(Have you tried to open an affiliate site?)

I decided that opening an affiliate site sounded like something I could do.  I kept hearing that once it is open you will start receiving passive income  I found a channel on YouTube that had a video walked me through how to make a site, set it up with products and then sign up to be an affiliate with a company.  It was about a 1 1/2 hour video.  I am not great with computers and get frustrated easily.  Even though he opened his in one and a half hours it took me 3 months to get mine up.

Even though it  was a pretty good video, I would change a few things or add more information to help the newbie.  Here are some things I would do differently.

• I would have listened to the video first then go back and follow the instructions.
• I would have started from the beginning with the video.  What I did instead was buy a domain ahead of time.  So, when the video showed me how to do something with his web host it didn’t work quite the same way with mine.  This delayed me days if not a full week till I figured out how set it up with my host.
• I would not buy everything (add-ons) because I bought one that I ended up not needing.  I Just wasted  money and time.  I understand it is hard to know what you will need when you are starting out.  Next time I will use my site first to see if I really need the add-ons that are recommended.
• I definitely would not sign up for the affiliate company till my site is almost ready to launch.  I decided to go with Amazon Affiliates.  Amazon gives new affiliates a time limit to make their first 3 sales, then they come to look at the site to see if they want to accept you.  I signed up right when I opened my site.  I ended up wasting 3 months, just getting my website made and working, out of the 6 months they gave me.

Now my ecommerce store is designed and ready for the next stage.  At this moment I still would not sign up for an affiliate yet.  Why do I say this?  I say this because I got denied by Amazon.  I am now grateful, but at the time I was surprised.  Looking back I realize that my site was not ready.  Only after doing the following will I sign up with an affiliate company.

For the following, I can only tell you how I will proceed with the Amazon Affiliates program.  Though as I learn more I think I will find that the other companies procedures will vary, but they will probably check out your website before accepting it just like Amazon.

WHAT I WILL DO BEFORE SIGNING UP WITH AMAZON AFFILIATES.

• Decide most of the products I want on my site and put ASIN numbers in a word document so I can just input them into my store once I sign up to be an affiliate.  Also, that way you can see if there is enough products in that niche.   (It would be good to check out products before picking the niche)
• Have several blogs written.  I have heard different recommendations.  Anywhere from 5 – 30 written blogs.  These blog posts should be at least 1,000 words long.  Google puts more importance in longer blogs than shorter ones.  One YouTube group even says you should have one or two 3,000 word essays in your mix.
• Figure how I will get the word out for my site.  How will I advertise my site?  Investigate what I think will work for the new type of site and for my personality.  This took me at least another month to figure out what and how to do ads.  Then it took time to actually do the ads.
• I may not make my niche so broad.  Having a broad product site takes more work.  At least filling it with products takes more time.  Example:  If I decide to choose mugs as my niche.  Selling every type of mug will be harder to fill my store, than deciding on just selling mugs with an animal theme.  Or to narrow it more I could just sell mugs about cats.  How narrow can I get my niche?  Though, I don’t want to get it so narrow that I can’t branch out if I want to.

Doing the above will make me feel more ready to sign up to be an Amazon Affiliate.  Hopefully, next time I will not be denied.  I did come across a YouTuber that got turned down 5 times before they accepted him.  Finding this out has given me new hope and if I do get denied again after doing all of this, then I will do some more learning, make my site better and try again.  Amazon Affiliates wants us to try again.

Have you tried to open an affiliate site?  What hurdles did you have?