How To Create an Affiliate Website With WordPress: The Complete 2024 Guide

Do you think of making some passive income in 2024? I bet, the answer is YES… Who does not like to earn more money?

The internet is the best place to make money and you have got hundreds of ways to do it. One of which is Affiliate Marketing. It’s easy! Just create an affiliate website with WordPress and start selling. You’ll be blessed with money after getting high traffic and a suitable advertising product.

WordPress websites are easy to build, and it provides features that simplify the web development process. Also, you can find an online course to learn the basics of WordPress. Using the appropriate available themes and plugins enhances the site’s advanced features.

Looking for experienced Central Coast web designers? Look no more and send us a message.

Starting an affiliate marketing site can sometimes be challenging so we’ve written a blog to help you build your first WordPress Affiliate Marketing Website and learn some basics of affiliate marketing business.

We’ll guide you through setting up your WordPress site, highlighting the recent themes and plugins specifically designed for affiliate marketing in 2024.

Table of Contents

• What is Affiliate Marketing?
• Approaches To Affiliate Program
• 6 Most Popular Types of Content on Affiliate Websites
• 5 Simple Steps to Create a WordPress Affiliate Website
• Choosing the Right Affiliate Program
• Popular Affiliate Marketing WordPress Themes
• Popular Affiliate Marketing WordPress Plugins
• Promotion & Analysis of the Website
• Affiliate WordPress Website Development
• Affiliate Marketing Website Examples to Learn From
• FAQs

What is Affiliate Marketing?

The basic concept of affiliate marketing is that you’ll receive a commission for directing a consumer from your site to make a purchase on another website. Affiliate marketing According to Wikipedia, Affiliate marketing is an arrangement to receive a commission for transactions for the sales they generate for the business.

In simple language, Affiliate Marketing is marketing other’s products, goods or services and receiving a commission. Here, you’ll be paid after the consumer purchases the goods.

For example, you have a photography guide website and show ads from Camera sellers on your website. If a visitor on your site clicks on the ad and buys a camera from the seller, you receive a commission which is usually a percentage of the selling price.

At this point, we also see a major difference between Adsense revenue and affiliate marketing. Running ads with Google Adsense will pay you per click on the banner whereas affiliate marketing will pay you for every product/service sold.

Now, there are a few parts that we will need to get across. Firstly, you will need a website and we’ll build it on WordPress. It’s pretty obvious that we will need a website to reach potential customers and to show them the ads. What better option than creating one on the easy and convenient WordPress platform?

Then, you will need the products and the company which is willing to pay you a commission for selling the product. There are hundreds of affiliate programs that have lists of thousands of products and services waiting to be sold by affiliate marketers like you. Different programs have different terms & conditions and approaches.

Lastly and most importantly, you will also need the visitors to make conversions which you can get either through SEO or Google Ads. Now as you are all set up with your website and the product’s ad on your website, you’ll need visitors to see, click and finally buy the product. You can either do SEO optimisations or run ads on platforms like Google Ads to drive visitors to your site.

Approaches To Affiliate Program

Affiliate marketing can be done in both approaches, you can put ads on your website and sell products to make a commission or if you have a business, a product or a service, you can ask affiliate marketers to help you sell your product/services and offer them a cut of your profits.

We will focus more on helping you build a WordPress website, sell other businesses’ products/services through it and earn a commission. There are different ways you can go about setting up your affiliate site in terms of content or effort you put into your website.

For example, you could be writing reviews for products and encouraging people to use the products based on your reviews. Another popular approach is to specialise your website for a nice, write blogs around a topic, put ads relevant to the topic and sell products also relevant to the topic.

6 Most Popular Types of Content on Affiliate Websites

You can choose to start affiliate marketing using different affiliate networks and content types on the site. Website creation differs in its purpose, different websites need and contain different types of content. What types of content do most affiliate websites have? Let’s see.

1. Content-based

Today, many individuals have their own websites/blogs. If they can employ affiliate marketing in their blog for products related to their business, they can earn money from interested customers. Writing blog posts about the products and adding corresponding affiliate links is preferred on this type of website.

Generally, blog websites are centred around a niche or a topic and when it gets authority, they can be used for Affiliate Marketing. Using this approach is effective as you would be selling the products your website visitors are familiar with.

Content is king, and in 2024, it’s all about creating value-driven, SEO-optimised content that resonates with your audience.

For example, an SEO expert has a blog website to share his insights on SEO. He also uses his site to generate passive income. He has signed up for an affiliate marketing program to display ads of SEO services on his website and gets a 10% commission for every SEO service sold by a visitor coming through his website.

2. Reviews

Interestingly, people want to see reviews of products before they make a purchasing decision. No wonder, it plays a huge part in the purchase decision. So, Review sites are one of the common approaches for an Affiliate marketing website.

Reviewing products is a classic approach to making money. To get started, you have to sign up for the affiliate network. Then, review the product of your choice to influence the purchasing of potential consumers. You can also include your and others’ reviews on your site for better results.

3. Price Comparison

This is a complex type of website, however very useful for the avid shopper. This type of website provides a comparison pricing table to aid in the comparison of the goods available. You can also add reviews to add more content to the site. You’ll earn a commission from the retailers for each click or site visit or sale.

4. Shopping Directories

There are two ways to make money by running shopping directories. The first includes the promotion of paid listings and another includes the selling of advertising space in your directory.

Either option has its benefits, and you’ll be paid to redirect traffic to the merchant’s website.  This type of website may have a high ranking in search engines as it contains many backlinks and keywords.

5. Loyalty

A loyalty program is popular in business these days. Loyalty programs include a reward system that can include giveaways, discount offers and “get cashback” deals. More specifically, this loyalty is provided to the user as a reward for inviting friends, writing reviews or visiting the site.

Loyalty programs increase site value and customer attention. Affiliates receive a commission for redirecting customers to the desired network.

6. Videos

Many users prefer video content to plain text. For these types of customers, you can prepare video content including all the reliable information about the product. You can also add video tutorials to explain the steps in using certain software or types of gadgets. The publisher earns money for reviewing products or for linking affiliate networks.

5 Simple Steps to Create a WordPress Affiliate Website

Creating an Affiliate Website using WordPress is simple as creating a blog. You just have to follow 5 easy steps to install WordPress and create a WordPress website. These steps include:

Step 1: Pick the right Domain Name and Hosting Provider

This is the first step to starting your affiliate business. You want to choose a domain name that suits your business and helps customers understand the service you offer. Try to include your services or product name within a domain name that helps customers to remember it and helps you in SEO.

In most cases, a two-word domain name that defines your service or niche would be considered okay. Most people like to include keywords in the domain names to make them more relevant and think like someone who would search for your products.

Consider choosing a domain name extension that fits your industry like if you are a directory website, using .directory will complement your WordPress Digital Marketing efforts. Using the brand name, length, professionalism, simplicity and relevancy are some of the things we recommend considering while choosing the domain name for your affiliate WordPress website.

Choose a trusted hosting provider and package that fits well with your needs. For example, if your site is similar to e-commerce, you may need a reliable hosting provider/package with large bandwidth and private hosting to match the performance needs of a large website.

Step 2: Download a WordPress CMS from the WordPress official site

The next step is to download the latest version of WordPress CMS from the official website. WordPress is the easiest-to-use and simple platform that will help you build an affiliate site for your business. You can add your affiliate links easily and track commission and other important metrics using a plugin that we will explain in the next steps.

Step 3: Install a WordPress on your Domain

Once you have a domain and hosting ready, now you can install WordPress into your domain and configure it. It should be a pretty simple job if you have done it before. Otherwise, you can seek help from WordPress experts like WP Creative.

Step 4: Pick a suitable affiliate theme and activate it

This is one of the most confusing steps for many people not because it’s complicated but mainly because there are hundreds of options to choose from. This has to be the most important step in setting up your site. Your theme is the main part of your website and your website is also your online selling platform.

If you are looking for a free and cost-effective option, you can directly download free WordPress site themes from the WordPress.org website. Please see free affiliate themes here.

If you are looking for a premium theme, you can go to the ThemeForest marketplace and get one. We have also listed some of the good themes that you might like. See below.

Step 5: Install and Activate the essential affiliate plugin of your choice

The next critical step is to find the right plugin that meets your expectations. We have listed a few affiliate plugins that are popular in the market below. You can also go to WordPress.org and search for free plugins or for premium plugins, go to Themeforest.net. You can also google before making a decision on their features, benefits and pros and cons.

We also recommend chatting with the plugin developer to get more ideas and get a feel of their support. That will give you confidence when something goes wrong. If it’s too overwhelming for you, you can reach out to WordPress developers and discuss your needs.

At WP Creative, we also help businesses build custom affiliate websites based on their needs. Please read our in-depth article on how much it costs to hire a WordPress developer.

You can refer to our article A Complete Guide To Building a WordPress Website.

Choosing the Right Affiliate Program

To activate Affiliate Marketing on the site, it’s mandatory to choose the Affiliate program or network. There are plenty of affiliate networks to choose from and which to choose mostly depends on the type of Affiliate program and website you want to build.

While there are plenty of affiliate programs you can sign up for, there are a lot of factors you’d want to consider before jumping into an affiliate program. Not all affiliate programs are the same, you would ideally want your program to be trustable, reputed and offers at least a decent commission.

Generally, we recommend choosing a program that benefits both parties and your website visitors. If you can find something that benefits your audience, it will be easier to convert your visitors to leads. Many people do not succeed in affiliate marketing because they did not select the right program and product.

You may also want to do estimate calculations for your earnings and marketing costs to see if the program offers good ROI. Quality and quantity are also some factors; making a profit by selling 100 products or selling 1-2 products for the same profit. There are also options for one-time as well as recurring commissions.

List down the programs that match your website needs and filter further again considering the factors listed above.

Popular Affiliate Programs You May Like:

• Amazon Associates
• eBay Partner Network
• ShareASale
• CJ Affiliate
• Rakuten
• Shopify

ShareASale holds the largest share of the global affiliate marketing market (55%) -Appsero

Popular Affiliate Marketing WordPress Themes

Thousands of themes both paid and free are available for WordPress. Among them, you must choose one suitable for an Affiliate website and overall for your niche as well.

For your convenience, we’ve listed some of the good Affiliate Marketing Themes.

1. Voice

A theme that is suitable for News and Magazine sites, compatible with WooCommerce and bbPress plugins. It is a responsive and customisable theme aimed to provide an amazing user experience.

2. Throne

Throne WordPress theme is highly recommendable for creating a professional website with advanced features. The theme is highly customizable and suitable for blogs, magazines and professional websites.

You can also use all sorts of plugins you may need to set up your website. It offers a range of features like shortcodes, social sharing, custom widgets and amazing support from its team.

3. Compare-Price Comparision

A WordPress theme to build a powerful Price Comparison website. If you are looking for a fast, responsive and easy to used WordPress theme for your price comparison website, this might be just what you need.

4. Herald

Herald is a go-to theme for affiliate marketers if you are looking for news and magazine styles. With a lot of variations in layouts and customizable options, it can be a perfect theme for you to start.

5. Tokoo

Tokoo is an e-commerce-based theme it is suitable for affiliate and dropshipping. It is also compatible with Elementor and WooCommerce.

6. REHub

REHub is a collection of multi-purpose themes for WordPress. With more than 1.5k reviews and 5 star WordPress rating, it’s compatible with all businesses or affiliates including eCommerce store and hosting companies website. If you looking to build multiple sites, this might be the one to go with.

Choose a lightweight responsive theme suited for improved WordPress website performance.

Popular Affiliate Marketing WordPress Plugins

One of the main reasons o use WordPress is ‘Plugins’. Almost everything on a WordPress site can be done using plugins and that is one of the reasons it is easy to use. Connecting a site with Affiliate platforms and their functionality like tracking is easier with the use of plugins. These plugins connect merchants, publishers and customers at a common point. So, let’s see some Affiliate Plugins for WordPress.

1. Affiliates: powerful plugins for automating affiliate program
2. Easy Affiliate Links: WordPress plugins to manage all affiliate links on the site
3. ThirstyAffiliates: a tool to monetise the website with affiliate marketing
4. WooCommerce: a free WordPress eCommerce plugin that is suited to a variety of websites like online shops, affiliate marketing, membership and booking, etc.

Promotion & Analysis of the Website

Creating an Affiliate website along with the relevant content is the starting point. But it is only the start of your way to Affiliate marketing success. You will need products or services you can sell for a commission which we have already discussed.

Now, most importantly, you will need people to click on the ads or links and buy the product to make you some profit. There are different ways of doing this. You can either run ads or start working on SEO to drive traffic to your website.

SEO Strategy

If you opt for SEO, you will need to put in considerable time & effort to create content and rank them on the Search Engine Results Page.

Paid Advertisement – Google and Social Media

Google ads might be a better option if you want quick results by displaying ads to customers who are searching for products like yours. There are many platforms you could use like Facebook, Youtube, Bing Search, Snapchat and others to get your ads in front of your potential customers.

Getting people to visit your website can be a daunting task and even more while converting them into customers. Some of the ways you could promote your site are by implementing link building strategy, submitting the site to Google Local Business, branding via social media, email outreach, creating a logo, SEO and much more.

68% of affiliate influencers use social media platforms to promote products. – SimilarWeb

Whatever the method, your main goal should be to make sales for your affiliate program.

Affiliate WordPress Website Development

Now, I am sure you are excited to take all this knowledge and start building your First Affiliate WordPress website. We would like to wish you all the best with your affiliate marketing journey.

WordPress is a powerful platform for creating all types of websites, and the approach to making money with less effort has become possible with the Affiliate Website. If you’re new to WordPress, this may be a hugely beneficial start.

If you are stuck at any level, need any help with the Plugin or Theme recommendation, or need an extra pair of hands to add some features, please feel free to reach out to one of the WordPress Developers to get some help.

We have built 500+ WordPress websites in the last 10+ years and would love to help you to build yours.

94% of publishers use more than one affiliate marketing network. -Affise

Affiliate Marketing Website Examples to Learn From

Not all affiliate marketing websites are built the same and there are plenty of things we could learn from them. From CTA’s placements and design formats to the niche selection and marketing strategy, every website on the list below is doing pretty well for one reason or another.

• Best Reviews: Review the affiliate site to check reviews before purchases.
• VPN Mentor: VPN market affiliate website.
• Headphones Addict: Headphones related Affiliate website.
• Nerd Wallet: Offers financial services suggestions and recommendations.
• Wire Cutter: Products review Affiliate website acquired by The New York Times.
• Vaping Cheap: Electronic cigarettes.
• The Atlas Edit: Travel blog Affiliate.

These websites are some of the most successful affiliate websites to learn from and these can be an inspiration to start your Affiliate marketing journey. But that obviously does not mean that you cannot expect to be as successful by only copying these sites, within a few months or even a year.

If you have a deeper look into these websites, you’ll notice that some may have hundreds of high-quality backlinks, some are authoritative brands with exceptional content while some have amazing website designs.

They certainly did have their challenges before coming out as one of the most successful affiliate sites. So the best way to go about it is to learn, implement and try different strategies, techniques and methods.

Conclusion

You might have realised that joining an Affiliate marketing program is mostly easy but being successful requires much more which can be a daunting task. This does not mean you can not be a successful affiliate marketer.

Now that you have learnt about the basics of affiliate marketing and also know how to set up your first affiliate marketing website on WordPress. Start with a beautiful website design or theme, add as much quality content as you can and work on bringing relevant traffic to your site to make sales through your website.

If you want a WordPress Affiliate website crafted just for you, do reach out. We are WordPress website developers with more than a decade of experience. We are based in Sydney, however, we can also help businesses based in Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Brisbane, New Zealand and Singapore.

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FAQs

How do I set up an affiliate on WordPress?

Please follow our step-by-step guide to set up an affiliate WordPress site. If you need help setting up your affiliate site, contact us and we will set up a WordPress affiliate Website based on your needs.

Can I use WordPress for affiliate marketing?

Yes, you can definitely use WordPress for affiliate marketing. In fact, WordPress is one of the most used and popular Content management platforms used for affiliate sites thanks to its easy drag-and-drop platform.

How much does it cost to set up an affiliate website?

Well, it depends on how you are trying to get it set up. You will have to pay for the domain name, and hosting. You can either choose to outsource website development or do it by yourself. So, if you do everything on your own it might cost you around $500 considering costs for WordPress themes, hosting and the cost of the domain name. But you will need to build the website completely on your own.

If you choose to outsource development to a company, it will cost you upwards of $10k depending on the type of website and features.

Are affiliate websites profitable?

Yes, affiliate websites are still profitable and it is still considered one of the best ways to make money online. Affiliate marketers are known to earn from a decent amount to even millions per year but that may not be the case for all. Factors like marketing efforts, product demand, audience and content should be considered in deciding if they are profitable.

Can beginners do affiliate marketing?

Absolutely, with the right affiliate program, efforts and strategy, beginners can succeed in affiliate marketing. Everyone can join an affiliate program, advertise the affiliate link on their website and start selling to earn a commission. But this process takes time and may not be as easy as it sounds.

For beginners, it takes months or even more than a year sometimes before they actually start making a significant amount from affiliate marketing.

Is WordPress good for Affiliate marketing?

WordPress is certainly the best CMS out there for you to build your affiliate marketing website. First, it’s free and easy to use. Second, it has so many features, plugins, and add-ons that you can meet most of your needs.

If you want to build a customised version of WordPress affiliate website to suit your needs, you don’t need to build everything from scratch. You can hire a developer to build the features that are not provided by the theme or plugins.

How do I start an affiliate marketing website with WordPress?

Please see the listed steps above to get step by step guide to building your affiliate website. To give you a highlight, you need to find a domain and hosting and install WordPress CMS, themes and plugins. And configure it based on your requirements. Or hire a WordPress developer to set up your website for you.

How do I create a WordPress affiliate website for free?

WordPress is a Free and Open Source Platform so it won’t cost you to get to use it. However, you must pay for the domain and hosting. Most of the themes and plugins are also free for basic use and only charge if you are looking to use premium features.

It can be challenging if you haven’t used WordPress before. But you can certainly outsource to a WordPress development agency like WP Creative to get it done if you are time-poor and don’t want to learn all the tech stuff yourself.

Can I use WordPress for affiliate marketing?

Yes, you can certainly use WordPress for affiliate marketing. If you are planning to build a simple blog site and use affiliate links to get a commission. It’s a simple process. For a content-based website, it’s a very simple process. But if you want to go further, WordPress offers many themes and plugins to extend the functionality of your website.

How to Build an Affiliate Website with WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular website CMS in the world and powers 43% of the web in the world.

Building a website with WordPress is very simple and involves only a few steps. If you want to build a website using WordPress, you can simply go to WordPress.com which is a commercial part of WordPress where you need to pay a minimal monthly fee to use the platform, get a website hosted and get support from the WordPress team.

But if you want to build it yourself, you can download the fresh version of WordPress from WordPress.org. Following these steps, you can simply build a website on WordPress.

You can also hire a WordPress expert to set up this process for you which will make your website-building journey quicker. That’s the main benefit of using the most popular website platform in the world. Simply search for WordPress developers near me on Google and you will find hundreds of developers in your area.