In this post, you will learn how to do online affiliate marketing without a website in 2018, a task that has become so much easier thanks to the advent of more and more simple channels for all types of media. This is a great guide for those of you that have a niche interest and an affiliate product offer, but aren’t quite sure how to put a website together. Not tech-savvy? Don’t know your WordPress from your sandwich press? You’re in the right place. Check out these easy techniques for getting those affiliate offers out there where they can be seen. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how easy it is.
#1 Squeeze Pages (think Leadpages, Instapage, ClickFunnels).
Ok so this is cheating a little bit, as a squeeze page is a little like a website but without the effort required. Using a single ‘squeeze page’ to promote your offer is one way of getting around the need for a full blown website to collect leads (such as an email address.) Basically a squeeze page is a single page advertising a specific offer or link to an offer. They’re much easier to build and maintain than a website and generally involve drag and drop functionality to make things easy for you. Don’t forget to collect your customers’ email – it’s a great opportunity for remarketing. You can make a link straight from your squeeze page to your affiliate offer but this really loses a lot of the profitability you’ve created – it’s hard enough to get people to visit your page, you don’t want to lose the customer by handing them straight over to your vendor without doing something to retain the customer for yourself. Squeeze pages go hand in hand with point 5 – email marketing.
Useful Resources for squeeze Pages-
#2 Social Media (LinkedIn, Pinterest etc)
Ok, so I’m guessing you know how to use Social Media. There is so much traffic going to these platforms it’s not funny and if you can do, say, a blog post on LinkedIn that gains traction or a Pinterest page that takes off you can include affiliate links that direct your readers to your affiliate offer. You can also lead them to a squeeze page as described in the previous section- in fact this the best process, as it gives you the chance to retain the customer. Just make sure if you do decide to direct link to your product vendor that your social platform allows direct links to affiliate offers. The huge reach of social media and it’s ability to go viral with a really good post also means that you can get your offer in front of a large untapped audience.
#3 Create an E-book on your niche (Think Amazon)
If you know enough about your niche you can create an ebook giving information and value on it. The ebook can be sold on a platform like Amazon or alternatively given away as part of a squeeze page offer, or offer of another type. Within the ebook you can embed as many affiliate offers as you like, just make sure they are contextual and relevant as you don’t want to turn off your audience. Don’t want to write your own book? Try a service such as Fiverr to get someone to write it for you at minimal cost. There are some fantastic writers out there and it by no means has to be an expensive exercise.
Useful ebook resources –
#4 Email marketing
If you have a list of emails, whether you’ve collected them through a squeeze funnel or other method, email marketing can be one of the most cost effective ways to market and gain affiliate commissions. In fact email marketing is probably the least sexy but most underrated methods of digital and affiliate marketing; it really can be great for converting prospects to customers. Cost is minimal after email collection and there are a number of fantastic marketing automation platforms out there such as Aweber, MarketHero or Mailchimp just to name a few. These platforms are easy to use and offer a wealth of functional possibilities for reaching and converting customers.
Useful email marketing resources:
#5 Youtube, Youtube, Youtube.
Ok so this is one of the best ones, but it does require a bit of effort. Say you have a product such as a dirt bike that you want to affiliate market. Creating a video about the product, or the topic Dirt Bikes in general, is a great way to get yourself in front of a huge audience. Youtube is the second biggest search engine on the planet and public appetite for consuming and engaging with video content is enormous. With youtube you can affiliate market by linking to products and offers in the video description, so there’s no need for computer super powers to create an audience. If you’re not comfortable appearing on camera, sites such as Fiverr can offer solutions such as animated videos, voiceovers or actors to create video content for you, normally at minimal expense. Video is hugely effective for building an audience. Nothing online creates the ability to create rapport with your customer quite like it. You’ll most likely find that video content will be the best converting content that you can create. If you do want to create regular youtube videos, you can get music audio to improve the professionalism of the video from a site such as , and animated intros or professionally designed covers from yes, you guessed it, Fiverr. I wrote an article on ranking your youtube videos in both Youtube and Google here.
Useful Youtube resources:
Soundstripe
#6 Other people’s blogs and blog sites.
There’s absolutely no shortage of blogs out there that you can guest post to. Sites such as blogger.com will take on your written articles, in most cases with your affiliate links in them. Blogs are always looking for more and innovative content and guest posts are commonplace. If you can build up a reputation for innovative and interesting content then you may find that your articles are soon in demand. Copy and Blog writing is an art that does not require exceptional technical skills so if writing is your thing, then guest posts may be a great way for you to spruik affiliate products.
#7 Forums and Communities
Though in some ways they’ve become a little old fashioned following the advent of social media, forums and the like offer a fantastic source of access to some incredibly focused audiences. Nearly every interest out there has it’s own niche forum – not only are they a great way to promote your affiliate link they are a great way to research your niche and learn current trends. Be cautious not to spam these sites, and make sure you check out the operational policies of any forum before you post any affiliate link to a forum. As earlier mentioned the best thing about forums is the incredible niche-focused audience you can reach.
#8 Podcasts
So not unlike youtube and video, there is considerable demand for podcasts. Again, links can be included along with a podcast for affiliate products. As with video if you are not prepared to record one yourself, there is great opportunity to get some audio recorded for your niche using Fiverr. You can also use a site such as podbean to upload, publish and manage your podcasts.
Podcast Resource:
Podbean
#9 Local Community forums and Blogs
Ok so one often neglected area that can have a real laser focus for your offer are local community forums. Though they may have a small audience, they really can be a wonderful source of leads for your offer if you find the right forum and write the right content. Again, make sure you check forum polices before posting.
#10 Facebook groups
If you are able to create a Facebook group, you have a captive audience that can see your posts and be targeted for affiliate offers. You are best off doing this on your own group as many groups do not allow affiliate posts. You need to be a bit artful in the way that you create content, the affiliate link needs to be contextual and required for the content.
There are some great ways to use these techniques in conjunction; one I have already mentioned is to lead from social media to a squeeze page. Of course the main purpose of the squeeze page is not only to sell your affiliate product- it’s to collect the lead in the form of an email so you can sell to that customer again and again in the future. Here, you can see how social media, squeeze pages and email marketing can all be used together to create a real symphony of sales opportunity. Youtube can be used in a similar manner – a link in the Youtube description is a great source of traffic for your squeeze page.
One of the real mistakes you need to avoid is not giving the customer value when you are placing an offer in front of them. I have written more about the importance of giving value in affiliate marketing here. Just because you don’t have a website doesn’t mean you can get away with pathetic spammy ads- they simply don’t work anymore. Customers are far too savvy to fall into cheap sales tricks and basically if you aren’t giving value along with your affiliate offer you are wasting your time. Value is a surprisingly underrated commodity online – sifting through the associated junk makes it refreshing to find something useful. Be as original as you can be, it really helps your content to reach more people.
The public has an absolute hunger for content- it’s really what drives the internet, the ‘information superhighway’ so cleverly described by Bill Gates and others in the 90’s. Take advantage of this, and there are so many platforms for you to use to get your content out there, and to convert views and readers into sales. Online and Affiliate Marketing offer great opportunity to create passive income, and there is no need to leave that income to the technical elite.
#11 BONUS
If you’ve read this far into this post thank you. As a little bonus I’ll add in some contrarian commentary – website building is not nearly as hard as it sounds and these days requires little knowledge and rarely needs any coding. A blog post CMS such as WordPress or Joomla! is both free and easy to use. You will need somewhere to host your site (Bluehost is a good start) but even this can be simplified say for example on wordpress.com. Professional themes such as those offered on Themeforest make a professional looking site an absolute breeze. The benefits of having a site as opposed to affiliate marketing without one are many. Simply having a home base to house your content is practical and useful, as is the ability to do remarketing, and drive traffic to your own webpage using search engine optimization, search engine pay per click and social media marketing.
I hope this post helps you on your journey and feel free to leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from anyone that has another way to affiliate market online without a website. As always looking for continuous and even small ‘kaizen’ improvement; let me know some constructive feedback. I moderate my comments but as long as you are polite you’ll be allowed.
Disclaimer: Statements on this blog post do not represent the views or policies of anyone other than myself. The information on this site is provided for discussion purposes only. The opinions and statements expressed are my own and some links in the blog are affiliate meaning that I can receive compensation from companies whose products I have linked to.
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