As an affiliate marketer, you may wonder if you need to have your own website in order to succeed in the business. While it’s certainly a good idea to have your own website, there are many options that don’t require you to do that.

For example, you can use third party platforms that allow you to promote products. Examples include Squidoo, Zujava, and Hub Pages. These sites are relatively easy to use and can help you make a profit in affiliate marketing.

You can also get hosting for a free blog. For example, BlogSpot allows you to create a free blog where you can promote products. The one thing you need to be aware of, though, before you use third party platforms – is that you’re subject to their rules.

At any time, the rules may change and your blog might disappear or your pages may become obsolete. You just don’t have much control over your business when you choose these options. In fact, you can have the business you’ve worked hard to build that gets deleted in an instant.

The best way to guarantee that you have control over your business is to have your own website. You can purchase a domain and hosting inexpensively and know that you’ll have control over your own blog.

It’s very simple to set up a blog on your own site and you don’t have to worry about conforming to anyone else’s rules about what can and can’t be done on it. Then you can use third party platforms as a support mechanism and even to drive traffic to your blog.

These platforms can help supplement what you’re doing while allowing you to have more control over your business. If the bulk of your income comes from your own website, you won’t have to worry about what happens if the rules change on another site.

You’ll find that it doesn’t cost as much as you might think to have your own site in your chosen niche and truly be the master of your own affiliate marketing business. This small investment (of about $10 a year for a domain and less than $10 a month in hosting) can bring big payoffs and is worth your efforts.

As an affiliate marketer, you don’t have to have your own website. But depending on third party platforms alone can be a risky decision. The best option is to have your own website and take advantage of third party platforms to supplement what you’re doing on your own site.

This way you get the best of both worlds and have multiple streams of income to support your affiliate marketing career.