There is a lot of web hosts out there. I used to go with LiquidWeb for a very long time. It was easy when it comes to one-off domains. I simply created a page, uploaded, and run traffic to it.
If it needed to be discarded, I just deleted the domain or server.
Nowadays there is so much more access to technology that hosting pages has become much easier and even much faster to host. Though I have been using Linode and Digital Ocean, one host has been the easiest and much much faster, Vultr.
If you are a beginner affiliate then this might be the easiest for you to start rather than going on a shared hosting provider like SiteGround. The reason is speed.
Speed is the most important part when it comes to your affiliate campaigns. This could be one of the first things you'll learn when you get into the affiliate marketing industry.
At first, you'd think that it's only about promoting products that could get you a commission from thousands to millions of dollars in total.
But as you edge closer into this kind of business, you'll realize how much speed and landing pages can be your best friends.
Just like I said, if you want optimum performance paired with an affordable rate, Vultr is the way to go.
I'm going to show you how I upload my landing pages in Vultr in a while but before that let me tell you a thing or two about managed and unmanaged servers.
Managed Vs. Unmanaged Servers
When you're a beginner, you might not have any idea what a managed and unmanaged server is. As a result, you'd mostly fall into the trap of getting a managed server.
Not that there's anything wrong with a managed server. The reason this thing is so popular is because of its relatively low fees and if you're running a simple website serving as a blog or portfolio, it may not be that bad.
But it's quite a different case when it comes to affiliate landing pages because when you're getting a lot of traffic, it might not take long before your memory is jammed.
And as we know, in affiliate marketing or any kind of online business, speed is definitely of the essence.
Now back to the difference between managed and unmanaged servers.
In basic terms, managed servers are the ones that you'd see under the name of Bluehost, GoDaddy, SiteGround, and many more.
Just like I said, there isn't anything particularly wrong with using these services but if you want to get what's worth you're paying for, this just won't cut it. You see, when you get a managed server what you're really paying for is the tech support.
But that's where an unmanaged server comes in.
The only thing with an unmanaged server is that you have to be knowledgeable or hire a good developer. The reason is that when you're in an unmanaged server, you're practically on your own, there is no support.
If something goes wrong, you don't have tech support to help you fix it. You have to manage things by yourself, get it unmanaged.
Of course, this may seem like a lot of beginners out there but it's really not. You don't have to be an all-out expert in landing pages to be able to use an unmanaged server.
Besides, with this blog giving you practically all the information you can ever need, absolutely nothing can go wrong.
So, here's how to install and upload your landing page in Vultr
Create An Account
The first thing you got to do is create an account.
There's no need to worry because doing this is quite easy. Sign Up Here. Receive $50 When You Sign Up.
Go to the sign-up page and fill in your email address and desired password. Afterward, you'd be required to validate your account using the email address that you provided.
It's that simple. It's just like creating an account with any other website.
By the time you validate your account, you'd be able to head to your dashboard where you can start uploading your landing page.
But before you do that, I recommend you add your payment first.
One of the best things about Vultr is that it doesn't bind you with any contract to use their service for months or even a year. You can use it for as often as you want.
Deploy A New Instance
Now we proceed with uploading your landing page.
The first thing you need to do is deploy a new instance. You can do that by going back to the products page of your account. From there you can choose various types of instances to choose from. There is a storage instance, Vultr cloud compute, or a dedicated instance.
We recommend you to use the Vultr cloud compute by default.
Choose A Location
The next thing you've got to do is to choose a location. Make sure that the location is the one closest to where you want to run the campaign. For example, if you are targeting Germany, it would make sense to deploy a Frankfurt server.
If you do not know where you are targeting just yet, choose a location where you are based in.
Don't worry because you can always delete this later on and just pay for the number of hours that your campaign went online. After that, you can go right ahead and create a new campaign set at a different location.
Another reason why Vultr is valuable because as affiliates, we hate spies. So by allowing you to get a new IP address in different locations, you can just destroy a server when the campaign is done or a dud, stopping spy tools from trying to peak at your landing pages.
Select your OS/Application
In this case, you'll have to use a LEMP application that has Linux Cent OS x64 with PHP, MySQL, and NGINX that are installed by default.
There are also other features you can use like Cpanel, a Minecraft server, and even WordPress. However, I don't recommend that you use these things for now.
Select The Server Size
Vultr gives you plenty of options when it comes to server size.
I recommend you go for the $5 per month plan. If you're just starting out, this would be more than sufficient to run your campaigns. So just before you chose the $5 plan, you need to choose the type of server...
Of course, you can later upgrade to a bigger plan if the need for it comes. Especially when you start scaling since you will be sending lots of traffic to it!
Deploy The Instance
You can just leave the other options blank and skip to the Server Label where you'd have to put the name of your server.
Vultr will create your server in a few minutes. You will receive a notification in your email once it is done. It only takes maybe 5 minutes sometimes less than
Set Up Your DNS
This should be quite easy and will only take up about two minutes of your time.
You just have to go to your domain provider and set up a custom DNS for your domain. it should point to:
- ns1.vultr.com
- ns2.vultr.com
Now go back to Vultr. Hover over to the "Servers" main menu and click the "DNS" submenu. Choose "Add Domain" button.
Just fill out the IP Address of your server and input the domain you're pointing to.
Now the big difference here is that I use CloudFlare to get and use their free SSL. I set up the server as is, I update my DNS to Vultr, once it has completed, I then connect Cloudflare.
Cloudflare will provide you with new DNS to adjust and change within your domain provider
Upload Your Landing Page
It's time to install CyberDuck but you can still use any other FTP client if you already have one.
- Open a new connection.
- Set your SSH connection to "Secure FTP".
- This will open Port 22.
- Input the IP of your server, as well as your username and password.
- Click Connect.
Where do you find your FTP information? Go back to "Server Information" scroll just a bit down and you should see this information
Click on the eye to view your password which will give you access to the server via SFTP.
Go to the folder and selector and locate usr/share/nginx/html.
You'll find two files stored in this area which you will have to delete so you can make room for the landing pages that you are about to upload.
You can start uploading your landing page by dragging and dropping your files from your computer to CyberDuck or any file manager you use.
You should also watch out for your CPU and bandwidth user. This should give you a pretty good idea of how your server is handling your campaigns. Upgrade your plan as often as needed.
... and that is it. Vultr is definitely a solid platform. I have all my landing pages on there and I can destroy each one if I need new IPs or no longer need the LP. Making sure spy tools don't get to see my landers as often as I would like them too.
