Time and time again, internet marketers have claimed that to do business in the World Wide Web, youd need your own website. Your own website, they say, is your headquarters in cyberspace. Its your very own digital store where you could lead potential customers and where you offer the products you have for sale.

Though its true that having your own website can greatly aid you in your quest to achieve success in the online field, a website is not the end all and be all of internet salesmanship, particularly in the line of affiliate marketing. Yes, you could make a living online as an affiliate even if you do not have the benefit of your own website!

How is this possible? How can this be done? Read on as we discuss alternative strategies that will allows you to make the most out of your affiliate marketing campaigns without having your own webpage on the net.

Affiliate marketing is a program whereby the affiliate can earn some generous commissions for every successful sale they manage to refer to the affiliate merchant. The affiliates task is merely to pre-sell the affiliate merchants goods. The sales page, the payment processing, the digital delivery, and post sales services shall be the responsibilities of the affiliate merchant.

The affiliate only has to refer people to the affiliate merchants sales page. This can be done by making people click on the affiliate links exclusively provided for the affiliate. Now, these affiliate links are very important. They are like the markers for the affiliate program. They will tell the system that a visitor was actually referred by the appropriate affiliate.

Marketing the affiliate merchants goods without the benefit of a website entails marketing the affiliate links in a variety of channels that would serve the affiliate in lieu of a website of his own. This can be done through the following techniques:

* Article marketing. We all know how powerful affiliate marketing can be in link building campaigns. But instead of providing for links to your own website, you could provide your affiliate links. Article directories allow you a resource box per submission, where you could tell your readers about yourself as well as leave a link of your choice. Now, you have to remember that some article directories do not allow affiliate links in the bodies of the articles themselves, but affiliate links are perfectly allowed in the resource box. Great places to start your article marketing campaign are articlemarketer.com (highly recommended), ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com and isnare.com.

* Forum marketing. Online communities, or forums, are likewise great channels where you could promote your affiliate links. Membership in pHp 2.0 based forums gives you a signature box where you could advertise your links. Use this to advertise your affiliate links. For every post you will make, your signature box would appear. Post a thousand messages, and youll have a thousand pages advertising your affiliate links! Want to know the forums which are relevant to the subject serviced by the affiliate products youre promoting? Use the tool at www.link-advantage.com/search to find the appropriate online community.

* Advertise in eZines. This may cost you some cash, as many eZines charge for advertising space. Nonetheless, you could expose your affiliate links to highly targeted prospects using this approach. Imagine if the eZine has a list of 10,000 people. Youd immediately be able to reach 10,000 quality leads with one advertisement. Again, you dont need a website. Simply use your affiliate link in your ads.

The absence of your own website is never a bar to online success. Most of the strategies we have discussed here can be accomplished without spending a single cent.

If you do not have the financial resources to register a domain or to subscribe to a web hosting service, you could still achieve success with affiliate marketing. Joining an affiliate program is free. Promoting your affiliate links can likewise be availed of without any charges. Good luck!