Affiliate marketing can be challenging and also rewarding but what are some of the ways you can be successful in being an affiliate marketer – but without the baggage of designing and maintaining a website. On top of that, you don’t have to worry about the server being down, or your website being hacked – and getting a text at 3 AM.
However, before you rush to sign up with these free platforms – I strongly encourage you to know the audience, the product you plan to promote, and lastly, provide value to your audience.
- Authoring platforms
- Forums and online communities
- Social media
- Video marketing
- Viral eBook
- Classified Ads
- Email marketing
- Solo Ads / SEM
1. Authoring platforms / blogging platforms
Authoring platforms, or it’s also known as blogging platforms. The blogging community started in 1993 and will stick around for the next decade or two. There are countless authoring platform that will allow you to sign up for free and let you create content and supplement your income by promoting an affiliate program. I would advise you to read the T&C of the platform to ensure that promoting an affiliate programs is allowed. That being said, there are a few dozen popular authoring platforms out there and here is a list
Medium.com
Medium.com is a free blogging platform and it functions slightly more like a community of writers meets social media platform. That being said, Medium is completely free to share your blog content on, and you can get started right away. Notable people on Medium include Ex-President, Barrack Obama to William Shatner from Star Trek.
WordPress.com
The free version of WordPress.com would work well for someone who wants to test out a blog, but isn’t too concerned with having access to a lot of features—at least for now. For those who want a simple hobby blog, or for those who just want to see if they enjoy blogging, WordPress.com is an easy option for a sturdy, free blog site. WordPress.com claims to power 38% of the internet – and I am not surprised as companies’ blogs such as Microsoft blog is on a self hosted WordPress.
Wix.com
Wix.com first entered the scene as a free blogging platform in 2006. Since then, it has provided a website platform to a remarkable 150 million people. It is also used in 190 countries around the world. Wix is a website builder with a drag and drop interface. It’s a (WYSIWYG) software so you know exactly what your blog will look like before you hit the “publish” button.
2. Forum and online communities
Forums and online community is where people of like-minded people participate in conversing about a topic of their interest. Once you discover a website that you are passionate and knowledgeable in, start an account and participate in the conversation by providing value and credibility. Also, do ensure that you are not spamming every conversation and do read the T&C of the community forum to ensure that affiliate links are allowed.
Here are some forums and Google is your friend when looking out for those forums and online community. Again, please read the T&C about affiliate links and be a contributor – not a spammer! Here is an example of an active forum, BimmerFest.com
BimmerFest.com
Bimmerfest is the premiere website for BMW owners around the world with interactive forums, photo galleries and an invaluable resource. A online community for BMW enthusiast with over 573,000 members and 11 million post.
3. Social media
It’s extremely broad when everything online under the sun can be called Social Media. The key goal is to construct a conversation, build respect and create a community. There are numerous ways to build a sustainable community on social media and provide value to the audience while promoting an affiliate programs. Just take two minutes to orientate yourself with the requirements that Social Media rules that FTC established to help manage social media influence’s.
Take for example, Instagram.com/car post about cars and they cultivated a following of 559,000 followers – and in which one can drop an affiliate link in some post.
If you are knowledgeable about a topic and live in a specific region – there are count Facebook groups that you can join, or even start up. An example is Washington Hikers and Climbers Public Facebook Group. This group comprises of over 152,000 avid hikers and climber, but if you peel back the T&C, they will not allow affiliate links and you will be removed from the group if you don’t comply. So find a group that allows it, or start a group!
4. Video marketing
According to BrandWatch, YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and second most visited site after Google. YouTube is the 2nd most popular social media platform with 1.9bn users. 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. We watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos a day, more than Netflix and Facebook video combined.
So you are wondering, how in the world are you going to make a few hundred dollars on YouTube?
What if I told you that there are people that makes millions of dollars per year on YouTube.
BBC reported that Ryan’s World made $26 million in 2019, and Ryan is 8 years old.
If you have a great personality and a green screen, YouTube might be for you.
5. Viral eBook
Identify a topic that you are knowledgeable in, investigate the opportunity by doing some research about that topic. Once you have a good comprehension on the landscape and feel like you can produce an eBook that is interesting enough, you can publish it with an affiliate link or two in there. An example is “Never Binge Again” that is being offered on Amazon for free and in the free eBook, he drops links within the content.
6. Classified Ads
The method is pretty similar to posting on a forum, however this entails posting about your product, but also knowing what keywords to utilize and crafting content that will entice a user to click through or call a specific number.
If you are wondering if this works, it sure does and Craigslist is one of the largest online classified platform. When I managed the Wyndham vacation resorts affiliate program, we had an affiliate that made over $2000 per month promoting our program. We even developed content that specifically supported the affiliate’s efforts.
7. Email marketing
Email marketing is often taunted an effective and efficient way to drive sales and acquisition. It is, but why is it listed way at the bottom of the this list?
Email marketing is always a great fundamental for any organization, however being an affiliate – it can be extremely challenging in building an email list to help support the affiliate marketing via email. Granted, one can conduct email marketing to promote an affiliate program by renting an email list but it can be challenging due to countless factors such as spam filter, complying with CAN-SPAM act, find suitable offers, working with list owner and finally making the ROI work. The reasons of doing email marketing is always compelling, but from the angle of affiliate marketing – it can be a bit challenging.
8. Solo Ads / SEM
There used to be a time where an affiliate is able to make a good living doing SEM (aka Google cost-per-click), but as big brands got in the space and the Google/Bing algorithm got sophisticated, it drove the margin down and squeezed out the SEM affiliate.
I would only advice somebody plunging into the Google SEM, or Facebook Ads space only if you are savvy. One can easily spend thousands of dollars in an hour if you don’t know how to ensure that the ROI makes sense.