What is Magento?

First, let’s discuss what Magento is and why it may be a helpful platform for you. Magento is one of the top e-commerce platforms today. It is made with open-source software so users are able to control their online store’s look, functionality, and content without compromising the shopping experience. Also, Magento provides its users with a number of useful tools and features including marketing, SEO, and catalog-management tools. With Magento, users have access to a wide variety of plugins and themes to customize whatever they want. Such customizations can also improve customer experience.

In general, the platform is scalable to any store size and will adapt to your business, whether you are catering to a few customers or a million. This means that as your business grows you won’t be forced to change platforms.

What is Managed VPS Hosting?

Managed VPS Hosting is a managed service where you don’t need to worry about managing your server. With Managed VPS Hosting, your hosting provider will take care of server maintenance such as core updates, software installation, backup, security, and more.

Benefits of Magento as an eCommerce Platform

Magento offers numerous advantages to e-commerce businesses. As an e-commerce platform, it provides:

• Increased performance and scalability
• Improved ability to persuade customers
• A powerful platform that can support thousands of products
• A responsive and mobile-friendly experience
• Advanced search engine optimization features
• A helpful community with developer support

Benefits of Managed VPS Hosting with A2 Hosting

• Enjoy Full Root Access: With full root access you can tailor your managed server to meet your specific needs as you’re not sharing it with other entities.
• Cost Savings: With managed virtual hosting, you can eliminate expenses incurred on hiring dedicated staff to take care of the technical administration and management tasks.
• Scalability: Managed VPS Hosting services also take care of scalability, which is an important requirement for growing businesses. With rising traffic, your server resources can be easily ramped up to meet the increasing demands.
• Security: With Managed VPS Hosting, you get an IP address that is unique to your server, which offers increased website security.

Conclusion:

At A2 Hosting, our goal is to offer fast, responsive, and reliable hosting solutions to meet your unique needs. This recent integration with Magento is one way for us to show our support to all of our customers.

If you’re a growing enterprise, increasing business demands can place undue strain on your website and online operations if they’re not designed to handle high traffic and other challenges. In addition, the demands of an expanding business can divert attention from more valuable business activities. This is where A2 Hosting can come to your rescue. By opting for our Managed Magento VPS Hosting, you can focus your time and attention on operations such as marketing, promotions, sales, and customer service that directly contribute to the growth of your business.

Leave the hosting challenges to us while you attend to your customers. Benefit from our hassle-free and seamless hosting plans!

Click here to check out our Managed VPS Hosting plans. If you have any further questions, contact our sales team today!

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What is a VPS Reseller Hosting Package?

A VPS Reseller server is a virtualized server that a user can split into several hosting packages. Here’s how it works:

1. You purchase a VPS package from us with as many cPanel licenses as you need.
2. Then, you can resell the cPanel accounts to individuals.
3. Then, using the WHM system, you can create additional client accounts and give each individual their own cPanel. 
4. That’s it! 

Who Would Want a VPS Reseller Plan?

VPS Reseller plans are for clients with multiple sites that need individual cPanel accounts for each site. It’s also for clients who are reselling to clients requiring the power, resources, and scalability of a VPS. Regular shared reseller plans are more limited in resources than their VPS counterparts. 

So, is VPS Reseller Hosting Actually Worth It? 

Privacy and Configuration 

VPS Reseller packages offer more privacy and greater server admin control. With a VPS server, you can have root-level access to configure the server to your liking. 

Not only that, but VPS packages are in their own virtually-allocated server environment so your clients have greater privacy. Your resources are also your own. In a shared Reseller package, you’re still sharing a server with many other individuals. With a VPS Reseller package, you’re sharing the same physical server, but not sharing the same virtual server. Your server is your own. 

Resources 

VPS servers have more resources than their Reseller counterparts. For example, our entry-level shared Reseller package Kickstart only offers 60GB of disk space whereas our entry-level VPS plan offers 150GB of disk space. 

Speed

Because you’re not sharing the server with many others, you’ll experience faster loading speeds on a VPS server. 

Why Should I Become a Reseller?

Low Bar to Entry

If you aren’t used to web hosting, there’s a learning curve at first. But if you’re familiar with web hosting or have your own website, it’s not much harder to become a reseller. Pricing for VPS Reselling packages is reasonable, starting at $54.99/monthly for a Lift 8 plan with 150GB of disk space and 8GB of RAM. 

Scalable

It’s easy to upgrade to a higher-tiered VPS at any time. Our reseller hosting accounts are scalable so you can start small and expand as your client list grows as scaling up doesn’t cost anything. 

Easy to Manage

When you sign up for a VPS Reseller hosting account, you’ll need to manually create users in WHM. Once you create the accounts, you can give each client their own cPanel account and manage them accordingly. Within each cPanel is a client’s allocated disk space and bandwidth. Their cPanel also contains the necessary tools to manage their website, set up email addresses, and add databases. 

If you have your own shared hosting package or have used web hosting before, setting up a reseller account is similar. Instead of setting up your own domain, you set up the framework for your clients to manage their own websites.

Your clients can manage their own accounts which saves you the hassle of administrating their websites yourself making this an easy way to make passive income. 

In conclusion, VPS Reseller hosting has a myriad of benefits ranging from server privacy, easy configuration to scalability and speed. With the right setup, you can start reselling today!  

Related Articles: 

• Reseller Quick Start Guide
• How to Make Your Reseller Hosting Business a Success
• How to Start a Hosting Business and Join the Remote Working Revolution
• What Reseller Hosting Is (And How You Can Take Advantage of It)

The post Is VPS Reseller Hosting Actually Worth It? Making the Case for Easy Passive Income appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Why Do Hosting Costs Matter?

Hosting costs occur over the lifetime of your website. If you have a website, there’s no getting around the price tag associated with hosting it unless you own and run your own server (if you do–great!). Chances are you don’t run your own server so cost is important. 

At initial sign-up, most hosting companies offset the costs of starting a new website by offering promotional discounts for your first billing cycle. After this billing cycle is over, your hosting package goes up to the original price which is considerably more expensive. This is a common complaint we receive. But why does the price go up? 

Beyond the dollar figure, quality and performance impact your website first and foremost. Money is important, of course, but if your site is slow, you’ll lose customers and as a consequence, lose money. In this sense, cheaper isn’t always better. 

Paying for subpar hosting can mean slow loading times, leading to more bounces and fewer conversions–an estimated 7% drop. 

If you’re trying to save money, save it in other places. Skimping on your hosting is the last place to start because you don’t want a poorly performing website. 

The trick is to keep costs low but find the perfect ratio of quality to affordability. This is what we offer at A2 Hosting. 

So, what are you paying for? 

With the cost of managed web hosting, you’re paying for:

• Security and security patch updates
• Turbo-fast speeds
• High-quality 24/7/365 support on tickets, phones, and LiveChat
• 99.9% uptime 
• Scalability 
• Backups 
• Free email
• Free SSL certificate 
• And more, depending on the plan

Basically, you’re paying for the additional services required to keep your website secure and up-to-date. 

Notice we said managed web hosting above. Managed web hosting includes these additional services that unmanaged servers don’t. 

That’s why our Managed and Unmanaged Dedicated server plans have vastly different prices. 

As you can see, our unmanaged Dedicated hosting plans are less expensive than their managed counterparts. That’s because unmanaged plans don’t offer the support, security, and updates that managed plans do. 

Unmanaged plans are priced cheaper because they don’t offer:

• 24/7/365 support
• Server configuration
• Security
• Regular server-side updates

With an unmanaged server, you get what you pay for. They’re great for experienced developers who know how to handle the complications of maintaining a server, but for everyone else, stick with its managed counterpart. 

How can I lower the cost of my web hosting?

1. Choose a hosting provider you can trust. 

At A2 Hosting, our introductory Shared Hosting Startup plan starts at $2.99/monthly. Even though it’s a low-cost server, it still includes stellar performance. 

We have servers around the globe so you can choose the location to best meet your needs for latency and reliability. 

2. Choose a longer contract.

The longer contract you choose, the less expensive your web hosting package is. 

Once your first contract expires, your plan often renews at a higher rate. To offset the higher cost down the line, lock in that discounted rate for as long as possible. 

For example, our Turbo Boost is on sale for $83.88 for three years or $6.99/monthly. Then, after three years it renews at $755.64 yearly. If you choose only a monthly billing cycle, the first month is $15.99, but every consecutive month is $20.99. Choosing a longer billing cycle saves you money long-term if you’re willing to make the short-term investment. 

3. When in doubt, start with a Shared plan.

The majority of new websites are better off starting with a shared web hosting package. It’s an entry-level hosting package allowing costs to stay low in the beginning. Unless you’re expecting a large volume of traffic at your website’s launch, shared hosting is enough for your needs. 

You can always upgrade at any time. As our sales team always says, it’s easier to upgrade than to downgrade. Upgrades are free, but downgrades cost $25 to migrate so it’s best to start small and scale-up. 

At A2 Hosting, we couple affordability with speedy plans. We offer generous discounts to get your business going and if you’re an existing customer, our sales team will work with you to come up with a more affordable solution. 

Related articles:

• How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Plan for Your Needs
• Web Hosting Resources: What You Need to Know to Choose the Right Plan
• How Much Should You Expect to Pay for Web Hosting?
• Why Web Hosting Matters for Your Business (4 Key Reasons)

The post Is Dedicated Web Server Hosting More Expensive? The Full Guide to Web Hosting Pricing appeared first on The A2 Posting.

WordPress (WP) Toolkit is a WordPress management solution. It has an easy-to-use interface that allows users to install, configure, secure, update, and manage all of their WordPress sites. A2 Hosting will be offering WP Toolkit Deluxe on all Turbo Managed Plans, and WP Toolkit Standard will be included on all other Managed plans, including our new Managed WordPress Plans! Watch our video below for an introduction on how to use the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe for Site Management or read the step-by-step guide beneath it.

So installing your site, is as easy as clicking the yellow highlighted button below and then filling out the following form that populates from this.

General

Once you click to install, this page will pop up. In the general section, there are a few things to make sure you fill out.

Installation Path: Your current live site will automatically show up on the installation path. Here you need to select another site or create a staging site (website.staging.com)

Website Title: Now we’ll go ahead and give your website a name. This can always be changed later within WordPress.

Plugin/Theme Set: Here you can choose a plugin theme or set. These are usually just pre-configured packs for you to get started.

WordPress Administrator: Here an overall username and password are required to access the WordPress portion of your site. One of the features of the WordPress Toolkit is to generate these automatically for you and then save them within cPanel so that all you have to do is click a button and you don’t have to remember these at all moving through the database.

Database

Most users may not have to interact with the Database section. This is automatically generated information kind of like the WordPress Administrator section above. You also don’t need to really remember this unless you’re integration level work in your actual databases, but for the most part, these can be left ignored.

Automatic Updates

This is an important consideration for making sure that your site stays available and online and stays secure as updates become available for vulnerabilities. So the default is yes, all minor and major updates. You can also if you choose, select plugins and themes to automatically be updated as well. After deciding this go ahead and click install to start the site installation process.

Just like that your new site is created! Once your installation is complete the window pictured below will pop up. It’s going to provide you with an opportunity to install some plugins. These plugins come directly from wordpress.org. This is the same set of plugins in the community that are managed and downloaded.

If you can click on the install plugins button it will take you to the screen pictured below. There you can look and see all the plugins and themes available. You will be able to see ratings, how many people have already downloaded it, and who the publisher is. It’s going to provide you with the information that you need to be able to decide if it’s the right plugin for you.

Finding Your Plugins and Themes

Let’s say you finish downloading all the ones you want and click off and then realize that you may have missed an important plugin. If you ever need to come back to make a change on your plugins and themes, you can find those in these tabs here on the main dashboard. So we can see that Akisment Anti-Spam 4.1.12 is installed and not currently online until we want to turn it on.

Finding and Installing Your Existing WordPress Sites

Let’s say that you have an existing WordPress site and you’d like to bring it into the WordPress Toolkit so that you can use all these features on your existing WordPress site. As long as it’s under your account, you can use the scan button here and it’s going to search your account’s directories and find your word, your previous WordPress sites that are out there.

Implementing WordPress Toolkit for Your Site

Using the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe to manage your WordPress sites can save you time and stress in the long run. That’s why A2 Hosting is offering the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe version for free on all Managed Turbo plans and the WordPress Toolkit Standard on all other Managed plans. We feel free to look into our new Managed WordPress plans we just refreshed. If you have any other questions, contact our sales and support teams and they will be happy to help you!

The post Using cPanel’s WordPress Toolkit Deluxe for Site Management appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Before we can decide when it’s time for you to upgrade, let’s first define these services.

What is a VPS?

A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a server where resources are all allocated virtually. You share physical resources with other users on the server, but unlike shared hosting, your site gets dedicated resources in its virtual allocation.

For example, if the server has 16GB of RAM, your VPS might get 2GB of the 16GB of RAM. That 2GB is yours and no one else’s.

Resources are divided using a hypervisor to create virtual machines for each user on the server. This might sound confusing, but it’s most important to know that each account on the VPS is completely cut off from other accounts.

A VPS is like owning an apartment in a fourplex. You own your part of the building, but the other three apartments are owned by others. All of the resources in your apartment are yours, but you share the same building. 

What is a Bare Metal Dedicated Server?

A bare metal dedicated server is a server where you have the entire physical server dedicated to your website. In a VPS, you only get part of a server, but with a dedicated server, you get the whole thing! 

Using the housing analogy, a dedicated server is like owning your own house. No one else owns parts of it. It’s solely yours to do with as you please.

Now, Bare Metal Dedicated servers differ from traditional dedicated servers in a few ways. First, provisioning occurs within minutes of ordering. Gone are the days of waiting 24 hours for your dedicated server to get up and running. Also, higher-quality servers are used with top-of-the-line components.

Now that we know the basics of our VPS and Bare Metal Dedicated servers, we can discuss the main question of the article.

When Is It Time to Upgrade from a Virtual Private Server to Bare Metal Dedicated Hosting?

This is a frequently asked question and one that deserves answering. Typically, you want to upgrade from a VPS to a dedicated server when you’ve reached 70% of your total resource usage for RAM, disk space, CPU, and bandwidth combined. Why 70%? Because it’s better to be early than to be late. If you wait until your resources hit 100% total usage, you risk your server crashing or getting temporarily suspended until you upgrade. NOTE: We email you several notices warning you of resource uses once you get past 50% usage. We won’t suspend your account without warning and suggesting an upgrade.

There are, of course, other reasons you may want to upgrade to a bare metal dedicated server such as:

• Wanting to use an application or operating system that won’t support virtualization. 
• Expecting a surge in traffic during a certain time of the year. For example, some businesses need the extra power of a Bare Metal Dedicated Server during Black Friday.
• Not wanting to share a server with anyone else.

Suffice it to say, if you notice you’re not getting the same performance and you’re starting to see 70% resource usage on your account, it’s time to get an upgrade. Contact our sales team today if you’re not sure if you need to upgrade or not.

Related Resources:

• What Is a Bare Metal Dedicated Server? (And When Is It Right for You?)
• Bare Metal Dedicated Specs and Why They’re Important
• 13 Questions to Consider When Choosing a Bare Metal Dedicated Server
• A Guide to A2 Bare Metal Dedicated Hosting

The post When Is It Time to Upgrade from a Virtual Private Server to Bare Metal Dedicated Hosting? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Offering reseller hosting to your clients is an excellent way to generate a secondary source of income. Of course, you’ll need a number of key resources in order to make your reseller business a success – including a credible host and strong customer service skills.

In this post, we’ll explain what reseller hosting is. We’ll then highlight some of the things you’ll need to implement it effectively. Let’s get started!

What Reseller Hosting Is (And Why It Can Be Valuable)

When you’re working as a web developer or designer, your outgoing costs can soon start to add up. There are plugins to buy, programs to install, and new technologies to learn. As a result, it often becomes essential to find a way to generate a secondary stream of income.

You have several available options, but reseller hosting can be especially profitable. Put simply, reseller hosting is when you ‘rent’ server space from a hosting provider, and then sell it to your own customers. You pay a fixed monthly fee for the space, and can in turn charge your clients whatever you like.

As a result, this revenue stream can be easily slotted into an existing business. That makes it an ideal solution for anyone with a strong client base, particularly if you create or work on those clients’ websites. You can offer hosting as a separate add-on, or make it a part of your development, design, or maintenance package.

This will make your clients’ lives a little easier, and enables you to offer them more value with little additional effort required. Plus, it lets you establish a source of recurring income. The extra money in your pocket each month can then be put towards improving other areas of your business.

3 Things You’ll Need to Make Your Reseller Hosting Business a Success

There’s no doubt that reseller hosting is an attractive option. However, you’ll need to put a few things in order before you can get started. Let’s look at the three most vital components in any successful reseller hosting business.

1. A Reliable Hosting Provider

As a developer or designer, you’re probably already aware of just how important your chosen hosting provider is. It will directly impact the way you operate, and help to determine the tools you can use. The same applies when you’re starting up a reseller hosting business.

As we’ve already discussed, you’ll need to start by purchasing a reseller hosting plan. This should include all of the features required to make your business a success. For example, here at A2 Hosting, we throw in a WHM control panel, one-click installs, billing solutions, and other key features. This means you have everything you’ll need to get started.

Your chosen provider will also need to offer bundled plans. These are hosting plans that can be used for a lot of different sites, so you can serve as many clients as possible:

Finally, your provider will need to be highly reliable, or your reseller hosting is likely to reflect poorly on your larger business. Carrying out extensive research into your options at this stage (and making an investment in a quality host), can save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

2. The Ability to Provide Strong Customer Service

When people have issues with a service, their first port of call will usually be the person or company that provides the service. If you decide to start a reseller hosting business, you’ll need to make sure you can keep up with customer queries.

If you keep the advice above in mind, and opt for a quality web host, you may find that access to 24/7/365 support is included in your base plan. This will greatly reduce the level of strain on you, as you can point your clients towards dedicated support channels to get help.

Still, you’ll want to make sure you have a solid strategy in place for handling queries as they arise. Remember that responsiveness is key – try not to leave people waiting on your reply. You could also set up a dedicated social media channel for support requests, or implement an email management tool.

3. A Solid Marketing Strategy to Promote Your Business

As with any business, if you don’t tell people about it, they can’t engage with it. With that in mind, it’s vital to establish a strong marketing strategy that will get your reseller hosting business out there.

Of course, the most direct way of doing this is through your existing website. After all, it’s likely that you have a well-established audience made up of previous and current clients. Simply make it clear on your site that you now offer web hosting in addition to your existing services.

You can also try using well-placed graphics and eye-catching calls to action where possible, and updating older content to include information about your new service. This way, anyone who visits your site will be made aware of your venture into reseller hosting.

In addition, it’s a smart idea to send out marketing emails to your client contact list. These emails should contain all the essential details about your new service, and make it clear why your approach is ahead of the competition. Then, you can point clients in the right direction to sign up.

Conclusion

If you run a web design or development business, or offer website maintenance packages, reseller hosting could be the perfect addition to your business. It enables you to provide a more varied service to your clients, and can even help supplement your existing income.

In this post, we identified the three things you’ll need if you want to make your reseller hosting business a success. Let’s recap them now:

1. A reliable host, and a reseller plan packed with features.
2. The ability to provide high-quality customer service.
3. A strong marketing strategy to promote your new business.

Image credit: Pixabay.

The post How to Make Your Reseller Hosting Business a Success appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to easily improve your campaigns. In fact, having the right strategy in place can make your email list an important part of customer outreach and brand building.

In this article, we’ll touch on why email campaigns matter. Then we’ll look at four ways you can transform your email marketing for the better. Let’s get started!

Why an Email Marketing Campaign Can Be Beneficial

If you’re seeking to increase profits and take advantage of one of the most popular forms of promotion, it’s time to look into email marketing. In the past, we’ve written in-depth about what email marketing campaigns are and how they work. However, to summarize, it’s a type of marketing campaign conducted by sending periodic email messages to a list of subscribers.

Some of the benefits of having an email marketing campaign include:

• It’s a form of direct marketing with a high return on investment.
• The content is very shareable, so your email list can grow organically.
• You can personalize your messages and engage your subscribers without spending huge amounts of money.

As you can see, it can be well worth your time to invest in an email marketing campaign. Now, let’s dive in and take a look at what you can do to ensure that your strategy is a success.

4 Tips to Improve Your Email Marketing Campaigns

There’s no one template that works for every email campaign. However, there are several steps you can take to make your content as effective as possible, and promote conversions. Here are four of the best techniques you can try.

1. Optimize Your Email Titles and Lengths

The first thing a subscriber sees when they receive one of your emails is the title, also known as the subject line. If you don’t use this to hook them right away, the odds of them opening your email can be slim. So it’s important to craft an engaging title for each message:

This is where email subject line optimization comes into play. You’ll want to analyze how your subject lines are received, then create new and better titles based on your findings. This is an ongoing process, as your audience will likely change over time.

A quality subject line is concise, personalized, and delivers a single strong Call to Action (CTA). An un-optimized title might look like this:

• “Don’t miss out on these excellent sales! Click here now to take a look at our offers!”
• “Learn more about how you can get your hands on a personalized workshop with our sponsors!”

These headlines are wordy, lack personalization, or have multiple CTAs. Instead, try to keep titles to about five words to increase your open rates, and suggest a single action for readers to take. This might look like:

• “Take advantage of 70% off!”
• “Enjoy a custom workshop today!”

Of course, a strong subject line is just the beginning. Once readers have opened the email, it’s important to keep them engaged if you want to encourage a successful campaign.

2. Add Media to Your Emails

It can seem difficult to stand out when it comes to email marketing. After all, by 2022, it’s predicted that 333 billion marketing emails will be sent out daily. Using plenty of media is one way to give yourself a leg up on the competition:

After all, a picture really is worth a thousand words. When you embed high-resolution images in your emails, you’re more likely to grab readers’ attention, which can positively impact your Click-Through Rate (CTR) and conversions.

Embedding the media is especially important, since using attachments increases the risk that your emails will be classed as spam. You should also consider each image’s size. Although a larger image can appear more professional, it can also impact the User Experience (UX) and increase loading times.

There are plenty of options for adding images to your emails. You can link to them directly from an external server, or you can encode them into your emails’ HTML. However, we’d recommend linking directly if possible, as this keeps loading times fast and enables you to update images even after they’ve been sent.

3. Personalize Your Email Marketing

We touched on personalization earlier, but let’s look at this tactic in more detail. The importance of personalizing your content cannot be understated when it comes to maintaining a loyal subscriber base. Even using a person’s name can instill a stronger connection between your company and your subscribers.

Of course, using each subscriber’s name is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to offering unique content. To start, you could look at why each subscriber chose to receive your content. If you know what part of the buyer’s journey they’re in and what actions they’ve previously taken, you can tailor your emails to their needs. Many email marketing platforms will enable you to do this easily.

It’s also a good idea to consider time zones and individualized timing. After all, an email sent at midnight may get lost when compared to one sent at a more optimal time. Equally, some may be more responsive to emails sent at 6pm, while others may check their inboxes at noon. It can be smart to experiment with multiple sending times, and see what works best for your list.

4. Scrub Your Email List Regularly

Finally, let’s talk about scrubbing your email list. This involves removing non-active members. On average, around 22 to 33% of your email list will stop engaging after a year, or will have never once clicked on a CTA.

By ignoring these members, you run the risk of being reported as spam or wasting your time on uninterested subscribers. On the other hand, cleaning out your list enables you to focus solely on those you know will be an asset to your business.

To see if you need to carry out a scrub, look at your email marketing statistics. You may have to clean your list if there are reduced open and click-through rates, spam complaints, or an uptick in unsubscribes.

However, before you simply wipe out inactive users, you can try to reach out to them one more time. If you can determine why they failed to engage, you may be able to get them interested again. They might want more personalized content, or their interests may have shifted.

Once you have determined whether or not you can save the subscribers, you can purge inactive users from the list. This way, if you pay for an email marketing service, you aren’t wasting money on emails that go nowhere.

Conclusion

Improving an email marketing campaign may take effort, but the rewards are clear. With the right set of strategies, you can revitalize how you engage with customers and promote more engagement and conversions.

Let’s take one more look at the steps you can follow to improve your email marketing campaigns:

1. Optimize your email titles.
2. Add media to your campaign.
3. Personalize your emails.
4. Regularly scrub your email list.

Image credit: Pixabay.

The post 4 Tips for Improving Your Email Marketing Campaigns appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Just as with anything else, your success with affiliate marketing will mostly depend on how much effort you put into it. If you have enough free time to nurture your website and create quality content, you’ll be able to find an audience and start earning money.

In this article, we’re going to talk about the benefits and difficulties of building an affiliate website, and explain why you should consider starting one. Then we’ll walk you through three basic steps to getting your site off the ground. Let’s get to work!

What an Affiliate Marketing Website Is (And How It Can Benefit You)

Affiliate marketing websites are built to refer visitors to products and services that fit their needs. Each time you make a successful referral, you get paid a commission by whatever program you signed up for. This sounds simple, but it can be tricky to get right.

This type of marketing is a popular way of monetizing websites, however, and here’s why:

• It doesn’t require much startup capital. Anyone can set up a blog and start writing content, even with a small budget.
• There are hundreds of affiliate programs to choose from. There are affiliate opportunities for virtually any niche you can think of.
• It can be automated. You can use dedicated tools to streamline the process, and even hire people to create content for and manage your website.

In our experience, affiliate marketing sites are a solid option if you’re looking for a side project that can earn you some extra money. Let’s talk about how to know if they’re a good fit for you.

How to Decide Whether to Start an Affiliate Marketing Website

In the past, building a successful affiliate marketing website wasn’t that difficult. All you needed to do was set everything up and to start creating content. These days, however, the competition is fierce in many of the most popular niches. Therefore, you’ll need to put in a lot of effort to stand out.

With that in mind, if you fall into one or more of the following categories, affiliate marketing might suit you:

1. You have some free time on your hands. If you have downtime and a steady income, you can grow your affiliate website over the long term on your own.
2. You have experience with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is one of the most critical skills for a successful affiliate marketing site, since its success will rely on organic traffic.
3. You have web development experience. If you know how to build websites, you can save money by doing everything yourself.
4. You have the budget to outsource most of the work. If you’ve got some money you’d like to invest over the long term, you can outsource the work of creating and running your affiliate website.

To sum it up, you probably need at least two of the following three qualities to succeed in affiliate marketing: patience, a strong work ethic, and a sizable budget. If you fit those criteria and fall into one of the categories we described earlier, this type of website should be a solid fit for you.

How to Get Started With Your Affiliate Marketing Website (In 3 Steps)

Keep in mind – there’s a lot to learn if you want to succeed at affiliate marketing. These are just some basic steps to point you in the right direction and get your first website off the ground. Let’s start by talking about niches!

Step 1: Choose a Niche for Your Site and Find an Affiliate Program

The first thing you’ll need to do is decide which ‘niche’ you want to dedicate your website to. You can be highly specific when it comes to your niche, or pick one that encompasses multiple subjects, such as technology or fashion. However, the latter approach is often more difficult for beginners. After all, the more subjects you have to write about, the harder it’ll be to compete with more established websites. Instead, it’s often best to start out by focusing on particular product types, such as running shoes, lawnmowers, or even graphics cards.

Next, you’ll need to choose one or more affiliate programs. If this is your first time trying out affiliate marketing, we recommend that you stick with an established program like Amazon Affiliates:

Amazon offers a massive selection of products you can promote, so you can focus on those you feel comfortable writing about. On the other hand, if you want to look for a more targeted program, there are plenty of alternatives.

Step 2:  Set up a Domain and Find a Web Host

This next step is much more straightforward. Once you have a niche in mind, you’ll want to register a domain name for your upcoming website:

You can use any registrar you want. All you have to do is pay for a year upfront, and the domain will be yours.

Next, you’ll need to look for suitable hosting. We offer plenty of affordable plans, so feel free to check them out if you haven’t already:

Armed with a domain and a hosting plan, it’s time to get to work on the website itself! If you’ve never set up a site before and don’t have a solution in mind, we recommend using WordPress, which is fantastic for affiliate websites.

Step 3: Start Creating Content for Your Niche

Now, all that’s left is to start creating content related to your niche. The more articles you have on your site, for example, the easier it should be to attract traffic – as long as you follow a few simple guidelines:

• Try to publish content on a regular schedule. If your visitors know that you follow a set schedule, they’ll be more likely to check back periodically.
• Optimize your content for specific keywords. Each article in your library should target a keyword related to your niche, to attract people looking for that term.
• Keep publishing even if you don’t see quick results. It takes time for a new website to gain authority and establish itself, so be patient!

As for what types of articles to publish, it’s always smart to look at what your competitors are doing. That way, you can study their techniques and build on them. Also, in our experience comparison pieces and long-form content are winning formats, so stick with those whenever possible!

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is still one of the most reliable ways to earn a recurring passive income online. It takes more work to build a profitable website than it did a few years ago, but it still can be done. You’ll need to put in a lot of effort at the beginning, but afterward you should be able to outsource most of the work and focus on other projects.

Here are three steps to help you get started with your affiliate marketing website:

1. Choose a niche for your site and find an affiliate program.
2. Set up a domain and find a web host.
3. Start creating content for your niche.

Image credit: Pixabay.

The post Should You Create an Affiliate Marketing Website? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Outbound marketing, in contrast, is when you go out and try to bring in customers. As far as online marketing goes, it often means banner advertising. In most instances, outbound ma­rketing is much quicker (and pricier). You make your ad spend and you’re all set. The problem is you’re screaming in a crowded marketplace.

I bet it’s a lot easier for you to remember who wrote the last interesting blog post you read as opposed to the last company you saw a banner ad for. I bet you can’t even remember the last banner ad you saw. In fact, over the past few years, I’ve saved the banner ads that have actually gotten my attention in a special folder. There are a grand total of two banners in that folder.

Think of outbound marketing like a child who has ten siblings. He is constantly competing with those siblings for the attention of his parents by screaming for their attention. Is it worth the effort? Or would it be better for the child to do something like get straight A’s on a report card to get his parents to come to him?

Here’s a real example of an inbound marketing success we’ve had here at A2 Hosting. A few years ago, we became a popular place to host the Kloxo control panel on a VPS. How? It wasn’t by posting Kloxo VPS ads. Trust me, I tried that. No, it was actually kind of by accident, but taught us a great inbound marketing lesson. All we did was post instructions on how to install Kloxo to a VPS. These instructions actually became one of our most visited pages thanks partly to Kloxo sending their users to those instructions. We posted quality content and people came to us. We became the Kloxo Hosting experts.

Now I’m not saying you should pull all of your outbound marketing efforts and go all in with inbound marketing. Outbound marketing can certainly be effective when crafted properly. Just be mindful of both techniques the next time you look at your marketing strategy.

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