Choosing a Content Management System
You can spend a career honing and perfecting your website with an html editor such as Microsoft's Expression Web or Dreamweaver. However, because time is money, the affiliate marketer needs to spend time promoting, not developing. The solution to this may be a good content management system. Three very good and free products to consider are Worpress, Joomla, and Drupal.
Wordpress - Best for Blogs
Free blog services include Blogger, using Google, and Wordpress, using Wordpress.com. For those short on funds, free may be the way to go. However, if you host your own blogsite and use Wordpress, you will have a robust and versatile site that can serve as a blog, e-commerce, or content site. There are many free plug-ins for Wordpress that greatly expand its capabilities. Support is readily available so even a novice will be able to quickly get their blog up and operational. For me, Wordpress is the way to go for an affiliate marketing blogsite.
Joomla Has it All
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 design you own templates for Joomla but you need more time and training than most affiliate marketers have available. It is probably best to find a suitable ready made template, many are free, and modify it as you go. You will likely need to learn some html and how css works in order to made your site look and work the way you want. But there is still a great time savings over starting from scratch. With the popularity and wide use of Joomla, you will have no problem finding support and answer to most of any problems you may encounter. I highly recommend Joomla for content management.
Drupal
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
Choose a web host that supports MySQL and PHP. These are necessary for many content management system including those discussed in this article. Also be sure to find one that has cpanel with fantastico. You can painlessly install Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal with fantastico. Many web hosts will let you have many domains and sub-domains without any additional fees. Get one of those! You will probably need several sites to be a successful affiliate marketer. Versatile hosting and free content management software is, in my opinion, the way to go!
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