When Submitting Articles

This is what I do. You can stick with this

I have done some direct linking in the past and still do at times depending upon the niche, the article and how well I can presell in the article. I have made money doing it but your own actual mileage may vary... do they use that term "mileage" in Europe or is it "kilometerage"? Anyway!...

Of course, it might be more beneficial for you to link back to your own site where you have more content where you can presell to the reader, instill trust and connect with them further. Having an opt-in prominently above the fold so you can get them on your list is a great way to do this in almost all cases. It is also much more beneficial for you and your site SEOwise to link back to your own site.

This has many advantages, of which perhaps the most important is that it leaves you in control (i.e. of the redirecting) in the event of any one of a large number of unforeseen eventualities (such as the product you're promoting suddenly no longer being available, no longer being able to access your article-links to change them in future, and so on).

I'm not suggesting you won't/can't make any affiliate sales at all by direct linking.

However, I offer the following observations simply as "food for thought" ...

Making money from affiliate sales is, broadly, about three things:-

(i) You have to select the products wisely: without getting this part right, it doesn't matter what else you do ;

(ii) You have to pre-sell effectively to well-targeted traffic;

(iii) You have to build a list and form relationships with the people on it, so that they'll buy on the strength of your recommendation. Not having a wbesite (even if it's just a one-page blog) and a list (a) makes it much harder to encourage someone who's read the article to buy the product, and (b) means that you can't have your readers in any kind of "sales funnel" from which you can sell them other things in future. It means that every single customer you ever find has to be "freshly generated". To me, that's a huge disadvantage.

People generally buy products because they trust someone's recommendation. They buy on the strength of your relationship with them, and that's far more easily built through your website and your autoresponder emails to your list subscribers than it can be through a single reading of a single article.

If you don't have a website (of some sort) and a list, you don't have an "asset-based business" at all. You're not developing a business, simply a job for yourself. It's the difference between something that can build up residual income from work already done and something that's a constant "rinse-and-repeat".

Just my perspective.

(Edited to add: of course, the type of articles you write will need to be a little different, too, for these two very different "business models").