Your Trusted Partner in Affiliate Marketing

If you haven’t already given thought to affiliate marketing as a small business venture…well, let’s just say it’s about time you did! All over the world, millions of plucky entrepreneurs are right now making incalculable sums of cash by working as online affiliates for some the of the biggest brands out there. And what’s best of all about affiliate marketing is how it has the potential to be low-cost, easy to get into and practically risk-free.Pivotal Hosting is one of the web’s leading authorities in affiliate website design, development and hosting – the perfect partner for new business ventures.How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?The basic premise behind affiliate marketing is relatively straightforward. In the instance of a casino affiliate website for example, it would essentially work like this:

1. A customer is looking for a casino website to join up with
2. They carry out a web search and come across an affiliate website
3. This affiliate website lists a variety of casino websites from competing brands
4. Each casino website is accompanied by a rating, review or special offer
5. The customer makes their choice and clicks on the link
6. Upon joining the casino or even just visiting the site, the affiliate site owner gets paid
7. The affiliate site owner may also be paid commission on a regular basis

In short therefore, it is all about the creation of third-party websites which ultimately direct customers to the actual business websites. And when this happens, the affiliate site owner gets paid for providing what can be a uniquely effective form of marketing.Exactly how much the affiliate website owner is paid will be determined in advance – an agreement will be established in accordance with the affiliate program of the business in question. Some pay for traffic on a per-click basis, others pay a set amount in accordance with customer ‘actions’ and some offer percentage commission on everything the customer spends. In all instances, it can be a very lucrative business venture.Why Are Affiliate Sites Necessary?What makes the affiliate site so valuable from a consumer perspective is the way in which it delivers a concise and condensed snapshot of what it is they’re looking for. If for example you were looking for an electric toothbrush, a site like ToothStars reviews and rates the best deals available on Amazon. If you were out to find a trustworthy casino to sign up with, sites like Casino Papa offer impartial and honest reviews on what’s on offer.As such, not only do affiliate sites offer shortcuts to the best of what’s available, but they can also help consumers make wise and informed decisions. They remove the requirement for scouring the web tirelessly to find the answers – they instead present all the important information in an orderly and concise manner.In addition, many businesses offer a wide variety of promotions and special deals that are only available to those who access their websites by way of affiliates. From promo codes to discounts and even exclusive products, affiliate websites have the potential to offer very unique rewards.What Makes For a Good Affiliate Site?In terms of succeeding in affiliate marketing, there are certain boxes that must be ticked and rules that must be followed. There are hundreds of thousands of low-grade affiliate sites up and running these days that attract no business at all – learning from the mistakes of others representing a good basis for success.The core elements of a winning affiliate site are as follows:

• The Best Possible Hosting Company – It’s of critical importance to choose a hosting company that has both the experience and the capacity to deliver the goods for affiliate marketing. Pivotal Hosting not only specialises in affiliate hosting, but also the design, development and optimisation of high-quality affiliate websites. As development partners for Casino Papa and ToothStars, Pivotal Hosting understands the power and potential of affiliate marketing better than most.
• Content of Quality – It is the quality of content any affiliate site features that will determine its success of otherwise. Going back to the example of a casino affiliate website, there is a huge difference between presenting a bunch of links and accompanying said links with in-depth reviews, helpful resources and an abundance of relevant information. It’s a case of giving customers a reason to use your affiliate site, rather than heading elsewhere and using another.
• Honest and Transparency – The hallmark of a poor-quality affiliate website is one that will say anything and everything to sell products and services, even if it means outright fabrication. The moment an affiliate website is picked up on as anything but honest, it will lose its credibility and viability at the same time. It takes time and effort to create honest, impartial, engaging and genuinely helpful content, but this is what’s necessary in order to succeed.
• General Site Quality – Low-grade affiliate websites where presentation is poor and performance sluggish do not exactly inspire confidence in those visiting them. Quite to the contrary in fact, as it is pretty obvious when a site has been thrown together in minutes for the purposes of making money, as opposed to offering the visitor anything of relevance.
• Brand Variety – Last but not least, it’s also important to be aware of how brand variety (or lack thereof) tends to be interpreted by site visitors. If for example you create an affiliate website that only promotes one casino or one particular manufacturer, it will inherently come across as biased and anything but objective or impartial. If you intend to offer genuinely open and transparent information, it’s a good idea to consider brand variety.

The Big CrackdownAffiliate websites are largely reliant on search engines and Google has made it very clear over recent years that the crackdown on low-grade or misleading affiliate sites is well and truly underway. It is becoming increasingly difficult for substandard operators to get by, which in turn has further enhanced the already outstanding opportunities for those interested in building and operating elite-quality affiliate websites.Pivotal Hosting is a champion of the latter – affiliate websites that serve as businesses by offering customers a service of real value. A form of marketing they may be, but it’s only by providing visitors with content of importance, value and relevance that an affiliate website can do its job properly.For those entering this business area for the first time, it is always advisable to work with the professionals, in order to avoid the most common rookie-errors. It may come across as a fool-proof venture, but in reality is anything but.With the help of a strong design team and the most capable hosting services available, it is perfectly possible to build an extremely lucrative Amazon or casino affiliate website venture in no time. It is basically a case of offering something above and beyond the primary business itself – honest reviews, transparency, recommendations, access to special offers and so on. Pivotal Hosting specialises in affiliate marketing solutions that are not only low-risk, but uniquely cost-effective and fully capable of delivering a quite outstanding ROI.From Amazon to casino websites to largely every other business area across the board, the opportunities are both endless and just waiting to be capitalised on.