Affiliate marketing can be costly for an advertiser if they are relying on paid sources to get their content seen. Yes, that does guarantee that people will read what you write, but there is still no guarantee that those people will click and buy the products that you are promoting.
And, if they are not buying something, you might not get anything in return, and that is a loss on your end.
Paid sources like social media ads or website or search engine ads are getting expensive and are great for the reach, however, if you rely only on them, the chances of earning profits are really low.
In this article, we will talk about some of the sources where you can promote your affiliate marketing links for free, and you can also expect to get those clicks that give you huge commissions.
| Statistic | Details |
|---|---|
| Global Industry Value | $17 billion |
| Brands Using Affiliate Programs | 80% of brands use affiliate marketing to acquire customers |
| Affiliate Marketer Earnings | $5,000 – $100,000 per year (on average) |
| SEO Traffic Contribution | 40-60% of total affiliate site traffic comes from Google |
| YouTube & Video Marketing | 68% of consumers prefer video reviews before purchasing |
| Email Marketing ROI | 4,200% ROI ($42 return for every $1 spent) |
| E-Commerce Sales from Affiliates | 16% of total e-commerce sales come from affiliate marketing |
| Consumer Influence | 1 in 3 people make online purchases based on affiliate recommendations |
| Affiliate Marketing ROI | Can deliver a 12:1 return on investment (ROI) for businesses |
Free Traffic Sources to do better Affiliate Marketing
Social Messaging or Engagement
Even if you have no followers, you can still message anyone on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn. So, why wait for followers to start? Just begin from where you are and send messages to people who might be interested in what you offer.
Use your real account to build trust with them. This way, you can make sales, find clients, and build long-term relationships with the right people. But that’s not all.
You can also send coupons, special deals, or ask for collaborations through messages. This helps you grow your business and connect with your audience directly. Start now—there’s no need to wait!
Web Forums
There are many web forums online, and some of them will be related to the products or services you want to promote. Look for these forums, join them, and share your links with thoughtful content.
If you post too aggressively or directly, you might get blocked or banned. That’s why it’s important to take it slow and be smart about how you share. Focus on adding value and building trust first, rather than just pushing your links. This way, you can connect with the right people without getting into trouble.
Communities/Groups (Facebook/Linkedin)
Just like web forums, you can also join Facebook and LinkedIn groups. These groups let members post, but some may review posts before they go live. In these groups, posting a direct sales pitch might not work well and could reduce your chances of getting results.
The best way to get people interested is by writing good content. Your content should clearly explain your product and show why it’s useful or needed. Many affiliate marketers just post basic content with their affiliate links, but that doesn’t work as well.
If you focus on creating helpful and convincing posts, these social media groups can bring a lot of traffic to your website and help you make more affiliate sales. Be smart, add value, and avoid being too pushy.
Organic SEO
SEO can definitely bring free traffic to your website, but it’s not completely free these days. Depending on your niche, you might need to spend some money on it too.
On-page SEO, like optimizing your website content, is free. But off-page SEO, like building backlinks, often costs money. If you do SEO correctly, it can help you reach the right audience organically. However, it’s important to think about the time and effort you’re putting into SEO. If you’re spending a lot of time and resources on SEO but not seeing good results, it might be better to try other strategies. Always weigh the cost and benefits of your efforts.
Guest Posting
To boost your website, you can start writing guest posts for other websites or blogs. You can join outreach programs or use outreach tools to connect with blog owners more easily.
When you contribute to well-known websites, it helps build your website’s authority. Having strong website authority is important if you want to rank higher in search results. Guest posting is a long-term strategy that can bring steady traffic to your site over time. It’s a solid way to grow your website and get better results.
Twitter is one of the best social media tools for driving traffic if you use it the right way. But what’s the right way?
Many people starting on Twitter feel down about their follower count, but that number doesn’t matter much. Don’t stress about getting more followers. Focus on following trends, using good hashtags, and making the most out of your current posts.
News websites and online publications use Twitter really well. The Twitter algorithm gives extra attention to trending topics and hashtags, which is why news sites get a lot of traffic.
So, if you have a website or blog, don’t ignore Twitter. It’s a great free traffic source for affiliate marketing if you use it right.
Quora
Quora is a Q&A website where most people around the world come to get answers to their problems. Create an account if you don’t have one already, and start looking for those questions that are related to the service or product that you are promoting.
This is what can give you those much-needed conversions. Of all the sources that are mentioned here, this is one of the most influential websites.
Some people are finding things for their business, and some potential customers are looking for better options. Find them, and give them the option they might not know about. Here is the golden chance that you can’t miss.
Many people don’t use Reddit, but did you know it gets over 1.5 billion monthly visitors? If you post catchy content, you can quickly get a lot of attention.
Reddit has many communities, and to post in them, you first need to join. Each community has its own rules set by the moderators. If you break the rules, you could be banned.
So, it’s a good idea to follow the rules for each community, especially if your website is not yet whitelisted. Find communities that match your blog’s topic and start posting. It’s a great way to get more traffic to your blog.
One of the best things about social media platforms is that they have a lot of authority. They can rank for your keywords and help you send traffic to your page, even for keywords you couldn’t rank for on your own.
Pinterest is one of the top platforms for this. It’s simple—people see a picture with keywords, which encourages them to click for more info. This can drive traffic to your site quickly.
You can create boards and pins to get traffic from Pinterest, and it also helps with SEO, giving your website a boost for future growth.
Medium
Medium is a platform where you can share your content and reach millions of people. It’s like a free press release for your blog.
Medium gets over 200 million visitors every month, so by contributing there, you can bring a lot of traffic to your site. Plus, they have a partner program where you can earn money for your writing.
If you’re not already using Medium, it’s definitely worth checking out!
WhatsApp Channels
WhatsApp channels are a great free source for affiliate. You can join or create groups or channels that share product links from popular platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and more.
You can also create your own WhatsApp channel. Share the link to your channel in other groups or with your network. This helps you build an audience interested in product recommendations, and as they trust your suggestions, you can boost your affiliate sales.
Once you’re in these channels, you can share affiliate product links directly. When people make a purchase through your link, you earn a commission.
Instagram can be an option but not the best source of free social traffic for your website. Unlike Twitter, Instagram does not allow you to post content with links. With Instagram, you also can’t use links in captions or statuses. Even the swipe-up feature is restricted to users with over 10k followers.
With a vast millennial audience, you can’t expect much traffic to come to your website through Instagram. But that definitely doesn’t suggest you overlook it. In fact, there are other ways to garner traffic on your online channel via Instagram.
You can instigate users to click the link in your bio and use special links in your bio that accommodate all the links you want to promote. For the same, you can use the help of Instagram tools such as Linktree.
Share for Share
Cross-sharing is one of the best ways to get free traffic. If you want quick, organic traffic, there’s no better way than S4S (share for share).
To attract an audience, you first need to connect with people in your industry. It’s like a mutual collaboration where you promote them, and they promote you in return.
This works really well if you team up with leaders in your niche. The challenge is that some leaders may hesitate to work with new bloggers. So, you have to be careful when reaching out. Be confident in your pitch, and try to do this once you’ve made some progress and have a bit of growth.
YouTube/Vimeo/Dailymotion
Who can forget YouTube when it comes to free traffic on blogs for affiliate marketing via other online channels?
In fact, YouTube, Vimeo, and other video-sharing platforms are perfect for affiliate marketing. The reasonability behind this is the fact that users these days prefer video content over textual content. As such, they tend to make their buying decision influenced by video content.
Due to this tendency of most visitors, you can better bring traffic for your affiliate marketing campaigns from these platforms. This traffic will be highly convertible and thus profitable for you as an affiliate.
Email Marketing
If you’re serious about affiliate marketing, email marketing is a powerful tool to bring in highly convertible traffic and leads. By using the right email marketing strategies, you can make your affiliate campaigns successful. Here are a few tips to do email marketing the right way:
- Build your email list
- Optimize your email messages
- Don’t be spammy
- Leave an unsubscribe link
- Write better calls to action (CTAs)
- Proofread your email content
These simple steps will help you create more effective email campaigns and boost your affiliate marketing efforts.
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is nothing but a technique to implement tools and strategies through which you can grow faster. By using these viral marketing tools, you can increase traffic and achieve your end goals. Giveaway is one of the most used tools of viral marketing.
There is a lot of viral marketing software you can find online for running online giveaways. With the help of online giveaways, you can increase not only traffic but also social media followers and a trusted audience. Gleam and Kingsumo by Appsumo are the trending tools for creating online giveaways.
Blog Commenting
Commenting on a blog is one of the viral ways to increase not only traffic but also the authority score of your website. Over time, with the overuse of this by spammers, many bloggers and website owners have limited their blogs for commenting.
As such, they have either removed the website field from the comment or deleted the entire comment section. So, blog commenting has become very tedious as you rarely find blogs where you can comment. Additionally, even if the aforementioned things are not met, you get either no link click, or they don’t approve comments at all.
Just because of these hurdles, bloggers have created communities, and they keep on cross-commenting for rank gain. But obviously, overuse of either of those can be very bad for rankings. However, you can find good blogs by keeping an eye on your competitors with the help of tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs.
Create Backlinks
It is obviously not an instant way to get traffic. Creating Backlinks is an Indirect way to gain traffic. Backlinks however help you gain rank in long run which can ultimately give you huge chunk of traffic if you write good content continuously. As such, creating backlinks is an effective method to gain traffic for your blog in the long run.
FAQs
What are free traffic sources for affiliate marketing?
Free traffic sources are platforms or strategies where you can promote your affiliate products without spending money on ads. These include social media, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), email marketing, forums, and content-sharing platforms like YouTube or Medium.
Can I make sales without paying for traffic?
Yes! By using free traffic sources like social media, SEO, and forums, you can drive targeted traffic to your affiliate links and make sales. The key is consistency and creating valuable content that resonates with your audience.
How do I get traffic on social media for affiliate marketing?
You can use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to share your affiliate links. Focus on posting valuable content, using relevant hashtags, and engaging with your audience to drive organic traffic to your links.
Is SEO important for free traffic?
Absolutely. SEO is a powerful way to attract free traffic. By optimizing your blog or website content for search engines, you can rank for keywords relevant to your affiliate products, helping you get organic traffic and conversions over time.
How do I use YouTube for affiliate marketing?
Create videos that review or explain the affiliate products you’re promoting. In your video description, include your affiliate links. You can also drive traffic to your website or blog where you have additional affiliate content.
What are the benefits of email marketing in affiliate marketing?
Email marketing allows you to build a targeted list of people interested in your niche. You can send them content that includes affiliate links, promotions, and valuable offers. When done right, it can lead to higher conversion rates and long-term customer relationships.
What is the best free traffic source for affiliate marketing?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but SEO, social media, and forums are among the most effective free traffic sources for affiliate marketers. The best source for you depends on your niche, audience, and the type of content you create.
Conclusion
Affiliate marketing methods are changing and more than ever, you now need to be creative and uptight. The above-mentioned sources are free and can give you great results if you focus on all activities like using the content in the right way.
It’s time when you can do a lot with free sources in Affiliate marketing, spending money on ads is good but there should be a ratio. If you are doing affiliate marketing seriously then you should probably take the organic to inorganic (Free: Paid) ratio as 70:30.
The more you focus on the free sources, the more will be the chance to earn profits. There are a lot of affiliate marketers who make the mistake of going full throttle with ads and other paid methods and they just get in losses.
