Affiliate Marketing for Beginners:  No, No, Not Me!

Imagine the shock when I found this message awaiting me.  Well, as it turns out, it was something I should have expected.  You see when I first started out, I asked my nephew the code and internet expert, where I should set up my first blog.  WordPress, he messaged, that’s the place to start.

So off I went and got my WordPress blog up and running. Primitive first start, but I was online in a few minutes.  Never mind that I had no clue about the hosted versus self hosted versions of WordPress.  And so my journey into Internet Marketing began with a journal.

As time went on and with a few tutorials under my belt, I experimented with linking, posting blog rolls, banners and all the stuff that affiliate marketing is made of.

Had I read the Terms of Service, you ask?  Yes I had.  But in the course of working on blog education, they had faded away.

I was lucky in one respect.  I did buy WordPress for Dummies and after a quick read through the relevant parts, I set up a self hosted blog at Hostgator. More importantly, I imported all my content from the WordPress.com site and unwittingly saved myself the aggravation of having to retreive it.

Long story short, what are the lessons learned?

1. Read the Terms of Service and don’t forget them.
2. Self hosted sites are far and away more secure because you are in control.
3. Don’t put yourself at the mercy of hosted environments with content you own and create.
4. When you self host, make sure to do daily back ups.

There is nothing wrong with the hosted sites WordPress,Squidoo, Blogger etc as long as you understand the pros and cons of the decision you are making.

With that enjoy and profit.

May Your Travels Be Prosperous.

About Claude Pelanne

Claude Pelanne is an internet marketer and consultant who comes out of television broadcast. He works with start ups and small business to optimize their online business.