By now, the lucrative world of affiliate marketing has reached the mainstream. More people are choosing to supplement their income by promoting products on the internet. While there are several methods and best practices regarding affiliate marketing, many people initially want to know how they can promote ClickBank products without a website.
The main goal of promoting without a website is to generate traffic to a referral link. There are three ways to go about this: media buying, influencer marketing, and content marketing.
Each type comes with its own unique costs, scaling obstacles, and learning curves. Read on to find which is the best way for you to get started promoting ClickBank products without a website!
Digital Media Buying
Digital media buying is the process of purchasing placements for advertisements on websites, search engines, and mobile apps. It is the highest form of promotion without a website. It is also the most expensive. There are several ways to buy digital media. For affiliate marketers, two popular ways are buying Facebook ads and Google ads. You can also buy native ads and learn about buying keywords through Google Ad Words.
A lot of the most-used ad buying mediums have become expensive and competitive though. One of the best ways to get into digital media buying is through new ad channels like Spotify and Reddit. The CPM (cost per mille) is low and it takes less time and fewer resources to figure out how to get started.
While new forms of digital media buying may be less competitive, you will still have to spend money to get started. You may also choose to spend some money on learning materials if you want access to comprehensive guides on digital media buying.
The scalability of digital media buying has no cap. Once you find offers that convert and become confident in your ad-design skills, you can grow as an affiliate marketer relatively quickly. Learning to test ads and create ads that convert will help you reach success.
Pro Tip: Always read, understand, and follow the ad rules on whatever platforms your are promoting on. If you don’t follow the rules, you will be penalized and your ads will be declined.
Cost: $$$
Scalability: Unlimited
Learning Curve: Class 4–you might need a professional guide for this.
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is another way that affiliate marketing can be done without a website. According to the Ultimate Influencer Marketing Guide, “Influencer marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on using key leaders to drive your brand’s message to the larger market. Rather than marketing directly to a large group of consumers, you instead inspire/hire/pay influencers to get out the word for you.”
For affiliate marketers, this means promoting a product through a referral link to your audience. Obviously, the limiting factor for influencer marketing is, well, your audience count. To be successful as an influencer marketer, you must have people to promote products to.
Influencer marketing, like digital ad buying, takes a little bit of cash. You will likely need to purchase products for demonstrations and you may need to build a following through giveaways and other perks. Unfortunately, your growth as an affiliate marketer will always be capped by the size of your audience. But with so many social channels available, growing and diversifying your followers can be done–granted, it will take time and energy.
ProTip: Pick your niche wisely–you can accidentally pigeonhole yourself as an influencer which will make growing your audience even tougher. For more information about how to do influencer marketing, check out our previous blog post: “What Are Social Media Influencers?”
Cost: $$
Scalability: Hindered by follower count.
Learning Curve: Class 2–there may be some ups and downs.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is the lowest form of affiliate marketing without a website. At its worst, content marketing is known as “link dumping”–plastering referral links all over forums, websites, and comment sections. But this is scammy and annoying, so we don’t recommend it.
Instead, you can add value to people’s lives by answering questions in forums like Reddit and Quora that are related to the products you are promoting. Coming up with well-written and informative copy can be tricky, but it will boost your credibility and help you grow as an affiliate marketer.
Ultimately, content marketing is time consuming and tedious. However, it is absolutely free and a good way to get started. It can also provide some quick wins depending on the quality of your content.
This is a good place to start if you want to build to the next forms of affiliate marketing without a website. The main hindrance to scaling with this method is time. There’s simply not enough time in the day to write unique forum answers and content that contains a product referral link.
ProTip: Find examples of content that contains a referral link and learn from their copy. There’s a method to content marketing that can be replicated, if you figure out what is working in the product niche you’re promoting.
Cost: $
Scalability: A good place to start, but not sustainable.
Learning Curve: Class 1–this is a pretty straight forward process.
Affiliate Marketing Takes Time
Regardless of what method you choose to promote ClickBank products without a website, prepare for the inevitable setbacks. Learning affiliate marketing takes time, patience, and practice. The best way to learn is finding something that works, and then create your own version.
Notice the successes and mimic it. No matter what, if you keep at it, you’re bound to see a win or two. Once you get your first commission check, let that sweet feeling of triumph encourage you on to your next steps as an affiliate marketer.
To find products that you want to start promoting RIGHT NOW, head on over to the ClickBank Affiliate Marketplace where you can browse products and get referral links.