Should Affiliate Marketing Beginners Buy Their First Website, Or Build It Themselves?
So you need a website. Should you buy it yourself, or hire somebody to do it for you? It really depends on several things.
Affiliate marketing beginners typically have a LOT on their plate when they are just getting started, so there are definitely some advantages to outsourcing some of this work and slashing the learning curve, but before you go running for the first web developer, you MUST figure out exactly what you want, and decide if this really is for you.
The worst thing that could happen is you start out your online business career by wasting money. That would be a major obstacle that you might not overcome.
Why Outsource?
Let’s take a look at the things you’ll need to learn and master to succeed with a niche website:
- Building a website
- Choose a niche
- Researching Keywords
- Writing Articles
- Getting Visitors
- Converting Visitors to Customers Or Subscribers
- Managing Email Campaigns
- And So On
Before you run away thinking you’ve made a terrible decision to go down this path, wait! There’s no way you need to worry about all of these things just yet.
That’s the whole point. You should just focus on them one at a time, and as you get comfortable, move on to the next step.
The problem is, a lot of people never really get comfortable with building their website, which is why I’m writing this article in the first place.
So ask yourself this pertinent question: Are you prepared to be patient and take your time with building a website, not worrying about whether or not it is earning an income yet, and gradually producing something excellent?
If you’re not so sure about this, then you might well end up quitting before you’ve even really got started.
Don’t get me wrong, you don’t need to produce an amazing, perfect, work-of-art website. It just needs to look appealing and good. This isn’t rocket science, but it does take practice.
There are plenty of places where you can learn internet marketing, but building a site takes time. If you have a budget, you can get a professional site built for you, and skip this whole tricky stage.
Buying A Niche Website – Things To Know
Now, if you’ve decided that this is something you’d be interested in, let’s not be hasty and choose the first web builder we find.
There are some standards to stick to, and there are definitely some web developers that don’t stick to them, so be careful.
Here are some tips for making sure you don’t end up buying trash:
1. Don’t let yourself get fooled by promises of automated success, traffic, or earnings. Somebody can build a website for you, but only you can grow it.
2. Don’t pay thousands of dollars. You can get great websites here for a lot less.
3. Make sure the web developer you choose has a good track record, demonstrates their authority, and explains how to use the sites and succeed with them.
Please note, things like “no experience necessary” and “works for you automatically” are NOT examples of this. Stay away from people that make these claims, they’re called liars.
4. If you’re unsure, send them an email! (Or go with your gut).
So Should You Or Shouldn’t You?
As for the original question, whether you should or shouldn’t hire a niche website builder, it really comes down to several things.
Do you have a budget? Do you want to avoid the learning experience of doing it yourself? Do you want to succeed quicker? And most importantly, do you need help?
If you are at all unsure, then you should probably start off by doing it yourself, as you’ll be able to do it risk-free, and learn at your own pace.
Ultimately the choice is yours, but as I’ve mentioned, there are some clear advantages to hiring someone to do it for you.
Guest post by Dom Wells who has been working in Internet Marketing for a while building websites for himself and his clients.
I can see both sides of the issue. But really, I think new marketers would benefit more in the long run if they actually learned how to build and maintain their own websites. This statement is coming from someone who HATES the technical aspects and behind-the-scenes admin stuff, but I still feel a solid foundation is of the utmost importance. I’m still a technical dufus, but I’ll get there one day. 🙂
Yea Bill those are good points, however, when starting out the learning curve is so intense it can be too much for some people who drop out after a few months. You will know that it takes a few months of consistent work, writing, building and promoting before you start to see any fruits to your labor and if you fall before it starts to really begin you are wasting all that ground work. This is why we are saying buying a ready made site that you can build on top of is beneficial to newbies who can then continue to learn and get into the technical side as they also earn some money.
I think for me, it was best to do it myself just to get the learning experience and of course budgeting made sense.
However, I can see how some folks would prefer not to get involved with anything technical and get someone else to do it for them. As mentioned above, I think it really depends on the individual, their situation, their budget and what their goals and needs are.
Yes Colm budget does matter, not everyone starting out has capital to invest, most are doing this to get extra income as they are struggling with their own work situation. That being said a few hundred dollars will go a long way when you consider the time frame to build and gather traffic to a site.
I know you have been active on your website and seen it takes a lot of hard consistent work to start seeing traffic which then leads to commissions. I understand coming from a technical back ground myself I was prepared to do it myself and learn the processes involved but on second thought I may have been wiser to buy a website and build from there.
Good points Colm, everyone is different. A lot of the people I’ve worked with and made sites for have had the same technophobia and desire to get a head start, but for those more interested in learning how to do it themselves, I say go for it!
There is so much to learn that one thing seems to get in the way of another. I would say if I was starting out again knowing now what I do I would opt to get a website already started that I can use to grow into a successful business.
Now this is not guaranteed and sometimes things just don’t work and you have to move on, but think of the time you would save in getting to that point which you could use more constructively….. 🙂
My view is that it will take you longer to learn about affiliate marketing when you make your own website and you will make many mistakes. But this is where you will get your solid foundation. The negative side in making your own website and learning affiliate marketing is that you can get frustrated when things dont work as you expect and can give up after some time.
I agree Andrew many newbies get frustrated and give up far too early as the steep learning curve puts them off. If they had the benefit of a ready made website gathering traffic they can concentrate on affiliate programs and writing content to further enhance the traffic coming to the site.
It’s essential to get your affiliate marketing foundation I agree, but building a site yourself doesn’t necessarily give you more knowledge on how to succeed. Look at how many broke web developers there are.
As you pointed out, building a site yourself exposes you to a lot of frustration and difficulty that a lot of people never overcome. My sites offer people the focus and headstart that can make or break a site’s success.
Naturally, a site by itself isn’t going to give success, it still needs work, and my sites come with training to ensure that. It’s just not possible to achieve the same foundation and success rate doing it all yourself.
I vote for building your own website. Mainly because there are inevitable changes to be made which can run the cost up quickly
John I hear you, there is always improvements, tweaks, etc required as you grow your website. However when first starting off the main aim is to get traffic and that needs focus and targeted keywords. If you get someone to build you a website that is already SEO implemented and gathering organic traffic then you are off on the right path. You can then learn how to update, tweak and change the website as you continue to write and move forward.
Yeah Mark got it right, there will always be ongoing changes required to a site, but having someone to help you out is a great thing. In fact, you must haven noticed that one of the thing hindering most newcomers is their inability to produce a good site! It really gets them down, and makes them demotivated. If they’re willing, a helping hand is essential.