Many people believe that they require a website in order to make money with Amazon associates. However, this is not true as you only need an online presence for doing well in affiliate marketing. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts could be an excellent place to make a beginning.
If you have a strong base of friends or followers, you can get an audience who will click on your post’s affiliate links. The main aim is to create posts that can persuade the audience to move ahead and make the purchase.
What is the Amazon Affiliate Program?
The Amazon affiliate program is free for website owners and bloggers. These people advertise the products from Amazon.com on their sites. They provide links for purchase, and when customers click on them, they get referral fees.
Amazon Affiliate Program Rules and Requirements
By being an Amazon associate, you can monetize all your projects and make an additional income. But Amazon has specific guidelines, so it is better to understand them before you start. Noncompliance to the same may mean being banned from the program.
Some of the principal rules are:
- You have to mention on your site or in the communication that you may earn from the recommendation.
- Do not make any false claims in the recommendation.
- You should not refer to the prices as they are prompt to change.
- Do not use the Amazon affiliate link in the online promotions, eBooks, or email.
- You must not use any link shorteners on these affiliate links.
How To Become an Amazon Affiliate Without A Website
There are many ways in which you can make money as an affiliate marketer. However, you should not put all your efforts in only one place; this is because if the platform refuses to work for you, the chances of all your savings getting wasted. Read on to know what options are available to you.
Posting Links in Forums
The idea here is that you should sign up for as many forums as possible and then post the links to the affiliate programs in your posts there.
You could provide them as replies to posts. However, Forum owners do not like such types of posts, so you might be banned from posting on any forum. The only way you can succeed in this effort is if you post a link to a product that the members really need.
Create Viral Content
It goes without saying that you should create an eBook or series of videos that most people want to see. However, your book or video series should have links to the affiliate programs embedded in it. When somebody clicks on the links and makes a purchase, you make money through commission.
The problem, though, is that only 1% of the content available online has the potential to be viral. If it were so easy to create viral content, every marketer would have been successful. To make money out of the same you you will have to work very hard, and then only income could be fruitful.
Start A YouTube Channel
Yes, you can also make money promoting your affiliate products through YouTube. Lots of people are already doing so. This is possible because YouTube generates more traffic than a lot of search engines combined together.
When a YouTuber shows you the box on its screen and asks you to click on the link that is affiliate marketing.
Also, if they share a specific code to get a discount or any unboxing and reveal videos, they all would fall under affiliate marketing as well. So, the essential advice is to publish good videos and add affiliate links in the video description.
However, no one would have ever mentioned is that you need to have a large audience if you want to get a massive income out of this method.
Another problem is that YouTube may just ban or terminate your channel if they think you are doing anything wrong. If somebody reports your channel, then also you can land in trouble.
Remember that Google still displays a YouTube collection of videos with keywords on their first page, and that is also going to work wonders.
Posting Classified Ads
This is again quite similar to the forum posting model that we discussed earlier. You will have to create accounts on big classified sites like Craigslist and then share impartial reviews of the products and services.
Obviously, on these reviews, you will add your affiliate links as well. However, this trick can work only if you are focused on getting it right.
You have to post on these websites many times a day and then the hope of making money. In case the website decides to change the terms of service and bans any affiliate links, you are going to feel lost. Money will come only if you know how and when to post without arousing any suspicion.
Web 2.0 Sites
Some very popular web 2.0 sites that you can find are WordPress.com, Blogger.com, and Medium. WordPress and Blogger are blogging platforms that help you publish your content.
Previously you could get your posts on these websites ranking on top position without making any significant effort. But those days are long gone.
Medium is also like Blogger and WordPress.com in the sense that anyone can sign up for this content publishing platform.
However, it has a vast audience, a dedicated marketing department, and the content posted ranks highly on Google and will continue to do so.
Medium allows you to share affiliate links on your content, but you have to tell the users that it is an affiliate link and that you stand to earn through these links.
Steemit is an alt-tech version of Medium but is like Hub Pages in the manner in which it generates revenue. Publishers on Steemit receive payment through Steem cryptocurrency, but you can also convert Steem to Bitcoin and use it on the platform.
Social Media Platforms
You can make great money with affiliate marketing through pages available on social media platforms. This is not going to be easy, to begin with. Unless you are an influencer having lakhs of subscribers or followers, you’re not going to succeed.
In fact, if you already have a big social media following, affiliate networks and companies will come looking for you.
However, you need to get the numbers first. It is possible to make more than a full income just by combining social media and affiliate marketing.
But you may have to invest years in just trying to build your audience. You could also get lucky and create viral content on some social media platforms to make money.
Email Marketing
This is another way of doing affiliate marketing without having a website of your own. You must have a list of subscribers to whom you can recommend your products.
Either you can create your own list or buy one. It is better to build your own list because purchased lists are not reliable.
To build a list, you could offer a free guide/info/course/product through paid ads on different social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and others.
You can send weekly emails to the subscribers where you could add affiliate links. Remember to share only products that are actually relevant to them.
Again, you have to be a good email writer to make money through this technique. Also, you will have to work day and night to increase the size of the subscriber list.
The subscribers you have should be those who will take your word seriously. Just adding numbers to the list may not be so helpful. After all, only those customers will convert who believe in what you say.
Final Thoughts
Don’t get depressed thinking that affiliate marketing is not your cup of tea. You can easily follow the tips to manage affiliate marketing even though you do not have a website.
Though, in the beginning having a website really pays off. You should understand that hard work and being determined is very important. Losing your focus in the middle means you are not going to earn enough.
Affiliate marketing is lucrative only if you know how to make it work in your favor. Once you get the hang of it, you are going to soar ahead.
You must keep the content on your blog updated that match the latest trends. Most customers decide based on the content you share, so it is better not to ignore this aspect of affiliate marketing.