While you can essentially get started in affiliate marketing without a website, and many Internet marketers have done this out of necessity, sooner or later (sooner if possible) you are going to need your own website in order to grow your business. If, however, you do find yourself in the all too common but unenviable position of not having the funds to get a website of your own just yet, there are ways you can participate in affiliate marketing without one. Smart marketers, though, will pour their profits right back into the business in order to get their own website. Let’s take a brief look, though, at two of the most popular ways you can get started with affiliate marketing today without a website.
Forum Posting
Most forums will let you post a link in your signature line and that link can lead to an affiliate website or back to your own. First, find the affiliate products you want to represent or if you are already involved in forums within a certain niche, look for products to promote within that niche. You might want to check the ClickBank marketplace for a list of digital products you can promote but there are also many other affiliate programs you can join without your own site. The trick is actually not to promote your products at all within your forum posts. That is, not unless someone posts a message asking for a good whatchamacallit or something of that nature. If you’re responding to an honest call for help, by all means, talk about your product but in most cases the posts will revolve around the niche and not the particular product you are promoting.
The key, then, is to get involved in the forum community. Ask questions, answer questions, post relevant comments and get known as a regular member of the community. Then at the end of every post include your affiliate link in your signature line, which is commonly at the end of your post. Make a couple of sales and you’ve earned enough to pay for your own domain and hosting in no time, which of course, will afford you many more opportunities to promote your products.
Article Marketing
You should use article marketing as a promotional tool whether or not you have your own website as it can come in really handy either way. The trouble is, not all article directories will let you post affiliate links. In that case, you must have your own website in order to include a link. If that is the case, look for article directories that will let you post affiliate links. In addition, if you need to make a few sales before you can purchase your own domain and hosting, look for article directories that share ad revenue with the authors. This would give you the chance to earn the upfront money you need to build your own site. In fact, Associated Content offers upfront payment for articles and they share ad revenue as well. To earn ad revenue only from your articles, you can also try Helium and ehow. Remember, where there’s a will, there’s a way so if you need to earn the start-up costs for your own website there are relatively painless ways you can do that online.
