A unique domain name is crucial for any new affiliate. It’s a lot of things at once – your storefront, your address, and your calling card. So making a mistake here can damage your credibility as an affiliate and doom your site to failure. Remember that people buy from people and websites that are personable, credible, and worthy of trust. It’s always worth investing in things that increase that trust.

Buying Your Domain Name

If you’re on a budget, you might be tempted to save the cost of a domain name and monthly hosting expenses and set yourself up on a free website like Blogger or Tumblr. Don’t. Free hosting makes people think of free information, it looks homemade and not professional, and it doesn’t put people in a buying mood.

It’s harder to rank your site on a Web 2.0 domain, and once you do, it’s harder to get click-throughs to your site. Fairly or not, most people will assume that your information is less valuable if you can’t afford to buy a domain. You’ve probably seen some pretty decent sites on Blogger, but what are the odds that you wanted to buy something from there?

These kinds of free hosting sites can be pretty effective as mini-sites that link to your main affiliate page, but they’re not great as centerpieces of your online business.

You Want Complete Control

Also, you run the risk of losing everything when you’re on a free host. If you violate the site’s TOS by accident or your host decides they don’t like the kind of sites you’re affiliated with, they can delete your site and pages of your valuable information without warning.

If you’re on a free website, you lose the ability to customize your site, add plugins, and solicit comments from different sources. As a result, you’re going to look and feel cookie cutter. Affiliate marketing is a business – and no matter what your budget level, you need to meet a handful of expenses in order to look credible. This is one of them!

Avoid “Dot Whatevers”

When you’re ready to register your website, try to avoid dashes, hyphens, and “dot whatever” domain names. Unbroken domain names that have .com, .net, or .org addresses have the most credibility. Remember that if you’re trying to save a few bucks with a .biz name, people are web-savvy enough to know that you’re a cheapskate. Plus, when was the last time you saw a site with a weird TLD ranking highly in search engine results?

Where Should You Go For Hosting?

The hosting world is competitive and it’s always changing. The big hosting sites like Hostgator, GoDaddy, and BlueHost all have their own strengths and weaknesses, but they all do the job fine. One important piece of advice, however, is to host your domain and your website on two different companies. It’s impossible to predict whether something will go wrong in the affiliate business, and it’s smart to never trust all your websites or domains with a single host.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a tool useful for saving or retaining updated information on websites that you frequently visit or websites that are your favorite. RSS utilizes an XML code which scans continuously the content or subject matter of a certain website in search for new informations then transmits the information updates by way of feeding the information to subscribers.

RSS feeds are generally being utilized in blogs or news sites, though any website wanting to broadcast and publish information can use them. Once new information is sent, it will contain a headline, a little bit of text, and either a rundown or a brief review of the news or story. A link is needed be clicked upon to read further.

So as to accept RSS feeds, a feed reader is needed, called an aggregator. Aggregators are widely and freely available online, and all that is needed is a bit of searching, you will be able to locate a certain interface that best interest you. What’s more, RSS feeds can likewise be read and retrieved from cell phones and on PDAs.

Once you encounter upon a website that you want to add or insert to the aggregator, the process can be done in two ways. Almost all sites offering an RSS feed displays an “RSS” or “XML” button in their homepage and with one click, it promptly add that particular feed to one’s aggregator. Some aggregator however, requires the need to copy and then paste the URL of the feed unto the program.

Whatever the method used, you can be certain that the feed will be accessible soon as you have inserted it, likewise, in just seconds, the next update can arrive. In the event that you do not anymore would want to accept or take in updates, you may simply delete or erase the feed from the aggregator.

Through e-mail subscriptions, you can receive newsletters. RSS feeds on the other hand, can be more convenient in keeping up with newsletter updates since they are prompt and available in an instant; you no longer have to wait for a scheduled time or day to obtain a news summary, plus, these news will never be detained through a spam filter.

RSS feeds are widely used everyday by individuals who understand and appreciate the accessibility of fast reports and news that can be readily read and only read certain updates that appeals to them.

Aggregators

Aggregators are popular use of feeds, having several kinds. Web aggregators or portals as they are sometimes called, create this view which is then made available in a Web page. Also, Aggregators have been incorporated into e-mail patrons, users of desktops, or dedicated and standalone software.

Offering a collection of special features, such as combining more than a few related feeds in just a single view, hiding certain entries or statements that has been already viewed, and classifying entries and feeds, the aggregator is a versatile component.

Why make a feed available?

You will have more viewers, since now, your viewers can conveniently see your site without even going out and looking for that certain site. While at first, it may seem corrupt, it will in fact enhance the visibility of your site; this is so because users can easily keep up or keep tract with your site, to allow them to view in a way that they want to; it’s more probable that guests are aware should something that is in their interest is available or accessible on your site.

For instance, every month your website broadcasts a new feature. Having no feed, your viewers will always have to keep in mind to go to your site in a certain time to see if they discover something new; that is, if they can remember, and if they still have the time. However, if you supply a feed for your viewers, they can just point to their aggregator and it will instantly provide them a link along with a description of happenings or events at your site immediately.

What format to choose?

Syndication is very confusing as it uses a lot of formats that can usually be come across in the web. However, this can easily be solved as in general, syndicated libraries are used by aggregators which conceptualize a particular format that a feed is in, in order that they can utilize a certain syndication feed.

With this, whatever format to pick is just a matter of personal preference. RSS 1.0 is far reaching, and practical should it be integrated into Semantic Web systems. RSS 2.0 is very easy and simple create by hand. And atom is an IETF Standard, does it brings constancy, stability and a natural and accepted community to support its usage.

Picking a WordPress theme for your affiliate website isn’t just about picking the right look. Your theme, just like every other aspect of your affiliate site, is designed to sell – and your theme is only useful if it helps you convert! So before you hit the download button, put on your thinking cap and ask yourself these questions:

What Kind Of Content Do I Have?

It doesn’t make any sense to have a theme that emphasizes photos if your site is focused on articles and reviews. Likewise, if your website is focused on getting people to read reviews and move forward to the affiliate site, it might make more sense to find a theme where reviews and star ratings are prominent. If you’re looking to build an authority site with a mailing list, you should make sure that there’s room in both the design and the blog page for visitors to opt in.

What Kind Of Site Do I Have?

Some popular niches will have themes that are specifically designed for them. For example, if your site is based on Valentine’s Day, you’ll find plenty of pink and red romantic themes that just scream “romance”. If your site is focused on a specific product, you might even want to adopt the color scheme of the partner website.

Is The Site Easy To Read?

CSS formatting is critical to the success of your site. Text that looks ugly, generic, and bunched together on the page is harder to read, which means it’s harder to get conversions. Look for text that’s inviting and easy to read, with heading and subheadings that stand out. Since you’re going to optimize your site for SEO, you’re going to use these headings more than usual, so it’s important that they look good. If you have some expertise in CSS, this is less of an issue because you can edit it to look the way you want it to.

What Are The Options And Features?

A site with an adjustable header and footer will be easier to customize and adjust as your site grows. You should also look for widget support – you never know what WordPress plugins you’ll need to integrate with your affiliate site, so it’s important to have some flexibility. Finally, remember that the most important thing a theme can have is support – a site that isn’t compatible with the newest versions of WordPress is a security risk no matter how up to date it is!

Do a little research and choose your favorite. Remember that your ultimate goal is to get conversions – so if the choice is tough, always pick function over aesthetics.

Blogging is a concept that started in late 90s. It used to be a way to comment on an existing webpage, an opportunity for visitors and readers to voice their opinion. What started as a single-sentence commentary has evolved into pages of personal take on just about anything and everything under the sun. As it continues to evolve, online advertising has tapped into the blog’s potential. Here are 5 reasons why you should use blogging as an Internet marketing tool.

Blogging is simple. The simplest way to get your content noticed on the Internet is through blogging. Virtually no skills are necessary… an average adult can read and type, or at least click a mouse. It’s like having a virtual piece of paper and you just write your ideas, experiences, products, and hope that your content will entice your visitors to keep coming back. If you have a PC and an Internet connection (who doesn’t?) then you can blog and advertise.

Blogging is authentic. In this day and age where advertising saturate our lives, we question the credibility of promoters’ claims. However, in blogs, real people share their real-life experiences, unscathed by paid advertising. Reading blogs about first-hand product use is like talking to people about their first-hand experience. You definitely want to buy a tried and tested product.

Blogging is free. Because blogging is yet to be proven as a mainstream online advertising media, most sites see it as something to augment current marketing tools and thus offer it for free. Any opportunity for free traffic is definitely a bonus especially to businesses that are just starting up.

Blogging builds credibility. As you get more and more into writing your experiences on a particular product or industry, your readers come to realize that they can depend and trust your posts for their own information needs. As such, you become an expert on it; as a consequence, more readers visit your site and more bloggers link to your blogs. As companies and professional organizations notice the growth of your readership base, they may soon get in touch with you for advertising on your blog page, or make you an affiliate, which pays for every referral generated from your blog site.

Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base. Look into the following ways to build your market through blogging:

-By using your e-mail. Today, blogging is overcoming the e-mail’s popularity in quickly and effectively reaching and expanding a market. In this age of speed and quick access, logging in and downloading e-mail is simply taking longer than clicking into a blog site. Let them explore your site by using a short e-mail message as teaser to your blog site. If your e-mail is on an entirely different subject, use your e-mail signature to give a link to the site.

-By using subscription. An easy way to get your readers e-mail is to give them an opportunity to subscribe to your blogsite. Keep some exclusive information for your subscribers to entice readers to subscribe and give their e-mail address. Just be responsible in using their e-mail address, as the last thing you want is a comment on your blog that you are a spammer.

-By understanding your readers. Conduct a simple survey for your readers to understand their profile and advertising preferences. Ask consumers to give you feedback on a post, an ad link, or a trial that you shared. In this way, it is like interviewing your readers without the commitment and intrusion of a face-to-face interview.

-By joining a blog network –A network of blogs maybe a collection of blog sites that share the same industry, interest, readership base, payment mode, etc. Consumers find credibility and convenience in clicking one link to several real bloggers about a single subject. Clearly, more bloggers are better than one.

-By using RSS. RSS is the fastest growing technology on the Internet today. As such, having RSS feeds to your blog is definitely another means of generating awareness for your readership base. Having a variety of feeds can add interest to your blog site.

Give your business a boost by effectively using blogging as an Internet marketing tool.