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Affiliate
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Build your
website
Now comes the interesting part when you get to decide on what
your website should look like. Websites
are usually built using HTML, Frontpage, Dreamweaver, etc. As a
newbie, assuming you are not familiar with any of these, you
have two choices.
The first is:
Locate a professional
website designer
in your locality. Ask around about his reputation for
dependability and work quality. Ask to see his portfolio. Check
it out for appearance and performance. Does he use modern HTML
coding to build the website ? Can he provide all your
requirements with regard to the website? The downside is the cost and having
to depend on him for every single
thing.
Will he provide free or reasonably priced maintenance and
support
?
Check out a
few more website designers and then make your decision based on
the above and also their charges. One main drawback is
that you will have to depend on him even for the minutest
change.
And
the second is:
The good
news is that you will find excellent website building software
on the Net. Everything is built in and so you don’t need to
know HTML. What a relief ! They come in the WYSIWYG format
which means ‘What You See Is What You Get”. So, it is mostly
dragging and dropping the different sections to their
respective positions to build your website instead of
using HTML.
The latest programs are also e-commerce enabled, which means
they come with the most of the functions required for
conducting your home business on the
Net.
No idea of HTML
I
don’t know which category you will fall into, but as for
myself, I had absolutely no knowledge of HTML at that time
and the website designers whom I knew, charged too much,
took a long time and invariably the end product was not what
I had in mind. The result was a feeling of helplessness and
frustration.
So I
then turned my attention to Website
Building software.
Did a lot of reading up and this is what I found. I came
across different categories and I am listing a couple of
really good ones here your information. Go for one of
these. You don't have to look elsewhere for a website
builder.
Top website builders
According to information on the internet, the following are the
two top ecommerce website builders at the
moment. Each
is unique in its own way and I list below a few of the
differences between the two that are evident.
XsitePro2
–
One time cost and you can create an unlimited number of
websites. Has very powerful features including a good
tutorial. It is good for any newbie who has some idea of
websites, internet marketing, etc. This site was built
using XSitePro2.

Check
out its many features by clicking on the links
below.
http://tinyurl.com/5yttt2
http://tinyurl.com/4wse7a
http://tinyurl.com/3nzeen
http://tinyurl.com/3kq8eo
Another good website builder
Site Build it
(SBI)
Another
good program. Unlike XSitePro2, you have to make annual
payments for this software and you can build only one
website. But the annual price covers not only the software,
but comes
with a domain name, web hosting, all the tools you need to
research your niche ideas and to market your site. SBI is
ideal for the absolute beginner who needs to start from
scratch.
Both are good
Both
are very much internet marketing oriented and it is up to
you to make that all important decision. Most of these
programs come with good refund polices and so there isn’t
really any risk, should you feel that you have made the
wrong choice.

It’s
fun !
Building a website is fun and so buy a program and enjoy.
Assuming you are a newbie, it will be advisable to get a good
idea about the different parts of the a normal website, before
starting to build one.
Click here for
details
Learn HTML ?
If you don't want to use either a website designer or web
building software, t
here could be a third option and that is, you can learn and use
HTML to design your own website. Of course, it will take time
and require a bit of effort but you will get there finally as
there are lots of tutorials and guides on the Net. You may
check out a couple here and use whichever you are comfortable
with.
http://www.echoecho.com/html.htm
http://www.w3schools.com/htmL/
Building
it yourself ?
If you decide to build your website yourself, you don't
have to waste time on the layout. Good templates are available on
the Net which will make your job easier. Pick a simple
template
relevant to your topic and customize it according to your
requirements.
You can get templates here:-

Choice is yours
Finally, choose whichever works best for you, in respect of
technical knowledge, budget and available time. Whatever you
decide on, ensure that the website has all the ecommerce
capabilities that's required to conduct your affiliate
businesses.
What are these ecommerce capabilities
?
There is a difference between normal websites and those put up
for conducting Electronic commerce (e-commerce) which simply
means selling goods and services through the internet.
E-commerce sites need to have additional features, depending on
whether it is only referrals, digital downloads or shipping of
goods.
 |
Secure hosting - because a lot
of personal information will be
transmitted. |
 |
Good Sales Copy - To keep the
visitor interested in your product |
 |
Easy to use Shopping Cart -
Everyone likes smooth and secure
transactions |
 |
Auto-responder - Emails and
confirmation pages |
 |
Merchant Account - To process
credit card payments |
 |
Opt-in Builder - To manage
subscribers |
Characteristics of a good website
are:-
 |
It loads fast |
 |
Neat and eye-catching simple
design. Use a good template that matches your
business. (Avoid Flash sites as they take longer to
load.) |
 |
Easy to read and
navigate |
 |
Has a search box to find
information inside the website |
 |
No broken links |
 |
Contains effects such as
relevant backgrounds and images |
 |
Contains quality
content |
 |
Does not contain grammatical or
spelling mistakes |
 |
Has update and backup
facility |
 |
Has a Disclaimer and Privacy
policy |
 |
Has good internal
navigation |
 |
Meets all technical
requirements |
Email and feedback forms
From a business angle, it would be a good idea to make your
site interactive by adding email and feedback forms. Invite
your visitors to ask questions or give their feedback about
your site. Make their visit to your site enjoyable. You will
learn later on that it is very important to build a list of
prospects.
Next, would you like to track the number of visitors to
you website
Track visitors to your website
Install a free reliable
invisible web tracker, highly configurable
hit counter and real-time detailed
web stats. Insert a simple piece of their code on
your web page and you will be able to analyze and monitor all
the visitors to your website in real-time! Check it out
at:-
http://statcounter.com/
Prepare Quality Content
This step is very important as a website having quality
content with an abundant sprinkling of selected keywords at the right places
is what visitors and the search engines love, which
in turn, will drive lots of traffic to your
website.
The information that you provide should be of interest to the
visitor, so you need to ensure that only quality content is
placed on your website.
How can you do this ? Well, there are three
options.
1)
Write it yourself if you are good at writing. Or do you have a
friend who can help you ?
Please check out writing tips at the following
websites.
http://www.entheosweb.com/content_writing/tips.asp
http://www.webreference.com/content/writing/
2)
Use free articles relevant to your topic available on the web.
Take care to check and adhere to the
Terms of Use. So if you are going to
use such free articles, one usual condition is that you
should
give the author's reference at
the bottom of the article, which will tend to detract from your
credibilty.
3) The 3rd alternative is to buy
articles. You can buy from the Internet, PLR articles on
various topics. PLR stands for Private Label Rights and they
are quite cheap and you get the right to rewrite and change it
and even put your name as the author. Only thing is that, you
have to take steps to ensure that is not identical to any other
article or you will be penalized for using
duplicate content by search
engines.
When you rewrite, you should also ensure the
following:-
 |
Search engine optimized, using
your selected keywords and phrases. |
 |
Is of good quality and very
relevant to your topic |
 |
Is authentic and not rehashed
stuff |
Well,
there are guides and software available which can help you
to write good articles on any subject. These will be
discussed in the Resources page of this website. Please
bookmark and check back often for updated
information.
Evaluate
!
When you have the final content, get someone who doesn't know
your subject, to read it. It should make sense and hold his
interest. If not, it's back to the drawing board for
improvements.
Click
here for information on different parts of a
website.
For 100s of useful tips on Money, Travel,
Car, Computer, Shopping and Video:
http://www.moneytips-4u.com

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