The website is one of the most overlooked facets when it comes to running an affiliate marketing business.A professional looking and well designed website is crucial to increase sells.

Visitors often look at the website design to determine if the marketer is trustworthy or not.Believe it or not, this is how things work on the internet.

By creating a visually appealing affiliate marketing website you will have much better chances of increasing your sells on the internet.

Let´s look at how you should design your website for best results.

The header:

The first place to start is the header, it is the first thing visitors see when they arrive at your site.

Your header needs to be large and bold.It has to stand out and capture the visitors attention immediately and reel them in.

For best results, add a professional looking logo or a graphic as a backdrop to your header.

If you don´t have your own digital camera to take photos with, you can always get royalty free stock photos from a place online called BigStockPhoto (http://www.bigstockphoto.com) for as low as $1 each.


The content:

The next step is to produce quality content that is interesting, enticing and fresh.

You need to inform your visitors what they can expect from your affiliate marketing business, but instead of ranting about every little detail in each product, focus on telling how the visitor can benefit from the product. "What´s in it for me?" - is the question you should answer with your content.

While having excellent content is essential for success, you will need podcasting like video and audio as well.You must also have graphics of some sort.It adds more to your affiliate marketing website and helps it stand out from the rest of the competition.


Balance:

You need to find a proper balance between the content, the videos and the graphics.Avoid having all the content at the top and video on the bottom of the page, or the other way around.The website will flow smoothly and is easier to follow when you interchange each facet.

Remove clutter:

Besides having a proper balance, you need to remove any clutter that may build up on your affiliate marketing website over time.

Too many flashing banners, graphics, popups, and bold keywords will only distract your visitors.

Clutter also makes the website slow to load.People are not willing to wait for 10 seconds for a website to load, it has to load in 5 second or they will leave and never come back.

Make it as simple as possible for your visitors to find what they need by adding a search form at the top of the page.

You can make your own custom search engine tailored to your needs from Google, by visiting http://www.google.com/cse. This will also allow to your Adsense revenue at the same time.


Contact:

A sign of a professional affiliate marketing website is to have a contact form available.Your visitors and customers need a way to contact you to clarify any questions they may have.This also shows you are there for them.

Email capture form:

When your visitors arrive at your website, it is a good idea to capture their name and email address.

Sign up for an auto responder service and place the email capture form in a visible at the top of the page.To get your visitors to sign up, you need to offer a valuable freebie in exchange for their name and email address.

Then you can email them in the future with more information about your products, but most importantly keep up the relationship with them.