turning, you should be good to go.
These days, you do not even need a fully-developed website for this kind of marketing. A simple landing page, a social media profile, or even a YouTube channel will be fine so long as you can drive the right traffic.
Why Amazon?
It might be worth looking into why Amazon happens to be the most popular destination for marketers.
First and foremost, describing it as the biggest provider for various products seems appropriate. Variety helps a lot. Overall, you have decent commission rates as well, and signing up with the program is relatively easy.
Finally, since so many people have had success with it in the past, there is plenty of information about it on the internet, like guides, video tutorials, and so on. Thus, everyone, even those who lack experience with online marketing can start.
Customization Options
You can customize your website in any way you want, especially if you go for the WordPress platform. The choices of themes, widgets, and even plugins (check out this top Amazon affiliate plugins list curated by HeroThemes for them) enrich the overall experience. Thus concluding that WP is the best option and those who would like to give affiliate marketing a go should go for it.
What Does Affiliate Marketing Website Need?
Before you start your venture in this, you may want to read more about the most important aspects. Provided that you are going with the website over other options, there will be some work to do. Competition can be pretty tough, and standing out from those who have already established themselves in the niche takes time and effort.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is one of the most important aspects of any website. Since you will be duking it out with other marketers, you want to be at the highest possible positions in search engines.
Organic traffic is worth more than any other type, and if you can manage to rank with certain keywords, you will have a good time. On the other hand, if you fail this step, relying on making sales from other sources will be extremely hard.
There are plenty of things to learn about search engine optimization, so it may be better to hire a freelancer and dedicate your focus on other matters.
Social Media Profiles
Social media marketing is also something to emphasize. It is one of those phenomenons that are always changing, and it may be difficult to keep up with all the trends, especially if you are trying to cover as many different platforms as you can.
It all comes down to the niche and where you are likely to find the most targeted audience. Try out multiple sites and see which of them are working the best. And while it will take time, nothing comes easy in this world.
Great Visuals
Affiliate marketing is all about persuasion. Getting people to click the link is hard by itself, not to mention the fact that they need to spend the money on Amazon and actually buy the product.
Good visuals help a lot because people’s brain pays more attention to visuals than textual information. Thus, when you are creating product pages, try to get the highest quality pictures, and when there is an opportunity, boost it with software like Photoshop.
Product Descriptions
Writing a good copy is quite hard, but product descriptions can be a bit longer than just the basics. Again, this is something that takes time to test and see which ideas work and which underperform.
Responsive Theme
There are plenty of great themes to choose from, so you do not need to worry about this particular problem too much. However, it is worth mentioning that mobile optimization may work better on some themes than others, and given how many users are doing their surfing on smartphones and tablets, you may want to prioritize them over anybody else.
A Blog
Writing a blog gives your website a big boost in the SEO department as well as another way to connect with your audience and establish yourself as an authority in the niche. Regular content brings nothing but benefits, so you should also start a blog somewhere along the way.
Customer Support
This is not a regular e-commerce website, but customer support has to be present regardless. In case you decide to not get a live chat, the least you can implement is a contact form and other means to get in touch with you.