How to Do Affiliate Marketing Without a Website in 2023

Do you want to make money through affiliate marketing but don't have a website? You're not alone! A lot of people are in the same boat. In this blog post, we will teach you how to do affiliate marketing without a website.

We'll go over some methods that you can use to promote products and generate commissions.

I won't B.S. you in this article either. You'll get the facts on what works and what doesn't. Some might even shock you.

So, whether you're just starting out or you've been doing affiliate marketing for a while, read on and get the facts!

Can you Make Money From Affiliate Marketing Without a Website?

Yes, affiliates are already making money online without running a website or blog, so why can't you?

Starting a blog is the more traditional way of making affiliate commissions but it's not the only way. Some people just don't want to write blog posts each week and then wait for them to rank. They'd rather do something different that doesn't involve a ton of writing.

A website or blog is still the best option because it's an asset that you own and you will build up over time. Eventually, you could even sell it for big bucks.

However, you're here for another reason so we'll get into that in a moment.

What Do Affiliate Marketers Need to be Successful?

Before I get into how to make money with affiliate marketing without a website, I want to go over some things that you'll need to be successful in this industry.

First and foremost, you'll need a niche. A niche is a group of people that you will be marketing to. For example, your niche could be "dog owners." Once you have a niche, you'll need to find products that are related to that topic.

In other words, you need to offer products to the right audience. When you have an audience that needs the products you are offering, then you'll be on your way to becoming a successful affiliate.

So, if you've got your audience and your product, technically you won't need an affiliate website. While affiliate marketing may seem complicated to some people, it really just comes down to that.

10 Ways To Do Affiliate Marketing Without A Website

1. Social Media Marketing
2. Start a YouTube Channel
3. Landing Pages
4. Pay-Per-Click Affiliate Marketing
5. Solo Ads
6. Email Marketing
7. Forum Marketing
8. Facebook Groups
9. Web 2.0's
10. Create an eBook

1. Social Media Marketing

Affiliate marketing using social media platforms can be lucrative. However, this is only the case if you already have a large social following.

It’s going to be difficult to build up a following on social media sites if you don’t already have the numbers. Very large Instagram or Twitter accounts do quite well promoting products through affiliate marketing. Some of these people make a full-time living this way.

In fact, many affiliate networks contact these people and try to get them to promote products.

If you don’t have a large following, you might get lucky with a post that goes viral but the chances of that happening are pretty slim. 😨

It could take years to build up a social following. I’m not saying you can’t do it sooner, but I imagine you already belong to some type of social platform. You probably know yourself that people don’t just magically follow you.

So should you do it?

If you’ve got the numbers, then yes it’s worth a shot. If not, it’s just not worth it.

2. Start a YouTube Channel

You’re probably aware of how rich some Youtubers are. You might think that they only became rich by being paid by Youtube through their partner program. While this is true, they also make a substantial income when they promote affiliate products.

I am sure you’ve heard “click the link below” many times in videos. Most of the time this is an affiliate link. A lot of YouTubers will promote Amazon links but essentially any link to any product with an affiliate program can work.

But What if you Don't Want to go on Camera?

Well, guess what. You don't have to!

You're probably thinking, but it's YouTube, you have to go on camera. This is false. Did you know that many Youtubers make 6 and 7 figures a year without showing their face?

One guy in particular has 9 channels like this. He doesn't go on camera at all and makes of 30K a month.

If you don’t have a channel or are thinking about doing Youtube Marketing it’s still very possible. However, you’re going to have to learn how to start a Youtube channel first in order to fast-track your success.

3. Landing Pages

What is a landing page? Think of these as a one-page website or a very descriptive advertisement. You’ve probably heard of landing page builders like Clickfunnels or Lead Pages. These can be built very easily and the sole purpose is to either correct someone to an affiliate product or two get them into a sales funnel.

What’s great about landing pages is that most of them already have a pre-built template so you just fill in the Blanks with text.

In order for this method to work, you will need to generate traffic to your landing page. You can do this through paid advertising or by sharing on social media.

As you probably know already, you’ll need an audience for this to work. Landing pages don’t rank in Google, so there’s no chance of them getting picked up in the search engines. Most affiliate marketers use Facebook or Google ads with landing pages.  

4. Pay-Per-Click Affiliate Marketing

Pay-Per-Click, or PPC, (paid ads) affiliate marketing is an optional way to make money online without a website. With PPC affiliate marketing, you simply create a landing page (as described above) and then bid on keywords that are relevant to the products you are promoting. When someone clicks on your landing page, they will be redirected to the merchant’s website where they can make a purchase.

PPC affiliate marketing is a great way to get started in affiliate marketing because it allows you to test different products and strategies without incurring a lot of risks. Plus, it is a fairly easy platform to use and there is a lot of potential for earning high commissions.

However, there are some drawbacks. It could take a while for you to find a winning product with this strategy. If the product is in a very competitive market, the cost per click could be very high. You could end up spending a lot of money without making any commissions.

Also, promoting affiliate links by linking directly to the sales page with PPC marketing will likely get you banned. You are only allowed to link to your landing page. So landing pages here are necessary, there are no shortcuts.

5. Solo Ads

Solo ads are a great way to reach your audience without a website. A solo ad simply leverages an email list to get people to buy your affiliate products.

To explain how it works, here’s an example:

Let’s say you are in the dog niche. What you’re going to do next is to find solo ads Sellers that are either specifically in the Dog niche or pet niche. These people will have very large email lists that they have built up over time. You will write up an email that includes a link to your landing page promoting your product. They will then send an e-mail blast to their subscribers which includes your link.

You pay an agreed amount on the clicks made from your link. This can range anywhere from 30 cents and up.

You can find Solo ad providers on places like Udimi or Facebook but do your research first. You can learn more about solo ads here. 

One of the leading Solo ads gurus is Igor Kheifets who is a very successful affiliate marketer that doesn't build websites. He's worth checking out.

6. Email Marketing

How do you build an email list?

There are a couple of ways you can do this. The first is with solo ads. When someone clicks on your link to go to your offer, you could also include an email Opt-in along with your affiliate link.

The more common way is to use Facebook ads to build your list. You do this by creating a landing page offering a free download. For example, if you are in the diet niche, you could offer a free guide on the 10 best weight loss tips. Once someone enters their email, they will automatically get subscribed to your email list where you will send the freebie and also market to them in subsequent emails.

The only downside to this is that you constantly need to build your email list which is going to cost you money. You also need to be very good at copywriting to capture your audience’s attention. If you send too many promotional emails, people will likely unsubscribe to your list. Therefore it’s important to strike a balance between promotion and information.

7. Forum Marketing

What is forum marketing? Essentially, this is spamming forums with affiliate links. If you think this sounds like a bad idea, then you’re probably right.

In fact, many forums’ administrators will ban you or not even allow people to posts links in their posts. In some cases, you will be allowed to post links after you have written 25 or more posts or replies.

You might get away with replying to other people’s inquiries by answering your question and then saying something like this product can help with that. You would then link to the affiliate product. However, forum admins are privy to this practice and you could still get banned.

So why should you try to promote affiliate links in forums? It’s because it can work at times and it really depends on the moderators and if you’re allowed to even posts links. To be honest, it’s a lot of work but if the link sticks, you could make some good money. It’s still a long shot though.

8. Facebook Groups

Facebook groups are kind of like forums. You will likely have more success posting affiliate links in Facebook groups compared to forums. However, these groups are clamping down more and more on people that paste not just affiliate links but any link.

To be successful with this strategy, you need to build up trust within the group first. Answer some questions and provide some solid information without posting any links. If you build up a topic and people are responsive to it, you can then discreetly drop an affiliate link.

The only real positive here is that it's free to do. Because there are so many others doing it, the success rate is quite low. However, if you have a high ticket affiliate offer, it could be worth it to make a sale here or there once in a while.

9. Web 2.0's

Web 2.0’s are basically free Blogging platforms like Medium.com, Blogger.com, or WordPress.Com.

Since these platforms have high domain authority, if your content is good, you might have a chance of ranking well on google.

For example, I tested affiliate marketing with Medium in the past. I did some keyword research, wrote an article, and posted it on Medium. It ended up ranking on the first page within a couple of weeks. 

Unfortunately, the party ended after a few months because apparently, I violated their terms of service. The problem was I was not only linking to an affiliate offer but the article was structured in a way to get the reader off Medium and onto another page. 

They didn’t seem to like that. In short, the article was suppressed so that only I could read it. It disappeared from page one within a few days.

You can still use Medium or another web 2.0 to test this strategy, but the problem is you don’t own your content and it can be removed at any time.

It’s worth a shot if you have no money to invest in another strategy but don’t get too upset if your content gets taken down.

10. Create a Free eBook

It’s quite easy to create an ebook. There are many ebook builders and people available that can do it for you if you don’t want to do it yourself.

The only challenge is getting it out there and you’ll likely have to use something like Facebook ads to do this.

Courses That Teach Affiliate Marketing Without a Website

There are courses like 301K Challenge that I mentioned above that teach solo ads, which don't require a website. Then there are courses like Commission Hero that teach Facebook affiliate marketing and you guessed it - without a website. There are 'hybrid' style courses like Savage Affiliates that teach you both paid advertising without a website but also teach you how to build one too.

You might want to check out my affiliate marketing course roundup for beginners article. It can help you start an affiliate marketing business that works for you. There are many options but I only list the ones that are reputable.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

After reading this, you probably think it’s tough to start affiliate marketing without a website.  While some of the points I have made can deter a lot of people from the above methods, the truth is some people have actually made this work.

I think the main reason why you want to do affiliate marketing without your own website is probably that it’s too intimidating to build one.  You probably think you need to have great writing and coding skills.  The truth is, you don’t.

As for writing, there are AI tools like Jasper that do the writing for you or you could hire a freelancer.  But to be honest, some people that aren’t even native English speakers have created very popular and profitable websites and blogs. You don’t need to be a gifted writer and tools like Grammarly can help.

When it comes to building a website, I suggest you use WordPress.  You do not need any coding skills to create a site with WordPress.  There’s plenty of training available in it’s the best platform to build a website in my opinion.

Building a site is not expensive either. Here is a complete breakdown on the costs.

You're free to try out all the methods above. It might just work. But when it comes time to be serious about having a real affiliate marketing business and do online marketing the right way, get some training first. Building an asset that gets more valuable over time is the way to go.

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