There's no question that having your own list is certainly not a bad thing, and the minimal costs of maintaining your own list makes this option a no-brainer really because it can only increase your affiliate income. Your only costs are those of your chosen autoresponder which are relatively small in comparison to the profits you can make.

By building a list of subscribers you ensure that a fair few visitors who visit your site are not lost forever when they leave your site. By offering something of value in order to capture their name and email address, you can add them to your email list and market to these people over and over again, whilst building a relationship at the same time, which can only increase your affiliate revenue.

However, if you really don't wish to build your own list, or maybe you don't have the time to build a list or constantly find new products to promote, then all is not lost.

An alternative would be to just drive traffic to your affiliate links or website, but if you're only promoting products that pay commissions on a one-off basis, then you will be fighting a constant battle to maintain affiliate sales. Every new affiliate commission will require a fair amount of effort to achieve.

This is why I always recommend promoting those products that pay commissions on a recurring basis, such as membership sites, web hosting, autoresponders, and so on. This way you earn commissions every single month for as long as your referrals remain a member, and you have greater financial stability in future months.

Each affiliate referral requires the same amount of effort as a traditional one-off affiliate product, but the rewards can be far more substantial in the long run, and can provide you with a stable income for several years in some instances.

In fact promoting recurring commission products is essentially similar to having your own list because both have the potential to provide solid long-term profits, so in my opinion this is the way to go if you really don't have the time to build and maintain your own list.

Although I always tell everyone that they should be building their own list, you can still make a very good living from promoting affiliate products without one, especially if you focus your efforts on promoting recurring commission products.