Creating a basic website is relatively easy however, if you want yours to stand out from the crowd, you may find yourself spending hours, days, months, even years tweaking and fine tuning your html code. For an affiliate marketer for whom time is money, time spent on website development means lost revenue which may ultimately lead to failure. What to do? Find and use a good content management system! There are many content management systems available, but three of the best are Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal. One outstanding feature of these solutions is the cost-they are all free!
Wordpress - Best for Blogs
WordPress is used primarily for blog-type websites although with the many plug-ins and add-on modules available it can easily be adapted for affiliate marketing and even an e-commerce site. Blogger (google's blog service) is generally considered easier to set up and use for new bloggers, however for serious affiliate marketers, Wordpress is the preferred choice. Wordpress is frequently upgraded and because of its popularity, support is readily available. If you don't need have a web host, you may consider getting a free blog on WordPress.com but most affiliates will want to host your blog on their own domain and will then have access a significant range of plug-ins and tools that are not available on their free service or at Blogger.
Joomla -- Full Featured Content Management System
Joomla offers more than the affiliate marketer is likely to need in a content management system. This is like having a safety net so you don't need to worry about have to upgrade to or learn another system. There is a learning curve so don't expect Joomla to be a plug-and-play system However, support is readily available, and you can have a site operational in short order and then add the finishing touches as you promote your affiliate products. Two versions of Joomla are available and either will work for the affiliate marketer.
You can design you own templates for Joomla but you need more time and training than most affiliate marketers have available. It is probably best to find a suitable ready made template, many are free, and modify it as you go. You will likely need to learn some html and how css works in order to made your site look and work the way you want. But there is still a great time savings over starting from scratch. With the popularity and wide use of Joomla, you will have no problem finding support and answer to most of any problems you may encounter. I highly recommend Joomla for content management.
Drupal--Versatile CMS
Drupal is also a free content management system that can be used as a blog, e-commerce, or content site. The learning curve is not so steep so you can get you site operational in a hurry. There are many free and paid additions that make Drupal a full-featured solution to website development and maintenance. I consider Drupal to be a viable option for use by affiliate marketers.
Choosing a Web Host
Joomla and Drupal both use MySQL and PHP so make sure you select a web host that has these available. Also, if you select a hosting company that uses cpanel with fantastico, you can easily install Worpress, Drupal or Joomla. Some hosting company allow you to put unlimited websites in one account. That means you have many websites in one hosting account without any additional hosting fee. Most affiliate marketers will find they will need many sites to promote enough products to be successful. Using a free content management system and a versatile hosting company can start the affiliate marketer on the way to making his or her online fortune!!
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