In this post, I’m going to share with you 5 ways to do affiliate marketing without social media. I’ll go over the pros, cons, and even how to start.
As someone who has been doing affiliate marketing since 2018 with more than 90% of my traffic not coming from social media, I thought I’d share some methods with you.
Since I value your time let’s get into it right away!
Pros of affiliate marketing without social media
Not necessary to show your face
In most cases, it’s not essential to your success that you show your face.
This might not be a pro for everyone but it gives you an extra choice to perform affiliate marketing while keeping your privacy.
You could simply use text to attract people who could be interested in your offers and convert them into referrals.
You don’t need millions of followers
To succeed with affiliate marketing on social media requires you to build a following. This isn’t necessary with affiliate marketing strategies that don’t rely on social media.
In most cases, you’ll be funneling people into a specific niche to your offers who likely never have seen your brand before.
It’s less reliant on consistently creating content
Most social media platforms reward creators who consistently provide the platform with new content.
This is why the most common tip that social media gurus give revolves around being consistent on the platform.
The majority of methods used to do affiliate marketing without social media rely less on creating content.
That doesn’t mean you won’t be creating any content at all but 1 piece of content can keep bringing people in over a longer period.
Cons of affiliate marketing without social media
Affiliate leads will require more “nurturing”
Unlike with social media because you direct leads to your funnel without them seeing all types of content first. This often results in a lower engagement level of your leads.
This means after acquiring their information some more work will be needed a.k.a. nurturing to increase engagement and the chance of getting a sale.
That is why most people who perform affiliate marketing without social media communicate with the leads after getting their information to establish some sort of relationship with them.
It might require a bigger financial investment
This isn’t the case for all methods that you can use but it’s more likely that you’ll invest money when you do affiliate marketing without social media.
The most money will go to directing traffic to your opt-in pages and affiliate offers. This means it’s important to calculate how much you can invest without losing money in the end.
Now that we know the pros and cons of affiliate marketing without social media let’s get into the actual strategies you can use.
1. Search Engine Optimization Affiliate Marketing
Search engine optimization aka SEO is one of the most popular ways to attract affiliate marketing leads.
According to an affiliate marketing survey of more than 2200 affiliate marketers, 78.3% of affiliate marketers use SEO as a primary traffic source.
Instead of posting content on social media, SEOs create pages on their websites and optimize them in such a way that search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) can find them and index them in their search results.
The higher you rank in the results on the first page, the more people will click on your content.
Here’s how you start in a nutshell:
- Create an affiliate website
- Use a keyword research tool to choose which keywords you’ll target
- Create quality content around these keywords
- Create an opt-in page for email subscribers
- Direct people through email to the affiliate company
- Start acquiring backlinks to increase your chances of ranking
2. Affiliate Marketing with Paid Ads
Paid advertising is usually used in affiliate marketing to scale your effort but it can also be used to build up the foundation of your affiliate marketing business.
Many platforms offer paid advertising including social media platforms but also the search engines that you can rank on with SEO offer ads as an option to get leads.
To make this work you’ll have to pay to get your pages up there where people can see them but overall it’s a very effective method for doing affiliate marketing.
Here’s how you start in a nutshell:
- Create an opt-in page to acquire email addresses of prospects
- Choose an ad platform (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, etc)
- Create the ads (that direct traffic to your opt-in form) on the ad platform
- Direct people through email to the affiliate company
3. Email Marketing
Contrary to what a lot of people believe, email marketing is still a very effective way to get eyes on your offers.
According to a study done by Hubspot, most marketers in the report have an average email open rate of 46-50%.
Email marketing is often used in combination with another method to get people to subscribe to your email list but once they’re on there you can communicate with them over a longer period establish a relationship and refer them to the company you’re an affiliate of.
Here’s how you start in a nutshell:
- Subscribe to an email marketing service
- Create a website with an opt-in page to acquire email addresses of prospects
- Send traffic to the opt-in page
- Direct the people through email to the affiliate company
4. Pinterest Affiliate Marketing
There’s this huge belief that Pinterest is a social media platform while in actuality it can be better defined as a search engine such as Google.
Instead of getting a result page with a link when you type in a keyword in the search bar, you’ll get images with links connected to them.
Just like with SEO, you can optimize your images to show up in front of people who are interested in your affiliate offers.
While people can follow you on your Pinterest account it isn’t the goal to create a huge following.
Thanks to the Pinterest search engine it’s possible to direct a lot of traffic to your affiliate offer without needing to build an audience.
Here’s how you start in a nutshell:
- Build a website with at least 1 opt-in form
- Create content on the blog of the website
- Create a Pinterest Business account
- Perform keyword research on the Pinterest platform
- Create pins around the keywords you found and link to your blog content
- Let your blog posts link to the opt-in page where people can subscribe to your email list.
- Direct your email subscribers to the affiliate company
5. Affiliate Marketing on writing Platforms
Not all writing platforms are great for this but there are a few that have a high likelihood of ranking high on search engines such as Medium and Substack.
The platforms also promote content within the platform and allow affiliate links to be placed in the content.
The advantage that these platforms have is that they have a lot of authority in the “eyes” of Google which means they’re often pushed to the top ranks in search results.
That being said, I wouldn’t rely on it as a permanent solution for affiliate marketing because algorithm changes might change the ability to rank on these websites in the future.
Here’s how you start in a nutshell:
- Get a Medium premium subscription
- Use a keyword research tool to decide which keyword you’re going to target.
- Write content revolving around that keyword
- Link to your affiliate website or directly to the affiliate company
Affiliate Marketing Without Social Media Tips
A/B Test all your landing pages
Since you’ll be investing a lot of time and/ or money using these methods I’d advise testing out multiple versions of pages, headlines, etc to find out which works the best.
This will prevent you from losing more money than is necessary.
Invest in a course or mentor
The best thing you can do is invest in a course or mentor to help you along the way. In the beginning, I thought I could simply read some blog posts and get the hang of it.
I ended up wasting more money and time than I would have if I had invested in a quality course teaching me how to market affiliate products.
Invest in growing your email list
You can direct people from your content directly to an affiliate company but this often comes with poor results.
People often still have questions or might be a bit apprehensive when they get an offer from someone they don’t know.
I follow the marketing rule of 7 when it comes to this. I want people to come in contact with my brand at least 7 times before I make my grand offer.
Having someone’s email address makes it possible to be in contact with them even after they leave your website.
This is why I always recommend investing in an email marketing service and start growing your email list.
Affiliate marketing without a website FAQ’s
Can I succeed in affiliate marketing without using social media platforms?
Yes, success in affiliate marketing is not solely dependent on social media.
There are alternative strategies such as content marketing, SEO, email marketing, and niche website creation that can effectively drive traffic and conversions.
What are some non-social media channels I can use for affiliate marketing?
You can leverage content platforms like blogs, forums, and YouTube. Additionally, email newsletters, influencer collaborations, and search engine optimization (SEO) can be powerful tools for reaching and engaging your target audience.
How can I build an audience without social media for affiliate marketing?
Focus on creating valuable and targeted content. Start a blog or YouTube channel, optimize it for search engines, and engage with relevant online communities and forums.
Building an email list is also crucial for direct communication with your audience.
Are there specific niches that work well for affiliate marketing without relying on social media?
Yes, various niches can thrive without heavy reliance on social media. Examples include specialized hobbies, educational content, product reviews, and niche-specific forums.
The trick is to look for areas where people actively seek information or solutions.
How do I track affiliate marketing performance without social media analytics?
You can use affiliate tracking tools and analytics platforms that provide insights into your website’s performance.
Google Analytics, for instance, can help monitor traffic sources, user behavior, and conversion rates. Affiliate programs often offer their tracking tools to monitor sales and commissions.
Conclusion
While social media is trendy the most commonly used methods for affiliate marketing still seem to not revolve around social media.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest in social media at all. I recommend using at least 2 affiliate marketing strategies to get people to your affiliate offers.
It’s not uncommon for a strategy to temporarily be ineffective due to algorithm changes or malfunctions with the platform.
That’s all for today!
If you’re interested in learning more about affiliate marketing take a look at my affiliate marketing hub.
This page contains all the content I have written about affiliate marketing, buyer guides, and even affiliate marketing courses you can take advantage of.
If you have some experience with affiliate marketing I’d love to hear about what you think about affiliate marketing without social media in the comments.
See you at my next post!
