If you're a content creator with a strong following or an expert in a particular field, you can partner with companies and help them sell their products. While starting a website is a great way to showcase your products, connect with your target audience, and get your affiliate marketing business off the ground, it's not the only way to start making money as an affiliate marketer.
You can have a successful affiliate marketing business without having to set up your own website. Here are 7 ways to build an affiliate marketing business without a website and 3 tips to help you succeed.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a marketing partnership model in which companies pay content creators (“affiliates” or “affiliate marketers”) a commission on sales generated by the affiliate's activities. Typically, companies with affiliate programs use a unique promo code or affiliate link to attribute sales to the affiliate's promotional activities. Affiliates can post the link on their personal blogs or share it on social channels, and the company pays the affiliate a commission on sales generated from clicks on that unique link.
Is it possible to do affiliate marketing without a website?
You don't need a website to get started with affiliate marketing, all you need is a platform, which can be anything from a social media site to the audience at your local knitting club.
Successful affiliate marketers are often authorities in a particular field, such as crocheting, alpine ski racing, or urban goat farming. An affiliate website or blog is one way that an affiliate marketer can establish authority in a particular field, but it's not the only way to achieve this goal. Any tool, organization, or medium that helps you connect with others can help you start your affiliate marketing business and make money by promoting your products or services to your network.
How to do affiliate marketing without a website
- Increase your social following
- Start an email newsletter
- Guest Posting on Blogs
- Post to the forum
- Start a podcast
- Buy paid ads
- Host an event
An affiliate marketing website can be a powerful tool, but it's not the only way to market online or in real life. Here are 7 ways to get started with affiliate marketing without creating a website first.
1. Grow your social following
Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest are all important channels for affiliate marketers, and you can use social content to grow your following and establish yourself as an authority in your specific niche.
For example, if you specialize in gardening, you can post daily gardening tips and gardening inspiration to attract followers who are interested in gardening and build trust with your audience. You can also create posts about specific products and use a link-in-bio tool like LinkPop to host multiple affiliate links from your Instagram account, YouTube channel, and other social profiles.
2. Start an email newsletter
Email newsletters allow you to provide value to your specific target audience, build trust, and establish yourself as an authority in your particular affiliate niche. Including promotional codes and affiliate marketing links can turn your email newsletter into an affiliate marketing traffic source.
Email marketing also offers more flexibility than publishing on social media platforms. For example, you could publish a holiday gift guide with affiliate links to 10 different products, or a long-form email highlighting the benefits of a particular spatula. It all depends on your relationship with your readers and affiliate partners, and how you can provide the most value to each of them.
3. Guest Posting on Blogs
There's a reason blogging is a popular affiliate marketing strategy. Like email marketing, blogging gives you the flexibility and space to say whatever you want about a particular product, allowing you to choose the format that best suits your particular communication style. The downside to email marketing is that you need someone's email address before you can get in touch with them. Blogging doesn't have that problem, and it can help you reach new potential customers.
Even if you don't have your own blog, you can still take advantage of the benefits of blogging by guest posting, or posting on other people's blogs. Typically, guest posting involves creating content for free and inviting blog owners to post your content in exchange for a backlink to your site, or in this case, promoting an affiliate link (or links) within their content.
Look for sites that have a lot of traffic and target audience in your affiliate marketing niche. To find blogs that accept guest posts, you can contact specific sites and blogs and inquire about their guest posting policies. You can see where other influencers in your niche are publishing their content. If one of your competitors has signed up to a site that they are not officially affiliated with, there is a good chance that the site accepts guest posts from affiliate marketers.
4. Post on the forum
Online forums are places where users come together to discuss a particular interest. They are a bit like social media platforms, but the content is more conversational and less focused on the identity and reputation of the users. Many large online communities do not allow the promotion of affiliate links, but smaller forums are often less strict. For example, crochettalk.com does not explicitly prohibit the promotion of affiliate links or the sharing of promo codes in posts.
As long as you follow the platform's rules, you can use online forums to connect with people who might benefit from the products or services that you're promoting. Many online forums are already organized by niche interests, making it easy to find users looking for the products in your portfolio. Many users use forums to ask questions like, “How do I stop the leaves of my lemon tree from turning yellow?” or “Where can I get waterproof riding boots?” This makes forums a convenient way to find users who are already looking for products that you can recommend.
5. Start a podcast
Like starting an email newsletter or building a social presence, starting a podcast is a useful content marketing strategy for affiliate marketers. Create and publish entertaining, educational or useful content to build trust with your target audience and grow your following, then monetize them by featuring affiliate links in your episode notes or podcast profile. You can also read out a promo code during your podcast and instruct your listeners to use the code to make a purchase. This allows your affiliate partners to attribute sales to you without users having to click on a specific link.
6. Buy Paid Ads
Affiliate marketing activities like blogging and social media posts about your products are essentially a form of advertising, so even though it may sound counterintuitive, you can also pay for Google ads for your affiliate products. The most popular type of ad for this strategy is pay-per-click (PPC) ads.
With the PPC marketing model, you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. Essentially, you design an ad for one of your affiliate partners' products, use your own funds to bid on the digital ad, and pay the ad network for the click. This strategy can result in losses, as most affiliate marketing programs only pay affiliates for conversions. Before you put your own money into ad space, make sure you have a plan for targeting users who are likely to convert.
7. Host an event
Hosting an event in your local community can create an opportunity to expand your personal network and share relevant promo codes with attendees. For example, if you're an influencer or affiliate marketer with expertise in candle making, you could host a free candle making workshop at a local community center and share a promo code for candle making supplies with all attendees. If you already have an established following online, you could also consider hosting a webinar or virtual event.
Tips for doing affiliate marketing without a website
Choose the Right Niche
Success in affiliate marketing depends on gaining the trust of a specific target audience, and choosing the right niche is key to building that trust and monetizing. Consider your interests, expertise, current network, and qualifications.
For example, if you already have a passion for cupcake decorating, consider partnering with a brand that sells baking supplies. Your talent will give you a head start in building your audience, which you can then use to promote your affiliate partner's products.
Follow SEO best practices
Search engine optimization (SEO) is often a top priority for website owners, but content publishing platforms such as social media sites and online forums can also appear on search engine results pages. Users who search for keywords related to your niche are likely to find your content useful, so optimizing your content and following SEO best practices will increase the chances that users will find your site.
Launch a promotional campaign
Using your social media profiles to run product giveaways and other promotions can help you reach new customers and increase engagement and conversions. By using giveaways to encourage activity like liking and sharing your posts, you can maximize the number of people who see your posts (and your affiliate marketing links).
Frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing without a website
Can I be an affiliate marketer without a website?
Yes, you don’t need a website to get started with affiliate marketing. You can use online publishing platforms, emails, podcasts, and paid ads to promote your products to your target audience.
Why do most affiliate marketers use websites?
Modern e-commerce and blogging platforms make it easy and low-cost to set up an effective affiliate business website, and many affiliate marketers are using websites to connect with their audience and start making money online.
How can you track your affiliate marketing without a website?
You can track your affiliate revenue by monitoring the profit and loss statements from your affiliate partners. Some affiliate networks also provide their affiliate members with access to more advanced affiliate marketing metrics, such as how many people used your promo code each month.
