Step by step guide for creating affiliate website with Rehub theme

In this article, we will show you some tips and all settings which can be helpful for creating profitable affiliate website. You need to have Rehub theme for this tutorial

Woocommerce or Posts

Our theme supports both ways to add offers: for woocommerce and for posts. Do you have any doubts what to use? Well, it’s simple choice. If you want site to be more like recommendations, with reviews and content – better to use Posts. If you want site to be more like catalog with comparisons, filters, specifications – better to use Woocommerce. If you need price Comparison site – use woocommerce. We added new separate guide to make price comparison sites on Woocommerce

Types of sites and strategies

Before you start a site, you need to know that there are several types of affiliate sites. You can mix all of them in one site or concentrate on one type. Our theme supports all of them.

In few words, logic of affiliate sites can be next:

• Deal affiliate site (the same as shop, but has external links instead of “add to cart” button)
• Coupon site (usually, the same as deal site, but also has coupon codes and expiration date of post)
• Comparison site (when each product has several links on different shops with different prices)
• Comparison directory – it’s deal site, but you compare specification of different products instead of price comparison
• Recommendation site – the same as deal site, but has more content where you recommend something. Usually, such sites also have Expert’s and User’s reviews.
• Deal communities – the main difference from regular Deal site is that users can also submit deals, has own profile, reputation system.
• Expert blogs – it’s the same as recommendation site, but has articles from one or several experts and deep research of niche.

Depending on type of site, there are also different technical logic. Usually, sites can be:

• Manual posting (when you post each article manually)
• Autoposting (when you use some kind of autopilot instruments, schedule posting, etc)
• Bulk import (when you make bulk import of deals, usually from xml product feed, which you can get from affiliate systems)

Also, site can be about one niche of products or multi niche.

To get money from site, you need to use shop’s affiliate programs or register in one of CPA networks.

As I wrote, our theme supports all of affiliate type of sites and several instruments(plugins) for affiliate sites.

I will show now more details for each type of site.

What is deal site? It’s site where each Post item has one offer. This is the easiest type of site and you can try it on start. There are several ways in theme to add offers on deal site.

Manual creating of deals

If you have very unique deals and not a big number of deals – you can use manual adding deals. For this, use Post offer section of post. When you add post offer section, theme will save data and assign Offer data to post, so, you can use some extended functions.

Also, theme has special Gutenberg blocks for affiliate

Bulk adding from product xml feed

Instead of adding deals one by one, you can add them in bulk. You need to have product feed in XML or CSV. Where to get them? You can find product feed in your affiliate network which you want to use to get the affiliate commission. Then, you can use bundled plugin which are made special for deal sites.

Adding offers with Content Egg or Affiliate Egg

You can know details about plugins in docs: Affiliate Egg and Content Egg. We recommend to use these plugins, because they are from our partners and we also take a part in their development and make advanced combinations with plugins. This means, that CE and AE are not required for deal sites, but can give you more functions and save some time.

So, logic in plugin is next. Add text, use keyword to search deals inside enabled modules, choose offer which you want to add to post(you can choose one or several), then save post. You will see that Post offer section will be filled automatically with data of offer.

Content Egg uses API of affiliate systems and search inside API by keywords. After you choose deal, you can also use different output shortcodes to place offer inside post. There are also some Post layout in theme, special for Deal sites which enables another Post design (read details below).

Frontend affiliate search in Content Egg

When you use Content Egg, you can add each deals to post. WordPress searches by titles of posts but what if you want to have such search form which can show results from affiliate networks directly (without creating posts for each deals). This is possible with Content Egg now and Frontend Search function.

First of all, you need to create two things – page with search form (or widget) and page for results.

Creating search form

There are several ways to show affiliate search form. First option is using widget CE:Product search (find it in Appearance – Widget). It has the same styling as standard wordpress widget. Just place widget in sidebar.

Second way is to use Content Egg shortcode

[content-egg-search-form]

Shortcode will generate standard wordpress search form, but which will send users on special page with results from affiliate modules instead of wordpress search page. This shortcode has also the same design as standard wordpress search

Third way – special theme shortcode

[rh_ce_search_form]

It will generate big search form which is good for special landing pages. I recommend this way as it’s more styled and interesting. You can combine this shortcode with page builder modules, also, there are several ready templates which can fit to this shortcode. Also, shortcode supports several parameters to change label and placeholder

[rh_ce_search_form placeholder="Change placeholder" label="Change label"]

Next step which you need to do is setup page for output results. Theme has already special styled page for this. You can set output layout for results in settings of plugin. For this, go to Content Egg – Settings – General and add output shortcode to textarea Search page template. I recommend to use there common shortcodes of Content Egg. Best for me are

[content-egg-block template=offers_list]
[content-egg-block template=offers_logo]
[content-egg-block template=custom/all_offers_logo]
[content-egg-block template=custom/all_offers_list]
[content-egg-block template=custom/all_offers_grid]

Use only one of these shortcodes. Also, you must enable modules which will be used while searching. I don’t recommend to use too much modules, because it can be very slow. Here one of possible demo of affiliate frontend search

Autoblog of Content Egg or Affiliate Egg

Check our new article about Autoblog and sites on Autopilot with Rehub theme

You can convert your deals to coupons. For this, you can add coupons in Coupon field in Post offer section

By default, coupon code will be visible near button. You can also make coupon as “revealed” button. So, user must click on such button to open coupon. For this, also enable Mask coupon code option in Post offer section. Also, you can send expiration date of coupon.

Read more about Coupons in docs

How to disable inner pages

Our buyers ask us how to create such site as thisiswhyiambroke or similar, where all links from each ite, goes to affiliate website instead inner posts.

It’s easy with our theme. Go to theme option – loop customization and enable Option “Affiliate links instead inner”. Please, note. This functions is working only for Deal list, Deal Grid.

Repick child theme has also option to enable links separately for title and image in Theme option – repick option and it’s working for regular Grid of Repick theme

Our theme has several different Post layouts which can be helpful for Deal or Coupon site

Post layouts

Check how to set Post Layout.  Theme has some ready Post layouts which are good for deal posts. They are:

Compact (Recash style) 

Button in Corner (Repick style)

Big Post offer in top

You can set different post layouts for each post in right Panel of post or set default global post layout in Theme option – post layout.

Gutenberg AutoContent

VideoBlock

There are some other layouts which you can combine with offer blocks. But if you want to have something fast, better to use ready post layouts

Connecting Post to Woocommerce product

If you have review post and separate Woocommerce product and you want to import data of this product in Post, you can use Gutenberg Woocommerce Box module

Adding offers for such sites is the same, the difference is only in visual presentation.

Usually, for such sites, you will need to add reviews to each post and some offer blocks. Read about powerful Review and User Review functions of theme.

When you add Reviews to post, you can use special Post Layout “Offer and review score”.

If you want to add several Review boxes or several Pros and Cons boxes, please use Reviewbox from Gutenberg

Another useful things for review sites is Automatic table of content in top of page (the same as on this page). We have 3 different panels for this + there is Table of Content block in Gutenberg

Deal communities

Difference between deal communities and deal sites is that the community has a function to submit deals by users. Theme has many community options which are based on bundled RH Frontend PRO plugin and Buddypress. You can find information about basic user options in docs.

First thing which you need – choose layouts for categories. Go to theme option – general – archive layouts to do this. Theme has many variants for archives, and there are many special like deal grid, deal lists, community lists which can be useful on affiliate sites.

For the home page, you need to use page builder. Currently theme has support for several page builders: Elementor, WP Bakery and Gutenberg. Please, note, that ready templates are available only for Elementor and Gutenberg. Don’t forget to enable full width on such homepages, usually buyers forget this.

There are some interesting tips which you can use for home pages with page builder.

Featured section

For top deals, I prefer to use Featured area module or Deal full width carousel module

Filter panel

When you use page builder, you can add filter panel to post modules.  Usually, I use next parameters in filter panel

Label = Sort by price; Type of filter = meta field; Key for meta = rehub_main_product_price

Label = Most popular; Type of filter = meta field; Key for meta = rehub_views

Label = Hottest; Type of filter = meta field; Key for meta = post_hot_count

Label = Sort by discount; Type of filter = meta field; Key for meta = _rehub_offer_discount

Adding custom badges and sort by them

You can add different badges to each post with badge system.  

Inserting ads between post elements in loop

This will work only if you don’t have filter panel and pagination in module. For example, you want to add ads block after 3 post. Add post module and add Fetch count as 3 in Data settings. Then, add ads with module HTML widget, also you can add additional margins with module Empty space. 

How to create store pages

You will see that most of deal sites has special page for shops. For example, page where you can find all deals from Amazon, Ebay, etc. You can enable this for theme in Theme option – Affiliate – Enable brand(store) taxonomy for posts. After this, you will have additional panel in each post

It’s working the same as category pages. To edit such page, go to Posts – Deal store – Edit. Each store can have additional description before and after loop and logo. I recommend to add content in description fields to have good seo for such pages, otherwise, they are useless.

In description fields, you can use any html including heading.

Each store page also has additional widget area which is different from sidebars on other pages of site. You can find this area in Appearance – Widgets – Deal store archive sidebar. Everything which you add to this widget area – will be visible only on Deal store pages. For example, it’s good to show there other shops in random order. For this, use text widget and place shortcode

<div class="rh-cartbox">
[wpsm_tax_archive taxonomy="dealstore" type="logo"]
</div>

this will show all other stores and their logos. if you have many stores and want to show just 5 of random shops – use code

<div class="rh-cartbox">
[wpsm_tax_archive taxonomy="dealstore" type="logo" random="1" limit="5"]
</div>

How to create alphabetical archive of all stores

Create new page and use shortcode

[wpsm_tax_archive taxonomy=dealstore]

You have some additional parameters in shortcode. Check them here

Creating top pages can be one of best conversion feature on your site, because people like Top of products by different keys. You can choose best reviewed products, most popular or create season tops. Theme has many interesting features for this.

Using Top Listing builder

Theme has many different variants of Listings. Some of them can be created based on posts/products and some are static (it means that you don’t need to create separate posts for each item). Currently we recommend to use our Gutenberg blocks for listings.

You can find some details in next videos

Using Top lists

You can automatically divide page about several products with Top list autocontent. It’s the same as table of contents, but has special “List” style. Demo / Details

How to create Price Range, Most discounted, Most popular pages

In last version of theme we added one more useful function. You can create now Price range pages. Means that you can create, for example, page where will be deals only with price less than $20. Or with range of prices, you can use ranges even in Filter panel

To show price range on page, add any post module on page with page builder. Then, use next option

For WP Bakery Page Builder

In Elementor

In Gutenberg

If you want to show most discounted products – use Discount filter as on screenshot.

As you see, you can combine also with ordering option and show, for example, best rated deals under $20.

The same is available in Filter panel, so, you can use tabs, like

You can even combine tabs with category filter and create page for best deals special for category, brand, store, etc.

I recommend you to create several pages with same logic, add additional Seo content before and after post modules, then, create menu in Appearance – Menu and group all such pages in menu. You can show it as main menu or in widget with Rehub: Better menu widget. See example from one site. (How to create Mega menu)

There are some widgets which you may need for deal sites. You can find them in Appearance – Widgets. Usually, you will need next widgets: Rehub: Ajax Tabs, Rehub: Deal of Day, Rehub: Top offers.

Additional widgets which can be helpful: Rehub: Sticky on scroll (allows to stick widget when you scroll page, useful for banners, ads), Rehub: Tabs (2 tabs widges which can include posts, categories, comments, tags), Rehub: Better Menu.

If you need to show something only on inner pages of deals – use widget Rehub: Only in Posts

If you need some text, ads or shortcode – use Text widget

If you created Top pages and want to show links on them in sidebar, do next steps. Go to Appearance – Menu and create new menu. Add pages which you want to show in list to this menu. Now, in Appearance – widgets add Rehub: Better menu widget and choose your custom menu. You can choose also styling for this list block.

As you see above, theme uses Posts for deals. We made this, because Posts is most light and default post type of wordpress. Means that you can easily use additional plugins to extend inner pages. But, it’s very often, when you want to make separate Article section on site. Maybe for some guides. You can easily enable this in Theme option – Affiliate – Enable separate blog post type.

What if you want to show this section on Homepage? It’s easy, use page builder and do next settings in any of Post modules

What if you also want to include latest 5 blog posts in your sidebar? Use Text widget and next shortcode

[wpsm_recent_posts_list data_source="cpt" post_type="blog" show="5" image="1"]

More details in depth can be found in documentation

There are also some other settings which can help in your site. They are not only for deal sites, they are useful for all sites

Seo Settings

By default, wordpress is not best optimized CMS for seo, but it’s easy to make it so with some plugins. Read our step by step guide for improving Seo for site

Speed and caching

Again, by default wodpress is not cached and if you check your site on any speed tool, you will get near 50-60 points from 100. usually, I do 3 minute steps to improve this. It’s working for me in 100% to get near 90-95 points. Check our article how to improve speed of wordpress

AMP

Do you want to have maximum speed for mobiles? You will love our AMP customizations for deal sites

Schema types

Theme uses several schema types in posts. We use Product schema for Deal posts. You can also try our secret experimental schema type. Hurry up, because google can close it soon. Check about schema types in theme

Category settings

You can add additional content on category pages, add special category color, second description (under posts) and even category banner or ads. Go to Posts – Category – Edit and edit any category to see fields. I recommend to optimize each category pages and add description and second description to each category. You can use html tags in descriptions. Don’t forget to add some headings in h1. Example

<h1>Amazon Discount Tips</h1>

Amazon is the largest online retailer in the United States with more than 60+ million subscribers to their Prime membership, which offers free shipping, streaming music, movies and other extras for $99 per year. For a more in-depth look into how to maximize your Prime membership, check out our Amazon Prime benefits guide.

There are lots of ways to save when you’re shopping on Amazon

Second description is placed under posts and has 30% opacity. You can use this field to add some seo description (which is not important for users, but good for seo spiders.

You can also add filter panel if you use Recash or Rewise child theme (in Repick, they are enabled by default) in Theme option – general option – Category filter panel

How to add update block directly in Category pages

To add such block, you need to add update shortcode in your post content

To do this, add shortcode block to page and click on update notice shortcode.

[wpsm_update date="2021.12.21" label="Update"]
Your content
[/wpsm_update]

Add some content inside update notice. Then, in theme options – general – archive layout select Community List module. Only this post layout supports update notice shortcode.

How to add cashback notice

You can attach an additional notice to deal layouts

Please, read about cashback notice in our article

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