PT 2. Affiliate Marketing, Do I Need a Website?

So you have decided to take the plunge and now want to earn money on the internet. However you just do not have enough experience or even capital to start up an online business. Well there is no need to worry. In part one of my affiliate marketing article series, I mentioned that you should know how to make a website seo friendly. I have to tell you that, to be a success in the affiliate business it will help if you have a website, however it is by no means essential. There are numerous online marketing options available to get you started.

Affiliate marketing will provide you, the first time online marketer a chance to market a product or service online even if you do not have your own product to sell. First thing you need to do is, sign up to an affiliate marketing programme, these are usually owned by established merchants. Once signed up you need to pick the products you would like to market. As an affiliate, you will be paid by the merchant for any sales you achieve on a commission basis. What this means is this, you advertise the merchants product and direct potential customers to their site via your affiliate link. Any purchases made by the customers you have sent will give you a commission.

To become an affiliate in a marketing program is really quite easy, and for the majority of affiliate programs, signing up is also free. However, despite the ease of joining and the benefits which can be gained by joining, many people still remain hesitant at getting into affiliate marketing. One of the main reasons for many people to hesitate is the fact that they do not have a website to start marketing his or her affiliate products on. This now takes us to the question of whether a website is really essential in affiliate marketing or not.

I can tell you now, that if you are willing to work hard at promoting your affiliate products then you do not need to have a website of your own. There are numerous ways on the internet for you to promote your affiliate products. In fact, a great deal of affiliate marketing strategies which can lead to your success exist without the actual need of a website. Some of these strategies are as follows: email marketing, offline promotions, writing e-books, writing ezines and taking part in online discussions such as forums, chats, message boards and others.

Email Marketing

Email marketing, or maintaining email lists, is actually the most popular affiliate marketing strategy which does not require you, the affiliate to own and run a website. Using this affiliate marketing strategy, what you basically do is maintain a list of the email addresses of your prospective customers and provide them with articles that are relevant with the affiliate products and programs you are promoting. Articles that you provide your contacts with, do not always have to be promotional, many people find blatant promotional emails annoying. It will be much better if you provide them with something informative and well written and just add small text ads that link to your merchant’s site.

Offline Promotion

There are also many ways in which you can promote your affiliate products offline. Among these are classified ads, brochures and flyers. Classified ads will usually work better compared to the other two because classified ads in periodicals often get a wider audience.

Writing Free e-books

If you are any good at writing then writing an e-book can be an excellent way for you to promote your affiliate products in the absence of an actual website. As in emails and newsletters, your readers will appreciate your e-book more if it is not too promotional but rather informative. Ensure however, that you make the content of your e-books relative to the actual affiliate products you are promoting. And just like in email marketing, you should place text ads or banners somewhere close to the end of your e-book which link to the merchant’s site.

Writing Free Ezines

Ezines are publications or articles which aim to inform people about a particular topic. If you do not have a website and want to be an affiliate, This is an excellent way of reaching a wide audience, just remember to insert your affiliate links in your author resource box at the end of the article. If you do have a website, your ezine article will actually work well as content for your site. However since you have no website, you can just submit your free ezine articles to the various websites and directories which host ezines, such as goarticles.com, ezinearticles.com and many others.

Online discussions (Forums, Chats, Message Boards, etc.)

Whether you have a website or not, it would be rather foolish of you to ignore online discussions, because these are fantastic avenues for marketing your affiliate products. In chats, forums, message boards and discussion boards using topics related to your products, you can easily find people who may be interested in the products you are promoting.

With all these strategies at your fingertips, it may appear that there really is no need to have a website to begin marketing your affiliate products and promoting your affiliate programs. Well, getting started in an affiliate program without a website may be easy, however being successful in affiliate marketing without a website is another thing. Yes you can actually gain a huge success in affiliate marketing even without a website, however it is very rare for “newbies” such as yourself to reach the same levels of success.

OK, so we now see that having a website is not really an essential when entering into an affiliate program, unless ofcourse the program owner requires you to have one. However while this is the case, I would still recommend that you have a website, if not now, then perhaps at a later time. Further on in this series of articles I will show how you can set up a good website easily. Having your own website creates many advantages in affiliate marketing. For one, it provides you with a place where you can be creative with your promotions, not only with one of your affiliate products but with all of your affiliate products. Owning a website enables you to advertise your affiliate products to a wider market.

Again, having a website is not an essential part of affiliate marketing. But with the benefits that a website can provide, I would much rather have one for myself and make affiliate marketing that much easier for me. Keep a look out for part three of this series which is coming soon.