Affiliate Marketing Without A Website And Blog
In my opinion affiliate marketing is the greatest way to make money in the world. Notice that I purposely didn’t call it a ‘job’ because if you’re doing it the right way it doesn’t really feel like work. It’s actually fun; and can be very lucrative.
Consider for a moment:
- Starting an online business is one of the fastest and easiest ways to make passive income consistently month after month. Whether you want to make a few hundred extra bucks part-time or build a multimillion dollar online empire full-time affiliate marketing is the perfect vehicle to allow you the opportunity to do it.
- The barrier to entry in the affiliate marketing game is low since it takes a surprisingly small amount of money to get started. You can work from the comfort and convenience of your own home or anywhere you have internet access if you prefer to travel.
- As an affiliate marketer you earn commissions for selling someone else’s product or service. You don’t have to buy any inventory, do any product fulfillment or shipping, perform customer service, handle billing, or even create your own products. All you do is refer other people who purchase the product or service you’re marketing. They handle all of the business activities that cause most headaches.
- The playing field on the internet is still level meaning that a beginner can directly compete with, and often out-perform, large companies.
- Affiliate marketing has a very bright outlook. The internet marketing industry is forecasted to grow to $7 billion dollars per year in the next five years. This also means that it’s not too late to start. There is plenty of opportunity for everyone.
What affiliate marketing will allow you to experience is total autonomy* over your entire life.
What Are The Negatives?
It would be disingenuous of me to tell you all of the positives of affiliate marketing without mentioning the negatives. As with anything else, there are some things that can present potential roadblocks.
While there are many ways to make money online, the model that I use is kind of old-school (at least in internet marketing terms). What I do is build simple websites that provide quality original content on a specific topic. I chose this path about a decade ago because at that point in time I didn’t have as many choices as you do now.
The negatives in my method include the learning curve and investment in both time and money to get started. With my model of getting started online you need:
- a website, a hosting account to park it on, and an email autoresponder
- to learn how to create optimized landing pages
- to create compelling content to keep your site visitors interested
- to learn how to drive traffic from several different sources
- to learn how to find good product, services and offers to sell and split-test to maximize your conversions
Because of these potential negatives, I am often asked ‘Can I make consistent money online without building a website and buying all the other tools needed?’
Six Alternatives To Affiliate Marketing With A Website
- Social Media Channels: This option has the most choices for affiliate marketers looking to make money online without a website or blog. Social media channels include Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Vine Camera, Ask.fm, LinkedIn, Google+, Tumblr, Flickr, Meetup and Classmates. Several of these platforms allow you to place your own affiliate links on your posts, comments, and profiles.
The key to this option is to know the rules of marketing on each platform (by reading the guidelines and policies on each) and following them to avoid ticking off the other users and worse yet getting outright banned from them. Remember that you don’t own your social media accounts, you’re simply a visitor. It’s OK to sell on some of these channels but focus on being contributor first and adding value to the community before asking for anything in return. And that’s where to hard work comes in. Only the best contributors make the big affiliate markeing bucks when it comes to social media channels. - Revenue Sharing Social Networks: The revenue sharing content model started with sites like HubPages, but have grown beyond just text-based-content since then to include Tsu, GetGems, BonzoMe,Bubblews and Persona Paper. This model is not without controversy since many content contributors complain about constantly changing payment models, payments lower than expected and problems with late payments.
- Promoting Affiliate Products Directly Via PPC Advertisements: Some Pay-Per-Click ad platforms allow you to create advertisements that land directly on affiliate marketing websites. While on the surface this sounds like the easiest way to make money online with the least amount of effort that’s not necessarily true. The PPC game is extremely competitive and requires near constant testing, tracking and tweaking to make it profitable.
- Blog Comments And Forums: This old-school method can still work but with all of the other options available is tough road to online success. It involves simply posting comments and feedback on third-party blogs and forums and using your affiliate link in your signature. It’s far from effective and not a very good option today.
Here’s an example from our very own forum: you can see that this member has an affiliate link in their signature. He’s also made himself an active and respected members of the forum. - Create Your Own Information Product And Promote From Other Platforms: Creating a simple ebook that offers valuable information on a topic is still a great way to make money online. The key to success is to choose a hot topic that people are eager to learn more about then create compelling original content that sets you apart. You can embed your own affiliate links into the ebook and even use it to start building your own private list on your topic. You can sell your ebook on platforms such as Clickbank and eBay or offer it as a gift or bonus on social media platforms or topic-related third-party sites.
- Write Reviews Or Snippets On Classifieds Websites: Classifieds websites allow you to sell virtually anything online. The most well known is Craigslist. But there’s also Yakaz, eBay Classifieds, Geebo, Recycler and Backpage to name a few. Consider writing short information snippets and reviews for affiliate products and posting them with your affiliate link. But like everything else, make sure you know the rules in advance to avoid getting banned from these sites.
Disclosure: The operator of this website is a 3rd party marketer with a material connection to product/service providers appearing on this site in that we are compensated for sales made through our affiliate links.
If you have any questions please contact me (Bill) at [email protected]
Photo Credit: markus spiske Flickr via Compfight cc
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