Blogging Tips
How to Create an Affiliate Blog in 30 Minutes or Less. (Step by Step).
Long gone are the days where setting up a cool blog meant you were either an HTML genius or were forced to pay really high prices to hire someone who was.
Through the power of WordPress, the best free blog website maker, it’s now possible to learn how to create an affiliate blog that is beautiful and fully functional that can earn money every single month.
Contents
Want to know how to create an affiliate blog in 30 minutes or less? then let’s get started.
By the way if you are more of a video training kind of person we did the entire tutorial in video!
Visit Website Building Action Plan to Start Creating Your Affiliate Blog with Video Step by Step instructions!
We can’t discuss creating a blog without of course talking about where that blog will live. That’s where web hosting comes in and you’ll be hard-pressed to find an easier hosting solution for your affiliate WordPress blogs than Bluehost. Anyone who wants to make serious money online needs to have a hosting account and this is where you need to start your building.
There are a lot of opinions thrown around the internet about which web hosting service provider is the best out there, but when you boil it down to basics it’s all about performance, and customer service for the money. Also with so many competing companies out there, the pricing really has become extremely affordable.
What makes a good web host
With so many affordable hosting plans available to anyone who’s interested it’s easy to get caught up in the confusion. What we’re going to do is go over the key points you should look for in a good website host.
Customer Service
- Do they offer 24/7 support by phone, email & live chat?
Bluehost does.
- Is their service reliable and rock solid?
Bluehost runs all their services on custom-built hardware.
- What about a money back guarantee?
Bluehost has you covered with 30-day, cancel at any time plans.
- Is there an easy to use control panel?
Yes, Bluehost uses a customized & enhanced version of the popular cPanel which makes it simple for even complete newbies to set up professional looking websites.
- Can your host handle massive spikes of traffic without going down?
Bluehost has multiple upgrades which allow you to scale as you go. You don’t need to start out on their biggest packages, but you can have the comfort of knowing that no matter how big you get they have a server that can handle your traffic needs.
- Bluehost offers UNLIMITED websites, email accounts and domains; all hosted on a single, affordable plan. You can even set yourself up with a domain name directly from bluehost saving yourself the hassle of getting it from a 3rd party provider.
With all that being said…here’s where it gets really good and easy….
From that point all you’d have to do is set your WordPress theme up, install any plug-ins you’d like to use and you’re officially off to the races!
How to setup your Hosting Account with Bluehost
When you go to pick a hosting option you’ll have a few choices. I know it may be tempting to just go with the lowest priced option and call it a day but here’s why that might not be the greatest idea for you.
The best option to go with in most cases is the ‘plus’ plan. This happens to be the most popular plan for a great reason; it practically offers unlimited everything!
Once you pick your plan you then need to decide what you want for your domain name for your website. Hopefully at this point you have an idea as to what your niche or topic will be about.
For simplicity sake let’s assume you decided to join the Powerhouse Affiliate – Affiliate program, and you want to set up a blog about “Make Money at Home Reviews”. You could choose a domain name like digitalprofits.com or anything related to making money online.
I very highly recommend you choose a .com for whatever niche you decide to write about on your blog.
You also have the choice of migrating an already existing domain name you may have available. They’re both extremely easy to do so if you already have a domain name then just take this opportunity to enter it in at this stage.
Picking a domain name is something you want to take extra care when doing. It’s important to pick something that captures the essence of your blog while still being something that people can type in and search for when they want to.
There are free tools available to help you come up with killer domain names if you need help, you only need to do a nifty Google search for something like “cool domain name picker” or anything of that sort and just start checking out options made available to you.
After your domain name is sorted you’ll be brought to the next step which is shown in the image above. Here is where you’ll just need to input all the usual information such as:
- Name
- Address
- Phone number
- Email address (use a valid one, you’ll get important information sent here)
Once all your details are filled out you’ll then be shown the package information section of the form. Here is where you will get to choose which option you’d like to go with for your hosting plan.
There are three options ranging from one-year to three-years. The three-year option is of course the best plan to go with as it will reduce your monthly investment and get you the advertised plan we pointed to earlier.
But if you plan to build a nice big affiliate blog and maybe sell it later…then maybe you want to go for a yearly package.
This is something which confuses some people so let’s walk through a very quick & easy explanation of what’s going on here.
Any time you sign up for a hosting package with a provider like bluehost you’ll typically be given these same three options.
You can pick from 1, 2 or 3 years and of course if you go with the longer time-frame you wind up paying less per month because your hosting provider will be able to secure your spot for longer which they then reward you for by giving you an instant discount off the monthly price.
Typically speaking, hosting a website isn’t something you just do for a couple months and then it’s over. You want to be sure your site will be hosted on a secure server with a company that offers great customer service at an excellent price.
A quick note about your privacy as the proud owner of a blog or website.
Upon signing up you’ll be offered the chance to get domain privacy protection for your affiliate blog.
To sum it up, every website that exists has something called a “whois” associated with it. This is basically the information about the site which anybody can look up at any time simply by performing a search of the domain and the word “whois”.
This will usually give sensitive details away such as the owner of the domain name which would be you in this case. Their address, phone number and any email which was assigned to the registration application. What this effectively means is that anyone can gain access to your information whenever they want if they choose to. But there is a way to stop this!
When you sign up for your hosting account it’s always a good idea to take advantage of the privacy protection option to keep your information private and safe from prying eyes. It’s very inexpensive and well worth keeping that valuable info from the general public.
How to setup your WordPress blog with Bluehost
Once you’ve gone through the rest of the details such as entering your credit card info and finalizing your hosting setup you’ll be able to log into your dashboard and when you do be sure to look for the little “Install WordPress” button. It should be 4 panels down inside the “website” section of your dashboard.
This is where you’re going to setup your very own WordPress blog with very little effort on your part.
Once you click the button shown above to install WordPress you’ll be asked if you wish to make a new installation, click that and let’s move on to the next step which is shown in the image below.
This is the step where you pick which domain you’d like to install WordPress to (just in case you have more than one domain name) and you can also pick a specific directory or create one simply by typing it into the 2nd box shown above. If you want the blog to be on the main .com then don’t enter a directory into that box.
Click the little check box which says “Show advanced options” and then fill out the details below it.
You’ll want to pick the name of your blog/site. This will be something you can change at a later time if you wish so it’s not set in stone here. Keep in mind you want to use the main keywords you want google to find when people are searching for your site here. So if you are promoting a site about “making money online” then those keywords should be in your title.
You need to come up with an Administrator “Username” and be sure it’s not something typical like “Admin” because that just makes your blog less secure than it can be.
Additionally you need to come up with a strong password for the dashboard of your new WordPress site. Luckily this is usually generated for you by default so you can just keep the suggested password that pops up.
Be sure the little checkbox which says “Automatically create a new database for this installation” Is in fact checked on… we need this.
Then just check the box where it says “I have read the terms” and click the Install Now button then let it do its thing!
Once your installation is finished you’ll want to click on the little “View Credentials” button in the upper-right corner (the black box at the top).
What you’ll see here is the domain or url of your new WordPress site, the url of the Administrator dashboard which is where you’ll have access to everything you need to manage your installation, and you’ll also have your login details which are the username & password.
You can click on the “Admin URL” right from this screen and log in with the username and password to test everything out and make sure it works.
To see a very helpful video which walks you through these steps in under 3 Minutes simply check out This Link to visit YouTube.
What to do with your new WordPress blog
Following your initial setup stage you’ll need to get everything looking good and this is where themes come in. There are so many options to choose from when deciding on a theme for your WordPress installation. There a bunch of really nifty free themes you can pick from all over the internet as well as premium themes with specific styles and functionality.
Whichever option you decide to go with it’s always a good idea to set yourself up with something other than the default theme as it’s in place basically as a placeholder.
If you would like to see video instruction on this step I’ll provide you with a link to a YouTube search with a bunch of helpful videos to browse through to get yourself more familiar with this process.
Click Here to check out WordPress Installation tutorials.
The easy way vs. the hard way
There are two ways you can install a theme to WordPress and they are to upload a theme or install one directly from the dashboard. Both of these are really easy to do so I guess calling one the “hard way” isn’t really accurate but hey, compared to simply searching for a theme and clicking “install” there’s a considerable difference, even if it is a considerably small one 😉
On your dashboard look for the option which says “Appearance” and click it. You’ll either see the option slide out to the side as it has in the picture above or you’ll see these same options populate directly under the “Appearance” menu right in the dashboard itself. Either way, go ahead and click on “Themes” and you’ll be ready for the next step.
The “hard” way in detail
Once inside the “Themes” section of your dashboard you want to do the following steps.
The easy way in detail
This method is very similar to uploading a theme except instead of doing that you’ll simply be searching through themes you find in the themes manager.
All the steps are exactly the same as when uploading a theme except you will not click on “Choose File” but instead you search for themes you can use the search field.
There is also an advanced feature directly to the right of the stuff outlined in red and this feature will let you search for themes with things like specific colors and styles.
From this point it’s just a matter of seeing which theme you like, choosing it, installing it, and then using it. Keep in mind that it’s possible to change your theme at just about any time. I will have to specifically warn you that some themes (usually higher priced premium themes) have certain features which other themes will not and if you use these types of themes with special features exclusive only to them you may wind up breaking your site. Keep this important detail in mind when picking out a theme and just be cautious anytime you decide you want to swap one theme for a different theme.
Last Step To Making This a Money Making Blog – Create a post & earn commissions.
Now that you have your foundation built and you have your blog set up you need a way to make money from it – You need to create a post!
On the sidebar you need to click all posts >> add new, and you will be shown an editor style box where you can start typing your first post, and once you click the “publish” button your blog post will be live to for the world to see! As you can see the blog post you are reading write now is done the exact same way.
Affiliate marketing is by far the fastest way you can start earning money from your blog since you don’t actually need to have any products or services.
You are simply making money by referring people to other products and getting paid a commission. There are hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs online.
The basic premise is you create a blog post, within that blog post you link to products or services using an affiliate link from a “merchant” who pays you for your referrals, then you drive massive traffic to that blog post to earn more money.
Over the years WordPress has made it extremely easy for people to start making money online with affiliate sites. They have become the internet standard for website and blog creation and management; this is for a good reason. WordPress is so easy to use a child could do it.
Everything you could ever need can usually be found in a theme that you simply install or a plug-in you can well, just plug right in and begin using. As a matter of fact the very blog you are on right now is done using the exact same methods discussed here.
With a solid host like bluehost and a great free platform like WordPress to create your sites with there is nothing holding you back from dreaming big and building your own affiliate business with minimal investment, and without the huge costs of designers and coders.
Get Our Free Affiliate Marketing Course
We have generated millions in affiliate commissions using highly profitable affiliate offers and creating traffic to affiliate blogs using the methods we speak of above.
Once you are set up, it can take literally minutes to build out profitable affiliate blog posts on command.
All you really need to do after that is generate traffic, find great offers to promote, and know how to properly optimize the data you receive. Anyone with a laptop can start earning SERIOUS revenue form their blogs.
We have created a free cpa affiliate training guide on exactly how we started building our 7 figure affiliate blog business and you can have access to this guide today!
