Lori Ballen is a member of the Amazon Associates Program and earns money from qualifying purchases. Posts contain affiliate links that benefit Lori as well.
When venturing into the realm of affiliate marketing, you might be wondering if you can succeed with affiliate marketing without a website.
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There are two ways that you can promote an affiliate program: You can send traffic directly to the program, or you can send traffic to your own website and funnel it to the program.
While either of these promotional methods can generate conversions, using your own website will help you become a more successful affiliate marketer.
Complete WordPress Websites
Hosting, Design, Integrations, Done!
The Downsides to Using Your Own Website
Sending traffic to your own website has some disadvantages. You’ll incur more expenses, for instance, than you would when sending traffic directly to an affiliate program.
Before you can build a website to promote an affiliate program, you’ll have to register a domain and secure web hosting for it. (Check out WP Engine for these services).
These are ongoing services that you must pay for to keep your website online.
It takes more than just a cookie-cutter website with a generic template to convert traffic.
To compel users to engage with an affiliate offer, you must customize your website’s design and add relevant content.
As a result, sending traffic to your own website requires more work.
There’s a greater risk of technical errors when using your own website. It will essentially create an extra step in the conversion process. If your website goes down, you won’t generate conversions from its traffic.
The affiliate program may still be up and running, but users won’t reach it if your website is down.
Even with these disadvantages, using your own website for affiliate marketing can prove worthwhile.
Most successful affiliate marketers don’t send traffic directly to an affiliate program. Instead, they send it to their own website where they can funnel users to the program.
Some Programs Require a Website
Not all affiliate programs support direct linking. When you link directly to an affiliate program, you’ll be competing with the program’s brand.
The brand behind the affiliate program may not want its affiliates competing on the same marketing channels it uses in-house.
Direct linking means you’ll be promoting the same domain as the affiliate program, so the brand will have to work harder to connect with users and generate conversions.
Regardless, some affiliate programs prohibit direct linking. If you discover an otherwise attractive affiliate program that prohibits direct linking, you can still promote it; you just have to use your own website.
If you think you can follow a step by step guide, you can set your WordPress at WP Engine. I use the Essence Pro Theme.
Improved Data Analytics
You can gather more data on your target audience when sending traffic to your own website. You can install clicky Analytics, for example, to measure engagement signals.
Clicky Analytics can reveal how long users stay on your website, how many pages they visit, which devices they use, how users found your website, the percentage of users who leave after viewing a single page, and more.
Sending traffic directly to an affiliate program, on the other hand, will prevent you from accessing these and other engagement signals. The affiliate program may use Analytics, but it probably won’t share this data with its affiliates.
Web Analytics in Real Time
Web Analytics in Real Time
Increased PPC Performance
If you’re hoping to use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to generate traffic, you must use your own website. It’s nearly impossible to create profitable PPC campaigns when direct linking to an affiliate program.
Unless prohibited, you can link directly to an affiliate program in your PPC ads, but you’ll be competing with other like-minded affiliates who will drive up your click costs.
Search engines won’t show multiple ads with the same domain for any given keyword. When two or more affiliates create ads with the same domain, they’ll choose the ad with the highest maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid. Some affiliate programs are highly competitive.
- Head over to WP Engine and choose your hosting plan.
- WP Engine will deliver your WordPress Platform
- Pick one of the pro themes included with your account or purchase one you like from a theme creator like StudioPress. I love the Essence Pro Them.
- Register your Domain name with a domain registrar like Godaddy.com
They may have dozens of affiliates using the same PPC network. For reasonably priced clicks, you must link your ads to your own website.
Generate Organic Traffic
Using your own website allows you to take advantage of organic traffic. Organic traffic consists of visitors who find your website through an unpaid channel, such as an organic listing on Google or Bing. Since you don’t have to pay for it, organic traffic is pure profit.
Affiliate programs generate their own organic traffic. You may, in fact, help an affiliate program generate more organic traffic when linking directly to it.
These direct links can improve the search rankings of the affiliate program’s website. The only way you’ll earn a commission from organic traffic, however, is by using your own website.
Optimize for Conversions
You can optimize your own website for conversions. Affiliate programs are usually optimized for conversions as well, but you won’t have any control over their design or content.
You may experience a high conversion rate when linking directly to an affiliate program on one marketing channel and an abysmally low conversion rate when linking directly to it on another channel.
With your own website, you can create separate pages for each marketing channel that you use to promote an affiliate program. Known as landing pages, you can customize their design and content so that they are highly relevant to the channel’s audience.
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Create Your Own Brand
Sending traffic to your own website also allows you to create your own brand. It doesn’t have to consist solely of links to one or more affiliate programs.
You can add unique and valuable content to your website. Users who visit your website will appreciate its content. In turn, they’ll remember its brand. Users may recommend your website to their friends or colleagues.
These referrals can offer an additional source of conversions for your affiliate marketing website.
If you link directly to an affiliate program, you’ll promote its brand. The only way you can create and grow your own brand is by sending traffic to your own website. Just remember to fill your website with unique and valuable content.
You can promote an affiliate program by either linking directly to it or by using your own website as an intermediary. While it’s possible to succeed at affiliate marketing using the former method, it’s much easier when using the latter method.
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