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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 - For Blogs or Content

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

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.

There are many, many free templates available for each version. However, I have yet to a ready-made template either free or paid for that I did have to modify significantly to work adequately for my sites. You can modify the html and css codes of the templates but this does require at least a basic understanding of html and php. There is a Joomla template tutorial available so you could custom design you own but this may require wasting precious hours reading through pages text and graphics which may be difficult for a new user to comprehend. Even with these cautions, I still consider Joomla one of the best choices for a content management system.

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.

Choosing a Web Host

Since these content systems use MySQL and PHP you need to find a host that has those capabilities. Many are available, so just make sure the one you select does. Another thing to consider is if you web host has cpanel with fantastico. Installation of all three of these content management systems is a breeze with fantastico. Insist on it! Also, with some hosting companies your can have as many websites as you want with no additional hosting fees. All successful affiliate marketers have numerous sites to product their affiliate products. Free content management and the right hosting company can mean the difference between an your success or failure as an affiliate!

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Tags: Affiliate Marketing