How to Do Affiliate Marketing Without a Website?

Is it possible to do affiliate marketing without a website? It is but you have to ask yourself, why don’t you want to have a website…

I’ve always been the type of affiliate to build a website first. The main reason is because its an asset and something that you can sell in the future if you want to. You can typically sell a website for 36-40x its monthly revenue.

Yet there are still many people that want to do affiliate marketing without a website…but why?

As an affiliate manager, I’ve spoken to many affiliates that do not want to create a website for several reasons.

Not Techy Enough

A common concern is that you dont have the technical skills to create a website. It’s a lot easier than you think.

I remember the days when you had to use dreamweaver to create a site in HTML and then upload your site every time you did the slightest update. In 2024 it’s incredibly easy to create a website using WordPress.

There’s also a ton of videos on YouTube to help

Lack of Funds

Probably the most common is not having the funds to create a website.

Even though hosting and a domain name has gotten cheaper, you may not want to spend that amount of money upfront. You can usually find deals to get hosting and a domain name for less than the cost of a coffee.

No interest in a website

Lets face it, not everyone wants to build a website in order to make money online and that’s understandable. If you enjoy making videos for instance, why would you want to spend time building a website.

All of these are valid reasons.

To be clear you DO NOT need a website to become an affiliate and earn a lot of money.

If you’re in a hurry and just want to check out the 9 ways do do affiliate marketing without a website, click here

3 Things You Need As An Affiliate Marketer

We’ve established that you do not need a website to do affiliate marketing, but what do you need?

The three things you need are;

There is not a specific order in which you would have these. You might have had a passion and built up an audience before having any idea on what to promote. I have an interest in gaming, so I built a small community before even having a clue what to promote.

The flip side is that you might have found a sought after product that you want to promote, but you need to find the audience for it.

Before you get started as an affiliate marketer, you should have a clear understanding of the above 3 things.

Know who your audience are, thing about things such as;

This is going to make promoting to them much easier, if you have an understanding as to who you will be promoting to. Content written for a typical gamer is very different to a stay at home mum interested in organization.

Next, know which offers your going to be promoting. Spend some time learning about them, what the USP’s are, why would your audience be interested in these offers.

Finally, think about how your audience will find you, what platform you will use. If you’re reading this, you already know that you don’t want to have a website.

So how do you plan to do affiliate marketing without a website?

An Affiliate Landing Page is NOT A Website and You Might Need One

Now I know I said you do not need an affiliate website to do affiliate marketing and that is true….but…

There are some methods that even though you don’t need a website, you will need a landing page.

A landing page is simply somewhere to send your audience to, in order to capture their email address or learn about the product/service you’re recommending.

They’re usually just a single page but are designed to boost conversions. People are more likely to purchase something after reading a review than just sending them to the advertisers website.

Like I said though, it generally depends on how you plan to do affiliate marketing.

If you intend to do email marketing, you’ll need somewhere for them to input their email address and get access to whatever lead magnet you’re offering.

Advertisers do not usually allow direct linking, so if you’re doing paid advertising you’ll need to send people to the landing page first to offer some form of pre-sell.

At the same time if you’re doing video content through YouTube, you can normally put the affiliate link in the description, so a landing page is not needed.

9 Ways To Do Affiliate Marketing Without A Website

Below are the nine ways in which you can do affiliate marketing without a website. I’ll also rank them in which I think are the most effective to the least effective.

1. Create a YouTube Channel

If you’re looking to promote affiliate products then YouTube can be a great way of doing it. It’s one of my favorite methods.

The great thing about YouTube is that it can generate a lot of traffic. Its said that YouTube has 4.95 billion monthly active users and roughly 122 million users per day. Something you could quite easily benefit from.

One of the reasons why I like YouTube so much is that you can generate revenue from multiple sources and not just from affiliate marketing. For example you can earn through ads and sponsorship.

Ways You Can Use YouTube For Affiliate Marketing

There are a number of ways you can earn commission from promoting products on YouTube, such as;

Unboxing Videos – A popular way of promoting affiliate products is by creating an unboxing video. Opening up and showing the viewers how a product is delivered. I’ve done this with pizza ovens in the past and it worked really well.

Product Reviews & Product Examples – Many people like to see a product being used before purchasing, or watch an honest review of a product. These videos can results in decent conversion rates.

Round Up Videos – Like review videos, round up videos where you compare a certain amount of the same type of product can work great. IE Top 5 Keyword tools or Best 3 Gaming Chairs

How To Guides – Doing an educational style video on a product or tool can be a great way of promoting a product. They can convert less as many times the user might already have the product. Although some videos could show how to use a product before someone purchases. IE “How to do long tail keyword research with product x”

Live Streams – Live streams can be a great way of generating affiliate sales. You can use a product whilst live streaming or showcase the use of a tool or service. The great thing about livestreams is that you can answer questions live, resulting in better presell and increased conversions.

As you can see there are some great ways of earning affiliate commission through YouTube. It can be a bit daunting getting started on YouTube but my best advice is just to get started. You will get better the more videos you produce.

Check out channels such as Nate Black, Nick Nimmin and Think Media for tips on growing a YouTube channel.

2. Record a Podcast

I’ve been waiting to get into doing my own podcast for awhile now and there’s a very good reason for it. There’s millions of potential listeners.

In 2019 over 155 million people in the United States will listen to podcasts!

Now I know that it’s not a typical way for you to promote affiliate products. (Although you still can and i’ll go into ways shortly)

Over the last few months since the HCU (Helpful Content Update), I’ve seen more podcasts starting up as a way to diversify traffic.

It’s pretty easy to start a podcast.

Record your show
Edit the show
Upload to a podcast distribution service such as Podbean or Buzzsprout

So there is a bit more to it than that, IE the shows got to be decent, you need to market the show etc.)

Compared to some methods, podcasting does have a low bar of entry and there isnt much of a learning curve.

Back to how you can be an affiliate on a podcast…

There would be a few main ways, the first would be to have an affiliate link in the show notes. Not ideal as many people won’t refer to the show notes.

The next would be to have a domain or a landing page that you can direct listeners to, in order to purchase the product or service you’re talking about.

If the affiliate program offers coupon codes, you could offer an exclusive coupon code in your podcast. This would refer the sale back to you and not require any clickable links.

However, you can make decent revenue in podcasting in other ways.

For example, once you start building a group of listeners, you’ll find companies might start reaching out in order to offer you to do an ad within the podcast. It can also open up great sponsorship opportunities.

3. Email Marketing

Something that I have continued to recommend affiliates do over the last 20 years is email marketing. Whether you have a website or not…

There is a well-known saying “The money is in the list” and this is just as true today as it was back when I got started.

Building and nurturing a list can be a great source of traffic and in turn sales.

Generally when you recommend an affiliate offer, once you’ve sent them to the affiliate program you no longer have the opportunity to contact that customer again.

By collecting emails, you can continue to recommend related products that your audience might be interested in. Giving you the chance to generate affiliate commissions from the same list.

To collect the email address in the first place you’ll need somewhere to put a form. For this you will at least need a landing page.

Why would they put in their email address?

Next you need to give them a reason to enter their email and it needs to be of value. (Not just a sign up to my newsletter)

A free ebook, report or checklist around the specific niche your targeting can be a great option.

It’s giving something of value that your audience will benefit from.

You could even include affiliate links in the ebook, increasing the chance of conversions.

You’ll then want to set up an onboarding funnel that helps to build trust and give them a reason to stay subscribed, along with some promotional emails.

It’s then important to continue emailing your list on a weekly basis with informative content, helping to keep them engaged.

4. Post on Forums/Communities

A year ago I would have said forums were dead and its was very rare that you’d see communities such as Reddit ranking for affiliate terms. That has all changed since HCU.

Forums and communities have been a way of doing affiliate marketing without a website for some time now. At the moment it can be a very viable way as well, although this continues to change with future updates.

The first thing you need to do is find forums and communities such as Facebook groups within your niche.

Once you’ve found them, join up and start posting.

You want to engage with other members, show that you’re an authority within the group.

This will help build trust with other members and sometimes you’ll find the opportunity to recommend a product or service that you recommend.

5. Create an eBook/Book

This method of making money as an affiliate without a website is underused. It’s great for making affiliate sales but you can even make money from the book itself.

The great thing about writing a book or an ebook is that it helps to show your authority within a niche. If you do then have a website, podcast or YouTube channel, it can be a great way to build your brand.

First thing you need to do is pick the niche and then come up with a book around that niche. AI can come in great with coming up with ideas and even a draft outline.

As an example, let’s say I created a book on Calisthenics dieting. In that book i’d provide some recipes and meal plans that are ideal for those wanting to get started with Calisthenics.

I’d then have a section on supplements that can help IE multi-vitamins and then product recommended products with affiliate links.

You then have the option to offer this ebook for free as a download to capture emails. As mentioned above.

Another option would be to get it up onto Amazon as a print on demand book and perhaps make some revenue from book sales. If you put a lot of time and effort into your book, it could make a nice side income.

6. Create a Digital Magazine

Creating a digital magazine is not something that I’ve seen many affiliates doing, but offers an interesting approach. It’s almost a combination of email marketing and creating an ebook.

I set up a digital magazine a few years ago and even though it was not done as an affiliate, it got a decent amount of regular readers.

Back in my World of Warcraft days (I say back in those days I still do play it alot).

The magazine I created was based on the game. It included guides and interviews.

If I had continued building the magazine up, I could have added product/service reviews such as gaming keywords or chairs. This could have generated some decent commissions, as you’d build up trust in the content offered.

Do people even read digital magazines anymore?

Yes they do!

Below are a rough number of digital magazine readers and the age group.

Ages: 15-34s – 10.2 million

Ages: 35-54s – 11.9 million

Ages: 55+ – 11.6 million

In 2019 it was said that 83 million digital magazines were read. So there is certainly a market for them.

I wouldn’t personally just do a digital magazine, you’d want to combine it with email marketing. It might however be a good way of capturing emails, without having to create an ebook.

7. Create a Free Blog

The next method is by creating a free blog…Okay I know I said that this guide is going to show you how to do affiliate marketing without a website but hear me out.

One of the reasons why people dont want to create a website is because of the cost. By creating a free blog, this solves that problem and allows you to benefit from a website.

You can use a service such as WordPress or Blogspot.

The website will have limited functionality but it’s free and it’s a good start.

You won’t be able to create a free blog and get traffic from search engines.

I have not seen free blogs ranking in the search results for many years. Don’t let that put you off.

Knowing this means you can focus your efforts on one of the other methods of generating traffic.

I would say once you start earning some money from the free blog, I would suggest investing it into a domain name and hosting to help you build a long term asset.

8. Use Paid Advertising

A very popular method of doing affiliate marketing without a website is using paid ads, otherwise known as Pay Per Click (PPC).

With PPC your creating an ad and selecting what keywords you want your ad to show. When someone clicks on your ad you pay each time. The cost depends on how optimized the ad is and how competitive the term is.

The reason why many affiliates do paid ads is because it can be a great way of getting your listing to the top of the search results. You will need a landing page of some kind, as most affiliate programs do not allow direct linking.

Back in my early affiliate marketing days, I did a lot of PPC. It can be very profitable, my biggest success in PPC was earning $10,000 in one day.

Its not as simple as creating an ad and earning money.

There are a few things to consider;

Google has a lot of guidelines when it comes to paid, so you need to make sure you follow their paid guidelines.
You will need to test a number of things to get the best return. This will include your landing page, the ad and even the offer. Doing paid could cost you a decent amount upfront to make sure you get a positive ROI in the long run
Finally its important that you pick an offer that rewards decent commissions. The cost you pay per click could be very high in competitive niches, so you need to promote offers that are going to pay high commissions. If I was to do paid now, I would focus on offers that paid $20+ per sale, instead of products that only give a couple of $.

9. Use Social Media

Social media has gotten more and more popular in the past few years, let’s face it they dominate most people’s lives. They’re a great opportunity for affiliates to generate some decent commissions.

Affiliate marketing through social media is just going to continue to get bigger and bigger. With every new platform that starts, it opens up a whole new way of promoting products. Look at TikTok and the impact that had on the industry.

Many people feel that social media is a waste of time when it comes to affiliate marketing, this is usually because its done wrong.

Since its so easy to just create an account and start promoting, there is a low bar of entry. Like many other methods on this list, it takes time and a lot of work to master this method and start earning decent commission. But, if you spend the time you can earn an impressive amount.

The key to social media is to become an authority on your chosen niche. You need to build trust and grow a following.

The only way you can do this is to be passionate about the niche that you’re in. You need to become an influencer in that niche and live and breathe it every day.

Once you establish yourself in the community as an expert, you’ll find it alot easier to start promoting offers that your followers would be interested in.

Tips on How You Can Do Affiliate Marketing Without a Website

Above are some great ways to be an affiliate without owning a website, I wanted to provide some tips on how you can be more successful.

Pick The Right Niche

The first thing you need to think about is the niche that you decide to get into. I’ll be the first to recommend getting into a niche that you’re passionate about, as you’ll be working in that niche for many years.

If you don’t enjoy it then you wont be motivated to work on it. This is even more important when it comes to not having a website, as you’ll need to invest even more effort into it. IE creating video content can be tough if you don’t like what you’re talking about. Plus your viewers will tell by your energy.

You also want to pick a niche that is not too competitive. For example picking the fitness niche or weight loss niche is just too competitive.

It’s important to do something known as “Niching Down”.

This is where you look for sub topics of a bigger topic. They tend to be less competitive but still have an audience.

For example the gaming niche is massive, but competitive. Instead you want to target a specific type of games like RPG’s, Retro games or shooters.

It’s important that you do not niche down too much as the audience might be too low.

My final tip on picking a niche is to see what other people are doing. Once you know how you plan to promote, see what competitors are doing for your selected niche.

For example Nootropics or Biohacking might be great on YouTube, but is not as effective with TikTok or Instagram.

Find The Right Affiliate Programs

Once you know what method you’re going to be doing and what niche you’ll be in, you need to know what affiliate programs you’ll promote.

When I say find the right affiliate programs, what I mean is finding programs that allow you to promote their program with your chosen method.

Some affiliate programs require you to have a website and therefore they wont accept you.

Have a chat with the affiliate manager and explain your marketing plans, they’ll work with you to get the best out of your promotions.

Pick-a-Mix Methods

Who doesn’t love to pick a mix? I have a real sweet tooth.

Okay what has that got to do with affiliate marketing?

When you don’t have an affiliate website, you’ll find that some of the above methods work better when combined with other methods.

For example if you create a podcast, you could combine this with YouTube as well. This opens up multiple audiences and traffic sources.

Another example is email marketing, you could combine this with paid ads. Use paid ads to send people to a landing page, where you then offer them an ebook or report to capture their email.