Many affiliate marketers use affiliate links to promote their products. For example, you can generate traffic with your blog or social media account and attract customers to a product you recommend.
But is it possible to make money from affiliate links without a website?
Yes, It is. You can join an affiliate program, get your unique links and advertise on social networks.
So how do you add those links to generate income?
Here, you’ll learn how to get your links, from where, and how to promote them for free.
What Are Affiliate Links?
Affiliate links are unique URLs you receive when you sign up for an affiliate program. The purpose is to direct an audience to the product website.
You apply to affiliate programs, write valuable content and add your affiliate links. And when visitors to your website purchase through your unique link, you earn a commission.
Affiliate links are a great way to monetize your site and increase revenue. Therefore, you must find ways to boost the success of your affiliate link.
How Do You Get Affiliate Links?
The first step to getting your affiliate link is to sign up with an affiliate network.
There are many companies to join, but choose based on your niche and audience.
Here are some of the affiliate programs
- ShareAsale
- Amazon Associates
- ClickBank
- CJ Affiliate
- Impact Radius
- Digistore24
- Wealthy Affiliate
After you are approved, locate the marketplace on the dashboard of the affiliate program. You will receive your affiliate link when you choose the product you wish to promote.
It’s essential to visit the website for more information about the product. And if there are banners and video ads on the site, you can download and add them to your promotional materials.
Remember to research any product before choosing; if they are low quality, it’s better to look for alternatives. After that, there are tons of products to choose from.
The question to ask is; is the product beneficial to your readers? Can it help them solve their problems?
How Does Cookie Life Work?
The affiliate program uses cookies to track your activity. For example, when your audience clicks your affiliate links, their activities are recorded depending on the cookie’s life.
The cookie life is how long the cookies are tracked through your affiliate links. So, for example, if you promote a product with 60-day life, your referral needs to purchase within 60 days of clicking your affiliate links.
How Do You Get Paid?
Most companies pay through the affiliate program or network. The payment can be through Paypal, direct bank transfer, and online checks.
10 Effective Ways To Make Your Affiliate Links Soar
Affiliate links are the most basic form of advertising to generate sales. You can promote your affiliate link in many ways; while some are free, others are paid ads.
But here are 10 top ways that can help you get started.
1. Answer Questions on Quora or Reddit
One way to promote your affiliate link is by answering questions in Quora or Reddit and mentioning your link. For example, if you sell Kindle eBooks, you might answer the question: “Where can I find free Kindle eBooks?” with a link to Amazon’s website and an offer for your eBook in the comments.
2) Promote Affiliate Link On Your Website
The best place to promote affiliate links still remains your website because you have complete control over your content.
Creating a blog post is an excellent idea. You can write an article and include your affiliate link in it. This method has many SEO benefits and will be visible for a long time.
But, again, ensure the content is valuable and relevant so that people will be more likely to click on it.
Readers are more likely to revisit your blog if they think you’re someone who can be trusted with their time and attention.
So, when you write blog content that keeps engagement, the readers will feel valued and respected.
For example, write in-depth reviews, how-to lists, and tutorials to build traffic to your website. Also, include a compelling call to action at the end of the content.
Don’t have a website yet? Get started now.
3) Optimize your content for search engines
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of structuring your content to rank higher in search results. The goal here is to rank higher than other websites for your target keywords.
4) Resource page
Create a resource page on your website and write a short description of the tools and products you use and recommend. Then add your affiliate links to them and include a disclosure statement.
5) Use different kinds of social media channels
Social media is an excellent way for stragglers to get their content in front of more people. But, on the other hand, it cannot be accessible to the market on all channels.
In addition, not all social media platforms accept affiliate links. But, if you have many connections on social media accounts like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, you can post about your product with an affiliate link.
With over a 2.3billion monthly users, YouTube is the second largest search engine besides Google.
In addition, you can create video content around your blog topics and upload it to your YouTube channel. Then add affiliate links to your video description.
Facebook
With over 2.89 billion monthly active users, Facebook remains the largest social platform worldwide. However, you need to create your account to get the most out of the forum.
Therefore, you need a personal or business page to promote your affiliate links.
But first, it’s important to write engaging content with images and videos and post it on your page regularly. Then, over time, you build an audience that visits your page regularly.
In addition, you can set up Facebook pixel to monitor how your customers relate to your page. It’s easy to set up, as shown below.
- Visit the pixel section.
- Click create a pixel.
- Input the name of your pixel
- Click install pixel
- You’ll receive a code, copy and paste it on your website.
With this, you get insight into how your social post is performing.
Instagram
Another popular social network is Instagram, with over 1 billion monthly active users. But promoting affiliate links via the platform is totally different.
For example, you cannot include links in social posts. But you can have it in your bio and Instagram stories.
The best way to promote affiliate links on Pinterest is to create beautiful pin images and boards. Then, use the Pinterest auto-suggest to get an idea for choosing your board names.
Then, pin other people’s posts on your boards. After that, include your affiliate link in a few of them. Finally, you can create idea pins to boost your business further.
Twitter
With 326 million monthly active users, Twitter has a large user base you can’t deny. So the first to do is define your goal for using the platform.
Then, create a professional-looking profile. After that, tweet valuable content that gets attention regularly.
Since you only have 280 characters, unlike other platforms, use hashtags to make your post get to the relevant audience.
You can then promote affiliate links by linking your post on the website and your tweet.
6) Optimize the look and feel of the affiliate link page
As the writer, you are in charge of designing an attractive and easy-to-use affiliate link page. It would be best to think about how the page will function on mobile devices.
7) Create a compelling opt-in offer
According to the DMA, email is the most important digital marketing channel for brands, with over $85 billion in global revenue coming from email.
Hence, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to connect and engage with your audience. Build trust and credibility with them.
And with time, you can convert your website visitors to subscribers and promote your affiliate products.
So, create an email sign-up form on your website. There are many email service providers: Aweber, Convertkit, Mailchimp, and others.
8) Have an order form that’s easy to use and fast to load
Ordering products online can be frustrating if you cannot quickly find the product you’re looking for. The time it takes to load the page, find the product, add it to your cart, checkout and pay for your order can take up a significant chunk of your day.
9) Have a discount offer or loyalty program in place, if possible
Save 10% on your next order with code “save10.”
10) Do not forget about mobile optimization
Make sure you have a responsive design in place.
Here are two essential things to keep in mind.
- Affiliate Disclosure: In compliance with the FTC policies, as an affiliate, you are required to openly disclose your status that some of your links are affiliates, and you may earn a commission for them. The reason is for your website visitor to be aware that you get paid for those links when they purchase.
- Monitor your links: Tracking and managing your affiliate links is vital. With the information, you’ll identify where your sales are coming from.
Conclusion
Though you can promote affiliate links without a website, as you have seen, it’s preferable to have to build your brand credibility.
In addition, it’s an avenue to tell the audience about your business.
Affiliate marketing is hard work and takes time, but with determination and commitment, the sky is the limit if you’re consistent.
So, go out there, pick high-quality products to recommend to your audience, and start earning.
