How to make WordPress the Affiliate Marketer’s Secret Weapon

November 22, 2011 - Last Modified: November 24, 2011 by Dr. Lawrence Kindo 4,851

WordPress never fails to impress me ever since my first encounter with this “Blogging Maestro”. Surely, if I assert that WordPress is the best, the most user-friendly, developer-friendly, seo-friendly or simply the ultimate blogging machine, very few would raise eyebrows.

Simply put, WordPress is the next generation in blogging with as many as 22 million users, billions of websites dedicated to WordPress and related products, and gazillions of free and paid by-products such as WordPress themes, plugins, multi-user elements, php scripts, ebooks, money-making products, WordPress tutorials, wordpress tips and tricks and much more. My thoughts about wordpress are only limited by my imagination. Quite sure, Matt Mullenweg surely finds WordPress an interesting world to live in!

When it comes to publishing using WordPress, all you need is a cheap webhost, a domain name, and a free theme to get started. Yes, I meant “to get started”.

But, WordPress surely needs some juice to make it the ultimate blogging machine. There are thousands of products that claim to make WordPress better than it already is – some claiming to rank your site in the search engines, while others just claim to make it more user-friendly. However, not all of them give what they promise!

WordPress Related Products that Worked for Me

Here is a list of the products that I personally use and recommend, to make your WordPress blog, the perfect affiliate marketer’s weapon:

Good Web host

I use Blue Host, and I am quite happy with it, hosting unlimited websites at a time with a very easy-to-use cPanel and integrated simplescripts, hardly any downtime and an excellent 24×7 support team. Others that equally provide a good deal are GoDaddy, HostGator and MediaTemplate, all with their own perks. Cloud and Grid Hosting is the craze of the hour and a good investment for bigger players.

Theme or Theme Framework

When it comes to choosing a WordPress Theme, there are numerous free and paid ones, each with their unique capabilities and possibilities. Of the free themes, the default theme is a decent one. But hey, who doesn’t want to be unique. To cater to that need, there are thousands of free premium themes that draw many away from the paid themes.

The concept of theme framework, has in fact revolutionized the WordPress Theme Marketplace. Free ones like Thematic, Carrington, and Hybrid are in stiff competition with paid heavy-weights like Headway, Genesis and Thesis Theme Framework. I might be biased, but I feel that Thesis Theme has matured quite well, but with fewer updates its fan-base has been swayed by the likes of Genesis with numerous child themes and Headway Theme with its easy drag-and-drop functionality. Catalyst Theme is slowly but steadily showing its engaging head to the world.

My choice for the perfect theme is Thesis Theme with skins from the likes of Kolakube.com, ThesisThemes.com, or ThesisAwesome.com. I love ThesisAwesome Skins with its professional look and well-optimized setup for social marketing. Marketers Delight from Kolakube is simply awesome too.

WordPress Plugins

The little add-on scripts that make wordpress click are called plugins, and if used in the right measure simply and surely blows away the competition. According to Thesis Developer, Chris Pearson, the only plugin that you ever need is a Google Sitemap, and I concur.

But, here is a list of other plugins that make my blogs click-worthy.

1. Google Sitemap: A sitemap plugin gives the search engines an overview about the whole website.
2. Contact Form: Gravity Forms sure do a marvelous job when it comes to forms.
3. Akismet: Well, who doesn’t hate spam? Matt Mullenweg does too. This free plugin is a gem.
4. 125×125 ads: This sure is a good way to put your affiliate products in the limelight.

SEO products

Scribe SEO by Brian Clark and the geniuses at Copyblogger Media surely needs a mention here. Another product which lets the blogger discern the frequency and relevance of keywords in the article or review is SEOPressor.

The SEO features of WordPress Themes like Thesis, Genesis, and Headway are definitely the key to getting your wordpress affiliate-marketing blog or website noticed by the search engines.

Marketing Plan

Just like the battle plan in a war zone, your ready-to-rock blog needs a marketing plan. I like the ideas put forth by Craig Beckta of Secret Affiliate Code Fame. However, there is no harm in trying out one’s own ideas.

Capturing e-mail IDs through a contact form or sign-up form is key to affiliate marketing, and should be one of the prime intents in your marketing plan. Email marketing tools like Aweber and MailChimp are feature-rich and ever-ready to satisfy your marketing needs.

Affiliate Networks

When it comes to affiliate marketing, I like my money in one place. This means affiliate networks rule the roost for me.

I recommend Share a Sale, and Click Bank.

Commission Junction needs a little getting used to, but has big names that will surely interest many. Another interesting mention is Lifetime Commissions, where you keep earning residual income.

WordPress products with their own affiliate programs have a thriving marketplace and a 33-50 per cent commission to the affiliates does the trick. One such example is Kolakube.com

My Last Secret

Creating the affiliate marketer’s secret weapon by customizing your wordpress blog couldn’t be simpler. Just blog or promote products that belong to your niche or products that interest you. Keep it simple, silly!

Give your product reviews the zing with a mix of the sweet and the bitter. That will give your reader the objective outlook urging him/her to consider buying the product with much more conviction and hence, lesser fallout.

My last secret is No secret – WordPress sells (even though it is free!).

One Last Request

Thanks for reading my article. I hope it was useful. And if it was, share it – Tweet, Google+, Facebook it, and help me win this contest!

If not, still comment, criticize or supplement my article by adding your thoughts below.

Regards,
Dr. Lawrence Kindo

[box type=”note”]This post is part of our Blog Contest! If you like it, support the author by sharing it and adding comments. Also make sure to check other entries by visiting the blog contest page.[/box]

About Dr. Lawrence Kindo

Follow @drlawrencekindo

I am a medical professional with a keen eye for the written word. I love blogging and the nuances that go into blogging. Check out my blogs - Medical Island and Medical MCQs for Everyone ! I am an ardent Thesis Theme and Thesis Awesome Skins Fan.

{ 30 Responses }

SMogha says:

Thanks Dr for sharing such a useful information. I agreed that thesis is great theme but it's not still mobile friendly. I am using standardtheme which is the best for blogging as it also work great on mobile devices. But I will definitely consider 125*125 advertisement plugin.
Trung Nguyen says:

Well choosing right Wordpress theme and promote it is great way to increase income with Wordpress affiliates, thanks for share Lawrence.
seecraig says:

I love you style and simplicity, keep it that way, you rock and I'm going to pass this on Thank you so much that's what I try to do at The Website Builder Pro as the best I can. It;s no wonder why you rank so high.....
Noel Addison says:

Creating a marketing plan is very important as it serves as your map to your success.
Mehmet Kaplan says:

Read your post and you know your stuff really! =) WP have always been my first and only choice when creating my "blogs". As someone else said above me, we are only limted by our imagination....be creative and you can do almost everything with WP, just have the right themes and plugins. Which you will get after a little experimenting! Anyways great post!
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  A combination of the right theme + right plugins + good content makes a blog click. Experimenting makes it perfect. All the best in your blogging! Cheers.
jessica smith says:

So do I. Wordpress is a great system. that easy to use but it's not make money to me now T T. I'll try to do that. thank you for wordpress team. Thank you for good wordpress review.
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Thanks Jessica for taking the time to comment. Indeed wordpress is a great system for blogging and I assure you keep writing good and helpful articles and optimize your site for the best conversion and monetization strategies. You won't regret it!
vishvast says:

hello i reallly like this ...affilate marketing is good to earn momey as compared to adense and other polices nice thnx
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to start making money on the web, particularly during the initial days of your blog. When it comes to Adsense approval, many will witness that it can be a pain (particularly for those in the Indian sub-continent), but it is a major money maker for older blogs with huge traffic. Adbrite does not cut the deal for me, and affiliate sales are doing better.
James says:

Thanks for the information Dr. Lawrence. Wordpress is the easiest and simplest platform across the web for updating . rest designing and developing I'm not quite sure till what extent one can go ..
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Hi James, Sure, updating on wordpress is a breeze. In addition to this, designing and development on wordpress being better than other CMSs is only confirmed by the countless number of vendors selling their wares based on wordpress, not forgetting thousands of free apps and plugins that are available for wordpress users. This is the fact that drives the Wordpress Marketplace and the reason I state 'Wordpress sells even though it is free!'
Anuj says:

Hey, I just bought the WP-eStore and Affiliate bundle and have spent about 30 minutes playing around with the plugins. WOW WOW WOW I AM LOVIN’ THIS! I cannot believe how thorough the instructions are within the platforms. You’ve really thought of everything, like answering questions before I have to ask them, making setup an intuitive breeze. I’m not saying that I won’t ever have a question, but if I do I am certain that I’ll get concise, easy to follow advice. I debated on whether to buy this or to keep trying to use the WP freebie plugins….so glad I bought your plugins! Completely worth the money. Wish I had done this SOONER. To anyone thinking about buying this: Just Do It. Save yourself an enormous amount of time, energy and frustration. Do it right the first time. Thanks so much!
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Hi Anuj, Looks like you are utterly blown away by WP-eStore and Affiliate bundle. Afterall it is based on wordpress. Glad you love it. Have a great time with your new found affiliate tool.
AstroGremlin says:

Great post, Dr. Kindo. WordPress has a low entry threshold (in terms of technical knowledge) with a lot of flexibility to improve. I turned TwentyTen into a different looking site with a ton of extras -- as much fun as tricking out an old jalopy. Bluehost is terrific. I got an affiliate that I really wanted on Commission Junction (haven't made any money, but it's a product I really love and am proud to promote). I'm having a problem squeezing two 125x125 ads in my margin on TwentyTen. Argh. You don't really need Akismet with CommentLuv which has GASP built in, but to each his own.
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Thanks for echoing my thoughts about wordpress and Bluehost. I guess you'll have to be satisfied with 125x125 ads placed vertically, like I have tried in www.dailyshoppe.com (sorry, just working it out soon). Glad you mentioned about ComLuv and akismet. That was something new to me. All the best with your Commission Junction adventure.
Jay Gumbs says:

I never get tired of recommending Wordpress to people who ask me about building a website. There's so much you can do with it and make it how you want it. Good tips here.
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Yes Jay, it is the flexibility of wordpress that draws its fans and gets them glued. Wordpress is my ONLY recommendation to someone who is just starting his/her blogging dreams or someone who wants to start afresh. Like I said in the post, you resound "My thoughts about wordpress are only limited by my imagination". Keep recommending the best!
Khleo Thomas says:

I agree that Click Bank is one of the best affiliate networks. There are soooo many products to choose from to sell no matter what your niche is. Also, from what I can tell so far the percentages you get for most of these products are pretty good.
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Clickbank is the ultimate bank for digital products to buy from and to sell as affiliates. You are right in that it currently has one of the highest payouts on some of the products, even upto 75 percent commission per sale. Thats huge even if the cost price is meagre.
Michael says:

Dr Kindo - Thank you for the nice review of WordPress capabilities. I use SEOPressor on a daily basis and install it on all our client sites. I would also suggest the free site evaluator at SEO Workers. It shows keyword density as well as important metadata.
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Thanks Michael for chipping in about the free site evaluator at SEO Workers. I will definitely recommend it to others. About SEOPressor, the license for unlimited sites is the real deal.
Nick Sotos says:

This is a very informative article Dr. Lawrence. I am a big fan of WordPress, too. I am a new blogger, though I have already realized that WordPress is a logical structure that gives the ability to differentiate a site by customizing so many different things, free downloading lots of themes and many other possibilities which promise to make ones blog unique.
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Hi Nick, I sure can say that Wordpress is like no other in user-friendliness and Google loves it, the secret behind the huge fan following. The possibilities with wordpress is only limited by one's imagination. Keep blogging with wordpress and it will surely stand by you.
Kostas says:

Wordpress is really the best content management platform, not only because it's so easy to use but additionally there are so many plugins and themes that even if you don't know much about coding and web designing you can make a really professional looking website that you would have to pay thousand dollars to a web designer to do it for you. Personally I use thesis framework and a ThesisAwesome Skin from Hesham and I really love it...
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Hi Kostas, You sure have found the best ingredients to a successful blog for the non-coder - a solid theme framework + eye candy from the Thesis Awesome team + good article collection + a goo web host (I presume)! I use the same combo and am well pleased with the outcome. Like you mentioned, you don't need to spend thousands of dollars just on design. Studiopress with Genesis theme framework + a good collection of child themes is the alternative I recommend.
Catalin says:

WordPress has been my #1 choice in the last few years, you simply can't ask for more, or like you well mentioned, we're only limited by our imagination.
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  I have experimented with numerous CMSs (Joomla, Drupal, Blogger, Typepad) during my initial blogging days. Sure each has its own perks, but none can compare the ease of implementing and limitless customizing capabilities of wordpress. A proficient coder can have a field day with it, designing for others too.
Marcie says:

I am revamping and transitioning before 2012 and these resources will surely come in handy. Thanks so much.
- Dr. Lawrence Kindo says:
  
  Hi Marcie, I am sure the combo prescribed in reply to Kostas's comment above will give you a good restart, revamp and a smooth transitioning. All the best on your venture!

How to make WordPress the Affiliate Marketer’s Secret Weapon