How To Start Affiliate Marketing Without A Website

The single biggest myth in affiliate marketing is that you need a website to start. You do not. Alston has personally made money with every one of the seven methods in this video, and none of them required owning a domain or paying for hosting. Some of them let you start posting today and see a commission hit your account by the end of the week.

That said, he is clear upfront: a website is still worth building eventually. It gives you a base of operations you fully control. But if you do not have the money or the time to set one up right now, these seven methods are real, working alternatives. This post walks through all seven in the same order Alston covers them in the video, with the specifics on how each one works and what to watch out for.

What You’ll Walk Out With

Seven specific platforms where you can promote affiliate offers without owning a website
Why Quora made Alston his first few dollars online and the mistake that almost got him banned
The one stat about Pinterest users that makes it a stronger platform for affiliate sales than most people expect
Why Facebook groups have dropped in effectiveness and what actually works there now
How Instagram’s single profile link works in your favor when you set it up correctly
Why LinkedIn, which most people think of as a job board, is actually an underused affiliate channel
The difference between a Facebook personal profile and a Facebook Business Page when it comes to affiliate promotions
Not sure which platform fits your skills and schedule? Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com to find your best starting point

Method 1: YouTube

YouTube is Alston’s top recommendation. He mentions it first because video marketing is more engaging and more compelling than text alone, and because YouTube’s discovery system gives creators a genuine edge. When you write a blog post, you are competing in search results. When you publish a YouTube video on a niche topic, YouTube can recommend that video to viewers who are already watching related content, which means your reach is not limited to the people actively searching for you.

The mechanics are simple. You pick a niche or topic, you create content that actually helps people in that niche, and you put your affiliate link in the video description. When someone watches the video, clicks the link, and buys the product, you earn a commission. Depending on the niche and the product, that commission could hit your account the same day you publish the video.

The other thing Alston highlights is that YouTube content is evergreen in a way other platforms are not. A Facebook post disappears from feeds in hours. A YouTube video can continue bringing in views and commissions for years after you publish it. If you are going to invest your time in one no-website method, YouTube offers the highest long-term return on that investment.

Method 2: Quora

Quora is actually where Alston made his first few dollars online. He mentions that detail specifically because it matters: this is not a theoretical method. He went to Quora, found questions in his niche, answered them, and put his affiliate link in the answer. He made a commission. He also almost got banned.

Here is the lesson he learned the hard way: you cannot put an affiliate link directly into a Quora answer. The platform will flag it and your account is at risk. The correct approach is to answer the question with real, useful information, then direct readers to a landing page or bridge page you control. That intermediate page can have your affiliate link on it, and Quora does not penalize you for linking to a page you own.

If you do not have a website for the bridge page, Alston suggests using a free Wix or WordPress.com site. Both are genuinely free and take less than an hour to set up. That page does not need to be elaborate. It just needs to give the reader a bit more information about the offer and a clear link to the product.

The other thing Quora has going for it: the questions people ask there are often the same questions over and over. Someone asks “how do I start with affiliate marketing?” and dozens of people ask the same thing every week. If your answer climbs to the top of that question thread, it keeps generating traffic and potential commissions passively. Alston’s approach is to answer two or three questions per day, consistently, and let the answers accumulate. That consistency builds both a following and a passive income stream from the platform.

Method 3: Pinterest

Pinterest sits at number three on Alston’s list, and the reason he gives is not about how many users it has. It is about who those users are. The household income of a typical Pinterest user is higher than on most other social platforms. These are people with disposable income who are actively looking for products, ideas, and services to purchase. That makes them a more qualified audience for affiliate offers than the average social media scroller.

Pinterest is built around images. If you can create clean, visually appealing pins related to your niche, you can drive consistent traffic without writing a single word of long-form content. You create a series of pins around a niche topic, and when someone clicks a pin, you send them to one of three places: your YouTube channel, an affiliate offer or sales page directly (Pinterest allows this in many cases), or a bridge page you have set up for free.

Pinterest also gives you geographic reach. Alston mentions it specifically as a platform where you can connect with people across the United States and other first-world markets, which matters if you are promoting products that sell better in specific regions. It is one of the few free platforms that lets you run what amounts to a visual catalog for your niche without any ad spend.

Method 4: Instagram

Instagram is another image-first platform, but it works differently from Pinterest. Where Pinterest is built around content that gets indexed and searched over time, Instagram is built around connection and discovery through hashtags. You post content related to your niche, you add relevant hashtags to each post, and people browsing those hashtag feeds find your content and click over to your profile.

Instagram gives every account one outgoing link, placed in the profile bio. That single link is your affiliate tool on the platform. You can send that link directly to an affiliate offer, to a bridge page, or in some cases to a link-in-bio page that lets you list multiple offers or destinations. Alston mentions he has seen videos where people use a link-in-bio style page to give visitors a selection of offers, which is another valid setup if you are promoting across multiple niches.

The content you post on Instagram does not all need to be original photography. You can repurpose images that are already freely available online as long as you are not violating copyright. The goal is to build a consistent presence in your niche so that when someone browses your profile they immediately understand what you are about and are primed to click the link in your bio.

Not sure which platform fits your situation?

Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com and get a personalized recommendation based on your skills, schedule, and income goals.

Method 5: LinkedIn

LinkedIn surprises most people on this list. The common perception is that LinkedIn is a job board and nothing more. In practice it is a full social media platform with active communities, groups, and professional networks built around almost every industry and niche you can think of. That makes it an underused affiliate channel for anyone whose niche overlaps with professional or business audiences.

The approach Alston describes is straightforward. You use LinkedIn’s search bar to find people and groups in your target niche. If you are in the weight loss niche, you search “weight loss” and you will find results covering people who work in that industry, groups built around that topic, and content that is already performing well on the platform. You join those groups, you participate consistently, and you add affiliate links when they are genuinely relevant and useful to the conversation.

The key phrase there is “when appropriate.” LinkedIn users tend to be professionals who are quick to flag anything that feels spammy or self-promotional without context. The people who succeed with affiliate marketing on LinkedIn do so by becoming a recognized, trusted voice in their niche community first. The affiliate links come after the credibility is established, not before.

LinkedIn also has the advantage of reaching a higher-income demographic than most social platforms, similar to Pinterest. The users there are typically employed, educated, and financially active, which means they are more likely to buy products and services that genuinely improve their professional or personal situation.

Method 6: Facebook Business Page

Alston makes a specific distinction here: he recommends a Facebook Business Page, not a personal Facebook profile. The reason is Facebook’s own policies. The platform discourages and in some cases penalizes marketing activity done through personal profiles. A Business Page is the structure Facebook intends for this kind of promotional content, which means you are working within the rules rather than around them.

With a Business Page you can post free content in any format: videos, images, text posts, links. You can also join relevant Facebook Groups from your Business Page and participate in those communities as your brand rather than as a personal account. As your page builds followers and your group participation builds credibility, people will start finding your page, liking it, and following your content organically.

The reason Facebook still belongs on this list despite some of the platform’s frustrating algorithm changes: it has over a billion monthly active users. Even with organic reach being lower than it used to be, the sheer volume of people on the platform means there is still a meaningful audience available for almost any niche. You do not need to reach all of them. You need to reach a small slice of a relevant group consistently.

Method 7: Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups is the one method on this list where Alston explicitly says the opportunity has declined. He is honest about it: the strategy of joining a Facebook group and dropping your affiliate link has been so widely promoted by online gurus that group members are hip to it. They recognize it immediately and either ignore it or report it. That approach does not work the way it used to.

What does work in Facebook Groups in the current environment is the same thing that works everywhere: adding genuine value. You join groups in your niche, you answer questions, you start useful discussions, you ask how you can better serve the people in the group. You become the person in that group who is worth listening to. When you have established that position, dropping an affiliate link in a relevant conversation lands completely differently than it does from a random account that nobody has ever seen before.

Alston puts Facebook Groups at number seven specifically because you need to do more work upfront before affiliate promotion is effective. The other six methods on this list either have better organic discovery (YouTube, Quora, Pinterest) or cleaner platform structures for promotional content (LinkedIn, Facebook Business Page). Facebook Groups can still produce results, but it requires more patience and more relationship-building before the affiliate income shows up.

Comparing All Seven Methods Side by Side

To make it easier to decide where to start, here is a direct comparison of all seven methods across the factors that matter most:

YouTube: Highest long-term potential. Evergreen content. Discovery is built into the platform. Takes time to build but pays off for years. Best for people comfortable on camera or willing to get there.
Quora: Best for people who write well and enjoy answering questions. Requires a free bridge page to avoid getting banned. Passive once answers climb the thread rankings. Good for beginners because the learning curve is low.
Pinterest: Best for visual niches. Higher-income user base. Pins index over time like search results. Good if you can create clean images but do not want to be on camera.
Instagram: Strong discovery via hashtags. Works for almost any niche. Requires consistent posting to maintain visibility. Single profile link is the main affiliate touchpoint.
LinkedIn: Underused and underestimated. Best for professional and business niches. Requires relationship-building before affiliate promotion lands. Higher-income demographic than most platforms.
Facebook Business Page: Broad reach due to platform size. Rules-compliant structure for affiliate content. Organic reach is lower than it used to be but still meaningful at scale.
Facebook Groups: Declining effectiveness for pure affiliate promotion. Still works if you add genuine value first. Requires more patience than the other methods before income appears.

How to Pick the Right One for You

The honest answer is that the best method is the one you will actually do consistently. Alston has made money with all seven, but that does not mean all seven will work equally well for every person. Your starting point depends on what you are already comfortable doing.

If you are comfortable talking on camera, YouTube is the obvious first choice. If you prefer writing, Quora gives you immediate access to people who are already asking the questions your affiliate products answer. If you have an eye for images and enjoy a visual workflow, Pinterest or Instagram fits that style. If your niche is professional or business-oriented, LinkedIn is the channel most people in your space are ignoring, which is exactly why it has potential.

Do not try to run all seven at once when you are starting out. Pick one. Get consistent. Learn what works in that specific environment. Once you are making commissions and understand the pattern, you can layer in a second channel. Spreading too thin too early is one of the most common reasons people give up on affiliate marketing before it has a chance to work.

Find Your X

Knowing the seven methods is step one. Knowing which one fits you is step two. The free quiz at finder.platformproof.com asks about your current skills, how much time you have, and what kind of income goal you are working toward, then gives you a specific starting point. It is worth taking before you commit to a platform you might not stick with.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I actually make money with affiliate marketing if I have no website?

Yes, and Alston is specific about this: he has personally made money with every method on this list without a website. The platforms themselves provide the audience and the discovery mechanism. You are using their infrastructure instead of building your own. The tradeoff is that you do not own the platform, so a rule change can affect your reach. A website gives you more control long-term, but it is not a prerequisite to making your first commission.

Why almost got Alston banned from Quora?

He followed advice from another YouTuber telling people to put affiliate links directly into Quora answers. Quora’s platform policies prohibit direct affiliate links in answers because it reads as spam. The correct approach is to link to a landing page or bridge page you control, and then have the affiliate link on that intermediate page. Alston made a commission doing it the wrong way, but the risk to his account was not worth it.

Do I need to create all my own images for Pinterest and Instagram?

No. Alston mentions repurposing images that are already available online, specifically for Instagram. The key is respecting copyright. Free image sites like Unsplash and Pexels offer images with licenses that allow commercial use. For Pinterest, tools like Canva let you create original pin designs quickly from templates, which is often a better approach anyway since branded images stand out more than stock photos.

What is the difference between a bridge page and an affiliate landing page?

A bridge page sits between your traffic source and the vendor’s sales page. It is a simple page you control that provides a bit more context about the offer before sending the visitor to buy. It does not necessarily capture an email. A landing page typically collects an email address in exchange for something, such as a free guide or early access, and then follows up with affiliate offers over time. Alston recommends a bridge page specifically for Quora to avoid getting banned for direct affiliate links.

Is LinkedIn really useful for affiliate marketing outside of business niches?

It depends on the niche. LinkedIn’s user base skews toward professionals, so niches like productivity, investing, career development, software tools, and health and wellness for professionals fit naturally. Pure consumer niches like fashion, cooking, or gaming are harder sells on LinkedIn because the platform culture is not built around those topics. But within the niches that do fit, the higher average income of LinkedIn users makes them a better-qualified buyer than on most other free platforms.

Why does Alston recommend a Facebook Business Page instead of a personal profile?

Facebook’s own policies are the main reason. The platform discourages marketing and promotional activity on personal profiles, and accounts that do it aggressively can be flagged or restricted. A Business Page is the structure Facebook designed for this use case, so promotional content is expected there. It also gives you access to page analytics, the ability to run ads later if you want to scale, and the option to represent your brand rather than your personal identity when joining groups and interacting with communities.

How many hours per week do I need to put in to make any of these methods work?

Alston does not give a specific number, but his Quora recommendation of two to three answers per day gives a sense of the volume that works. Consistency matters more than raw hours. An hour a day done reliably for sixty days will outperform five hours done once a week for two weeks. The platforms reward consistency because regular activity signals to their algorithms that you are an active, engaged user worth surfacing to other people.

Should I eventually build a website even if these no-website methods are working?

Alston says yes, and he is straightforward about it. A website is a base of operations you fully own. A platform change, a policy update, or an account suspension can disrupt income from any of the seven methods listed here. A website you control cannot be taken from you in the same way. These seven methods are great for starting without capital, but building a website over time gives you more stability and more tools for growing your affiliate income at scale.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “How To Start Affiliate Marketing Without A Website,” YouTube, https://youtu.be/84_X382H97Y
Quora platform policies on affiliate links, referenced in Alston’s personal account of nearly being banned for direct affiliate link posting
Pinterest demographic data referenced by Alston: household income of typical Pinterest user is higher than other major social platforms
Facebook platform policies on personal profiles vs. Business Pages for promotional content, referenced as the reason Alston recommends Business Pages over personal profiles