Website, Blog or Email?

[staffyp]

Hello all;

I must say I am flabbergasted with the mountains of information found in these forums, especially for a newbie like myself. I am thinking about Promoting companies products but noticed a need for a website or blog when signing up for these companies' Affiliate programs.

Is this the ONLY way to promote these companies' product? What about Email Marketing? What do I need to do if I used Email Marketing? I know I can't just start sending email all over the place because of SPAM regulations.

I am trying to start out with very little capital, can this be done?

Thanks.

 

[jazzguy]

Hey staffyp. It can be done but you would be limited to what can be gotten for free or very little capital as you put it. What I am about to recommend is to be considered after you have decided on a niche market/product that you want to promote.

The first thing is to spend a few bucks on getting a domain name and some hosting for your site. This will probably set you back about 10 bucks along with anywhere from 4.95 to 12.95 a month for hosting...you can get cheaper but you don't want too cheap.Remember, this will be the start of a business...YOUR business...so don't nickle and dime yourself...your business deserves better and will thank you in the long run.

Once you have your domain name and hosting, sign up for a Word Press Blogging account. It is free and there are some wonderful free templates/themes that can be used and tweaked to come up with a nice looking site/blog.

Then the fun part starts as you begin to think about what your content is going to be. This is where your interest or passion for a niche/product comes into play. If you don't care about selling widgets but want to promote a widget merchant because the commissions are high, then you are most likely not going to do well because you don't really care about widgets. So start with something you feel strongly about then just go for it.

Of course, there's more to it than that, but not much more really. All the other stuff is peripheral and can be learned thorough the many wonderful posts on this forum. Good luck, take care and all the best.

Oh yeah..before I forget...don't bother with email marketing because as you mentioned, unless you have a list of emails from YOUR OWN opt-in source, such as a mailing list from your own site(s), it is considered SPAM and can be quite evil...

 

[staffyp]

jazzguy;

Thanks, the info you provided is much appreciated. At least I now have a basic understanding of where to start. My problem now is to find something(s) I am passionate about (Niche) and then promote it/them. I like writing and reserach, so maybe I can create an eBooks.

Again, than for the advice.

 

[danpaul]

I would go for a site over a blog if you can - that's my 2 cents but I would start with some keyword research to see for profitability and this can be done at google adsense. good luck. Providing good quality content is your goal and best marketing strategy.

danpaul

 

[Daniel M. Clark]

If you don't have your own website and are unfamiliar with creating sites, I strongly suggest starting with a blog-format site. You can concentrate on creating search engine friendly content (and earning a bit with AdSense) instead of learning the ins and outs of creating a site from scratch this way. While you're creating your good content, you can spend your free time learning some HTML and web design basics. Since you say you like writing and research, this can really pay off for you as a launching point.

 

[AllanJames]

Yep, I'm with Daniel - go for a blog.

Search engines are optimised to reward quality content (and relevant quality back links) by providing higher positioning in search rankings. This is exactly what you want (free targeted traffic), and blogs are easy to add content to and to generate good back links.

Cheers,
AllanJames

 

[gcsr_ws]

Be VERY wary of Email marketing campaigns. It is a very tricky business that must be done right. And even some who claim to do it for you can get you in trouble. If you've been around long enough to know what's what, then go for it but if anyone is completely noob and has no clue, I wouldn't suggest it.

Besides it takes alot of effort to build a list (the legit way to email market) and even more to maintain it. Good luck!

 

[AllanJames]

Hello all;

Is this the ONLY way to promote these companies' product? What about Email Marketing? What do I need to do if I used Email Marketing? I know I can't just start sending email all over the place because of SPAM regulations.

I am trying to start out with very little capital, can this be done?

Thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by email marketing - but I'm hoping you mean building a database (a List) of prospects/clients/prospects.

Why am I hoping this is what you mean? Because:

1) Anything else (email blasting, spamming etc) will get you in big trouble fast - spam regulations etc.

2) Most marketers will tell you a List will become your most valuable asset, allowing you to form a trusting relationship with your subscribers and market relevant products to them time and time again. The biggest money is always made by those who have the biggest lists.

Bottom line:

1)Build a list.

2) Build a blog - have a form on every page of it so that people can subscribe to your List

3) Do some free advertising through Safelists and Traffic Exchanges - again, to build a List

Cheers,
AllanJames

 

[danpaul]

StaffyP,

Consider intergration marketing where you could simply coat tail on some else's list and pay per lead, mind you, you would need an effective tracking system in place and also a solid marketing plan to approach prospects who have a descent list...food for thought.

 

[FDC]

I would utilize all three options!

Its like a financial portfolio. Diversify, diversify, diversify!

 

[genuwine4532]

answers

I can also suggest CoffeeCup Visual Site Designer - Now Anyone Can Make a Website, EASY to build great sites with no code or programming skills required and you can download a free trial and use it to make a website, fully functional the only thing that a link back to Coffee Cup stays in the footer.

The hosting will cost you from 5-10 a month, I recommend HostGator.

if you want TOTALLY FREE - Then you can build your own mini sites with Squidoo, called lenses, you can add anything you want and they are easy to build, rank with Google well as long as you have lots of content and there are simple ways to promote them.

I would use Squidoo BEFORE any of the free blog platforms, there are thousands of people making good money online with Squidoo and I am one of them.

Good Luck!

 

[jazzguy]

Nice recommendation genuwine regarding the Coffee Cup software. I was a big fan of Coffee Cup back when I started and even though I use Dreamweaver now, I still use a bunch of Coffee Cup products...Coffee Cup are kind of like the Ben and Jerry's of Web design software...at least for me anyway... Thanks again and take care.

 

[Niche48]

Hello all;

I must say I am flabbergasted with the mountains of information found in these forums, especially for a newbie like myself. I am thinking about Promoting companies products but noticed a need for a website or blog when signing up for these companies' Affiliate programs.

Is this the ONLY way to promote these companies' product? What about Email Marketing? What do I need to do if I used Email Marketing? I know I can't just start sending email all over the place because of SPAM regulations.

I am trying to start out with very little capital, can this be done?

Thanks.

Not the only way to get into affiliate marketing but having your own site makes things a whole lot easier

If you want to build an email list you can put an opt in form on the site

If you want to promote another product you can put up it's own page on your site.

It is where you can start to build an online reputation for yourself

And you do not have to pay money to start off. You could opt to have a blogger blog as your online platform to start with. Blogger is free

Once you start making some money from your blog, then you could consider a hosted account and website

In the past you could set up an adwords campaign and send the traffic to your affiliate link. But this is not so effective anymore at least in my experience.

I suppose there is also USfreeads but I will confess I did not get anywhere with the free account and ended up getting a premium account

Just trying to think of some methods you could consider that work but i am stumped....sorry

 

[gina70]

I'm gonna say you have to use all three. The easiest for YOU to do is the blog because you control what's on it.

As for a website, I recommend getting a designer. They will know how to add your stuff to the the website.

Your website can be like a salespage which serves a very straight forward process or like my website, information, with a couple products and adsense.

It's going to depend on the niche, too. If you're promoting travelocity deals, it doesn't matter if you have a website or a blog, but you've got to convince people for a reason to be on your site to begin with. A blog about travel hot spots you've been to that no one else has and you're trying to get interested travelers to go see would be good room for your travelocity link.

A trick I use is go onto google keyword tool and type in your niche. Look at all the searches and keyword related to that niche. Click on the pull down and look at the estimated cost per click. Anything that's got 5, 6 and 7 digit searches is ripe for adsense on your site/blog. People are looking for those keywords. Make a site. Submit it to search engine directories. It will take 4 - 6 weeks to see results, but it can happen.

For a website, a good designer will incorporate SEO, maximize adsense possibilities, make a subscription form for people to opt-in for email subscriptions, and can install a blog unless you want to do that on your own.

You can do all this yourself, but if you're like me and all thumbs when it comes to webhosting and creating websites, it's better to get a specialist. I recommend porcupinewebsite.com.