Successful affiliate marketing does not have to cost a fortune. In fact, attracting an audience can be done for free, as long as you’re willing to be patient. Most people are aware of blogging and the many site builders that are available for free. What you may not know, is the vast array of free traffic sources that you can use as an affiliate marketer to gain more visitors. 


Methods of generating traffic

We’ve explored some of the most effective ways publishers can generate traffic for their affiliate offers and are sharing our top twelve methods below.  

1. Paid online advertising

Advertising is the mainstay of lead generation. Whether you choose to do paid search, social media campaigns, remarketing, or display advertising, it’s a tried and tested method to drive traffic to your affiliate links.

One of the advantages of using paid lead-generating techniques is that people who click on your links are usually high up in the buying cycle, and are therefore ready to purchase. However, you need to balance the cost of your advertisements with the commission you receive per sale. If each ad conversion costs $50 and the commission per sale is $40, it is not worth pursuing this form of lead generation.

2. YouTube

YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the internet, with approximately three billion views per day. As such, it is beneficial for you to start your own channel to promote your offers. Add an interesting video that relates to your offer, then include a compelling call-to-action that links to your affiliate product. Make sure to also put your call-to-action link or discount code within the description box, with a short description of your video. To further utilize your video add an Overlay, which is a little box that stays on the video throughout with your CTA on it. 

Don’t restrict yourself to Youtube as there are other video channels like Vimeo that can be used to good effect. However, one of the disadvantages of video promotion is it does take time and effort to produce good content that is going to attract a loyal audience. On the plus side, great videos have the potential to go viral and can escalate very quickly to hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Additionally, when promoting affiliate offers on social media remember to follow the compliance and disclosure guidelines outlined by the FTC for using affiliate links.

3. Social media

If your audience is hanging out on social media, then you and your affiliate offers need to be there too. You can use social media in many ways, including:

  • Participating in communities with a need for your product. It’s important not to promote but to build relationships by answering questions and engaging with the community. If you are helpful, your readers will click on your name to find out more about you. Make sure your profile links back to your website and your affiliate offers.
  • Sharing your blog content with links to your offer, either on your own page or as promoted posts.
  • Running an advertising campaign, using social media marketing.

You can also use social media to publish long articles, which link to your offers. Good places to publish include platforms such as LinkedIn, Medium, Reddit, SlideShare, and Udemy. Readership of these sites is high, and if your content is relevant and searchable, it could get you in front of thousands of new people.

Again, when using affiliate links on social media, make sure you’re following the compliance and disclosure guidelines outlined by the FTC.

4. Blog posts

Blog posts are a great way to share affiliate links. If you have an active readership your audience will already be warm to your reviews and advice. Just make sure not to use your blog posts as sales letters; the content should provide value to the reader and your affiliate links should sit naturally within the topic. Recipe blogs use this to good effect. As they discuss the method to follow to create the dish, recipe blogs describe the tools needed for the job, using affiliate links to the sales page of the item in question.

Another method of using your blog posts to promote affiliate links is to answer your readers' comments and use your affiliate links in the replies. If the product you are promoting is related to the answer, it doesn’t look like a sales pitch but a solution to the reader’s problem. Be careful of doing this on other people’s blogs as it may come across as spam.

If possible, try to make the content evergreen. Evergreen refers to content that stays relevant for many years to come and could include how-to guides, best practices, or tips and tricks. These types of articles are read and referred to over and over again.  Although you may have to refresh them occasionally, the information still remains relevant. This means you can roll out this content to a new audience every so often and expose your affiliate links each time you do so.

5. Guest blogging

In addition to building your brand’s own blog, the technique of guest blogging is a tried and true method for generating traffic that has stood the test of time. There are two different aspects to guest blogging:

  • Guest blog on well-known sites that fit your niche. Offer great and relevant content, and if accepted onto other blogs it will expose you to a whole new audience. Make sure your profile and your byline link to your affiliate offers and your website. Your affiliate marketing content should be related to the guest blog and useful to the new potential readership. 
  • Accept guest bloggers on your own website. Publish content from other writers and they will share and link their article, which will, in turn, expose your website (and affiliate offers) to new audiences.

6. Email

Email marketing is still alive and well, with 64% of companies believing it is the best marketing method they have, with an estimated ROI of 3800%. Because of this, make sure you don’t overlook it in response to some newer, more exciting methods.

You first need to build a list, which you can do by providing a free offer - like sharing a report, e-book or webinar - and using a form to capture email addresses (making sure, if you are marketing in the EU, to comply with GDPR). When emailing your list you must be careful to provide them with useful, relevant content. Otherwise, they will quickly unsubscribe.

Affiliate links can be used to good effect in emails, either as part of the body text or in the signature. It is also perfectly acceptable to promote affiliate products directly in emails, as long as you balance it out with valuable and useful content. If possible, segment your emails so the appropriate affiliate links go to the right audience.

7. Product reviews

The online audience is influenced by other people’s views of a product, and will often research for testimonials and reviews before committing to buy. It’s estimated that 90% of potential buyers will read online reviews before visiting the website and making a buying decision, with 88% trusting them as much as they would if a friend recommended a product.

For publishers who have built up a loyal audience, these statistics are good news. If you write honest and unbiased reviews about products related to your niche, your audience will view these reviews as a trustworthy recommendation. When you have a product or service to promote that is tied to your affiliate marketing efforts, write a review. If you have chosen to promote the product, it is important that you believe in it and recommend it because you genuinely want to help your audience. In this way, you will be able to write a frank and honest review while still including your affiliate link. The review needs to be positive but honest and should not turn into a sales letter.

Make sure when using affiliate links in product reviews to follow the compliance and disclosure guidelines outlined by the FTC.

8. Quora

Quora is a questions site, providing a platform for users to ask whatever they want. Experts then give guidance and advice on the subject matter. Although direct affiliate links are not allowed, you can link to a website or a blog post if it provides more information on the answer you are giving. Make sure the website you send people to contains content with your affiliate link.

Again, when using Quora you must genuinely be looking to provide a valid answer and help the person submitting the question. Good advice will be read and shared, while answers that are just sales pitches will get a thumbs down. 

9. A search engine-optimized website

Your website is the presenting brand for your affiliate links and needs to be discovered by consumers interested in your niche. Making your content easy for search engines to discover your site is important, as it will help rank your site higher up on searches and drive more organic traffic to your affiliate offers.

Each page should have a well-written meta description, meta title, image alt tags, and H1/H2 tags. Research the keywords for your niche and affiliate offers, and add a keyword per page that is relevant to your offers. Ensuring it is in the title and content as naturally as possible, without keyword stuffing, can also help with searches. Also work on achieving backlinks by getting your content shared on social media or other blogs, and include internal and external links within your own content.

If your chosen subject is too niche, you may not get the level of traffic you need to convert your readers into clicks on your affiliate links. Do some research on how many other people are selling similar products by using the Google search bar. Google will instantly tell you how many results they have found and can help inform the keywords you use to search engine optimize your site.

10. Reddit

When we talk about free traffic, Reddit might not be the most obvious choice, but it is a powerful engine that can drive visitors to your affiliate website.

The cool thing about Reddit is that people often use it as a place to get recommendations and advice from other Redditors.

By adding links to your website in the comments you can drive consistent targeted traffic to your affiliate offers. For this to be effective, you must add comments that add value to the user so that it doesn’t look spammy.

11. Pinterest 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in this case, that couldn’t be more accurate. Pinterest is an image sharing website that categorizes compelling images into several distinct categories. 

I could probably write an entire article about how valuable Pinterest can be for businesses or affiliate marketers. 

According to Hootsuite, Pinterest is the third-largest social network in the U.S. But Pinterest is as much a search engine as it is a social network. Think of it as the Google of images. 

Some very popular categories are fashion, home decor, fitness, gardening, and travel, just to name a few. 

Now, the cool thing about Pinterest is that you can upload an image attached to a URL. That means, whenever someone clicks on that image, they are redirected to the attached website. 

If you’re using compelling images and your article falls into a Pinterest category, it’s a great (and free) way to reach a wide audience.

Let’s take a look at a website called The View from Great Island. According to SimilarWeb, this website generates around 650K monthly visitors, 26% of which is generated using social platforms and 90% of that is generated from Pinterest alone. 

12. Niche forums and groups

Here’s an example of how you can use forums to your advantage. 

I recently published an article about a website builder called Beaver Builder. There is a Facebook group dedicated to this particular website builder with several thousand members. 

Because this group is clearly interested in Beaver Builder, chances are they’d be interested in an article on this topic. 

You can do the same with your own articles. Find groups and forums that are centered around your post and share it.

Keep in mind, it’s important to provide context when you post your article. Avoid just sharing a link with no explanation, otherwise, you appear spammy

A final word

What methods you choose to generate traffic will depend on your offers, your industry, and your preferences. Many marketers combine a mixture of paid and organic sources. Whichever methods you prefer to use to generate traffic to your affiliate offers, consistency is key. Even with paid traffic, the longer you maintain your campaigns the better they will perform. Keep with it and traffic will come your way