Can I do affiliate marketing without a website? Even though the answer may seem to be “no”, it can actually be yes!
The most important part of affiliate marketing is getting your link out there and in front of people who are searching for that very thing.
Your job is to create a relationship with people seeking your product, present that product in its best light and in a way that encourages the visitor to purchase.
This post was originally published September 14th, 2017 and has been updated to be current with new information. This post may contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. Full disclosure is here.
Welcome to Fearless Affiliate.
My name is Irma and I help new bloggers to learn the ropes. There is a lot to take in that first year of blogging, from choosing a niche to changing your mindset from worker bee mentality to that of successful entrepreneur.
Be sure to sign up for my free weekly newsletter of tips and exclusive offers for bloggers and online entrepreneurs. Get my 5 Minute Guide to Affiliate Marketing for opting in! Just click the image to get started.
How To Do Affiliate Marketing Without A Website
There are a few people out there doing this kind of marketing without a computer, but it is more challenging. Having a website helps immensely, but I will give you examples of ways to make money without a without a website.
Some affiliate networks that you can sign up with are:
ClickBank:
Clickbank is the most popular, and well-stocked, supplier of digital affiliate products. Most of their e-products that can be purchased and then downloaded immediately, making them lucrative to affiliate marketers.
Because the products are digital, they also satisfy the needs of the customer for a quick solution to a problem. win-win
Related Post: Get Started with Clickbank!
CJ Affiliate by Conversant
Numerous physical and digital products from a variety of merchants for every niche imaginable. CJ has been around for a long time and is a legitimate affiliate network.
Blogging related products from CJ include: Grammarly, Fiverr, Aweber, plus products like Swagbucks (make money online or frugal living niche) and Trip Advisor (travel niche).
ShareASale:
My favorite of the bunch, I am an affiliate for numerous products from SAS. Namecheap, Tailwind, and Shoppers Voice, to name a few.
They also have physical products from a wide variety of merchants, like NFL gear. People can click your link, make a purchase and have items delivered to their home, like a mattress in a box or dental realignment products.
Amazon Associates:
Amazon is big and anything on their website is fair game for their associates to promote.
The associates program works better for some niches more than others, but if someone clicks your link and the customer chooses to purchase something else, you will get commission on it. Commissions vary for different types of products, and are lower than many affiliate products.
However, you can still earn good money from people who already have items in their cart and just need a top-up item.
eBay Partner Network:
“Earn money by driving traffic and prompting sales across one of the world’s largest and most diverse marketplaces”.
Be part of the 800 million partner listings available on eBay. Sign up to the program, find products to promote, create a link and start promoting.
Note: There are many more, as well as all the private affiliate programs that are associated with the products they promote, for example supplements, diet aids, and pet training programs.
The program that you sign up with will give you a personal link, so that sales can be tracked back to you and you will earn your commission. You want to get your link out to as many places as you can and there are many options!
6 Ways To Do Affiliate Marketing Without A Website
1. A Hubpage!
You can join HubPages for free and create one page “mini website/blog” to direct visitors to your offer and link. You can share your passion for free, as well as meet others who are doing the same.
Write your own articles, and say what you want to say to promote products, using photos and your links.
2. Post on blogs/forums
You need to find a forum in your niche, otherwise your promotion will be out of place. Make sure to check the forum rules about links in your signature, but if that is a “go”, insert your link into your signature and post away!
Warrior Forum and Quora are two great places to start.
It will be helpful to become a regular poster at the blog or forum
This establishes trust that you aren’t a spammer or scammer. Offer posts with value; random posting with lots of links is considered spamming, and can get you banned.
It might be a good idea to post a few times before you put your link into your signature. Be sure to look around the entire forum to see where you can be most effective organically.
3. Write an eBook to give away or sell it cheap on eBay
You can promote it on your social media accounts as well. This is a great way to get your name out there, especially if you encourage others to share and like your “freebie”.
Your book does not have to be very big – 20 pages will do –and you can call it what you like.
For example “The Ultimate Guide” or a “Special Report” or any other buzz words that will encourage people to download it. Your book should be informative, and not just ads.
4. Social Media
Be sure to read the terms of service before you start promoting ads on your social media network of choice. There may be rules as to how many links you can place.
Social media works well for product reviews.
Make sure that the content that you post is related to your niche, add a few photos and then direct them to your link.
Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are great places to get started. Join other people’s groups/boards to find a network of like-minded individuals.
5. YouTube videos
This is by far the best way to do product reviews, unboxings, and demonstrations. Being able to physically show your audience a product and what it looks like in real life, will help you gain trust and customers!
A tool that you can use are Screencast O Matic.
There are a lot of YouTube videos explaining the process of getting started on YouTube
I personally find this amusing, but what better way to learn than at the source.
Keep in mind that if you enable the “share” button, you are giving anyone permission to take your video and share it on their website or social media platform. This can be good or bad, depending.
If you do not want this, then disable the share button.
6. Write ads for classified websites
Or reviews! Go ahead and write a review post with the link to the product that you are promoting, and post it on Craigslist, epage.com, or Kijiji.com
Be sure to place your ad in the correct category for whatever you are promoting, and note that there may be more than one category that you can use. For example, dog training manuals can be placed in education as well as pet categories.
Conclusion
Being a blogger is one of the least expensive businesses to start. You only need website hosting ($50 a year) and a domain name ($12$15 a year). For under $100 a year, you can put affiliate links into blog posts and earn evergreen income for as long as your content is relevant.
I have an affiliate marketing course for beginners that you may be interested in. From getting set up, to finding quality affiliate programs with quality products to promote, to growing your business. This affordable course empowers beginners to make money online.
Our beginners course is designed to help you earn while you learn. Click the image to learn more 🙂
Happy blogging and follow me on Pinterest!
-Irma 🙂
. It’s fantastic how you break down the costs – just a fraction of what some businesses demand. For under $100 a year, you’re set to embark on the journey of creating valuable content and potentially earning from it in the long run.
I’m Qasim
I’m intrested for Affilate marketing
I don’t have a blog, but would like to try at affiliate marketing on Pinterest, I have to say I need a bit of hand holding to figure out how to put affiliate links on the pins and not be spammy. To get someone to even look at it and click on it. Thank you for your advice.
Hi Julie and thank you for visiting us,
Pinterest has opened up a lot of new possibilities now that you can use affiliate links on pins. I do not claim to know much about this because there have been a lot of changes lately. I will direct you to this website for the basics. I hope that information helps you.
Cheers,
– Irma 🙂
Thank you for the great tips
You are welcome! Best of luck with your online business.
Cheers,
Irma xo
I loved the article. Valuable tips. Thank you for sharing
Thank you and welcome to our blog!
Cheers,
Irma
Thanks for sharing so many tips!
very informative and awesome post thanks for sharing with us.
I loved the content. Thank you for sharing
I loved the article.. thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thank you and thank you for visiting us today Rani,
I wish you the best of luck!
Cheers,
Irma
I really want to thank this site blog, and it had really enabled to be able to earn and improve on the sales of my business.
Very Helpful Information
Hello great post, very informative with so much information that will really be a great help to your readers. thanks for the breakdown of this post
Hello Norman, and thank you for visiting again!
And thank you for your kind words 🙂
Cheers,
Irma 🙂
Hi, Irma, you have answered my question in my mind about that. Thank you for the information. Building a website give its own challenge, fun and advantages. It can train our memory. It is easier now compare with some decades ago.
Hello Melani, and thank you for visiting today!
I am glad that you found my post helpful. Yes, building a website is much easier than it used to be.
Cheers,
Irma 🙂
I am just starting out in affiliate marketing and your information makes a lot of sense. I’ll be keeping in touch.
Hi Beverley, and thank you for visiting today!
And I hope that you come back and visit again 🙂
Cheers,
Irma 🙂
Wow! I thought blogs were the only way to use affiliate marketing. I didn’t realize there are so many more options and media sources I can use.
I’m definitely going to give Screencast a go. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Vince and thank you for visiting today!
I had considered some of these choices to go along with my blog, for that extra boost of traffic!
Cheers,
Irma 🙂
Hello Irma
I was so looking forward to this information and I always wondered may be its possible to sell without creating a website because when Signed up for these affiliates like amazon or sharasale and many others I was asked the question if you have a website. I was curious till date and I am glad to learn this. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers
Raman
Hello Ramandeep, and thank you for visiting today!
I know, and by the time I had found all of this information I already had my website going as well. You can always leverage some or all of these options for extra traffic!
Cheers,
Irma 🙂
Thanks for the tips Irma and like Jackie I had not realized what Hubpages was and that you could set up a free account. Every day there seems to be one more place that comes up so I guess the question would be who is best and what works the best. It can be very time-consuming trying to figure this out so I really enjoyed you saving me some time today.
Hi Merry and thanks for visiting today!
Hubpages is fun! There is so much information on there, and it is a great place to network with like-minded folk. And I appreciate your kind comments 🙂
Cheers,
Irma 🙂
Hi there,
Thanks for all of these great tips. I didn’t know about Hubpages so that free offer there makes a lot of sense. Do you find one of these techniques to be more profitable than another?
Jackie
Hi Jackie, and thank you for visiting today!
Posting on blogs and forums seems to work best unless you are well versed in using social media, which I am having mixed results with. If you are going to do this without a website, I suggest starting with one and adding a new technique every month or so, to see if you can gauge the results.
Cheers,
Irma 🙂
There are some tips on here that I was planning on using and also some that are new to me. I hadn’t thought about using an ebook for my affiliate links but may be worth looking into a bit more as another way of getting my links out there. I have also been considering using youtube and hope to start creating vidoes in the next month. I’m not that comfortable in front of a camera and this is why I have been a bit hesitant but it seems like a good opportunity so gonna have to take the plunge. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Lee, and thank you for visiting today!
It is only scary the first time! You got this! I think most of us feel like that about being in front of a camera, but really your subscribers will be focused on something else entirely. And we are waiting for your great information, so I look forward to seeing you on YouTube soon!
Cheers,
Irma 🙂
Like your helping hand.
Regards,
An
Hello An and thank you for visiting today!
Cheers,
Irma 🙂