A question that people ask all the time is this: What theme should I use for my new affiliate marketing website? And what is the best WordPress theme for affiliate marketing in general?
What to focus on when choosing a theme for an affiliate marketing website?
I'm going to guide you on choosing a theme for your next affiliate marketing project on WordPress.
Focus on the Feel & Look
The first thing that you want to keep in mind when choosing a theme for an affiliate marketing website is the look and feel of that theme. Is it clean? Is it clear? That's the thing you need to focus on first because an affiliate marketing website is all about the content. You want to make sure that you choose a theme that does show off your content well.
How fast is your theme?
The second thing to keep is the speed of the theme. Not all themes are created equal. Some themes are much faster than others. And when people are looking for content or looking for information to help them buy something, they want that information quickly. They're not going to wait around. It needs to load instantly.
A quick tip: Check the theme that you're going to buy before you buy them. Run them through the Google page speed test.
Often themes have a demo. You can run that demo site through and see what scores are they're getting.
More about design
In terms of the design of the theme, you want something that's pretty flexible. And if the theme comes packaged up with some templates to get you started, you're going to want a content focus template (maybe a magazine or a blog-style). As I've already said, affiliate marketing is all about content. You don't want loads of flashy stuff, sliders and things like that.
It's all about the content. So, bear that in mind when you're looking at themes. Check out the different templates and stuff that they provide with their theme. And see if there's one that pushes content to the front.
You also need to know what to avoid when choosing a theme for affiliate websites. A lot of themes are very business focused and corporate-focused and provide a lot of templates for business type sites. That is nice, but those templates aren't often suitable for an affiliate marketing website.
What page builder to use?
Page builders that provide a lot of functionality:
- Elementor
- Beaver builder
- Brizy
That means if you've seen a theme that you like that's pretty basic, you can add extra stuff to it with a page builder. And most themes work with most page builders.
That way, you can add:
- nice-looking tables,
- custom buttons
I strongly suggest you do because that makes the content pop. You can add those things with a decent page builder like Elementor. Keep that in mind. If the theme you're looking at maybe doesn't have that built-in, you can add extra functionality via page builder. Or, if you don't want to do that, you could do it with individual plugins. Check out Elementor addons here.
Pro tip: I would recommend that you go for something that allows you to add tables. A decent page builder is Elementor.
I'd also look for something that allows you to add nice pros and cons sections. Some themes and some page builders have them built-in. It's a great way of summarizing the good and bad when you're talking about products. Having buttons is also a handy thing to have on an affiliate marketing website. Check what your theme comes with. And if it doesn't, then go for a page builder, and you should be able to create nice-looking content.
Will page builder make your site slow?
Some people will say that you don't want to use page builders on your content because that'll make your site slow. Well, not in my experience. In my case study, Amazon affiliate websites bestroofbox.com I've created all the content with Elementor. Here's a playlist where you can find out everything about my case study.
And the site is excellent and fast. If you make the content look nice and add rich elements, it does better on the search engines. I think people read it more. I think people click through more. I'm a big fan of using page builders for content.
Using AAWP for product tables
If you want to show off some products on a table, you might want to check out the AAWP plugin, which I love. I use it with page builders because the tables are so good. It uses the Amazon API to pull down product information straight from Amazon, and then you can put it into tables.
You can have product boxes which are nice boxes with:
- images
- text
- price and
- a button
Keep that in mind because if you have a plugin like that, then it doesn't matter too much which theme you're going to go for. That way, you can add the cool tables anyway. There are a few things I'd keep in mind when choosing a theme.
Themes that I use on my sites
I've been using Base WP on my sites. I've used it on bestroofbox.com and wheelalong.com. And it's a free theme. It's a clean, simple, and easy to use this theme. And I love it. On bestroofbox.com, I've been using Base WP with Elementor to format content and create home pages. It works well, and it's free, as is Elementor. So you can get up and running with this theme without spending any money. I suggest you give it a go. I think you're going to like it.
Thrive Themes
In my most recent tutorial on building an affiliate marketing website, the one where I created bestpressurewasher.com, I used the fantastic Thrive Themes. Thrive is a premium theme, and that means you have to subscribe to get access. For that money, you get the theme that is fully featured. It has everything that you could want.
And you get access to:
- lots of other plugins
- resources
- support
- updates
It is worth the investment. But the reason why I like Thrive is that it's got loads of built-in elements, which are perfect for affiliates.
For example, you get:
- fantastic tables
- lovely looking pros and cons sections
- great buttons
- fantastic page templates
Rather than using default WordPress categories for your posts, you can create great-looking pages that work well and look fantastic. I like Thrive, and I think it's good. It may be too much for some people that are just starting. But I think once you start building websites with it, you'll never look back. The good thing is on the standard license you can use it on multiple sites. The more sites you create with it, the better value it becomes.
Astra Theme
Astra is a very popular free theme with a pro version available. I like this theme. There's nothing wrong with it. It works with all the page builders nicely. However, there is one issue. Templates are very business-focused, and there aren't that many that would be suitable for an affiliate marketing website. If you're building a site and want to use templates because it's quicker and easier, Astra will be very limited.
OceanWP Theme
Another theme that's very similar to Astra is OceanWP. This one is better. When you look at the templates, some magazine or blog style templates are very content focused. It is definitely a viable option. It's a good looking theme, and it has loads of features. And what's also important, it works with most of the page builders.
Conclusion
When choosing a theme for your next Amazon affiliate website, you want something that shows off your content. Also, something that you can work with and something pretty fast.
And if it ticks all those boxes, it will probably work well for your affiliate marketing website.
