Difference between e-commerce site and affiliate marketing on WordPress

[Faith]

I'm determined to not let January of this new year go by without putting up my first affiliate website. I've chosen a niche, and am ready to go....well, sort of, ready to go.

I had decided to plunge into WordPress, but now am wondering what exactly is the difference between using WP for affiliate marketing and in using an e-commerce system.

Are e-commerce systems used mainly by people who have their own products to sell as opposed to other people's products?

I will appreciate all comments.

Faith

[chickblogger]

Hi, Faith:

Wordpress is so versatile and flexible it can be used as a CMS, which means that it can be used as an e-commerce platform.

With the mix of the right wp theme and the right wp plugins, anything is possible with Wordpress. I just bought a wp theme called STORE from Templatic.com which pretty much makes it drop dead simple to turn Wordpress into a store.

Pretty cool stuff. I don't have a store or sell anything, but I bought it because it was just really neat and maybe soon I will open something up just to be able to use that theme.

As for SEO and such, many themes have that now built-in. I'm referring to on-site SEO, you still ALWAYS have to build backlinks to your web properties.

They still haven't made a theme that does that for us. Bummers!!! lol.

Having re-read your question, it seems you want to build an affiliate site and are wondering whether to use Wordpress. Is that correct? If so, I would say Wordpress is great for building an affiliate site.

What type of aff site are you planning on building?

[Faith]

Thanks, Chickblogger, for your very informative reply.

I plan to be an affiliate for physical products from Commission Junction and Amazon.

I guess my remaining question is why some people choose e-commerce systems over WP.

I just want to make sure I'm headed in the best possible direction.


Faith

[angienewton]

Faith,
Most people that use e-commerce systems do have their own product or they are using wholesale companies and selling their products. For affiliate marketing Wordpress will be just fine. I use WP in addition to an html site (using XSitePro web design software) but going with WP is OK.

So yes, you are headed in the right direction!

[Faith]

Thanks, Angie!


Faith

[kdbbiz]

If you are going to be an affiliate without having products of your own, I would definitely recommend wordpress and then use plugins like Popshops for Commission Junction, and then the A store widget for Amazon, and there is even a clickbank widget which I forget the name of right now.

All of these will allow you to choose your products and have them organized and set up in categories and on pages just like it was an ecommerce program. In most cases, you just simply create a new page for your wp site, and add the html code to generate a products page. I think each one of these are free although, if you plan to expand and want to go big, you can pay for an upgrade which will allow you to do more for designing and adding more products features.

I have tried all of these out and like the Popshops and A store the best. I have never upgraded in any though so am afraid I can't elaborate more on that.

Have fun, try out a few, and I am sure you will be able to pick something to suit your needs.

[jkgourmet]

KD - regarding the Astore - several members (including Rick and I) had real challenges with using the Astore and it getting cut off on one side or another. Do you happen to remember what you did to avoid this? I was using a no sidebar template in my theme, while I think Rick used some other method, but we both had similar cut offs in some browsers for the Astore widgest (like similar products) Is this normal?

[kdbbiz]

I would have to go and have a refresher look. It has been awhile, honestly since I did one. I don't recall having that problem, but I think I may have just had it as a standalone store instead of trying to insert it into my own website.

Actually, now that you mention it, I think I did have problems like you said and that is why I decided to just have the page link to my standalone store on the Amazon site.

Popshops still remains my favorite. It has tutorials to guide you all the way, and even a cute video of a 3 year old creating his own store to show you how easy it can be. You can read more here http://popshops.com/faq

[jkgourmet]

I had just begun researching popshops last week, after my frustration with the Astore (which was, as you said, inserted into my own blog). I'll keep on that track then. Thanks.