crabfoot

Where to start with site building?

If you start with the idea that you just have to put up a site, then target products that you think will sell from aff programs, you are not going to succeed. That is where I tried to start. What I learned from that is the "Everest Theory" - you can have the best site in the world on your subject, but if you don't learn to promote traffic to the site you might as well have built it 20,000 ft up on Mount Everest - there is not a lot of passing traffic, very few people will take the time to look at it, and those that do will be looking for something else (ie. the summit of Mt Everest).

When you join an aff program, your site is approved and you are a new entity - whichever merchant you approach will approve you to join their bit of the network. What happens after that is you don't make many sales, because your site is getting very few visits. Three months in, you are not making serious money - and every merchant you apply to will refuse your application. Don't apply to aff programs until you have traffic on a site - 100 visitors a week is a good idea.

Here's somewhere to start.

You can set up an Auctiva store as suggested by KenW3 - not hard to find if you search the forums section of this site. Or you can buy a domain and set it up on Storeburst - works best with UK domains - and / or there's the possibilities offered by Noomle parking.

Auctiva are an eBay partner, so they make a small percentage from the sales. Because the system is cleverly automated they can afford to give you a good slice of the action. That is a way to learn about selling eBay merchandise without joining the eBay Partner Network (EPN).

Storeburst is a pain in the jacksie because it is a "permanent beta". However, if you persevere you can build a working aff store, even if the search facility only works on Ash Wednesday of leap years. People on Acorn are sometimes helpful, there's a separate forum area there. All Storeburst stores run Affiliate Window merchants, so it is a good way to learn what is on offer from AW without actually joining.

Noomle I am currently looking at, not much to say except that they have a community and forum of helpful people.

There's three ideas.

The hardest thing to learn (and no one is a true master) is driving traffic to your sites. You get hints, there are free downloads for ideas on Black Hat World, which is a good place to learn SEO and driving traffic once you get past the jargon and shorthand spoken on there.

There are other places - you can find them.

Get a site or two into existence and learn to drive traffic to them.
Once you have learned to drive traffic to your freebie sites, you need to learn how to make an ad-free site for applying to aff programs. For Adsense or Amazon, you can get away with three to five pages with no ads and no broken links - and, of course, an acceptable choice of subject. For eBay, I am told you need at least ten good info-packed pages. Do not apply to any other ad/aff programs until you have learned to drive traffic. Nobody likes the ignominy of being turned down by the merchant you want to help mutually.

There are lots of ways to get traffic and links to your site - get out there and explore how.
It is the most tedious and unfulfilling aspect of the "web success" process. That is why most people give up on it. That is why only a few people succeed with websites - the rest get bored rigid.

Persevere.