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 can be used for content, e-commerce, or as a blog which is its primary focus. Many available add-ons make it a versatile tool for the affiliate marketer. If you are on a tight budget, you can host it free at wordpress.com but you will not be able to use many of the additional features available on a self-hosted site. Wordpress can to compared to Blogger, Google's free blog, but Wordpress is much more powerful and flexible. Many affiliate marketers will want to use Wordpress in addition to the other content mangement systems. For example, you can use Joomla for you main site and add Wordpress as a complimentary blogsite. More content means more traffic!

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 customize the look of your site with the many free templates available for Joomla. However, you probably will need to modify any template for you own use--logos and slogans for example. So, you will need to understand at least some html and css in order to use it. You could design your own template with the available tutorial, but that would probably take a lot of time away from promotion which is key to an affiliate marketer's success. So unless you plan on developing templates to sell, which many do, you are probably well advised to find a ready made one that you can modify to your personal taste.

Drupal--Another Useful Solution

If you want to create a community type website where users can add their own comments and content, Drupal may be your best choice. It can easily be used for a blog or content site and has many themes and add-on features available. It is a free program with many free additions, but many expect you may need to buy the additions in the future. Usually the price is reasonable, especially if it does what you want and you don't have the time or expertise to build you own solution. Drupal is relatively easy to learn and you can have your site functioning in a very short period.

You Web Host Matters

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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