I have played a lot of dance music, with and without drummers, and have learned, the hard way, that you keep the beat in your head, not with your foot, not on the bass strings of the guitar, not in the up and down strum patterns--

The reason is simple enough--if you keep the beat on the instrument and you miss or muff a stroke, it throws the rhythm off--if the beat is in your head, you can miss as many notes as you want, and still be right on when you hit your next note--

Thelonius Monk had a great excercise--hum the tune that is playing on the radio, leave the room and keep humming--you should be right on the beat and with the melody when you go back into the room!!