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Internet Based Affiliate Marketing: Is Owning a Website Really Necessary?

Written by: Lily Boynton

Article Overview: Despite all the benefits of becoming an affiliate, many people are still hesitant to get involved in Internet based affiliate marketing. One of the reason is because the lack of a website to start with, which leads to the question whether it is necessary to have a website to market an affiliate program.

Internet Based Affiliate Marketing: Is Owning a Website Really Necessary?

Affiliate marketing gives first time online marketers the chance to promote something, even when they do not have their own products to sell. Becoming an affiliate is often fast and easy. For many programs, it is also free to sign up. However, despite all the benefits of becoming an affiliate, many people are still hesitant to get involved in Internet based affiliate marketing. One of the reason is because the lack of a website to start with, which leads to the question whether it is necessary to have a website to market an affiliate program.

It is possible to promote and market affiliate program without a website. Among the common strategies that people use are email marketing, offline promotions, writing e-books, writing ezines and engaging in online discussions such as forums, chats, message boards and others.

Let us look at these strategies one by one.

Email marketing might be the most popular affiliate marketing strategy that does not require a website. With email marketing, you will maintain a list of email ads of your prospective customers. You will provide them with articles that relevant with the products and programs you are marketing. For most people promotional emails are too annoying. The best practice with this strategy is by providing informative articles and add small text ads that link to your affiliate's site.

There are many ways to promote your affiliate product offline. The common medium for such promotions is classified ads, brochures and flyers. Classified ads would generally work better compared to the other two because they often reach a wider audience.

If you know how to write, e-book might be the best way to promote your affiliate products in absence of a website. Be sure to write contents that are related to the product you are promoting. Keep it informative rather than promotional. You can put text ads or banner that links to your affiliate's site at the end of your e-book.

Ezines are publications or articles that aim to inform individuals about a particular topic. If you have a website, they may actually work as content for your site. However, if you do not have one, you can submit your articles with inserting link to your affiliate's site to various article submission websites.

As an Internet marketer, I find that online discussions are great venues to promote your products. In chats, forums, message boards and discussion boards with topics related to your products, it is easy to find people who might be interested to buy your products.

With all those strategies mentioned, it may appear that you really do not need a website to be a successful affiliate marketer. Well, not really. While it is true that one can gain massive success in Internet based affiliate marketing even without a website, it is a rare instant that a new comer can reach the same levels of success.

Having a website is not a pre-requisite to start an affiliate program, otherwise you will be oblique to have one in the first place. However, while this is true, I would recommend to have your own website even if you decide to have it later. You will have more control of your business by having your own website. Your will be able to freely promote all of your products, even from different merchants. With advantages a website provide, don't you think it is wise to have one?

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Article Tags: absence, affiliate marketing, affiliate products, affiliate program, audience, brochures, e book, e books, flyers, informative articles, market affiliate, marketers, marketing strategy, message boards, product offline, promotions, prospective customers, text ads



Related Forum Posts
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - Carol, Mary and David - thanks for your great input and insight on Affiliate Marketing! This is the kind of discussion I was hoping for in this thread. There are pros and cons to Affiliate Marketing, just as there are to any business. As has been suggested, he best policy is to proceed with caution and do some research before jumping in. As Carol has recommended, this topic thread in the EvanCarmichael.com forum is the ideal place to ask questions and seek further input on available Affiliate Marketing programs. If a person is serious about building an online business and is interested in Affiliate Marketing plans, they should approach the process as they would any other form of business. Research, ask questions, compare opportunities, participate in forums on online business and Affiliate Marketing. GT :-]
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - Hi GT Affiliate Marketing is one of the easier ways to get started making money online, but it does take quite a bit of work before you see any great results as you have to keep promoting constantly. It does teach you one hell of a lot about all aspects of Internet Marketing though as you will need to learn how to write and submit articles, create and maintain a blog, social networking is a great help to affiliates too..the list goes on and on. In fact from what you learn from Affiliate Marketing you can apply to any niche and be sure to succeed, take care, Carol
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - You made some very good points here Jeff and I agree with you, Affiliate Marketing should not be something that you concentrate all your efforts into. As i said earlier I have learned a lot with Affiliate Marketing and continue to do so, and it has helped me tremendously to understand what I am going to have to do in my chosen niche(s). I am also being coached by the same group of mentors as GT and we are all moving forward daily to achieve our ultimate goals. Take care, Carol
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Hi, Online Marketing would be a great title, and having sub categories would make it even better, there would plenty of categories to choose from, Social Media, SEO, Article Marketing and yes even Affiliate Marketing to name just a few, great looking site btw Jeff, take care, Carol
Re: Kevin's Case Study #11 - A New Forum Category? - Hi Kevin, Like GT suggested, I also think you can add Internet Marketing as a sub category in the Marketing section and also a Social marketing as subcategory. Online marketing/internet marketing/online promotion are the same, and it will be best to use the common term - Internet marketing. I can't think about someone to moderate a Social Marketing category. We all use it, we all know how to make it work and we all have our own different experience with it.


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